Le Sillon World War I Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (1945) Eugène Pons, born in Saint-Étienne on May 15, 1886, and deported to the Neuengamme concentration camp on February 24, 1945, was a Catholic figure from Lyon, and a French printer and Resistance fighter who specialized in printing underground newspapers.

[1] He developed a strong spirituality from an early age, which led him to join Sillon, the Catholic movement founded by Marc Sangnier, in his teens.

Indeed, Le Sillon, founded in 1894 by Marc Sangnier, aims not only to offer a response to Pope Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum novarum, advocating greater openness of the Church towards the world, but also, and more prosaically, to bring Catholicism closer to the working world by offering a political and spiritual alternative to communism.

Eugène Pons soon organized Lyon meetings at his home on rue Denfert-Rochereau,[7] attended by Joseph Folliet[7] and Sylvie Mingeolet (1903–1955).

He was a member of the Le Patriote sports club, which depended on the parish church of Saint-Denis-de-la-Croix-Rousse,[13] and excelled at rifle shooting.

[2] In May 1941, at Jean Stetten-Bernard's request, Eugène Pons printed a leaflet explaining that the French people did not want to collaborate.

[2] Louis Besacier, who was in charge of binding the newspapers, took over the printing of Témoignage chrétien when Eugène Pons was arrested in May 1944.

[2] This is confirmed by the testimony of resistance fighter Adrien Némoz, who writes:[18] "In 1940, Eugène Pons began printing whatever was asked of him.

From memory, I can cite: France-Tireur, the clandestine Nouvelliste, false identity cards, passes authorizing the movement of people and goods, and at the beginning of 1942 the notebooks of Témoignage chrétien.

"It also details Eugène Pons' humanist and spiritual motivations for joining the Resistance:[18] "At the turn of the century, his encounter with Marc Sangnier's Le Sillon [...] had convinced him that the Christian faith should inspire men's actions.

Eugène Pons' resistance had both patriotic and spiritual motives [...] and it was essential to prevent the victorious Nazis from imposing their anti-Christian mysticism on the world.

[22] In addition to the concentration camp environment, the inhuman conditions, the deprivation of food, and the physical violence of the guards, prisoners were required to work twelve hours a day: Eugène Pons was first assigned to transport stones on the canal, then to the braiding workshop where hair was transformed into ropes.

[23] Dominican priest Claude Humbert (matricule 33221) met Eugène Pons at Neuengamme: they exchanged a few times through a grate.

This long, steep street links the Cours d'Herbouville (which runs alongside the Rhône on its right bank) to Rue Artaud, and provides pedestrian access to the Croix-Rousse plateau from the Winston-Churchill bridge.

At the same meeting, the city council decided to affix the plaque at 21 rue Vieille-Monnaie, where the Imprimerie de la Source was located, as well as the home of the Pons family.

Eugène Pons' wife, Rose-Adrienne Lavarière, reportedly told their children the day after their father's arrest:[31] "France cannot be liberated without martyrs.

"After the war, churchman Pierre Chaillet considered Eugène Pons to be "the noblest figure; one who inspires respect and friendship; one of the most valiant and discreet heroes of the Resistance".

[31] Resistance fighter Eugène Claudius-Petit expressed his esteem for Pons in the February 27, 1970 issue of Témoignage chrétien in an article entitled "A man at peace...", which he concluded as follows:[19] "We still have his friendship, and when the smells of ink, paper and hot machines mingle with the muffled, cadenced noises of the heavy platens, you're there my old Pons to tell us what a man is."