#Landmark
The Oloron Town Hall, a place of Resistance
Immediately after the defeat of May 1940, men and women organized themselves to set up a resistance movement against Marshal Pétain's new French state and its occupation by German troops.
Jean Mendiondou, mayor of Oloron and deputy for the Basses-Pyrénées, was one of 80 deputies who refused to grant full powers to Marshal Pétain in July 1940. He was dismissed a few months later and went into hiding. He regained his position when the town was liberated in August 1944 and was re-elected mayor in April 1945.
The town clerk at the time, Jean de Riquer, initially organized a network for producing false papers and helping people escape to Spain. He then became a member of a resistance movement. Arrested by the Gestapo on June 2, 1944, he was deported to Dachau.