Given the activity of the Resistance in the region, the department of Corrèze and in particular the town of Tulle and its surroundings were the object of frequent interventions by German Security Services. On 1944, a 12-member SD unit under August Meier, the Commandant of the Secret Police and Security Services in Limoges, arrived in Tulle. Directed by the SS-"Hauptsturmführer" Friedrich Korten, these men, along with elements of the under the command of Henri Lafont, mounted a crackdown on the Maquis Resistance.