• The family of Frederick Habgood was given, Sunday in the former concentration camp of Struthof (Alsace), the bracelet of this aviator who died in 1943.

  • Oval in shape, stamped with the insignia of the Royal Air Force and bearing the name and serial number of the sergeant, this curb chain was not a regulation medal but had been given to him in 1943 by relatives in Canada.

  • It was Anna Bernard, a 21-year-old student then a temporary worker on the site, who had exhumed her while trying to recover a garden hose that had fallen into the pit.

Emotion sequence this Sunday in the former Struthof concentration camp, in Alsace. At the annual remembrance ceremony, and in front of 300 guests, the family of Frederick Habgood were presented with the bracelet of this British aviator who died in 1943. Oval in shape, stamped with the insignia of the British Royal Air Force and bearing the name and the sergeant's number, this bracelet was not a regulation medal but had been given to the Briton in 1943 by relatives in Canada. “Uncle Fred” had trained there as a navigator, said Paul Habgood.

In a letter to his uncle, Fred wrote: "I hope I can see them again after the war".

But "that was never supposed to happen", soberly noted Paul Habgood.

For the British authorities, “Uncle Fred” was even missing, his body never having been found.

But in August 2018, a miracle: the curb chain was discovered by chance in the ash pit of the camp, during maintenance work.

His aircraft was part of a hundred bombers

It was Anna Bernard, a 21-year-old student then a temporary worker on the site, who had exhumed her while trying to recover a garden hose that had fallen into the pit. “I saw a little bit of chain sticking out, I pulled and it didn't come out. I pulled harder and ended up with the bracelet in my hand, ”she explains. "I said to myself, 'That's not nothing, there is the name, the number on it," smiles Anna, who immediately reports her discovery. The start of the research that will locate the descendants of Sergeant Habgood. " I am very moved ”and“ really very happy that the bracelet can be returned to them, ”says Anna.

Born November 30, 1922 in London, Frederick Habgood had actually survived the crash of his plane, shot down by a Messerschmidt on July 28, 1943 near Ottrott, near the Struthof.

His device was one of a hundred bombers which had taken off shortly before from several bases in Yorkshire to pound the Bosch factories in Stuttgart, explained Guillaume d'Andlau, director of the European Center of the Deported Resistance-Struthof.

"Forgetting is a mortal danger"

Frederick hid for a few days but, perhaps denounced, he was captured by the Gestapo and then imprisoned at Struthof, where he was hanged on July 31, 1944. The discovery of his plaque in the ash pit “provides proof that 'he was indeed cremated in the camp crematorium,' continued Guillaume d'Andlau.

"On behalf of France, I wish Sergeant Habgood a safe return home," said Geneviève Darrieussecq, Minister Delegate to the Minister of the Armed Forces, who presented the curb chain to the relatives of the deceased sergeant.

“Forgetting is a mortal danger, to forget is to betray.

We will never give the gift of forgetting to the executioners ”and to those“ who, even today, deny or minimize their crimes, ”she continued.

Our file on WWII

The only concentration camp located in France, erected in 1941 in Alsace then annexed to the Hitler Reich, the Struthof interned around 17,000 prisoners and deportees from May 1941 to September 1944. He was at the head of a network of 53 annex camps neighbors who totaled with him 50,000 imprisonments and nearly 20,000 deaths and was one of the deadliest of the Nazi system, apart from the extermination camps.

It also housed a gas chamber where 86 Jews were killed.

The site, which is undergoing a major renovation, welcomes 200,000 visitors each year.

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