Jean Franckson
1922-2018
Jean Franckson joined the resistance as a student and led dozens of sabotage missions against the Nazis. Despite heavy losses, he remained defiant and, after the war, built a career as a doctor and professor.
Jean Franckson, nicknamed “Martial”, began studying medicine at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in 1939 at the age of seventeen. He quickly became involved in the student resistance. In October 1940, he helped establish the clandestine intelligence network Comité de Surveillance de l’Université Libre de Bruxelles. Together with his father, engineer Marcel Franckson, he took part in resistance operations that later developed into the intelligence and sabotage organisation Service Hotton. He was also active in the Luc-Marc intelligence network. In 1943, Jean became the local leader of Service Hotton in the Chimay-Couvin region.
Their resistance activities extended far beyond gathering intelligence. Father and son gradually shifted to targeted sabotage operations in support of the Allied advance. What began as part of the Front de l’Indépendance evolved into an independent resistance group, later joining the British Special Operations Executive (SOE).
Between June and September 1944, the “Franckson Group” carried out some sixty sabotage actions. They destroyed ten locomotives, ten lorries, three armoured vehicles and a tank. Wehrmacht communication cables were repeatedly disrupted, and around 150 German soldiers were eliminated. These operations came at a heavy cost: eight members of the group were killed, and 61 were arrested by the Sipo-SD. Of those, 23 were executed or died from exhaustion in Nazi concentration camps.
On 27 May 1944, Jean’s father was arrested by the occupiers. He died in 1945 in Buchenwald concentration camp. Jean, only 22 at the time, assumed sole leadership of the now extensive network. He had already been in hiding since February 1943, after narrowly escaping arrest following a betrayal.
After the liberation, Jean resumed his studies, qualified as a doctor, and went on to become a professor at the ULB. Even after the war, he remained active in veterans' organisations and was committed to preserving the memory of the resistance. Jean Franckson passed away in 2018 at the age of 95.
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