Eighty-six lives extinguished. This is Ascq. This quiet place. A place now part of Villeneuve-d’Ascq. This area was once an agricultural village. It thrived until the Industrial Revolution. Then it became a district. A part of a larger planned community.
Ascq’s story isn’t just about farms and mills. It’s etched in tragedy. The Ascq massacre. April 1st 1944. Eighty-six innocent men. Brutally murdered by the Nazis. The 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend. Their train derailed near the Gare d’Ascq. A railway junction. Three lines intersected there. An explosion. The ensuing reprisal was swift and merciless. Seventy men shot near the tracks. Sixteen more killed in the village. Six more executed later. A horrific act. A stain on history.
But Ascq endures. The village was awarded the Croix de guerre 1939–1945 and the Legion of Honour. Memorials stand as silent witnesses. The Tertre des massacrés monument. The Mémorial Ascq 1944 museum. The Ascq Communal Cemetery. Here lie British and Commonwealth war graves. And the victims of the massacre. A monument stands in Saint-Pierre-en-Antioche Church square. Even street names remember. Rue des Martyrs. The street of the martyrs.
Beyond the somber memorials. Ascq boasts a rich heritage. The 19th-century Saint-Pierre-en-Antioche Church. Built on a 15th-century foundation. The 19th-century Gare d’Ascq. Still serving trains to Lille Liege and Orchies. The post office. The 20th-century town hall. The 20th-century Château Claeys.
Other buildings. A water tower visible from afar. Arthur Rimbaud college. An old distillery with its brick chimney. The Bouquet d’Or chocolate factory. The Moulins d’Ascq brewery. The old gristmills. Many houses have unique architectural styles. Such as 1930s seaside-style houses on Klèber street. Ascq. A place of beauty and sorrow. A testament to resilience. To the human spirit’s capacity to endure even the darkest of times. Remember Ascq. Remember the massacre. Remember the lives lost. Remember the spirit that remains.