La Londe-les-Maures
Eugène-Oswald School
Historic site and monument
Contact details
6 rue Eugène-Oswald
83250
La Londe-les-Maures
06 08 99 97 71
Display the cell number
04 94 58 52 92
Display the phone number
Open all year round
Languages spoken
French
Presentation
This school is named after Eugène Oswald, a young Resistance fighter from Londais, born on 14 August 1925.
In 1943, to escape the STO (Obligatory Work Service), he ran away and joined the famous and glorious maquis of the Ain.
On 13 July 1944, with three other maquisards, he ambushed an enemy detachment from the top of a hill. Spotted by the Nazis overlooking their position they were machine-gunned in the legs. Eugène Oswald and two of his comrades from Haute Savoie were shot. The fourth, from the Ain, was able to drag himself to a nearby wood and survived his injuries. He describes the scene he experienced after the massacre:
"From the wood I saw the Germans finish off my comrades, then they rushed to a nearby farm and filled it with straw and wood to set it on fire. At this moment the farm girl walks up to the German officer holding up a piece of paper. The officer ordered his soldiers to remove the wood and decided to spare the farm. The paper attests that the husband who owned the farm was a prisoner of war in Germany and was responsible for maintaining a German farm whose farmer was fighting in France"
A stele bearing the name of Eugène Oswald (19 years old) and his two comrades is erected on the site where they perished in the commune of Songieu in the Ain.
Eugène Oswald is buried in the family vault in the cemetery of La Londe les Maures, and the nursery school and the street leading to it bear his name.
In 1943, to escape the STO (Obligatory Work Service), he ran away and joined the famous and glorious maquis of the Ain.
On 13 July 1944, with three other maquisards, he ambushed an enemy detachment from the top of a hill. Spotted by the Nazis overlooking their position they were machine-gunned in the legs. Eugène Oswald and two of his comrades from Haute Savoie were shot. The fourth, from the Ain, was able to drag himself to a nearby wood and survived his injuries. He describes the scene he experienced after the massacre:
"From the wood I saw the Germans finish off my comrades, then they rushed to a nearby farm and filled it with straw and wood to set it on fire. At this moment the farm girl walks up to the German officer holding up a piece of paper. The officer ordered his soldiers to remove the wood and decided to spare the farm. The paper attests that the husband who owned the farm was a prisoner of war in Germany and was responsible for maintaining a German farm whose farmer was fighting in France"
A stele bearing the name of Eugène Oswald (19 years old) and his two comrades is erected on the site where they perished in the commune of Songieu in the Ain.
Eugène Oswald is buried in the family vault in the cemetery of La Londe les Maures, and the nursery school and the street leading to it bear his name.