Conference on the 80th anniversary of the Liberation: “Nîmes is a city of freedom and resistance”

Le si important et toujours d’actualité “devoir de mémoire”. Famille Gosselin

A symposium on the 80th anniversary of the Liberation, organized by the City of Nîmes and Midi Libre, is being held this Wednesday, August 28 at Carré d'Art.

80 years. 80 years since Nîmes was officially liberated from the yoke of the Germans, marking the end of a period of murderous Occupation that will mark all generations, present and future. In order to pay tribute to those who fought for their country and to keep their memory alive, the City of Nîmes, in partnership with Midi Libre, is organizing a conference on this theme this Wednesday, August 28, in the Carré d'Art auditorium.

“Resist”, a word that speaks to the people of Nîmes

For Daniel-Jean Valade, advisor to the mayor responsible for cultural education and also a teacher, this event is of particular importance: “Nîmes is a city of freedom and resistance”, proclaims the man, who notably cites the exceptional careers of figures such as Jean-Paul Rabaut Saint-Étienne, born in Nîmes ; Adolphe Crémieu, notably author of the Crémieux decree, which granted French citizenship to the 37,000 Jews of Algeria in 1870; Bernard Lazare, the first to have defended Alfred Dreyfus before Emile Zola. “Nîmes is a city that has a will for resistance action, supports Daniel-Jean Valade, citing the famous "Resist" of Marie Durand, imprisoned for 38 years in the Tour de Constance, in Aigues-Mortes, because of her Protestant faith. This is the philosophy of all the Cévennes resistance fighters who have been under the spotlight of Marie Durand and her "resist". Resisting the anti-human and anti-humanism."

Duty of memory

But for someone who is a "teacher of teachers", transmission is an essential value: "80 years is also four times twenty years. It is essential that we remind all generations, from kindergarten onwards, all the time about history, about facts." With this little special notion granted to the inhabitants of the South of France: “We, the southerners, do not accept that anyone comes to tell us what we must do. We accept the laws, we respect them, except those that are exogenous and that we will fight." There will be a lot of talk this Wednesday about fighting, then about deliverance.

If the conference is full, a report will be offered to you in our Thursday edition and a video recording will be quickly available on our Midilibre.fr site in order to relive the event.