Lebeau, Claude-Colbert
Item
Name
Lebeau, Claude-Colbert
Given name
Claude-Colbert
Family name
Lebeau
One-line bio
Colbert Lebeau was a Scout and YCW leader from Châtellerault in western France. Sent to Germany under the compulsory labour service (STOà, he was arrested, imprisoned and sent to Zöschen concentration camp where he died on 3 January 1945.
Biography
Claude-Colbert Lebeau was born in Paizay-le-Sec on Monday 23 October, 1922. After his studies in Châtellerault, he joined the Crédit de l’Ouest bank in Châtellerault.
As a boy he belonged to the Scout movement. Later, he joined the JOC (Young Christian Workers) and became the federal leader of a clandestine group in the occupied zone.
He was called up in March 1943 for the STO (Compulsory Work Service) and responded to the call of the Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Emmanuel Suhard, who encouraged priests and active members of the JOC to go and join the young Catholics already in Germany.
As he said himself:
“I have to go. Young workers will need me. There, they will be subjected to all the Nazi pressures, they will need me.”
As a result, he was assigned to a coal factory near Leipzig. His strong faith supported all the young workers whose working and food conditions were difficult. He even organised clandestine meetings with his Christian brothers.
In December 1943, the German authorities threatened to punish religious activities by monitoring and controlling the mail. He was then arrested by the Gestapo on 13 September, 1944, tortured, imprisoned, and then deported to the Zöschen forced labor center, where he continued to help others.
Tortured, he was sentenced and sent to a disciplinary camp from which he would not return, like four of his comrades.
“Providence placed me here when no other leader had taken the destiny of young workers in hand,” he wrote in a letter to a friend.
“I plant the cross of Christ, helped by my comrades; it is a splendid mission that falls to us,” he continued.
Aware of the risks, he added:
“This is not the time to back down, not even to hold on.” It is time to announce… It is time to support separated families… It is time to bring to all the guys the testimony of Christ… Yes, it is forward that we must go, it is everywhere that Christ must penetrate and this penetration, it is we who must do it .”
He died of exhaustion on 3 January, 1945, aged 26. His body was repatriated and buried in the Saint-Jacques cemetery in Châtellerault.
A plaque commemorating Colbert was blessed on 8 May, 2017 by Bishop Pascal Wintzer in the church of his baptism in Paizay-le-Sec and another plaque was affixed to the town’s war memorial.
“Colbert Lebeau understood that he had to respond to the call, to be faithful to his vocation as a YCW member,” Bishop Wintzer noted.
“For him, it was a double fidelity, a double love, love of the Lord and love of the workers, in Châtellerault and also in Germany when they were exposed to adversity, constraint and peril.”
“The Lord designated seventy-two more, and he sent them two by two, ahead of him, to every town and place where he himself was going . Through Colbert Lebeau, through many others, the Lord therefore went to Nazi Germany, he went to the labour camps, and even to the extermination camps? Yes, but he did it under the sign of the cross, under the sign of shared suffering.”
“This 8 May, the anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany, we must not forget. Colbert Lebeau, a man faithful to God and to himself, asks us to be always faithful to the martyrs of yesterday and today. Faithful to the courageous men and women who said no to totalitarian regimes or risks. Let us not forget… at the risk of remaining silent when freedom is in danger.”
In conclusion Bishop Wintzer quoted the words of Elie Wiesel: “I will never forget this, even if I were condemned to live as long as God himself. Never.”
As a boy he belonged to the Scout movement. Later, he joined the JOC (Young Christian Workers) and became the federal leader of a clandestine group in the occupied zone.
He was called up in March 1943 for the STO (Compulsory Work Service) and responded to the call of the Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Emmanuel Suhard, who encouraged priests and active members of the JOC to go and join the young Catholics already in Germany.
As he said himself:
“I have to go. Young workers will need me. There, they will be subjected to all the Nazi pressures, they will need me.”
As a result, he was assigned to a coal factory near Leipzig. His strong faith supported all the young workers whose working and food conditions were difficult. He even organised clandestine meetings with his Christian brothers.
In December 1943, the German authorities threatened to punish religious activities by monitoring and controlling the mail. He was then arrested by the Gestapo on 13 September, 1944, tortured, imprisoned, and then deported to the Zöschen forced labor center, where he continued to help others.
Tortured, he was sentenced and sent to a disciplinary camp from which he would not return, like four of his comrades.
“Providence placed me here when no other leader had taken the destiny of young workers in hand,” he wrote in a letter to a friend.
“I plant the cross of Christ, helped by my comrades; it is a splendid mission that falls to us,” he continued.
Aware of the risks, he added:
“This is not the time to back down, not even to hold on.” It is time to announce… It is time to support separated families… It is time to bring to all the guys the testimony of Christ… Yes, it is forward that we must go, it is everywhere that Christ must penetrate and this penetration, it is we who must do it .”
He died of exhaustion on 3 January, 1945, aged 26. His body was repatriated and buried in the Saint-Jacques cemetery in Châtellerault.
A plaque commemorating Colbert was blessed on 8 May, 2017 by Bishop Pascal Wintzer in the church of his baptism in Paizay-le-Sec and another plaque was affixed to the town’s war memorial.
“Colbert Lebeau understood that he had to respond to the call, to be faithful to his vocation as a YCW member,” Bishop Wintzer noted.
“For him, it was a double fidelity, a double love, love of the Lord and love of the workers, in Châtellerault and also in Germany when they were exposed to adversity, constraint and peril.”
“The Lord designated seventy-two more, and he sent them two by two, ahead of him, to every town and place where he himself was going . Through Colbert Lebeau, through many others, the Lord therefore went to Nazi Germany, he went to the labour camps, and even to the extermination camps? Yes, but he did it under the sign of the cross, under the sign of shared suffering.”
“This 8 May, the anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany, we must not forget. Colbert Lebeau, a man faithful to God and to himself, asks us to be always faithful to the martyrs of yesterday and today. Faithful to the courageous men and women who said no to totalitarian regimes or risks. Let us not forget… at the risk of remaining silent when freedom is in danger.”
In conclusion Bishop Wintzer quoted the words of Elie Wiesel: “I will never forget this, even if I were condemned to live as long as God himself. Never.”
Country of origin
English
France
Birth date
October 23, 1922
Birth place
Paizay-le-Sec
Death date
January 3, 1945
Death place
Zöschen, Germany
Movement
JOC France