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9th March 2010, 03:27
Henri Salmide, 90, Dies; Germans Defiance Saved a French Port
By MAA DE LA BAUME
Published: March 6, 2010
PARIS Henri Salmide, a former German naval officer who defied orders to blow up the French port of Bordeaux in 1944, died on Feb. 23. He was 90 and lived in Bordeaux.
His wife, Henriette, confirmed the death.
Born Heinz Stahlschmidt, Mr. Salmide was a junior officer serving in Bordeaux as a bomb-disposal expert when, in August 1944, he was instructed to destroy the citys port facilities and docks, among Frances most extensive.
Initially following orders, he stockpiled thousands of pounds of ordnance in a German bunker and was to lay the explosives throughout the port. The Germans expected that about 3,500 people would die in the explosions.
But Petty Officer Stahlschmidt, nicknamed the Little Frenchman by the French dock workers who knew him, chose to disobey the orders and instead exploded the bunker itself, killing as many as 50 Nazi soldiers.
Wanted by both the Gestapo and the French authorities, Mr. Salmide hid with a French Resistance family in Bordeaux. After the war he married a French woman, Henriette Buisson, and was naturalized as Henri Salmide.
I acted according to my Christian conscience, Mr. Salmide told Reuters in an interview in 1997. I could not accept that the port of Bordeaux be wantonly destroyed when the war was clearly lost.
Heinz Stahlschmidt was born on Nov. 13, 1919, to a German plumber and his wife in the western German city of Dortmund. After World War II, he was considered by many Germans to have been a traitor. He worked as a firefighter in Bordeaux but struggled to win recognition in France as well.
No one wanted to admit that he had done it, Mrs. Salmide said in a telephone interview. If he had been French, it would have been easier for him. She is his only immediate survivor.
Dominique Lormier, a French historian who has written extensively about how the war unfolded in the southwest of France, said in an interview that the French Resistance wanted to self-appropriate the story by saying that they were behind Salmides actions.
In 1994, Mr. Salmide was awarded the Lgion dHonneur partly in recognition of his contribution to saving the port of Bordeaux in 1944.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/world/europe/07salmide.html
By MAA DE LA BAUME
Published: March 6, 2010
PARIS Henri Salmide, a former German naval officer who defied orders to blow up the French port of Bordeaux in 1944, died on Feb. 23. He was 90 and lived in Bordeaux.
His wife, Henriette, confirmed the death.
Born Heinz Stahlschmidt, Mr. Salmide was a junior officer serving in Bordeaux as a bomb-disposal expert when, in August 1944, he was instructed to destroy the citys port facilities and docks, among Frances most extensive.
Initially following orders, he stockpiled thousands of pounds of ordnance in a German bunker and was to lay the explosives throughout the port. The Germans expected that about 3,500 people would die in the explosions.
But Petty Officer Stahlschmidt, nicknamed the Little Frenchman by the French dock workers who knew him, chose to disobey the orders and instead exploded the bunker itself, killing as many as 50 Nazi soldiers.
Wanted by both the Gestapo and the French authorities, Mr. Salmide hid with a French Resistance family in Bordeaux. After the war he married a French woman, Henriette Buisson, and was naturalized as Henri Salmide.
I acted according to my Christian conscience, Mr. Salmide told Reuters in an interview in 1997. I could not accept that the port of Bordeaux be wantonly destroyed when the war was clearly lost.
Heinz Stahlschmidt was born on Nov. 13, 1919, to a German plumber and his wife in the western German city of Dortmund. After World War II, he was considered by many Germans to have been a traitor. He worked as a firefighter in Bordeaux but struggled to win recognition in France as well.
No one wanted to admit that he had done it, Mrs. Salmide said in a telephone interview. If he had been French, it would have been easier for him. She is his only immediate survivor.
Dominique Lormier, a French historian who has written extensively about how the war unfolded in the southwest of France, said in an interview that the French Resistance wanted to self-appropriate the story by saying that they were behind Salmides actions.
In 1994, Mr. Salmide was awarded the Lgion dHonneur partly in recognition of his contribution to saving the port of Bordeaux in 1944.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/world/europe/07salmide.html