The memory of the children of Lamoricière | Corsica Morning

80 years ago, in the middle of the war, the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique liner which provided the Algiers-Marseille service sank in a storm off the coast of the Balearic Islands. 272 passengers and 122 crew members were on board. Only 93 people will survive this shipwreck. Many Corsicans are among the victims, and a few rare survivors. Corse-Matin has found descendants. Custodians of memory, they bear witness to this tragedy whose memory has survived on the margins of history.

Unfortunately, there is a hierarchy in misfortune. It often explains why disasters remain unknown, if indeed an event is placed in its context, in this case the Second World War which raged on January 9, 1942 . If it had been able to reach the port of Marseilles that day, the liner Lamoricière * would undoubtedly have left absolutely nothing to posterity. Its sinking on January 9, 1942 decided otherwise, but the tragic end of this ship, which took 301 victims with it, has no place in history on the same level as the indelible stains of blood left by the most intense battles. murderers and crimes against humanity. Drowned in the raging waves of the Mediterranean, lost in the din of bombs and other geopolitical torments, the Lamoricière tragedy has nevertheless brought its memory to life until today, this 80th anniversary day that children ^and grandchildren of the victims will commemorate.

To pay tribute to their tragically deceased loved ones, but first to shed light on history. That of a 112 meter long liner built on the British shipyards of Newcastle, inaugurated 21 years earlier. Ensuring the service between Algeria and the south of France, he sailed that day to Marseille, three days after leaving Algiers. But on January 7, he diverted to rescue another ship, the Worms, a cargo ship in difficulty off the Balearic Islands. This course to the west will be fatal to him.

Le Lamoricière suffers a violent storm which it will not be able to resist. It sank on January 9, shortly after noon. 301 people die in the sinking. Most will never be found. Many of the victims left behind orphans, sometimes entire families plunged in pain, in disarray aggravated by the embraces and bites of war. Among these victims, many Corsicans who made this trip (read elsewhere). Simple passengers, sailors in service, or even a few soldiers. Corsicans, there were also among the 93 survivors. Only a few, but one of them survived to become a part of great history.

Born in 1921 in Murato, Dominique Zannini would have been 100 years old today. Died in 1999, at the age of 78, he was 20, on January 9, 1942. His daughter, Catherine Zannini married Mottolese, is one of the rare descendants who are the custodians of a survivor's story. Doctor, established in Lyon where she practiced as an anesthetist until a very recent retirement, the only daughter of Dominique Zannini keeps some memories of what her father told of the shipwreck. “He explained how he had saved a young girl by taking her in his arms, he remembered the cold water in which he had remained for hours, then a rope which they had ended up throwing to him and to which he grabbed on", told us the daughter of the man who later became a pillar of the French resistance at the head of the "Maquis du Haut-Beaujolais". A group also called the "Dominica Battalion" in reference to its leader. Dominique Zannini then made a career in banking, at Société Générale. It rests for 23 years in the family vault of Vézeronce-Curtin (Isère).

Victims "died for France", many sailors among the descendants

Of Corsican origins, Isabelle Cardin only has them through her maternal grandmother, born in Corte, but it was her paternal grandfather who perished in the sinking of the Transatlantic liner. Pierre Cardin was 28 years old on January 9, 1942. A soldier assigned to Algeria in a train squadron, he was returning to France to take advantage of family leave. His wife and three children will never see him again. “My father, René, was the youngest. He was five years old, ”says Isabelle, who can testify to the difficulties in which the family found itself since she found a letter written by her great-grandfather to the military authorities of the time. “He alerted them, because my grandmother did not receive the military pension to which she was entitled. She was 27 years old and found herself destitute with three dependent children. She will end up rebuilding her life after having long hoped for the return of her husband whom she adored. It took him a long time to grieve. I knew her, I was a teenager when she died. »

His children were able to make a living, as for René, Isabelle's father, he became a submariner, espousing a tradition curiously common to a good number of descendants of victims (see elsewhere). As if the drama of Lamoricière had no hold on fate.

Conditioned in adolescence by contact with a grandmother bruised by life, Isabelle was recalled to good memories of her family history the day the drama resurfaced. May 2008, 66 years after the sinking, the wreck of the Lamoricière was found by a team of Italian and Spanish divers. It lies at a depth of 156 meters, to the northeast of the island of Menorca. “That's when I started doing some real research. After having been a journalist in Paris, Isabelle Cardin is now settled in Brittany.

