It was fifty-five years ago, at the end of March 1967. A group of twelve children and two monitors had gotten lost in the heart of a violent and impromptu snowstorm, near Super Besse (Puy-de-Dome). In the cold and windy night, two young people had lost their lives, as well as one of the supervisors, Jean-Jacques Soulier, who had sacrificed himself to cover children in his skier’s anorak and his woolen sweater.
Jean-Jacques Soulier, this forgotten young hero of Montluçon
The death of the 24-year-old Montluçonnais had caused a great deal of emotion in his hometown. “The heroism of Jean-Jacques, a boy so simple, so devoted, so intelligent, with great qualities of heart, made his disappearance even more poignant,” reads La Montagne, two days after the disaster.
“It’s the tragedy of my life”
More than half a century has passed, the name of Jean-Jacques Soulier has been attached to a college and a street in Montluçon, the city has gradually forgotten his memory, not the sister of the deceased hero. “It’s the drama of my life,” says Françoise Vergnaud – who took her husband’s name. In Orléans (Loiret), where this former teacher lives today, she frequently rereads press clippings from the time and rehashes the circumstances in which her brother disappeared.
The little sister, who had just married, was on vacation with her parents in Malaga, Spain, at the time of the tragedy. “
We were about to go to Gibraltar, when the campsite manager spotted our license plate and told us that we were wanted by the French Embassy. I did not understand. Then we received a telegram from my in-laws, who told us that Jean-Jacques had had a very serious accident and that we had to get home urgently. That’s where it all came crashing down, that was the black hole
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She has the vision of her father driving the family car through Spain and France to return to Auvergne as quickly as possible, she sees her mother crying all the way, the crowd on the forecourt of the Notre-Dame church , for the funeral.
Newspaper clipping from the time.
“We were students”
In Montluçon, former comrades of Jean-Jacques Soulier remember. “He was a nice, friendly, good service person,” says Michel Cibien, who met the Montluçonnais and his sister in Clermont-Ferrand.
We were university students, we frequented the same bars, the same friends
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Michel Cibien learned of his friend’s death on national radio. “In the circle of friends, it was very striking. The chance of life led this guidance counselor, originally from Lozère, to Montluçon, where he later met the parents of Jean-Jacques Soulier. “This tragedy destroyed them,” he said.
Michel Cibien.
The example of the father
Jean-Jacques Soulier’s father was a teacher. He had practiced in Reugny – where the inhabitants remember a very invested and innovative man – then at the school of Diénat, in Montluçon. “The family was housed in what has now become the Maison des Associations Robert-Lebourg. When they retired, the couple wanted to leave Montluçon and settled in Vallauris (near Cannes, editor’s note) “, specifies Michel Cibien.
Young Jean-Jacques Soulier at school in Reugny (centre) with his father on the left.
“They were never the same after their son passed away. My father died at 57, he had just retired. My mother died ten years later. The doctors said they died of cancer, I know they died of grief,” comments Françoise Vergnaud.
From his father, Jean-Jacques Soulier had inherited a taste for supervising children, becoming a trainer for the Francs and Franches Camarades (the Francas), but also for aviation, learning the basics of piloting within the association. Montluçonnaise Wings. “My father was an example for Jean-Jacques”, confirms Françoise Vergnaud, who describes her big brother as a “discreet, modest, incredibly kind” man.
Jean-Jacques Soulier’s belongings were stolen
After the death of her parents, Françoise wanted to repatriate the family property, but, the ultimate misfortune, the cargo was stolen. “The moving truck was stolen with all my family furniture, my brother’s library, a trunk filled with documents that belonged to him, and especially letters that my parents had received from all over France after the tragedy. We never found his belongings. »
“What he went through must have been appalling”
“He was a man with a big heart, a good guy, a good friend,” says Bernard Roche, still moved fifty-five years after the death of his friend, with whom he was remaking the world in the streets of Montluçon. His sacrifice for the children had not surprised him at the time. “What he went through must have been appalling,” he said.
In his house on avenue Kennedy, Jean-Claude Désormières poses in front of him a booklet reporting the solemn distribution of prizes at the Montluçon boys’ state high school in 1961. Jean-Jacques Soulier appears in it as the fourth prize of ‘history geography. It’s the only trace he has left of his classmate. “We were the only two externals supervised”, says this son of a pharmacist who became an architect, who describes Jean-Jacques Soulier as someone generous. “Caring for others was his cup of tea. »
Jean-Claude Desormieres.
After a mathematics baccalaureate in Montluçon, Jean-Jacques Soulier entered the science faculty of Clermont-Ferrand, where he obtained a degree in physics and chemistry. With a physiology certificate in his pocket, he should have entered the laboratory of the Faculty of Medicine of Clermont-Ferrand if the tragedy had not taken place.
Guillaume Bellavoine
The story of a sudden storm in Sancy
Twelve children aged 5 to 12 and their two instructors from the VVF holiday village spent a night in the cold at the end of March 1967, in the Sancy massif (Puy-de-Dôme). They had taken advantage of a lull at the end of the day to leave Super Besse and go for a walk. But very quickly, the supervisors were surprised by the bad weather, taking refuge in a buron, then being trapped again by the storm when they reached the station.
Photo The Mountain
“The wind started blowing suddenly, the snow was falling horizontally,” said one of the survivors. Refugees behind rocks, they were not located by the emergency services until the next day at 7:15 a.m. Two children and Jean-Jacques Soulier were no longer moving. “He was covered in ice and snow, his body was already very cold,” said one of the firefighters, Pierre Delquaire.
Photo The Mountain
Were the monitors responsible for recklessness? The newspapers of the time asked themselves the question at the time. It seems that the drama is elucidated by fate. “When the weather finally dawned, the monitors organized this game at the ruined buron, a place not far from the village, where we go frequently, there was almost no snow left, nothing, absolutely nothing suggested this drama”, explained the director of the holiday village.
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