Parc de l'abbé Derry

The park and street named for the Abbe Roger Derry honor a man whose life transformed from a quiet religious calling to clandestine resistance against Nazi occupation. Born in nineteen hundred, he trained for the priesthood at the seminary that once stood nearby in Issy-les-Moulineaux. His early life was defined by humility, but the outbreak of the Second World War saw him serve as a military chaplain before he began working as a key figure in the Saint Jacques resistance network. He was eventually captured by the Gestapo in October nineteen forty-one. The Nazis classified him under the Night and Fog decree, a directive designed to make prisoners vanish without a trace to spread terror among their families and comrades. He endured two years of brutal conditions in German captivity because he refused to abandon his principles or his faith. He was executed in Cologne on October fifteenth, nineteen forty-three, and his final words invoked the Latin prayers of the mass he had dedicated his life to serving. The public space here serves as a persistent reminder of his sacrifice and his deep local roots within this community.