Liberté chérie

Liberté chérie was one of the very few Masonic lodges founded within a Nazi concentration camp during the Second World War.

On November 15, 1943, seven Belgian Freemasons and resistance fighters founded the Masonic Lodge Loge Liberté chérie (French: Cherished Liberty Lodge) inside Hut 6 of Emslandlager VII (Esterwegen). The name of the lodge was derived from La Marseillaise.

The original seven Freemasons of Loge Liberté chérie were:

They later initiated, passed, and raised Brother Fernand Erauw, another Belgian.

According to M. Franz Bridoux, former prisoner in Esterwegen’s Hut 6, the founding members of Loge Liberté chérie were Rochat, Sugg, Hannecart, Hanson, Somerhausen, Degueldre, and Miclotte.

De Schrijver and M. Story arrived well after the establishment of the lodge and were not be founding members, but members only.

Paul Hanson was elected master. The brethren met for lodge work in Hut 6 around a table, which was otherwise used for cartridge sorting. A Catholic priest stood watch, so that the brethren could hold their meetings; and protected their secrecy.

Hut 6 was used for foreign Nacht und Nebel, (German: Night and Fog), prisoners. The Emslandlagercamps were a group of camps whose history is represented by a permanent exhibition in the Documentation and Information Centre in Papenburg, Germany. Altogether 15 camps were established on the Netherlands border, with central administration in Papenburg.

Luc Somerhausen described Erauw's initiation, etc., as just as simple ceremonies. These ceremonies, (to whose secrecy they asked the community of Catholic priests for assistance, "with their prayers"), "took place at one of the tables. ... after a very highly simplified ritual—whose individual components were however explained to the initiate; that from now on he could participate in the work of the Lodge".

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