La briqueterie d'Ere
This old brick factory closed around 50 years ago. I have scoured far and wide for more information on the site and have come up pretty much empty handed. I did managed to find a rather interesting article about it or more accurately it’s staffs show of resistance during the Nazi occupation of Europe during World War II.
A Man Called Jacquard
During the Nazi occupation, the factory was visited by a German lieutenant and ordered the staff to produce bricks for their war effort and only for them.
Saying no wasn’t an option for obvious reasons, the soldiers left having been assured that they would make bricks through the nights. They made Tons of bricks, with all 10 kilns going through the night, and into the early hours. The staff then destroyed all they had made, so the Nazis wouldn't receive anything. When the lieutenant returned, the foreman explained to him that the Lieutenants own army had destroyed everything shortly before he arrived. He remonstrated that he had tried to tell the fictitious soldiers that the bricks had been meant for their war effort to no avail. The lieutenant left the team of brickmakers alive but destroyed the kilns and as a result no more bricks could be made. At the end of the war, the story of the brickworks, and its workers who had resisted the Nazis and had not collaborated, reached the nearby city. The city funded the rebuild of the kilns and ordered bricks from it, which were used to rebuild half of the main square of the city.
Sadly I have no way to collaborate the story but true or not it’s good enough for me
This old brick factory closed around 50 years ago. I have scoured far and wide for more information on the site and have come up pretty much empty handed. I did managed to find a rather interesting article about it or more accurately it’s staffs show of resistance during the Nazi occupation of Europe during World War II.
A Man Called Jacquard
During the Nazi occupation, the factory was visited by a German lieutenant and ordered the staff to produce bricks for their war effort and only for them.
Saying no wasn’t an option for obvious reasons, the soldiers left having been assured that they would make bricks through the nights. They made Tons of bricks, with all 10 kilns going through the night, and into the early hours. The staff then destroyed all they had made, so the Nazis wouldn't receive anything. When the lieutenant returned, the foreman explained to him that the Lieutenants own army had destroyed everything shortly before he arrived. He remonstrated that he had tried to tell the fictitious soldiers that the bricks had been meant for their war effort to no avail. The lieutenant left the team of brickmakers alive but destroyed the kilns and as a result no more bricks could be made. At the end of the war, the story of the brickworks, and its workers who had resisted the Nazis and had not collaborated, reached the nearby city. The city funded the rebuild of the kilns and ordered bricks from it, which were used to rebuild half of the main square of the city.
Sadly I have no way to collaborate the story but true or not it’s good enough for me
but made for a relaxing and successful start to a major road trip full of other successes 
