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Origin and history

The Richemont Farm Memorial commemorates the massacre of 13 young resistance fighters of the French Forces de l'Intérieur (FFI), aged 17-23, killed on 14 July 1944 during a joint attack by the German Gestapo and the French Militia. These guerrillas, members of the Army Resistance Organization (ARSO), had retreated to an abandoned farm near Saucats to establish a school of cadres. After three hours of unequal fighting, the farm was destroyed by gunfire, and the wounded survivors were completed.

The memorial project was born in 1945, led by a regional committee chaired by the principal of the Lycée Michel-Montaigne de Bordeaux. A contest was launched in 1946, won by architect André Méry-Riboulet, whose project provides for a 35-metre obelisk that bursts from the ruins, adorned with four high reliefs symbolizing Faith, Courage, Sacrifice and Victory. The sculptures, made by Armande Marty, student of Bourdelle, were installed between 1948 and 1953. The monument was inaugurated on 6 June 1953 by Jacques Chaban-Delmas in the presence of 5,000 people.

The site preserves remains of the original farm: a wall section and a low door, on which are engraved the names of the victims and commemorative inscriptions. The memorial, built in raw concrete to evoke the austerity of the Resistance, becomes the official symbol of the Resistance in the South West. It was added to the Supplementary Inventory of Historic Monuments in 2005.

The attack on the Richemont farm was triggered after the arrest of Marcel Hostein, a resistant who revealed under torture the site of the maquis. Among the 24 members of the group, only Philippe Béguerie and two Moroccan soldiers survived. The bodies of the victims, originally buried near the ruins, were solemnly transferred in 1945 to the Faculty of Letters and to the Cathedral of Saint Andrew in Bordeaux before their final burial.

The memorial is part of an isolated forest landscape, accessible by a specially designed departmental road. His obelisk, visible from afar, is nicknamed "the Signal" for his role as a permanent reminder of the sacrifice of the resistors. The commemorative ceremonies are held annually, including July 14 and June 6, key dates in the history of the site.

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