Memoirs
Some stories pass through generations without always finding a place to be told.
The Memories page brings together texts, documents and fragments of family histories which, each in their own way, bear witness to lives marked by History and what remains of it.
These accounts make no claim to being exhaustive or unified. They are shared for what they are: traces, singular voices, sometimes long silenced, now offered for reading.
Jean Soulas - Prisoner of war (1940-1945)
Sometimes there are only a few pages, a few scribbled sentences, to contain years of absence, fear, and silence.
Jean Soulas is one of those whose war was not recounted aloud, but was slowly deposited in the words left behind.
Taken prisoner in 1940, he spent the war far from his family, in camps and German cities where waiting, constraint, and the daily struggle to stay alive followed one another. His messages, notes, and memoirs sketch an experience of captivity marked as much by deprivation as by the careful observation of the world around him.
Collected, transcribed and commented on by his son, Dominique Soulas, this document does not simply recount a captivity. It provides access to a memory transmitted from a distance, fragmentary, patiently assembled, and now made legible for sharing.
Excerpt from the original document:
We were taken prisoner—like 2,650,000 others. The Germans immediately painted “KG” in large letters using red lead primer on the backs of our coats and uniform jackets. After being herded together, we were crammed into cattle cars and arrived two days later, at dawn, at the train station of a small town called Warendorf . We had no idea where we had been unloaded. Knowing I was a geographer, my comrades questioned me. I only knew that we had been driven north, probably toward Westphalia, nothing more. War is, above all, the brutal lesson of being tossed about: it is extremely difficult to maintain one's bearings, to preserve one's identity, and not to forget the principle of freedom—in short, to continue to exist as an individual.
Document submitted by Dominique Soulas.
Publication on the Rencontre Réconciliation website with her consent
Louis Lugand (1905-1945)
French prisoner of war – Forced labor – Memory
An individual destiny at the heart of European history
Louis Lugand is one of millions of men whose lives, families, and futures were brutally torn apart by World War II. His story, long forgotten, is that of a French prisoner of war subjected to forced labor in Germany, then swept away by the senseless violence of the final days of the conflict, just as freedom was finally within reach.
Rencontre Réconciliation shares this testimony in an effort to pass on, understand, and reflect on the legacies of war in Europe and beyond
Why tell this story today?
Because prisoners of war have long been marginalized in national narratives. Because their suffering has often been silenced, minimized, or overshadowed by other memories of war. Because wounds do not end with the fighting, but are sometimes silently passed on to subsequent generations.
Telling the story of Louis Lugand means: – restoring identity and dignity to a man who has disappeared, – understanding the mechanisms of dehumanization in wartime, – questioning family and European legacies, – opening up a space for reflection on responsibility, transmission, and reconciliation.
Before the war: a man and his daily life
Louis Lugand was born in 1905. Before the war, he was a farmer, attached to the land and to a way of life deeply rooted in work, family, and tradition. His story is representative of that of many men of his generation, whose lives would be turned upside down by the war.
Mobilized late, he was drafted on November 20, 1940, in Strasbourg as a pioneer in Battalion 213. Less than two months later, on January 14, 1941, he was taken prisoner.
Captivity and forced
After his capture, Louis Lugand was interned in several camps before being transferred to Stalag V A in Ludwigsburg, one of the large German camps for soldiers and non-commissioned officers.
Like the vast majority of French prisoners of war, he was quickly considered a source of available labor. He was assigned as a forced laborer at the Daimler-Benz factory in Sindelfingen.
For this man, accustomed to agricultural work and the open air, it was a harsh ordeal: precarious living conditions, chronic fatigue, insufficient food, overcrowding, disease, and progressive weakening. Sources describe unsanitary barracks infested with parasites and a daily life marked by exhaustion and dispossession.
The last few months: forced march and tragedy
As the end of the war approached, French prisoners were hurriedly moved. From Ludwigsburg, Louis Lugand was transferred to Leonberg, then forced to march for several days, covering around 70 kilometers, through the Schurwald forest to the Göppingen region.
On April 10, 1945, a group of 825 prisoners was distributed among the surrounding villages. Louis Lugand was taken in by a farm in the hamlet of Oberhausen, part of the municipality of Rechberghausen, where he helped with farm work, a familiar activity that gave him hope of a speedy return.
On April 19, 1945, as American troops approached, an exchange of fire led to the bombing of the area. A farm was set on fire.
According to witnesses, Louis Lugand tried to save animals trapped in the flames. He was seriously wounded by shrapnel and, without medical care, died during the night of April 19-20, 1945.
He was 40 years old.
He died on the very day of his liberation.
After death: burial and return to France
Louis Lugand was initially buried on land belonging to the local Catholic parish, near the scene of the tragedy. At the request of his family, his body was exhumed after the war and repatriated to France. He now rests in the family vault in Orgelet, where he was buried on March 6, 1949.
An exemplary work of remembrance
This story could not have been pieced together without extensive research carried out over several years in Germany and France.
The biographical and memorial work dedicated to Louis Lugand was led by Ms. Angelika Taudte, project manager, with the help of numerous witnesses, archivists, historians, and institutions.
Municipal and regional archives, French and German historical services, documentation centers, and residents of the villages concerned contributed to bringing this collective, cross-border memory to light.
Openings
This testimony is part of a larger collection dedicated to prisoners of war and their legacies. It resonates in particular with the account of Jean Soulas, a former French prisoner of war, as well as with upcoming conferences, webinars, and publications.
👉 If you would like to explore these topics further, share your story, or support our work, we invite you to continue exploring our “Shared Memories” section.
— Documents from the original presentation —
The documents below are from a presentation carried out as part of the research and memory work conducted by Mrs. Angelika Taudte, with the assistance of numerous witnesses, archivists and institutions in Germany and France.
They are presented here in their original form, without modification, in order to respect their coherence, meaning and spirit.
— To go further —
The following elements are based on the research, documentation and contextualization work that enabled the development and transmission of these stories.
Credits, sources and research work
The documents presented above are the result of research and a dissertation conducted by:
Ms. Angelika Taudte (Birenbach), project manager, carried out from 2010 and presented publicly from 2015.
Mr. Dominique Soulas de Russel , further research and biographical contributions.
This work is based on the use of numerous sources and archives, including:
– municipal and regional archives (Rechberghausen, Göppingen, Ludwigsburg, Merseburg),
– specialized archive collections (ITS Arolsen, Bundesarchiv, Service historique de la Défense – Caen),
– industrial archives (Mercedes-Benz Classic),
– oral testimonies from residents and families of the municipalities concerned.
The documents are reproduced in their original form, as they were designed for public presentation.
The texts integrated into the panels constitute the captions and contextual elements of the images.
The work presented also relies on lists and registers from German archives relating to the presence and death of French prisoners of war in the district of Göppingen, consulted as part of the research.
Photo credits
The photographs and iconographic documents come from public and private sources, including:
– municipal and regional archives (Rechberghausen, Göppingen, Ludwigsburg),
– private funds (Bestand Frau Wahl, Oberhausen),
– local documentary collections.
The photographers and rights holders are mentioned in the original project documentation (Angelika Taudte), in accordance with the indications provided by the authors of the presentation.
Rencontre Réconciliation thanks all the people, witnesses, archivists and institutions who contributed to this memorial work.
If these stories resonate with your own history or elicit a reaction, you can write to us or share your story with us .