In Moulins

September 22, 2024

Our room is tiny, but otherwise we’re quite pleased with our hotel. It serves us up a good breakfast, has an all day coffee machine in the lobby, has plenty of room to hang out in the dining room or bar, has good WiFi, and as a rare bonus has jars of almonds, hazelnuts, trail mix and raisins open for grazing from - my favorite types of snacks.

And it’s a good thing it’s a reasonable place to hang out because as predicted today is a total washout. We had reserved a table for lunch at a new restaurant that’s further from our hotel, but when the time comes it’s raining too hard for us to want to go out so we cancel our reservation and make one for dinner at nearby Valentino’s instead. For lunch Rachael gets by on the snacks that she somehow unfailingly has squirreled away while I go down to the bar and order up a scrumptious frozen pizza.

No sense going out in this if we’ve got a choice.

I hang out in the bar for a couple of hours when I look up and realize the sky is brighter and it’s stopped raining. I’ve been hoping for a break in the weather sometime today so I could go out for at least a brief while and explore the town. So here’s my break! Or there was my break, because when I check the weather app to see how much time I’ve got, it’s essentially none. The break just happened, and I missed it. I should look up more often.

Finally though the rains stop for good in late afternoon. I’ve got a half hour before our dinner reservation at Valentino’s so I tell Rachael I’ll leave early and meet her at the restaurant. She’s of course worried that I’ll lose track of the time and be late but I promise I’ll be there on time, cross my heart, and step out the door.

I’m immediately glad I’ve gotten out, because as we saw biking in yesterday Moulins is a very attractive, interesting place. I don’t have much time so I just make a quick walk up to the nearby cathedral and then head for the restaurant, stopping for a few snaps along the way. It’s not enough of course, but I’m glad for it. Hopefully I can get out again in the morning.

Two blocks from the hotel I approach a partially ruined tower standing in front of the cathedral: the Masion Malcoifée. Built in the late 1300’s, it was the dungeon for a former castle that was converted to a prison during the French Revolution.

The Masion Malcoifée, with the spires of Notre Dame Cathedral rising behind.

Looking through the Masion Malcoifée to the cathedral.

Mom, he’s sticking his tongue out at me!

I round the tower to the plaza in front of the cathedral, come upon several people standing in front of a wall of the tower reading a panel, and get a grim history lesson. I’m standing on the Place de la Déportation directly across from the cathedral’s portal, and staring at what’s essentially a memorial site.

Today the Masion Malcoifée is a museum site but during World War II Moulins was an occupied city standing on the demarcation line between Vichy and Free France. The prison was commandeered by the Nazi occupiers and eventually it became a deportation center for shipment of its prisoners east to concentration and extermination camps.

Here is a translation of the timeline:

The Mal Coiffée during World War II

(1940-1944) Let us never forget

June 18, 1940

Arrival of German troops at Moulins

June 21, 1940

Signature of the armistice, which entered into force on June 25.

The armistice agreement divides French territory into several zones.

The demarcation line established between the zone occupied by Germans and the unoccupied zone passes at Moulins. The part of the city east of the Allier, where the Mal Coiffée prison is located, is located in an occupied zone. The Regemortes Bridge constitutes one of the main crossing points between the two areas.

From the first days of the occupation, the German authorities carried out internments at Mal Coiffée. They set up a post there to monitor the activity of French prison staff. Many incarcerations follow an unsuccessful attempt at clandestine or irregular crossing of the demarcation line. They have dramatic consequences for those arrested as they seek to flee anti-Semitic persecution: Moulins is then opened as a first step for trainsit to camps in Beaune, la Rolande, Pithiviers and Drancy.

End of April 1961

The German authorities demanded the transfer of common law prisoners under French justice to other establishments. It was probably at this time that Mal Coiffée received the status of a Wehrmacht prison.

November 29th

After the Allied landings in North Africa, German forces entered the South. La Mal Coiffie then became the regrouping center for people arrested throughout the region, both by the German army (Feldgendarmerie, Abwehr) and by the security services dependent on the 55, established in Moulins, Vichy and Montluçon (Sicherheitspolize-Sicherhetsdienst is often confused with the Gestapo).

January 23, 1943

French prison staff are made redundant. The German authorities assume full control and surveillance of the prison, which seems to be a unique case in occupied France. The prison regime, already severe, continued for some time. The Jews and people suspected of belonging to the Resistance were the main victims. Interrogations are carried out with frequent recourse to torture and solitary confinement.

Deportation to concentration camps and extermination is the fate of many prisoners of Mal Coiffie. Due to the disappearance of prison registers by the German administration, we do not know the exact number of people who were imprisoned at Mal Coffie. I note, however, that the number has seen significant variations: 1,000 prisoners at the end of February 1944, undoubtedly more than 400 at the beginning of the month in the same group.

End of August 1944

The occupying forces, forced to evacuate the region, resolved to liberate a majority of the prisoners. This included two important members of the Rutace Robert Pleury who would become prefect of Allier upon the Liberation, and Maurice Tinland, future mayor of Moulins. However, 66 people are being held for deportation. They leave, on August 25, in a final convoy to Nazi Germany. The prison is empty when the last elements of the German garrison leave but the a few days later.

September 6, 1944.
Liberation of Moulins

By the time I’m done here and turn around to look at the cathedral I’m running out of time and need to head toward the restaurant if I don’t want to suffer another volley of Rockdarts®️ by arriving late. The facade of the cathedral gleams in the evening light, but there’s no time to take more than a few fast shots before heading to Valentino’s. Hopefully I’ll get the time and weather in the morning for a real look.

An obelisk and fountain in front of the Hotel de Ville.

Just in time! I arrive precisely at 7, as does Rachael.

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