” Christmas ! Christmas ! Peace to men of good will. »
December 25, 1945 marked the first Christmas of peace after World War II.
And this is reflected in the front page of the newspaper, which for the occasion displays color and engravings to celebrate Christmas.
But the national and international news that opens the newspaper is far from magical.
The post-war period still permeates it and is reflected in the titles: “This Christmas that we have waited so long for”, “In the shadow of Peace”, “Nothing but a memory”, “France does not formulate unreasonable demands. And the message of peace from the Pope at the time, Pius XII, in which “He once again denounces totalitarianism incompatible with an honest and healthy democracy”.
The German invasion
If Nancy was liberated on September 15, 1944, the Republican East did not reappear until October 8.
During the war, four days after the entry of German troops into Nancy, the newspaper ceased publication. Shortages of water, electricity and personnel (mobilized workers, editors and executives imprisoned or dead) took their toll on daily life.
On July 8, 1940, the Germans requisitioned the premises of L'Est Républicain and launched on July 15 “a periodical sheet, entitled Echoes and subtitled “information newspaper for the camps and prisoners of war” ( L'Est Républicain: daily newspaper column): a compilation of translated articles from German newspapers, propaganda messages and anti-Semitic stories. And so it was until October 1940.
Nancy's Echo
But the Nazis and the Vichy government had greater ambitions and finally launched a real newspaper, Nancy's Echo : a “newspaper under German direction, written by French journalists, edited and edited by French book workers”, with regional editions but also a European edition distributed to the confines of the Reich.
If Nancy was released on September 15, 1944, L'Est Républicain only reappeared on October 8 with Jacques Zenner as editor-in-chief, “an authentic resistance fighter who will give a new political line, very Gaullist, to the daily” (L'Est Républicain: daily newspaper column).
To be continued: The series on the front pages of Eastern Republican Christmas continues with that of December 25, 1968. See you Thursday, December 26 from 7 a.m. on our site to discover it.
