mur des fédérés à Satory

The Communards who participated in the Commune oppose the national assembly, installed in Versailles, and Adolphe Thiers. They settle in Paris and form many barricades which oppose the Versailles troops. The Commune was overthrown during the Bloody Week (May 21-27, 1871), which was the object of numerous massacres (30,000 deaths) and destruction. The repression was very harsh, with many death sentences and deportations. On June 1, 1871, the announcement of the end of military operations for the reconquest of the capital is greeted with relief and satisfaction by the entire population of Versailles. An important problem will concern A. Thiers and the Government: the communities nards prisoners while awaiting trial by the War Councils must be imprisoned in different camps and buildings. Systematic checks of the troops in the houses during the roundups after the cessation of hostilities brought together nearly 10,000 people. Not all are guilty of reprehensible acts. Sometimes it's about curious people who came to "see what was going on". Whatever the degree of guilt, the conditions of detention in the first weeks will be the same for all prisoners. The arrests during the multiple roundups bring many processions of prisoners to Versailles every day. Since April 4, 1871, the processions of prisoners, often chained, escorted by gendarmes, were part of the daily life of Versailles. All historians, whatever their opinion on the Commune, have described the dismal and lamentable reception offered by many Versaillese when the prisoners arrived in town. The authorities have never attempted to remedy these regrettable scenes. The few people who tried to oppose the Versaillais or Versaillaises who beat the insurgents were almost lynched. From these convoys of men, women, children emanated a deep sadness. The downcast, emaciated faces, the clothes often torn, the general condition deficient should have inspired pity, pity. After all, they were compatriots, lost sheep. The cart which followed the sad convoy picked up the sick unable to keep up with the speed imposed by the security service. He goes to the Military Hotel (Grand Commun) where the prisoners are hospitalized in special rooms. Places of detention of prisoners From mid-April, the Government decided when faced with the impossibility of keeping all the prisoners in Versailles to send a large part of them by rail to Brest, Cherbourg, La Rochelle, Lorient and Rochefort. At Versailles, at the end of May 1871, 5,073 Communards distributed in different places of detention: - the cellars of the Grandes Ecuries - the Orangery of the Castle - the Noailles barracks - the granary of Abondance, near the West station - the Satory camp - civilian prisons: Detention house on rue Saint-Pierre; Correctional house tion of the avenue de Paris. In Satory, the prisoners from the opening of the camp, survive in an atmosphere painful and unreal. For several days they sleep outside on the ground, alive in mud and feces