‘Mireille’ saved from the Nazis

After the surrender of France to the Germans in 1940, a new collaborating French government was established to control the lower part of France. This Vichy government implemented Nazi policies and orders on behalf of its new masters. Included in these orders was a directive in October 1941, that all bells, sculptures and monuments that offended the regime would be destroyed and melted down. In the beautiful town of Saint Marie de la Mer, in the Camargue in southern France, German and Vichy police officers came looking for the bronze statue depicting a heroine from French literature called Mireille. But they were too late and all they found was a stone plinth. A local scrap merchant and his friends had careful removed the 8ft statue the night before and hid it in a cellar. At liberation in 1944, Mireille was brought out of hiding and reinstalled on the plinth in all her glory.