Elise-Claire Dubost (1914 – likely 25 January 1945), better known as Clara Knecht or sometimes Klara Knecht, was a French Alsatian secretary and translator, employed during World War II at the Gestapo headquarters in Tours during the German occupation in France. She is known to have carried out cruel and sadistic interrogations using torture on behalf of the Gestapo.[2]
Clara Knecht | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Elise-Claire Dubost 1914 Schiltigheim, France[1] |
| Died | likely 25 January 1945 (aged 30–31) Pforzheim, Germany |
| Occupation | translator |
| Known for | torturing prisonners |
Biography edit
From 1942, Dubost was employed by the Gestapo[3][4][5] at 17, rue George-Sand in Tours as an interpreter and thus assisted in the interrogations of people held in the Tours prison under the supervision of Georg Brückle.[6][7][8] According to some sources, Georg Brückle[9] and Ditmar Geissler were her lovers.[10] She also lived in the house of the resistance fighter Jean Meunier.[9]
According to the testimonies of Yvette Varvoux[11] and Michel Jeulin, she was a particularly sadistic torturer and was feared by the resistance fighters.[2][12] She allegedly beat them, tore off their nails, and used an ox nerve with copper straps[clarification needed], which she forced her victims to kiss.[13][2][10] She also developed a system of torture using soapy water baths,[14][15] used in Rennes,[16] and practiced sexual torture.[17][18]
Allegations propagated after the war in a context of summary justice indicate that she admitted to having killed Abbé Henri Péan in 1944. Marcelle Delaunay and Robert Marquant were also tortured by her according to these same sources.[19][20][21][22][23][24]
In August 1944 she was part of the Sipo[clarification needed] team that interrogated Yvette Varvoux, even organizing a mock execution on the Montlouis bridge and letting her see her abused and weakened husband in the courtyard before claiming that he had committed suicide with his suspenders.[17] She disappeared at the end of August 1944 after having tortured some maquisards at the Grande Babinière.[25]
Sébastien Cheverau, historian and author of a book on the Maillé massacre,[26] contradicts this analysis in his book and indicated, like André Goupille in his testimony, that it was Dietmar Geissler who murdered Abbé Péan.[27] Clara Knecht, according to him, is :[28]
employed as a translator by the Gestapo, she was a zealous auxiliary, which earned her the evocative nickname of "the bitch".
— Sébastien Cheverau, 5 août 1944, Maillé… Du crime à la mémoire
The newspaper France-Soir gave a long account of the trial of Clara Knecht on 2 and 3 September 1945, emphasizing her great beauty and immense cruelty. She was sentenced to death in absentia on 6 September 1945 by the Indre-et-Loire court of justice, but managed to escape.[29]
Another trial was held in Toulon in 1949, in which, according to allegations propagated by the regional press, she admitted to having killed Abbé Péan and was subsequently interned in a psychiatric hospital,[2] but this was a false Clara Knecht,[5] the real one having disappeared during the Liberation and, according to the French justice system, having died in the bombing of the town of Pforzheim on 25 January 1945.[29][30]
References edit
- ^ Vivier, Robert (1891–1974) Auteur du texte (1990-01-01). Touraine 39-45 : histoire de l'Indre-et-Loire durant la 2e Guerre mondiale / Robert Vivier ; [avec la collab. du Dr Jack Vivier et du Prof. Jean Ollier]. Retrieved 2016-10-10.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ a b c d PBCO, 2015 (ISBN ), p. 46 à 52 (2015). Femmes de l'ombre en Touraine (in French). 37260 Monts, France. p. 82. ISBN 978-2-35042-050-9.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|agency=ignored (help)CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ ""25 août 1944, Maillé : un crime sans assassin" : l'autre Oradour-sur-Glane". TéléObs (in French). 2014-05-27. Retrieved 2022-04-12.
- ^ "Clara Knecht". La Nouvelle République (in French). 5 October 1944.
- ^ a b "Un souvenir de Tours innocente la fausse Clara Knecht". France Dimanche (in French). 30 January 1949. Archived from the original on 1 September 2017. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
- ^ "Les Tourangeaux s'amusent aussi (2) - 08/08/2011 - La Nouvelle République Indre-et-Loire". www.lanouvellerepublique.fr.
