Touquet, Marcel
Item
Name
Touquet, Marcel
Given name
Marcel
Family name
Touquet
Relation
French YCW leader
One-line bio
French YCW leader sent to Germany under the Compulsory Work Service system, where he continued to organise young workers, leading to his arrest and deportation to a series of concentration camps. He died after 24 January 1945 and was beatified on 13 December 2025.
Biography
Born on 10 October, 1914, in Peret Bel Air (Corrèze), he arrived in Clichy, a suburb of Paris, at a young age, where he worked as a warehouseman. At the same time, he joined the local branch of the Young Christian Workers (JOC). He became the JOC's regional representative for Paris-North. He served as a sergeant in Sedan during World War II (1939-1940). He married in October 1942. In early December 1942, he was selected to leave for Germany while his wife was pregnant.
In Germany, he arrived in Berlin in mid-December as a factory worker.
Marcel Croci's illicit activities were numerous and fell into several categories. On the one hand, he quickly became one of the leading figures in the Young Christian Workers (JOC) movement within the Catholic apostolate organized among French workers. He gathered information on the overall situation in Berlin, which had become extremely difficult by May 1943 due to German surveillance, the German Labour Front's (Deutsche Arbeitsfront) control over the entire French workers' organization in Germany, and the infiltration of spies into clandestine Catholic movements. On the other hand, his parish priest in France, Father Louis, was the head of a resistance group. Marcel Touquet would serve as an intelligence agent for this network.
Pursuant to the Nazi decree of 3 December, 1943, against French Catholic Action among French workers in Nazi Germany, he was arrested on August 25, 1944, at the factory, a few hours before the arrest of Lucien Croci and a few days after that of Robert Beauvais. He was interrogated on Gross-Hamburger-Strasse, at the same time as his fellow Catholic Action leaders. He was apparently arrested not for his resistance activities within Abbé Louis's network, but for his Catholic responsibilities.
He was deported to the Oranienburg-Sachsenhausen camp; transferred to Ravensbrück (no. 11403), then to the Peenemünde commando (no. 11403); then locked up in a convoy of 300 sick people in padlocked wagons abandoned in the middle of the forest.
He probably died after 24 January, 1945. He was beatified on 13 December 2025.
In Germany, he arrived in Berlin in mid-December as a factory worker.
Marcel Croci's illicit activities were numerous and fell into several categories. On the one hand, he quickly became one of the leading figures in the Young Christian Workers (JOC) movement within the Catholic apostolate organized among French workers. He gathered information on the overall situation in Berlin, which had become extremely difficult by May 1943 due to German surveillance, the German Labour Front's (Deutsche Arbeitsfront) control over the entire French workers' organization in Germany, and the infiltration of spies into clandestine Catholic movements. On the other hand, his parish priest in France, Father Louis, was the head of a resistance group. Marcel Touquet would serve as an intelligence agent for this network.
Pursuant to the Nazi decree of 3 December, 1943, against French Catholic Action among French workers in Nazi Germany, he was arrested on August 25, 1944, at the factory, a few hours before the arrest of Lucien Croci and a few days after that of Robert Beauvais. He was interrogated on Gross-Hamburger-Strasse, at the same time as his fellow Catholic Action leaders. He was apparently arrested not for his resistance activities within Abbé Louis's network, but for his Catholic responsibilities.
He was deported to the Oranienburg-Sachsenhausen camp; transferred to Ravensbrück (no. 11403), then to the Peenemünde commando (no. 11403); then locked up in a convoy of 300 sick people in padlocked wagons abandoned in the middle of the forest.
He probably died after 24 January, 1945. He was beatified on 13 December 2025.
Country of origin
English
France
Geographic area
Corrèze
Birth date
October 10, 1914
Birth place
Peret Bel Air
Death date
January 24, 1945
Death place
Peenemünde
Movement
French JOC
Affiliation
French JOC