Remembering John Fletcher: The Only Known Dundonian Who Perished at Auschwitz

I saw a tweet this morning from the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum which paid tribute to John ‘Jean’ Fletcher.

John was the only known Dundonian killed at Auschwitz and the story of his fate is so sad.

John Gordon Fletcher was born in Dundee on December 12th 1892, he was the son of Margaret Robertson and John Gordon Fletcher, a sea captain.

John volunteered to fight in the Great War and he was promoted up to a sergeant in the Third Intelligence Corps. The Intelligence Corps had only been formed in 1914 on the outbreak of the war.

John’s role at the Intelligence Corps was to gain knowledge of military intelligence regarding German movements and communications in the very early days of a new warfare science.

At the end of the Great War, he remained in France, and in 1921, he became a naturalized French citizen. John later changed his name to Jean as he settled in France.

He married Lucia Aline Fontaine who was a restaurateur. Jean settled in Albert, located 163 miles from Paris.

In 1939, he started working as a custodian at the Potez aircraft factory located in Méaulte which was close to Albert. At the time, the Potez aircraft factory was the largest of its kind.

It was then during the Second World War on May 20th, 1942 when Jean Fletcher was arrested at his place of work by Feldgendarmerie attached to the Albert Kreiskommandantur along with local father and son Ernest and René Pignet.

After his arrest, Jean’s wife Lucia sought information on him. The police report that Lucia was given showed that Jean was ‘neither convicted, nor a Jew, nor a Freemason, nor a politician’, without giving any other reason for his arrest.

It was between late May and the end of June 1942 that Jean was selected with more than 1,000 hostages identified as communists and 50 hostages identified as Jews — for deportation arranged in retaliation for armed resistance against the German army.

It was on July 6th, 1942 that the prisoners were escorted to the Compiègne train station and crammed into freight cars.

The train left at 9.30am and the journey would take two and half days, without any food or water. They headed to Oświęcim, a small town in southern Poland, the location of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

On July 8th, 1942, Jean was registered at Auschwitz I under the number 45544.

The day after, they all marched on foot to Birkenau which was four kilometres from the main camp. Four days later, records show Jean was questioned about his profession.

Jean died only twenty one days after arriving at Auschwitz on 29th July, 1942. It is however unknown how he died.

His death certificate contained the words ‘Mort pour la France’ which translates to ‘Died for France’.

He is the only known Dundonian to have died at Auschwitz.

We will always remember John/Jean. ❤️

Sources / bibliography

With thanks to:

Grant Weryk — The story of John Fletcher on Dundonian history for all

Dundee Evening Telegraph — Dundee man was forgotten victim of Holocaust

Auschwitz Memorial and Museum — Initial information on Jean’s imprisonment at Auschwitz