- ^ "Dirigeants zone occupée". cnrdefontenelle2011.free.fr.
- ^ Lormier, Dominique (2013-01-23). La Gestapo et les Français (in French). Pygmalion. ISBN 978-2-7564-0968-9.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|agency=ignored (help) - ^ a b Pauline Brault. "Musée de la résistance en ligne". museedelaresistanceenligne.org. Retrieved 2022-04-12.
- ^ a b Bigot, Yannick (2020-03-06). Quand tombent les hommes (in French). Librinova. ISBN 979-10-262-4975-7. Retrieved 2022-04-12.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|agency=ignored (help) - ^ "Le témoignage d'Yvette Gobert et de Noël Happe". marayresistance.e-monsite.com. Archived from the original on 2016-10-10. Retrieved 2016-10-10.
- ^ "Claire Dubost alias Clara Knecht a fourni d'horribles détails sur son activité à la Gestapo de Tours". Le Parisien Libéré (in French). 14 January 1949. Archived from the original on 1 September 2017. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
- ^ "La Shoah à Tours : sur le chemin de la mémoire". etoilejaune-anniversaire.blogspot.fr. 27 July 2012.
- ^ Mellor, Alec (1949). La torture: son histoire, son abolition, sa réapparition au XXe siècle (in French). Retrieved 2022-04-12.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|agency=ignored (help) - ^ Sueiro, Daniel (1968). El arte de matar (in Spanish). Retrieved 2022-04-12.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|agency=ignored (help) - ^ Rejali, Darius (2009-06-08). Torture and Democracy. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1-4008-3087-9. Retrieved 2022-04-12.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|agency=ignored (help) - ^ a b Pennetier, Annie (2021-08-31). "VARVOUX Yvette, Émilie, Irma née ALTENHOVEN". Le Maitron (in French). Maitron/Editions de l'Atelier. Retrieved 2022-04-12.
- ^ Cesereanu, Ruxandra (2021-06-25). Political Torture in the Twentieth Century (in Bulgarian). Mimesis. ISBN 978-88-575-8168-2. Retrieved 2022-04-12.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|agency=ignored (help) - ^ "25 août 1944, Maillé : un crime sans assassin du 28 mai sur France 2 - Lire la page 14 (TeleScoop)". telescoop.tv. Archived from the original on 2016-10-10. Retrieved 2022-04-13.
- ^ "Torture". cnrdefontenelle2011.free.fr. Retrieved 2016-10-10.
- ^ "Sur l'abbé Henri Péan" (PDF). chantran vengeance (in French). 22 November 2011. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
- ^ France, ajpn, Hellen Kaufmann, Bernard Lhoumeau, Bordeaux, Aquitaine. "Henri-Péan". www.ajpn.org. Retrieved 2016-10-10.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Maillé - Page 2 de 8 - LiTTéRaTuRe". LiTTéRaTuRe (in French). 2013-11-04. Retrieved 2016-10-10.
- ^ "Le curé de Draché "Un pur de la résistance"" (PDF). chantran vengeance (in French). Retrieved 10 October 2016.
- ^ Valode, Philippe; Chauvy, Gérard (2018-11-29). La gestapo française (in French). ISBN 978-2-7357-0413-2. Retrieved 2022-04-12.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|agency=ignored (help) - ^ "Maillé : une histoire inédite - 23/08/2012 - La Nouvelle République Indre-et-Loire". www.lanouvellerepublique.fr. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
- ^ André Goupille (1995). Mon village sous la loupe (in French). Chambray-lès-Tours.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|agency=ignored (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Archives départementales de Tours, Fonds Jean Meunier
- ^ a b Sébastien Chevereau (2012). 25 août 1944, Maillé… Du crime à la mémoire » (in French). Turquand. p. 224 pages. ISBN 979-10-90447-19-6.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|agency=ignored (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Archives de la justice militaire, Le Blanc (TPFA Paris, boîte 1345, jugement du 2 avril 1954)