André Pican (19 October 190123 May 1942) was a French

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

, resistance fighter, and victim of

National Socialism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was frequ ...

Early life

André Pican was born in 1901 in the town of

Sotteville-lès-Rouen Sotteville-lès-Rouen (, literally ''Sotteville near Rouen'') is a commune and railway town in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France. Geography It is the largest suburb of the city of Rouen and adjacent to it, ...

. His parents were Eugène Pican, an administrative employee, and Marie Juliette Larrue, a teacher. In 1917, he entered the École Normale d'instituteurs de Rouen where he met Germaine Morigot, whom he married on 24 September 1923 in Malaunay, Seine-Maritime.

Role in the Resistance

Raised in modest circumstances, he joined the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (, , PCF) is a Communism, communist list of political parties in France, party in France. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its Member of the European Parliament, MEPs sit with The Left in the ...

in 1934. During the

German occupation of France during World War II The Military Administration in France (; ) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied zone in areas of northern and western France. This so-called ' was established in June 19 ...

, Pican joined the

French Resistance The French Resistance ( ) was a collection of groups that fought the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi occupation and the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France, collaborationist Vic ...

. Operating in the Seine-Inférieure region (now

Seine-Maritime Seine-Maritime () is a department of France in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the northern coast of France, at the mouth of the Seine, and includes the cities of Rouen and Le Havre. Until 1955 it was named Seine-Inf� ...

), he distributed anti-fascist literature and participated in resistance activities aimed at undermining the Nazi regime. These efforts eventually led to his arrest by the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

Arrest and Execution

On February 15, 1942, after being followed for ten days by eleven police inspectors from the BS1 (Brigade Spéciale 1), he was arrested. Initially imprisoned at the Dépôt on Quai de l’Horloge, he was later transferred to the Santé prison. During the transfer, he managed to escape from his guards, but his flight ended as he plunged, freezing, into the

Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...

. Tortured and having attempted another unsuccessful escape, he was executed as a hostage on May 23, 1942 by firing squad at Mont Valérien, a notorious execution site for resistance fighters during the German occupation.

Legacy

André Pican is commemorated in both France and Germany as a symbol of resistance against National Socialism. In

Oranienburg Oranienburg () is a town in Brandenburg, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Oberhavel. Geography Oranienburg is on the banks of the River Havel, 35 km north of the centre of Berlin. Division of the town Oranienburg consists of ni ...

, near

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, the André-Pican-Straße is named after him, serving as a tribute to his sacrifice and a reminder of the atrocities committed during World War II, particularly in the nearby

Sachsenhausen concentration camp Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners t ...

Footnotes

{{reflist Communist members of the French Resistance Members of the Front National (French Resistance) movement