“It’s a simple street, isn’t it?” You might think. But Rue Robert Duffour in Le Plessis-Robinson holds a secret, a story of sacrifice and resistance. This street is a small tribute to a man named Robert Duffour, a Parisian who fought for freedom during the dark days of the Second World War.
Robert Duffour was born in 1913 in Aignan, a small village in Southwestern France. He moved to Paris and lived in Le Plessis-Robinson, a suburb of the city. As a young man, Duffour joined the young communists of France. He was deeply passionate about social justice. When the Nazis invaded France, Robert Duffour bravely joined the French Forces of the Interior.
He helped to create a resistance network known as the Alsace-Lorraine Detachment. He and his comrades carried out daring missions, disrupting the Nazis’ operations. At the end of 1943, Duffour, along with his cousin Lucien Arrufat, participated in several notable actions. One action involved throwing grenades into a building occupied by German soldiers in Gif-sur-Yvette. They also carried out an armed attack on a farm in Bièvres, where they wounded the farmer and took 140,000 francs.
But their actions attracted the attention of the Gestapo, the Nazi secret police. Robert Duffour was arrested on February 8, 1944. The Nazis tried him in a court in the heart of Paris, on Boissy-d’Anglas street. Accused of being a “franc-tireur,” a sniper, Duffour was sentenced to death. He was executed by firing squad at Mont-Valérien, a site of several executions during the war, on June 2, 1944.
The street you see here, Rue Robert Duffour, stands as a testament to his courage throughout the war. Just like Robert Duffour himself, this street may seem simple and ordinary, yet it holds a hidden history, reminding us of the sacrifices made for freedom.