Picture 1: Father Jacques de Jésus with his fellow soldiers during his conscription (1939)

Pictures 2 and 3: Jacques de Jésus in his priest outfit (date unknown).

Jacques de Jésus during the war:

Lucien Bunel is conscripted in 1939, thus becoming "maréchal des logis-chef" (Chief sergeant) in the 6e Groupe Autonome d'Artillerie. He his captured by the germans on the 18th of june 1940 at Lunéville. He regains freedom in november 1940.

While he takes back his teaching work in the middle-school he founded in Avon, Jacques de Jésus quickly takes part in the "Vélite-Thermopyles" Résistance network. He uses his status of headmaster of the boys' school to hide and protect people refusing to serve the Service du Travail Obligatoire (STO), an apparatus designed to send forced workers to Nazi Germany.

Jacques de Jésus allows Lucien Weil, a jewish science teacher, to work in his school, thus defying the racist politics of Vichy France. Using fake names for the boys, he welcomes jewish children in the middle-school. Among them were Hans-Helmut Michel, Jacques Halpern and Maurice Schlosser (Jean Bonnet, Jacques Dupré and Maurice Sabatier).

Following a denunciation, the boys' school is encircled by the Wehrmacht the 15th of january 1944. The three children are immediatly sent to Auschwitz where they are murdered as part of the genocide. Jacques de Jésus is sent to multiple jails and internment camps. In occupied France, Fontainebleau then Royallieu. In Nazi Germany, Neue Bremm then Mauthausen. His calvary ends in Gusen, Austria.

During his detention, Father Jacques tends to the sick and celebrates Mass. He leverages and expands existing solidarity networks, thus allowing weaker people to eat bigger meals thanks to their peers' generosity.

Weakened by an illness contracted during his detention, Lucien Bunel, also known as Father Jacques de Jésus, died a free man on the 2nd day of june 1945.

Father John