Jean Burger Jean Burger , alias " Mario " , was a member of the French Resistance during World War II . A member of the French communist party , he was born in Metz on 16 February 1907 and died at the Mittelbau - Dora concentration camp on 3 April 1945 . Biography . Youth and political engagement . Born into a family of tradesmen , Jean Burger studied at the Ecole Normale de Montigny and became a teacher in the industrial basin of Lorraine . He rose rapidly in the Communist Party and became departmental secretary for the Moselle anti - fascist movement " Paix et Liberté " ( " Peace and Liberty " ) . Burger became involved in recruitment for the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War . In September 1939 , Burger was mobilized as part of the 460th Pioneer Regiment of the French Army and was stationed on the Maginot Line where he was taken prisoner on 17 June 1940 . Burger and his brother escaped during Pentecost in 1941 . Jean Burger took the pseudonym René Legrand at this time . Resistance . Charles Hoeffel , a Communist Party militant and member of the CGT railway workers ' union , put Burger into contact with Georges Wodli , a member of the Communist Party Central Committee . Wodli asked Burger to organize Communist resistance in the Moselle region . Burger organized the " Mario " resistance group , whose activities included the printing and distribution of leaflets , collection of arms , aid to prisoners and resisters , and sabotage . Three thousand men and women participated in the Mario group . The organization was integrated into the national resistance movement and had contacts in Paris and Luxembourg . Activities included aid to German deserters and assistance for Soviet prisoners of war in camps in the Moselle region . Arrest . Massive arrests of resisters began in August 1943 . The arrests were aided by information seized by the Gestapo in 1940 from the Direction centrale des renseignements généraux , the intelligence service of the French National Police . Jean Burger was arrested in Metz on 21 September 1943 by the Germans , who had set a trap for resisters . As a result , by the time American troops arrived in the area in 1944 , the Mario group had practically ceased to exist . After his arrest , Burger was tortured by the Gestapo , then moved to a military prison in Metz . From there he went to the Fort de Queuleu just outside of Metz , which was used as a detention and interrogation center for members of the Resistance . In November 1944 he was sent to prisons in Mannheim and Wiesbaden , then to Dachau concentration camp . as American forces were closing in on Metz . Not long after arriving at Dachau , he was moved to the Auschwitz concentration camp . With the approach of Soviet forces , Burger and a few other Marios were marched to Gleiwitz in Silesia . Finally moved to an annex of the Dora concentration camp , he was mortally wounded while weakened by pneumonia during an American bombing raid on the Mittelwerk complex . Legacy . In memory of Burger , a number of streets and buildings in the Mosellle département bear his name , as well as the Jean - Burger - Straße in Magdeburg , Germany , where a commemorative monument was erected .