The traditional ceremony was held at the war memorial, after laying wreaths in Courbessac and Saint-Cézaire.
The audience was not very dense or very young for this ceremony to commemorate the victory of May 8, 1945 this Wednesday morning but it was fourth grade students from Ada Lovelace College who opened it in front of the senior -officer, the bodies made up soldiers and civilians and veterans with the reading of the poem “Ceux du maquis”, an ode to the Resistance made in 1944.
Students read an Ada Lovelace poem.
Because the duty of memory and transmission is essential to the younger generations at the heart of this ceremony which began by placing a wreath under the plaque marking the arrival of the elements of the French First Division free on August 29, 1944, Place des Campus.
A wreath in front of the plaque marks the arrival of elements of the 1st Free French Division on August 29, 1944
“We’ll be alert!”
The president of the Regional Union of Veterans (Udac) recalled, “the pages of our history must be handed over to future generations. But let’s be vigilant! Fanaticism, terrorism, war on the eastern borders threatens. Peace and freedom will never be found.”
Then, prefect Jérôme Bonet read the message from Sébastien Lecornu, Minister of the Armed Forces: “On May 8, 1945, Nazi Germany arrested, the silent armistice fell in Europe […] But victory, no matter how happy it may be, will not affect the war, or its plunder, or its death. […] 79 years later, gathered in front of our monuments, we pay them the same tribute. “ Before remembering that “The people had realized that nationalism is a loaded gun. Everyone was already aware that European construction would be necessary for the liberation of Europe.”.
After the speeches, a solemn wreath-laying followed at the war memorial before the Marseillaise was sung, with echoes from the public present.
In Saint-Cézaire too…
It was in Saint-Césaire that the ceremonies commemorating the military victory of the Allies and against Nazi Germany began, in front of the war memorial, square André-Gaujoux, in the presence of several elected officials and representatives of societies. The various speeches remembered all the horrors of this war before a wreath was laid and the Marseillaise was laid down.
2024-05-08 21:10:00
#Nîmes #commemoration #ensure #peace #freedom
