This fenced monument was inaugurated on 18 June 1957 in order to pay homage to the Saint-Malo volunteers who joined the French Resistance in response to the appeal made by General de Gaulle on 18 June 1940. In 1949, he paid tribute to the “collective faith” which had brought the population of Saint-Malo together behind its Mayor, Guy La Chambre, in order to rebuild the historic town, 80% of which had been destroyed in the war.
The stele was inaugurated on 18 June 1962. It is a megalith made of simple granite, cut by the Belgian sculptor Eugène Dodeigne. It evokes an armless human body standing in a suffering, pleading posture, with its head looking skyward. From the front, in the top part of the stone, you can see two dark cavities that look like a dead man’s eye sockets.
In 1963, an urn holding soil from the former Buchenwald concentration camp, and the ashes of martyrs who had been deported and died there, was placed at the foot of the stele. In 1977, a second urn from Dachau concentration camp was added.
Moreover, the gallery featuring arches from the 17th century which forms the back of this war memorial was found in the ruins after the bombardments in 1944. It formed part of the old Benedictine monastery.
