Variant 1 - preparations for removing the Schloss crates from the Banque Jordaan at Château de Chambon

Variant 1 - 3pm: Petit and Favier paid a visit to the employees of the Banque Jordaan and announced to the staff that a truck was on its way to pick up the crates and had left Paris that same morning. Told to alert the Préfet as soon as the truck arrived, the bank staff called Préfet Musso’s office and spoke with Mann, in the absence of the Préfet. [Variant: Edmond Favier and Jean Petit, “administrateur de sociétés à Limoges”, went to Chambon to pick up the crates. A German officer named Hess accompanied them. The truck arrived with 6 agents, one of whom was German and acted as the leader. They threatened everyone upon their arrival. Petit and Renaud again opposed the removal of the crates and asked for papers authorizing such a move. They were told that they were following orders while pointing a gun at them. The telephone was off-limits. Petit went in one room, the rest of the staff in another. Renaud was under guard. The German ordered the removal of the crates, Schloss and 13 other crates. The truck left an hour later. The employees were freed. Petit, a native of Limoges, asked if he could hitch a ride to go home. He was allowed into one of the cars. After the truck left, Renaud called the Prefect’s office which dispatched someone to the bank to inquire about the events. Once aware of the situation, the Préfet ordered barriers placed on all access roads in order to stop the truck before it left the Corrèze. He called Vichy for further instructions. The order was to allow the truck to go to Limoges and drop off its contents at the Banque de France. The German officer spewed forth threats against the Préfet, Mr. Musso, but in vain. At 7pm, there was no sign of a truck. So the staff went out for dinner. Jean Petit called at 8pm to say that the truck had arrived and crates would be loaded in the next hour. At 8:35 pm, René Bousquet, directeur général de la sûreté nationale, ordered Jean Petit not to turn over anything to anyone from the Banque Jordaan safes especially the Schloss collection. At 9:30pm, Petit showed up with three individuals allegedly with “la Sûreté” and announced that his orders had been countermanded and the crates would not be removed that evening.   . [Variant: On the evening of April 15, Petit informed Préfet Musso that officers pretending to be from the Police Judiciaire in Paris had arrived to take custody of the Schloss collection.] At 10pm, they left. Acting on orders received from Jean-Paul Martin, Musso ordered a strengthening of the guard in front of the vault at the Jordaan bank.   At 10:20pm or so, Commissaire Mann showed up with 5 gendarmes with orders to remain at the bank until the following day, with orders not to let anyone or anything in or out. The gendarmes would be relieved by others at 7am the following day on orders from the Préfet. At 10:30pm a call came in ordering the gendarmes back to Tulle.