By Dominique Morin | Translated and adapted by IYCS-JECI International Secretariat
Born on August 10, 1922, in Saint-Étienne (Loire). He was a brilliant student. At the age of 20, he ranked first in his class at the School of Industrial Chemistry in Lyon and was planning to pursue a doctorate after receiving the Victor Grignard Prize for his bachelor’s degree in science, which he completed at the same time.
Having reached the required age for departure to the Compulsory Work Service (STO), his father advised him to volunteer in order to be able to choose his job in Germany. But Jean was also very committed in his parish as a JEC (Young Christian Students) member.
At the end of the academic year, he left on June 6, 1943.
In Germany, he was assigned to Halle as a researcher in a chemistry laboratory at the Buna-Werke factory in Schkopau near Merseburg, a synthetic rubber manufacturing plant. He shared Room 22 with other chemical engineers. They could have remained separated from the other forced workers (STOs), occupying a superior social position a status favored by Nazi ideology.
However, the forbidden activities he carried out as soon as he left the factory reflected his solidarity with other French workers in the camp. He was often asked for help because of his excellent command of German. This Catholic group in the “chemists’ barrack”, with chaplain Pascal Vergez, devoted themselves to serving the 1,200 French STOs in the camp, which included former JEC members, JOC (Young Christian Workers) members, and scouts.
Jean became Vice-President, then President, of the Amicale des Travailleurs Français (French Workers’ Association), which organized recreational activities and mutual aid services for the most disadvantaged.
His companion, Guy Barbier de Courteix, recalled that at work:
“He only submitted brief results to his supervisor and kept the discovery secret. This meant a lot more work for him, but he preferred it that way… Where Jean was truly admirable was in not letting himself be carried away by his knowledge… A natural instinct would be to try to make progress, but his patriotic sense demanded restraint.”
Following the Nazi decree of December 3, 1943, which targeted French Catholic Action among French workers in Nazi Germany, he was arrested on November 2, 1944, at the factory — the third to be taken after the chaplain and the delegate, whom he had ended up replacing.
He was interrogated and tortured in Halle prison like the others, in an attempt to force him to betray his companions. He contracted typhoid fever in prison in February 1945.
He was deported on March 2, 1945, to the Mauthausen concentration camp (prisoner number 135090). On April 23, he was found still alive near the crematorium. He said to one of his companions who came to see him, thinking of the planned pilgrimage to Lourdes after their return:
“If I cannot go to Lourdes on earth, I will go to Lourdes in heaven. I have exhausted myself too much at Buna for the sake of my comrades. Now, I will go and rest.”
He died on April 24, 1945, thrown into the cremation oven — dead or still alive?
