Duringthe winter of 1954 , terrible cold waves hit France, causing many victims among the homeless. The opportunity for the abbé Pierre , founder five years earlier of the Emmaüs movement, to launch a vibrant appeal to raise awareness among the population and the public authorities about the plight of the most disadvantaged. A living symbol of the end of the charitable century, his action will be immortalized in the cinema by the film Hiver 54 by Denis Amar with Lambert Wilson.
Father Pierre's first engagements
Born on August 5, 1912 in Lyon into a family that he himself described as bourgeois, Henri Grouès entered the Capuchins under the name of Brother Philippe in 1931 In fragile health, he was forced to leave cloistered religious life and was ordained a priest in 1938. During the Second World War, while exercising his ministry in Grenoble, he took in Jewish children whose parents had been arrested by the German authorities and helps those who resist the Compulsory Labor Service (STO). He also participated in the creation of the maquis in Chartreuse and Vercors. He then goes into hiding and takes "abbé Pierre" as the name of resistant.
Immediately after the war, Abbé Pierre entered politics and was elected deputy for Meurthe-et-Moselle on the list of the People's Republican Movement (MRP). He gradually moved away from the center to join the Cartel group of the independent lefts of the Assembly, which flirted with the socialist left.
In 1949, Abbé Pierre rented a house in Neuilly-Plaisance, near Paris, and opened an inn to accommodate the homeless and those excluded from society. Among them is Georges Legay, a former convict, who shortly before attempted suicide. When he received it, Abbé Pierre said to him:“You are horribly unhappy and I can’t give you anything. But you, since you want to die, you have nothing to embarrass you. So wouldn't you like to give me your help to help others? »
This event marks the founding of the first Emmaus community. If Abbé Pierre chose this name, “it is in reference to the village in Palestine where, according to the Bible, Jesus appeared on Easter Monday, risen, to his disciples. They regained hope and returned to Jerusalem to bring the good news.”
The terrible winter 54
During the winter of 1953-1954, terrible cold spells hit France. Temperatures drop below -10°C everywhere, reaching -30 in some regions. This polar cold is reinforced by numerous snowstorms and the rivers begin to freeze. For the homeless, still numerous ten years after the end of the Second World War, the situation is becoming critical and many of them are dying every day.
Abbé Pierre then decided to call for an "insurrection of kindness". On February 1, he spoke on Radio Luxembourg. In his frail voice, he calls for "help" and evokes "a dead woman frozen on the sidewalk of boulevard Sébastopol, clutching to her the paper with which, the day before yesterday, she had been expelled...". He thus teaches the French that “every night, they are more than two thousand curled up under the frost, without roof, without bread, more than one almost naked”.
On March 23, Abbé Pierre once again appealed to those who can, to make a roof available to the thousands of homeless people. For him, “while children have died because their parents were homeless, the misuse of premises is criminal”. At the end of this winter of 1954, there were several hundred deaths due to the cold, including many young children.
Emmaus development and media presence
Abbé Pierre's various appeals made the French people aware of the problems of the homeless. They provoked a great outpouring of generosity and attracted many volunteers to distribute blankets or help with the construction of housing. The movement then began to grow worldwide and, in 1971, Emmaus International was created. Today, the association is present in about forty countries.
Strengthened by his image of rebel, Abbé Pierre enjoys a considerable moral aura and a very great popularity. Although illness and old age forced him to "retire" in the early 1990s, he continued to be in all the fights, coming to the aid of the poorly housed, the homeless (homeless), undocumented migrants, and by sponsoring charitable actions of all kinds. He also continues to occupy the media space, with a strong presence on television in particular and the publication of several books, including God and Men (interview with Bernard Kouchner published in 1993), Testament (1995), Memory of a Believer (1997), My God… why? (2005).
His death, on January 22, 2007, gave rise to unanimous tribute in France.
To go further
- Abbé Pierre, God's Insurgent, by Pierre Lunel. The archipelago, 2012.
- Emmaus and Abbé Pierre, by Axelle Brodiez-Dolino. Sc Po Press, 2009.