In Nîmes, a commemoration of May 8 to always ensure peace and freedom

undefined Midi Libre – K. H.

The traditional ceremony took place at the war memorial, after laying wreaths in Courbessac and Saint-Cézaire.

The audience was not very dense nor very young for this ceremony commemorating the victory of May 8, 1945 this Wednesday morning but they were students from fourth of the Ada Lovelace college who opened it in front of the prefect, the military and civilian bodies and the veterans with the reading of the poem "Ceux du maquis", an ode to the Resistance composed in 1944.

undefined Midi Libre – K.H.

Because the duty of memory and its essential transmission to younger generations are at the heart of this ceremony which began with a laying of a wreath under the plaque commemorating the arrival of the elements of the First Free French Division on August 29, 1944, Place des Arènes.

undefined Midi Libre – K.H.

"Let's stay vigilant!"

The president of the Departmental Union of Veterans (Udac) reminded us, "the pages of our history must be passed on to future generations. But let's remain vigilant! Fanaticism, terrorism, war on the eastern borders threaten. Peace and freedom are never acquired."

Then, prefect Jérôme Bonet read the message from Sébastien Lecornu, Minister of the Armed Forces: "On May 8, 1945, Nazi Germany capitulated, the clash of arms fell silent in Europe […] But victory, however happy it may be, erases neither the war, nor its ravages, nor its dead […] 79 years later, gathered in front of our monuments, we pay them the same tribute." Before recalling that " the people understood that nationalism is a loaded gun. Everyone already sensed that European construction would be necessary for the salvation of Europe".

After the speeches, solemn wreath-layings took place at the war memorial before the Marseillaise was sounded, echoed by the public present.