NEGRET MAQUIS

• A. and G. POTEVIN, inhabitants of Négret, started this maquis which employed and hid some thirty men, refractaires who refused to go to work in Germany, in the woods at Carmagnats and then in a barn at Andourchapt.

• From 1943 to the beginning of 1944 it became one of the first three groups of the maquis A.S. 15. FOCH under Maurice GARY in the Confolens area. In March 1944 it passed under the control of the maquis A.S. 18 BIR-HACHEIM.

• The NEGRET maquis disappeared tragically at Andourchapt on 22nd March 1944 : on that day a German reprisal column and Milice encircled Chasseneuil and the surrounding area in their search for the maquis. The village of Négret, near Saint-Claud, six miles to the north of Chasseneuil was thoroughly searched.

• All the men of the village were taken hostage - two of them were made prisoners - the maquisards fell back but 33 were captured not far away in a barn at Andourchapt. The 33 maquisards were shot at Biard, near Poitiers, on 8th May 1944 and one of the two civilians was deported.