The ceremony took place on the plateau of the court of Roy, this Thursday, November 11 in the presence of the mayor Fabian Ruinet and the deputy Didier Martin. Rather than the “fashion” of the cancel culture, the mayor of Talant preferred to highlight the “benchmarks” of memory and history.
A beautiful autumn sun bathed Talant this Thursday, November 11, 2021 in the morning when the Dijon basin was still shrouded in fog. Elected officials, veterans, Civil Protection volunteers and citizens gathered to celebrate the 103rd anniversary of the signing of the 1918 armistice, temporarily ending the fighting of the First World War and to pay tribute to the 549 soldiers who died for France since 1963, during external operations.
At the national level, the commemoration of this year was marked by the burial of Hubert Germain at Mont Valérien, in the crypt of the memorial of combatant France. The last Companion of the Liberation died on October 12. A tribute was also paid to him at Talant before the reading of the message from Geneviève Darrieussecq, Minister in charge of Memory and Veterans.
Around the mayor of Talant Fabian Ruinet (LR-Agir), were present in particular Didier Martin (LREM), deputy of the Côte-d’Or, Stéphane Woynaroski (PS), regional councilor of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté and elected opposition in Talant, the honorary commander of the Air Force Bruno Gruner and sergeant Pierre, vice-president of the association of reserve non-commissioned officers of Côte-d’Or.
“Let us know how to attach ourselves to benchmark values”
The mayor of Talant spoke about what the armistice inspired in him: “on November 11, 1918, Ferdinand Foche, alongside the Allies, etched forever in our collective memory the heroic sacrifice of our soldiers. From the Battle of the Marne to that of the Somme, from Verdun to the Chemin des Dames, they carried the colors of our flag to the highest levels in human conditions close to torture ”.
“Let us remember these children, these young men and these fathers, who became soldiers by the force of the general mobilization of August 1914 and who will remain marked in their souls and their flesh by the brutality of the fighting. (…) Let us remember to face this dark period, this complex and painful memory in order to build a serene future, ”he continued.
The elected Republicans supported his message: “at a time when denial seems to become the norm, at a time when the culture of erasure – cancel culture in English – is becoming a fashion, let us know how to attach ourselves to the benchmark values, those of memory, those of history, those that on a daily basis, dear veterans, you strive to bring to life here or elsewhere ”.
And to conclude his remarks with two quotes. One of Marshal Foch: “a man without memory is a man without life, a people without memory is a people without a future”. One from Chateaubriand: “the living can no longer teach the dead anything, the dead on the contrary instruct the living” (in “Mémoire from beyond the grave”, 1848).
The mayor of Talant then laid a wreath with the first deputy, delegate for seniors, Sylvie Castella. Then it was the turn of Joëlle Cornu, president of the Talant section of the National Union of Combatants, and Jean-Pierre Guillemier, president of the FNACA of Talant, to do the same.
Conference on the War of 1870
After the death ring and the “Marseillaise”, the musicians of the municipal harmony played the “March of the soldiers” by Robert Bruce, which closed the ceremony as the fog rose from the valley to envelop the plateau. of the royal court.
Then, outside the official time, the municipal opposition group Pour Talant, led by Adrien Guené (LR) laid its own wreath at the foot of the monument to the Dead.
The municipality has made an appointment for a conference by Patrick Serre on the war of 1870 on November 26, at 6.30 p.m., at Maison Alix in Vergy. The commemoration of the battles of Talant will take place the next day, Saturday, November 27, at the monument on Boulevard de Troyes.
Jean-Christophe Tardivon
November 11, 2021: message from Minister Delegate Geneviève Darrieussecq
“The end of the fighting of the Great War marked the conscience and permeated the memories. Event that transcends time and crosses generations. No need to add a year or a vintage, this day and this month have integrated our common heritage for more than a century.
At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, after four interminable years, the cannon fell silent, the fury subsided. The last dead, the last shot, the last detonation. From Compiègne, where the armistice was signed at dawn, to the front, from the first bugle to all the bell towers in France, from the esplanade of each town to the smallest village square. A surge of relief, a sigh of deliverance, crossed the country from side to side.
Behind the joy, behind the tricolor floating in the windows and the triumphant Marseillaises, everywhere mourning, incurable wounds, material, moral and human ruins which have settled for a long time. Mothers and fathers who have not found their son. Siblings who have not found their father. Wives and husbands who have lost their loved ones.
The country is crossed by the deaf evidence that nothing will ever be the same again.
On this day, in the necropolises, in front of the monuments to the dead, in the squares of all our cities, all the generations gathered, we remember those who fought for France between 1914 and 1918, those who fell in the field of honor on all fronts, East and West. We remember the valiant struggle of all those who, coming from the five continents, defended a ground which they had never walked before.
The names engraved on our war memorials are a constant reminder of the values of honor, courage, dedication and bravery. They remind us of the brotherhood of arms.
The same fraternity unites all the daughters and all the sons of France who work today in the defense of our country and who lead our tireless fight for freedom. The same memorial fraternity which, each November 11, brings us together to honor the combatants of all conflicts, to pay homage to those who have fulfilled their duty to the point of the supreme gift. The Nation salutes the memory of the soldiers who died for France in 2021.
Today, in the same movement, grateful France makes procession to the coffin of Hubert Germain to the crypt of the memorial of fighting France at Mont Valérien. According to the wishes of General DE GAULLE, the ultimate companion of the Liberation will rest there. Last in death, among the first of 1940, Hubert Germain is the standard-bearer of the 1,038 illustrious people who have done so much for the ideal of freedom and the French spirit ”.
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