During World War II, Fort Mont-Valérien near Paris became a location for the Nazis to execute hundreds of Resistance fighters. Among those fighters was Mouchilotte (Michilotte) Madhavan, a 28-year-old student from Mahe, which was then a French colony off the Malabar Coast in Kerala.
Drawing inspiration from Gandhi
Madhavan was born in 1914 and completed his education in French schools. While growing up he got inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, who visited Mahe in 1934. Drawing inspiration from Gandhi and India's freedom struggle, he joined local youth and social reform movements.
The student, the revolutionary
In 1937, Mouchilotte Madhavan went to the Sorbonne University, Paris. He was there to study mathematics. In Paris, he lived at the Cité Universitaire for students. He also became friends with Varadarajulu Subbiah, who became the secretary of the Communist Party of French India.
Later, when the Nazis occupied France, Madhavan joined the French Communist Party and became involved in the Resistance.
The arrest and the Nazi torture
On March 9, 1942, Mouchilotte Madhavan was arrested by pro-Nazi brigades. They arrested him for his alleged involvement in a bombing. After the arrest, Madhavan was handed over to the Gestapo.
He was tortured brutally at the Fort de Romainville (in English, Fort Romainville). The fort was built in France in the 1830s and was used as a Nazi concentration camp in World War II.
"I am French"
According to eyewitness accounts, when Madhavan was given the opportunity to save his life by declaring his Indian nationality, he steadfastly declared, "I am French."
A hero in France
On September 21, 1942, he was executed along with 45 comrades by firing squad at Mont-Valérien. His name is today inscribed at the Mémorial de la France Combattante at Mont-Valérien. Madhavan is remembered as a hero of the Resistance in France.
However, in India Madhavan has largely been forgotten. This even as his execution by Adolf Hitler's Nazi forces probably make him the only native-born Indian to be executed by the Nazi regime in a concentration camp during World War II.
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