Croix du Moulin

C. HARTMANN

The final offensive of the fight for Alsace was launched in January 1945 with the aim of collapsing the Colmar Pocket. As Colmar was a strategic objective for the Allies and a symbolic point of defence for the occupier, the toughest fighting took place in Jebsheim from January 20 through 29, 1945, where the Reichsführer Himmler himself placed his most war-hardened troops. On February 9, 1945, Alsace was fully liberated. Although the town of Jebsheim did not suffer as much destruction as other villages in the Colmar Pocket, it was on its soil that the most violent and deadly fighting took place at the end of January 1945. Certain liberators still refer to it today as the “Alsatian Verdun”.