Henri Fertet

In 2013, Pierre's daughter, Myriam Fertet-Boudriot, Henri's last living relative, donated a collection of memorabilia to the Musée de la Résistance et de la Déportation in the Citadel of Besançon. It included some of Henri's drawings, a handkerchief stained with his blood (possibly as a result of his maltreatment in prison), and a 4 cm (1.6 in) tall figurine of the Virgin Mary which he had fashioned out of breadcrumbs, and before which he had prayed, during his imprisonment.

On 26 or 27 November 1980, in the Forest of Chailluz near Besançon, Fertet's brother Pierre, a 51-year-old instituteur, and his octogenarian mother gassed themselves to death with the exhaust fumes of their car. Pierre had been much affected by his brother's death, and had venerated him, to the point of obsession. Pierre had refused to allow publication of Henri's letter without his express permission while he lived.

After the Liberation of France, Fertet was honoured with the distinctions of Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur, Compagnon de la Libération (presented in 1947 to Fertet's father by de Gaulle in person), Croix de Guerre 1939–1945, Croix du combattant volontaire de la Résistance, Médaille de la déportation et de l'internement pour faits de Résistance [fr], Médaille de la Résistance française, and the rank of aspirant ('officer candidate') in the French Forces of the Interior.

Groupe Guy Mocquet mounted thirty-one known operations between November 1942 and July 1943. Fertet took part in three of them: on 16 April 1943, a night attack on an explosives depot at Fort Montfaucon [fr]; on 7 May, the destruction of a high-tension electricity pylon near Châteaufarine; and on 12 June, an attack by him and Marcel Reddet on a German customs officer to steal his weapon, uniform, and papers. Fertet shot and fatally wounded the officer, but the unexpected arrival of a motorcyclist meant that Fertet and Reddet failed to seize the documents.

The original of Fertet's farewell letter has not survived. However, it was soon copied and circulated clandestinely. On 9 December 1943, French journalist (and postwar politician) Maurice Schumann broadcast it on BBC radio from London. On 5 June 2019, French president Emmanuel Macron read extracts from it aloud, in French, at a 75th-anniversary commemoration of the Normandy landings, in Portsmouth, England, one of the embarcation ports.

During the school summer holidays of 1942 while World War II was ongoing, he joined a Resistance group in Larnod (near Besançon) led by Marcel Simon, a 22-year-old farmer. In February 1943, that group (which had about thirty members, Fertet being the youngest) integrated itself into the Francs-Tireurs et Partisans (FTP) under the name of Groupe Guy Mocquet [fr].

Henri Claude Fertet (27 October 1926 – 26 September 1943) was a French schoolboy and resistance fighter who was executed by the German occupying forces during World War II. He was posthumously awarded several national honours. He is known for the letter he wrote to his parents on the morning of his execution, and he has become one of those who symbolise the French Resistance.

Fertet was born on 27 October 1926 in Seloncourt, Doubs, France, to primary schoolteachers (French: instituteur [fr]). His father too was named Henri; the sources do not record his mother's name. He had a brother, Pierre, who was three years younger. His first schooling was at Seloncourt, where his parents worked. In 1937, the family moved to Velotte in Besançon, where the younger Henri attended the Lycée Victor-Hugo de Besançon. He was determined, lively, intelligent, and affectionate; he was passionate about archaeology and history.