Fort Mont-Valérien

The surrender of the fortress was one of the main clauses of the armistice signed by the Government of National Defense with Otto von Bismarck on 17 January 1871, allowing the Germans to occupy the strongest part of Paris' defences in exchange for shipments of food into the starving city.

'[1] Colonel Henry of army intelligence, a key player in the Dreyfus affair, was confined at the prison of Mont Valérien in 1898.

The day after being confined, 31 August 1898, he cut his throat with a razor that had been left in his possession, taking to the grave his secret and that of a great part of the affaire Dreyfus.

The area in front of the "Mémorial de la France combattante", a reminder of the French Resistance against the German occupation forces, has been named Square Abbé Franz Stock.

During the German occupation, Stock took care of condemned prisoners here, and he mentioned 863 executions at Mont Valérien in his diary.