• Memorial Plaque to the »Réseau Alliance« on Europe Bridge
Two memorial plaques on Europe Bridge, one on the Kehl side and the other on the Strasbourg side, are dedicated to the murdered members of the French »Réseau Alliance« resistance group.
Image: Kehl,1940, Blown-up bridge over the Rhine at Kehl, Bundesarchiv, Bild 121-0476, N/A
Kehl,1940, Blown-up bridge over the Rhine at Kehl, Bundesarchiv, Bild 121-0476, N/A

Image: Kehl, 2006, Memorial plaque on the German side of Europe Bridge, Kehler Zeitung, Hans-Jürgen Walter
Kehl, 2006, Memorial plaque on the German side of Europe Bridge, Kehler Zeitung, Hans-Jürgen Walter
The »Réseau Alliance« resistance group was founded in France in 1940. Shortly before, the German Wehrmacht had occupied the northern part of France. The group belonged to the French resistance movement, the Résistance. Thanks to their various economic and military posts, the members of »Réseau Alliance« could gather information concerning the movements of German troops and their armaments. They passed this information on to Allied commands and the government in exile headed by Charles de Gaulle. Around 3,000 men and women were members of »Réseau Alliance«. They used animal names as their code names, which is why German military intelligence posts referred to the group as »Noah's Ark«. The members of the resistance group helped conduct targeted attacks against the German occupiers. Their success led German military intelligence to increasing pursuit efforts against »Réseau Alliance«. First arrests were made in the spring of 1944 at German military intelligence posts in Dijon and Strasbourg. Of the hundreds of arrested men and women of »Réseau Alliance« only few survived. After being captured, they were detained in various prisons and concentration camps. They were put to trial, and in most cases the Reich Court of Justice III in Freiburg imposed the death penalty. When the Allies were advancing, German military intelligence had all of the members of the resistance group still waiting for their sentence murdered during the so-called »Black Forest Weeks of Blood«
Image: Kehl,1940, Blown-up bridge over the Rhine at Kehl, Bundesarchiv, Bild 121-0476, N/A
Kehl,1940, Blown-up bridge over the Rhine at Kehl, Bundesarchiv, Bild 121-0476, N/A

Image: Kehl, 2006, Memorial plaque on the German side of Europe Bridge, Kehler Zeitung, Hans-Jürgen Walter
Kehl, 2006, Memorial plaque on the German side of Europe Bridge, Kehler Zeitung, Hans-Jürgen Walter
Between September 1944 and January 1945, a total of 439 members of the »Réseau Alliance« were convicted and executed in concentration camps and in various locations in southern Germany. 107 »Réseau Alliance« men and women were shot in the back of the neck or hanged in the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp in September 1944 alone. On November 23, 1944, nine resistance fighters were shot by the SS in Kehl and their bodies thrown into the Rhine River.
Image: Strasbourg, 2006, The stele on the French side of the Rhine, Europe Bridge is visible in the background, Kehler Zeitung, Hans-Jürgen Walter
Strasbourg, 2006, The stele on the French side of the Rhine, Europe Bridge is visible in the background, Kehler Zeitung, Hans-Jürgen Walter
The memorial plaque and stele are located on the French and German side of »Europe Bridge« respectively. The memorial plaque on the Kehl side could be set up in 1996 thanks to the efforts of the »Kehl Doctors' Initiative«. The plaque honours the memory of the nine members of the resistance group who were shot in Kehl on November 23, 1944. The stele on the French side of Europe Bridge commemorates the resistance fighters who were murdered in Kehl and Bühl and lists the names of the twelve victims who were shot in Rastatt on November 24, 1944. Both memorial sites are part of a transborder »Path of Reconciliation« and »Path of Remembrance and Human Rights«, created in 2005 for the state garden display Kehl/Strasbourg. They are located in the »Garden of two Riverbanks/Jardin des deux Rives«, which the two cities also laid out for the state garden display.
Image: Strasbourg, 2006, The stele on the French side of the Rhine, Kehler Zeitung, Hans-Jürgen Walter
Strasbourg, 2006, The stele on the French side of the Rhine, Kehler Zeitung, Hans-Jürgen Walter

Image: Kehl, 2006, Memorial plaque on the German side of Europe Bridge, Kehler Zeitung, Hans-Jürgen Walter
Kehl, 2006, Memorial plaque on the German side of Europe Bridge, Kehler Zeitung, Hans-Jürgen Walter
Name
Gedenktafel für die »Réseau Alliance« an der Europabrücke
Phone
+49 (0)711 164 099 30
Fax
+49 (0)711 164 099 55
E-Mail
geschichteundverantwortung@lpb.bwl.de
Open
The memorial plaques are accessible at all times.