the essential
In Castelnaudary, neglected graves are fewer than elsewhere thanks to the members of “Souvenir Français”, who make it their duty to clean the graves which bear the inscription “MPF”, “Death for France”.
The French Remembrance Association strives to preserve the memory of all those who sacrificed themselves for France in order to preserve our freedoms, in particular by restoring the tombs which bear the inscription “Death for France”. Laurentino De Jésus Salgueiro, former major of the Foreign Legion and president of the committee of Castelnaudary (Aude), declares it bluntly: “The French Souvenir, first of all, has the vocation of preserving the memory of those who died for France throughout history, or who have honored it with beautiful deeds, by maintaining their tombs as well as the monuments erected to their glory.
The association is also responsible for animating commemorative life by participating in and organizing national patriotic ceremonies and local events (many in Lauragais), which bring together different generations around their history. Finally, the French Souvenir is there to “pass the torch to successive generations by instilling in them, through knowledge of history, love of the homeland and a sense of duty”, underlines Laurentino De Jésus Salgueiro.
Also read:
Commemorations of French Remembrance
Maintain the graves
It has now been fifteen years since the former major presided over the destiny of French Remembrance. He took over from Colonel (CR) Claude Canalès, who had worked tirelessly for nineteen years. Today, it is enough to walk through the aisles of a cemetery to notice, especially during this All Saints' Day period, that certain tombs are crumbling under bouquets of flowers and wreaths, while too many tombs have still been completely left abandoned. Faced with this sad observation, Souvenir Français is mobilizing to maintain these graves.
Furthermore, the association certainly mobilizes during this period of contemplation and commemorations, but it devotes itself to cleaning the graves throughout the year. Indeed, this patriotic association, which today brings together more than 20,000 members in 1,700 committees in France, takes care of 130,000 graves and 200 monuments scattered across France. Thus, its members demonstrate an unshakeable faith to accomplish this colossal work. “Workers or bourgeois, they became artillerymen, infantrymen, stretcher-bearers… Travelers without luggage, they had to leave their families and put on poorly cut uniforms, put on studded boots to go to the front to fight for the homeland and die for France. will forget them, time will do its work and the soldiers will die a second time”, murmurs Laurentino De Jésus Salgueiro. It is against this forgetting of those who died for France that French Remembrance fights today.
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