Roger SOUCHÈRE
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Architect, Resistance fighter, co-founder of the Organisation civile et militaire.
An architect, he sat in December 1940 on the first leadership of the Organisation civile et militaire and created the Cincinnatus network, which smuggled people across the demarcation line. Arrested on 30 August 1941 and deported to Mauthausen, he came back in 1945; his wife returned from Ravensbrück.
The story
A graduate of both the École Centrale and the Beaux-Arts, Roger Souchère built a career as an architect that politics, and then war, soon cut across.
In 1936 he founded the Mouvement des classes moyennes with Jacques Arthuys. Under the Occupation he was a co-founder of the Organisation civile et militaire (OCM), one of the great movements of the French Resistance.
After the war he edited the journal Connaissance de l'homme from 1954 to 1956. Born in 1899, he died in 1963.
The grave
The vault carries his wife's family name, the Sainsères, on the avenue Greffulhe. The inscription runs to two lines: “Roger SOUCHÈRE 21-2-1899 2-7-1963” and “Mme Roger SOUCHÈRE née Jacqueline RICHET 9-1-1908 5-12-1984”. Neither the Organisation civile et militaire, one of the great Resistance movements, of which he was chief of staff from December 1940, nor the Cincinnatus network he created to get people across the demarcation line, nor Mauthausen, nor Ravensbrück was cut into the stone: both of them came back, and the stone keeps none of it.
On site, do not miss
Two lines, two survivors: “Roger SOUCHÈRE 21-2-1899 2-7-1963” and, beside him, his wife Jacqueline Richet, back from Ravensbrück. The vault itself bears the name of the Sainsère family.
Visitors' questions
Where is Roger Souchère's grave at Père-Lachaise?
In Division 41, Avenue Greffulhe, twelfth row. The grave is not in his name: it is the vault of the Sainsère family, his wife's family. Division 41 is also Volney's.
Jules DANBÉWhat role did Roger Souchère play in the Resistance?
He was one of its earliest organisers. From August 1940 he ran clandestine networks, then in December joined the leadership of the Organisation civile et militaire as chief of staff under Jacques Arthuys, while also founding the Cincinnatus network.
VOLNEYWas Roger Souchère deported?
Yes. Arrested on 30 August 1941, and held at La Santé and then Fresnes, he was deported to Mauthausen, where he arrived on 18 April 1943, before being assigned to the Wiener Neudorf Kommando. He was freed on 24 April 1945 and repatriated to Annecy.
Eugène DELACROIXWhat does Roger Souchère's gravestone say?
Just two lines, his and his wife's: “Roger SOUCHÈRE 21-2-1899 2-7-1963” and “Mme Roger SOUCHÈRE née Jacqueline RICHET 9-1-1908 5-12-1984”. Neither the Resistance nor the deportation is engraved there.
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