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This medal has been minted in 1974 to
commemorate the French Ressistance during the WWII.
This medal has been designed by the
French medalist, Emile GILIOLI.
The Glières Plateau is a limestone plateau in the Bornes Massif. Distant from La Roche-sur-Foron and Thorens-Glières by 29km and 15 km respectively, it is located around the communes of Le Petit-Bornand-les-Glières and Thorens-Glières.
Émile Gilioli (b. Paris, 10 June 1911, d. Paris, 19
January 1977), was a French sculptor.
Gilioli was one of the representatives of abstract French sculpture in the 1950s.
In 1973, the national monument of the Resistance, created by the
sculptor Émile Gilioli, was constructed in memory of the
dead of the Resistance on a field offered for this purpose by Jean-François de
Roussy de Sales. The monument was inaugurated on 2 September 1973 by André Malraux.
The sculpture showed the sun held by a hand.
av. The abstract motive; the sun held by the hand
rv. The inscription
in French; the words by Jeanne d’Arc
diameter – 81 mm (3¼“)
weight – 263.30 gr,
(9.29 oz)
metal – bronze, beautiful mint patina
In
the Francoprovençal language, glière means
a rocky and sandy plateau without rivers. In the local speech, the word is
found only in the singular. Following the events of March
1944, the journalist Dépollier spoke of Glière, in the
singular. It was only after the Second World War
that the name took on the majestic plural.
Although someSavoyards
still refer to the plateau as "Glières", the majority now call it
"les Glières".
The plateau,
located between the Auges mountains (1800m) and the Frêtes, is in reality a
valley. Its mean altitude is 1450m and it is bounded by cliffs of Urgonian
limestone. In fact the plateau has several levels.
Places
include the Lanches wood, the Auges chalets, the Mouilles chalet, the l'Ovine
chalet, the Notre-Dame des Neiges chapel, the Glières col, the col de l'Ovine, the maison
du plateau, Paccot parking, the pas du Loup, the plaine de Dran,
the plan du Loup, and the pointe de Puvat.
The Glières Plateau was an important site of the French
Resistance during the Second World War, its mountainous territory
giving rise to a Maquis group of resistance fighters which was
organized and led by lieutenant Tom Morel,
Compagnon de la Libération. The plateau
was chosen in January 1944 to accept British parachute drops
of arms to supply the local resistance, then as a base of operations against
the German rear
to take place at the moment when the awaited landings by the allies would occur. The plateau was cut off,
poorly accessible by road (and therefore by the enemy) but identifiable by
allied aircraft
through its proximity to Lake Annecy. The "battle of Glières" (March 1944)
left 121 dead from the maquisards against almost 5000 soldiers from the Wehrmacht
and the Vichy milice.
Although
the British managed to carry out three parachute drops onto the plateau (of
which a large one on the 10 March may have brought some 45 tonnes of weapons), the
reinforcements promised by Captain "Cantinier", the Free French
envoy, never arrived.
In
1973, the national monument of the Resistance, created by the sculptor Émile Gilioli,
was constructed in memory of the dead of the Resistance on a field offered for
this purpose by Jean-François de Roussy de Sales. The monument was inaugurated
on 2 September 1973 by André Malraux.
The sculpture showed the sun held by a hand.
In
2007, Nicolas Sarkozy made a stop there on the eve of
the 2007 French Presidential Election,
and declared that he would return each year after he was elected. This visit
was followed by a demonstration of 3000 people on 13 May 2007. On 17 March
2008, Sarkozy would return for the first time, to commemorate the resistance.
The media influence of this "pilgrimage"
recalled similar high-profile visits by former President François Mitterrand to the Roche de Solutré.
On
17 May 2009, on the instigation of the CRHA (Citoyens Résistants d'Hier et
d'Aujourd'hui), a rally was organized on the Glières plateau to commemorate
the republic's values of solidarity, fraternity, living together and of justice
as expressed in the 15 March 1944 manifesto of the Conseil national de la Résistance.
Stéphane Hessel, godfather of the association,
former resistance fighter and follower of the communist party Raymond Aubrac,
former communist resistance fighter Walter Bassan, Colomiers
schoolteacher Alain Refalo, and head of general psychiatry
in the 8th sector in Essonne and psychoanalyst Dr. Michaël Guyader held a
discussion on the need to continue the fight of the Resistance and to stand on
the pedestal of social advancements which the CNR programme had presented.
These demonstrations and discussions became part of the framework of the
politics of opposition.