She is dedicated to genealogy full time. An activity that she also used to try to better understand the fate of this liner which turned the life of her family upside down. “In particular, I discovered that in my grandfather's military file there was the mention 'died for France'. His name, like those of the other victims, is also engraved in the marble of a war memorial. The Lamoricière was not, however, a warship. “But his shipwreck was nevertheless recognized as an act of war. In fact, the government had considered the restrictions that had affected it, which had weakened it and even more exposed it to a storm. To change it from oil to coal, openings had been drilled in the hull. Moreover, he had to make do with bad coal that burned very badly. This is why, even if it was not torpedoed, the victims of the sinking of this ship officially died for France. »

In her quest for truth and memory, Isabelle also went in search of families who still share this burden, to begin to build a unifying work in the service of a fragile memory. Today, at 12:30 p.m., at the Saint-Joseph cemetery in Marseille, there will be around thirty of them commemorating this ^80th anniversary. In a place where there is no burial, but where the memory of a group of children who disappeared on January 9, 1942, among the 301 victims, is nevertheless honored.

"It's the only place that refers to this drama," says Isabelle. We will gather there, evoke the memory of our loved ones, and lay a wreath, confides the one who also hopes that this moment will be a founding act. For the creation of an association, the financing of a plaque. So that there is still a trace..."

On August 27, 2009, after the discovery of the wreck of the sunken liner, the newspaper La Dépêche du Midi had devoted an article to this subject, and titled: “Lamoricière, the Titanic of the Mediterranean. As if to already bring his stone to the building against oblivion.

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" I too had to sail, my father dissuaded me from it "

First of all, there is the strength of the homonymy which maintains the memory of Antoine Gemini, who died at the age of 35 in the sinking of the Lamoricière. His grandson is named after him. Retired from EDF, Antoine Gemini, who lives in Sisco, is now 63 years old. With the approach of the anniversary date of a tragedy that upset the destiny of his family, he willingly told his story. First that of his grandfather, a sailor serving on board this ship which sank off the Balearic Islands. “His body was found on an Algerian beach. Before dying, he had saved children.” A heroic end, but also the beginning of another life for the family not only confronted with tragedy, but now with survival.

Anasthasia is alone with her three sons. "My father, François, known as 'Fanfan', was the eldest. The family then left to live in Marseille. My grandmother had not worked until then, but she was hired as a seamstress by the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, which made at the time the linen on board. " From the modest family story that has come down to him, Antoine was marked by the state of mind that animated his family at the time, despite the dramatic circumstances. "They had no choice, they had to move forward together. And at the time, there were no psychological cells. They could only rely on themselves."

The Gemini settled in La Joliette, "the sailors' quarter in Marseilles", and Anasthasie courageously raised her sons there. "She ended up rebuilding her life, but she never remarried, so as not to lose all her rights, because my father and my two uncles were wards of the nation", explains her grandson who does not hide his attachment to a family history and an imperative duty to remember.

Marked by the drama but proud, too, of his people who were able to recover, in the middle of the war and in the years which followed the liberation. Without escaping the fate of sailors. “My father and one of my uncles later became sailors, they sailed for the Transatlantic. I too had to sail, but my father talked me out of it.”

"At 11, my father became the man of the family"

Valérie feels more than ever invested with a mission: to live up to her own tragic and epic story.

A destiny forever linked to that of a ship engulfed by a raging sea in the heart of war. His grandfather, Ange-Marie Mariani, a child of Corbara, was a trimmer there. Gone forever, but more than ever present, eight decades later, in the hearts of his descendants.

"It's a strange feeling, but in our family, we want to be legitimate, to honor this grandfather who, in our eyes, is a hero. In view of this story, I am proud to m 'call Mariani.'

At 45, Valérie is now a research associate in the pharmaceutical industry.

She is not only proud of a grandfather who was too soon taken from the affection of his family, but also of their courage in the face of the consequences of this tragedy.

"As the war raged, my grandmother found herself a widow with five children to care for, pregnant with the sixth, and forced to look after her disabled mother. My father was the eldest of the boys. At 11, he became the man of the family. That's what my grandmother told him. That's why even today, he takes a child's look at these events. "

Charles Mariani, 91 years old today, has necessarily grown up too quickly. Until learning a professional life very early on, leaving Corbara to earn a living in Marseille. A hasty entry into active life which led him to learn many manual trades, but fate was also capricious with regard to the Mariani. “My father and one of my uncles became sailors despite their family history… And this tradition has continued until my generation because members of our family still do this job today.”

Valérie's grandmother left this world at barely 50 years old. Worn down by the winds of life which have been as unfavorable to it as those which sank the Lamoricière 80 years ago. "She had never rebuilt her life, says her granddaughter. She spent her time saying, when her relatives broached the subject by telling her that she was still young: I have daughters to marry."

* The liner of the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique bore the name of General Louis Juchault de Lamoricière, a French officer who, in the 18th century, distinguished himself in the action of pacification of French Algeria.