The 50 Hostages

Hotz, an engineer and German soldier, was appointed Feldkommandant (field commander) of Nantes by the German authorities when Nantes was occupied. Having taken vacations in Nantes between 1929 and 1933, he knew the city well and had taken part in the works to fill the Loire and Erdre rivers, making him well respected by the residents of the city. He was assassinated on October 20, 1941, on Rue du Roi-Albert in Nantes, by Gilbert Brustlein. The repression that followed would scar the population of Nantes deeply.

Gilbert Brustlein was a Parisian resistance fighter and member of the Communist party's Youth Battalions. Together with his comrade Pierre Georges, known in the Resistance by the pseudonym Colonel Fabien, he had taken part in the assassination of a German Naval officer in Barbès in August 1941.

Marcel Bourdarias and Spartaco Guisco were both also Resistance fighters and Communist fighters.

With 10 years of experience behind him, including in the Spanish Civil War, Spartaco Guisco was in charge of the operation.

On October 20, 1941, they made their move. With the sabotage attempt a failure, Gilbert Brustlein and Spartaco Guisco headed downtown to kill a high-ranking German officer, as their mission dictated.

Near the cathedral and neighboring Kommandantur, the two men saw Lieutenant-Colonel Hotz in the street, accompanied by Captain Wilhelm Sieger. Gilbert Brustlein killed Hotz with two gunshots to the back, while Spartaco Guisco's gun jammed, saving Wilhelm Sieger's life.

Immediately after the attack, an investigation was launched by the French police. Responsibility fell first of all to the central commissioner's men, before rapidly being entrusted to Division Commissioner Delgay. A local restaurant owner gave a precise description of two men who had come regularly to her establishment on October 18 and 19. Soon enough, the perpetrators of the attack were identified. Gilbert Brustlein managed to reach Spain, from where he travelled to London. As for Spartaco Guisco and Michel Bourdarias, they were arrested in France a few months later by the German authorities, and shot on April 17, 1942, at the Mont-Valérien fortress in Paris, which was then being used as a prison.

Lieutenant-Colonel Hotz died a few minutes after the attack. Otto von Stülpnagel, head of the German occupation forces in France, was quickly alerted and informed Adolf Hitler.

The repression was brutal. Von Stülpnagel, on the Führer's orders, was to execute 100 hostages. He drew up a list of hostages with the help of the governor of the military region of Angers. Pierre Pucheu, minister of the interior for the Vichy regime, also submitted a list, drawn up by his office. Von Stülpnagel decided to shoot 50 hostages at once, and 50 hostages 48 hours later if the perpetrators of the attack were not identified.

The 50 hostages, selected by the German and French authorities in large part for their political leanings, were communists, trade unionists, or members of the Resistance. They were already in prison when the list was drawn up. Forty-eight of them were killed on October 20 and 22, 1941. Five were killed in Mont-Valérien in Paris, 27 at the concentration camp in Châteaubriant, and 16 at the Bêle firing range in Nantes. Two men on the list escaped the death penalty for administrative reasons. Even so, those shot in reprisal for the assassination are known today as the "50 hostages."

Marshal Pétain then gave a speech on the radio on October 22, 1941. He urged the French people to "No longer do harm to France!" This appeal to end all acts of resistance towards the occupiers was fully in line with Pétainist policy.