On Wednesday 6 September 1944, when part of the German troops had taken possession of the nearby town of Saint-Hubert, a member of the White Army shot at a motorbike driven by a German dispatch rider on his way back from Poix towards Saint-Hubert. Alerted by the wounded man, who had been shot in the leg, German troops, supported by armoured vehicles, set off from Saint-Hubert to take reprisals. A few minutes later, they landed in the hamlet and set fire to all the buildings except the Vieux Moulin, used to produce charcoal for the occupying forces.

These reprisals resulted in the deaths of three men, as the inhabitants of the route de Froid did not have time to flee... Lucien Schmitz (aged 44), Auguste Pècheur (aged 80) and Joseph Pierrard (aged 61) were executed on the spot in front of their houses in the presence of their families. The women and children of the small hamlet were immediately ruthlessly transferred to Saint-Hubert.

A little further on, on the Route de Poix, the inhabitants had a better fate. Hector Nemry and his daughter and the Kleczkowski family fled towards Lorcy.

Across the road, 11 people managed to find refuge in the mill, which was spared by the flames. Léon Mormont, a prisoner of war who had escaped from Germany in 1942, had set up a hiding place in the mill's water drainage tunnel. The inhabitants hunkered down in this shelter for 22 long hours to escape the enemy horde.

In the small hamlet, which had been reduced to ruins, only two buildings out of 7 were rebuilt: the Mormont mill and the Nemry villa. On Friday 8 September 1944, at around 11.00am, Saint-Hubert was liberated for the first time.