Assassination of Ritter
The FTP-MOI intelligence service had noticed the strengthening of security measures on rue Saint-Dominique in Paris. A large Mercedes with swastikas on the sides regularly entered the courtyard of the Maison de la Chimie, and a Nazi official was let out. After four months of planning, the military leadership of the FTP requested Marcel Rayman, fr:Léo Kneller and Alfonso to plan an attack against this official. The operation was put under the authority of Missak Manouchian, the military overseer of the FTP-MOI, from late August 1943.
On the morning of 28 September 1943, the Mercedes was parked for a few minutes before picking up its passenger. Alfonso fired at the SS officer as he got into the car. The windshield blocked the bullets, but the man was injured, probably by flying glass. He attempted to get out of the car through the opposite door, but Rayman hit him, fatally, with three bullets. The fighters only learned the man's identity through the German press: it was General fr:Julius Ritter, the assistant in France to Fritz Sauckel, who was responsible for the mobilization and deportation of labor under the German STO (Obligatory Work Service) in Nazi-occupied Europe. Ritter was the chief recruiter of slave labor in occupied France.
The front-page denunciation of this "abominable act" and the official funeral at the église de la Madeleine gave the operation even more impact.
Read more about this topic: Celestino Alfonso
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