Text only poster annoucing the execution of French hostages by the German occupation authorities

Broadside on yellow paper announcing that 50 hostages have been executed and that more will be executed if those guilty of the crime have not been found by midnight on Ocotber 26, 1941. The Germans executed the hostages in retaliation for the assassination of a local German military commander, Hotz, on October 20, 1941, in Nantes, France, by resistance fighters. A reward of 15,000 francs was offered for information leading to the capture of the resistance fighters. This event was called Les Fusilles de Chateaubriant. In revenge for the assassination, the Germans rounded up 100 men from surrounding villages and threatened to execute all of the hostages if the persons who committed the crime were not found. The hostages were interned in the camp of Choisel in the commune of Chateaubriant. Fifty hostages were executed on October 22, 1941.