Resistance in Yquebeuf

French version

Born in 1938, Yannick Pohu lived the war in the small school of Yquebeuf where his mother was transferred in 1940 for "petainist antipathy". But for Yannick and his brother, these 6 years of childhood in Yquebeuf were a real gift. He recounts his memories in the years 43, 44 and 45.

Yquebeuf seemed far from the war, but the war would be invited into the Pohu family. At the end of the war, the German army employed prisoners of war. This cosmopolitan workforce had only one idea in mind: escape. This is how three famished Poles arrived in Yquebeuf. At the Pohu’s. Not in the school accommodation, already housing two illegal Rouen students, but in the attic of the nearby barn. Mr. Pohu, abandoning his job as a cabinetmaker, began to roam the area around Yquebeuf, searching for food and clothing for all his protégés. Especially since soon 6 Algerians, 3 Moroccans and one Senegalese were collected in their turn. The risks of denunciation, the difficulties of supply made life very complicated. The three Poles, once "retyped" and rid of their POW attire (prisoner of war) were hired on two farms in the village. Having become farm boys, they enjoyed the tranquility of life in the village, and one of them married the following year with a Yqueboise.

For North Africans, adaptation was more difficult, the clash of cultures more severe: for example, Ms. Pohu did not understand one day why they did not eat anything she brought them in the morning. It was Ramadan. They would then have their meal in the evening, after sunset!

Mr. Pohu recounts the family's big scares when the Germans came to Yquebeuf.

Then came the summer of 44. The sky of Yquebeuf filled with planes of all kinds. The terribly effective anti-aircraft defence, shot down planes in large numbers and if some pilots managed to jump by parachute and be rescued (for example by the teacher in Rocquemont), others did not have this chance ... It was often a real carnage, machine guns, flare drops, an apocalyptic spectacle.

Mr. Pohu says again: "We, the children in carelessness, were singing, to the tune of Lily Marlene, something like: Hitler, you're screwed, the bombs you'll have them in your ass."

Finally, the Germans retreated en masse in all kinds of vehicles. One evening, two German officers asked for accommodation at the Pohu's. No room for them in the house. They were offered a stable nearby. As the allies got closer, Mr. Pohu decided to take them prisoner. He went to the stable with the two students he housed, but one of the Germans threatened them. He was killed by one of the students. The other one, taken prisoner.

Yquebeuf, like many villages in Normandy, saw an armada of military vehicles landed on the beaches of Calvados heading for the east of France. It is "the greatest military parade of all time; the July 14th parade at the Champs Elysees in Paris can only be a very pale reflection," says Pohu.

Then it was summer 44. Canadians arrived in machines of all kinds. "This time it was really Liberation. We were taking full eyes." The Canadian camp moved to Yquebeuf for several months until the winter of 45.

Mr. and Mrs. Pohu were not part of any network of resistance fighters. But as Yannick Pohu says,

« ... My mother was an exceptional woman. She was a pioneer of the Secular and Rural Public School who applied to herself the morality, probity, patriotism that the 3rd Republic had asked her to teach her students. »

On November 11, 1953, Mr. and Mrs. Pohu were solemnly awarded the Medal of Recognition of the French Republic for rescuing officers during the liberation and medal of the Resistance of the Polish Nation awarded by the Polish Democratic Republic.