Gustave Biéler DSO MBE CdeG (26 March 1904 – 5 September 1944) was a Canadian Special Operations Executive agent during World War II.

Early life

Gustave Daniel Alfred Biéler was born on 26 March 1904 in Beurlay, France, to Swiss parents and raised in Lausanne, Switzerland. At the age of twenty, he emigrated to Canada where he settled in the city of Montreal, working as a school teacher at l'Institut Français Évangélique in Pointe-aux-Trembles, and then as a translator for Sun Life Assurance. He became a naturalised British subject.

Wartime activities

At the outbreak of World War II, although married with two children, Biéler joined the Canadian Army in Le Régiment de Maisonneuve and was shipped to a base in Britain. His wife Marguerite Geymonat worked as a broadcaster to the troops in Europe on Radio Canada International. Because of his familiarity with France and his fluency in the French and English languages he joined the Special Operations Executive in 1942.

Known by his wartime nickname "Guy," or his code name "Commandant Guy", following his specialised training at Camp X, Colonel Maurice Buckmaster, the SOE commander, wrote in his file that Biéler was the best student SOE had.

His operations were so successful that the Germans instituted a special manhunt to get him and his team and on the morning of 14 January 1944 the Gestapo arrested him and agent Yolande Beekman in the Café Moulin Brulé in Saint-Quentin. At the Gestapo headquarters there the two were tortured repeatedly but never broke and a few months later Biéler was transferred to Flossenbürg concentration camp in the Oberpfalz region of Bavaria, where the brutal torture continued. According to his daughter Jacqueline Bieler's research, prisoners at Flossenburg were called Nacht und Nebel (Night and Fog). "When you were designated an NN prisoner, you were meant to disappear. If the Red Cross asked questions about you, they weren't supposed to find out anything."

Recognition

Awards

  • United Kingdom: Biéler's contribution to freedom was recognised with the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).
  • France: Croix de Guerre In Saint-Quentin, France, he was adopted by the citizens as a folk hero not only for his exploits and bravery but also because he was someone who did everything possible to avoid civilian casualties.

Monuments

  • The "Rue du Commandant Guy Biéler" in Saint-Quentin was named after him.
  • As one of the SOE agents who died for the liberation of France, he is listed on the "Roll of Honour" on the Valençay SOE Memorial in the town of Valençay, in the Indre département.
  • There are memorials honouring Biéler at Morcourt, and Fonsommes (France)
  • The Juno Beach Centre at Courseulles-sur-Mer has a plaque honouring: "Canadians behind enemy lines. Canadian Agents with the British Special Services".
  • Major Biéler is recorded on the Groesbeek Memorial in Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery in the Netherlands.
  • There is a Bieler Lake in Canada.
  • The veterans' residence in Montreal (Quebec) is named after him.
  • Bieler memorial in a park in Westmount (Quebec).
  • Bieler was the central character in THE SECRET LIBERATORS, a documentary on Canadians in SOE, written and presented by Norm Christie for History Channel in 2005. Other agents covered in the Documentary are Al Sirois, Frank Pickersgill and John McAllister. Only Sirois survived the war.

Exhibition

On 22 July 2007, an exhibit on Biéler was unveiled at the opening of the museum in commemoration of all those who suffered and died at the Flossenbürg Camp at Flossenbürg, KZ, Germany.

References

  • CWGC: Gustave Daniel Alfred Bieler
  • Mémoires de Guerre: Gustave Biéler [http://la-loupe.over-blog.net/article-bieler-gustave-44222594.html]