The orphan at the Gentioux-Pigerolles war memorial received 160 letters. They arrived from all over France but also from Belgium and Switzerland and were written by people aged 14 to 85, as part of a competition launched by the town hall two years ago to celebrate the centenary of the pacifist monument. An awards ceremony takes place this Thursday, June 13 at the Gentioux-Pigerolles multipurpose hall. The letters will be published in a collection.
In the letter from Myriam Vivion, 18, a final year student at the Pierre Bourdan high school in Guéret, a sister announces to the orphan that his father died at the front. It was she who took care of him, in his convent, when he was injured. She tells of a farmer torn from his family : “It was not at all his place to be at the front, he wanted to return to his farm in Gentioux. He tells his child that he is going to have to take back his farm and modernize it because he will no longer be there to ensure continuity.” A way of paying tribute to the victims of war and the suffering of their families. This story allowed him to win third prize among young people.
Nina Sobetsky
The first prize was awarded to Uma Bose, 15, from Paris, but she regularly comes to Creuse on vacation. His letter features a young girl his age, in 2147, after numerous wars around the world. “She found the statue of the orphan in some rubble because everything is destroyed. She describes the irony of finding a statue that promotes peace absolutely ruined and destroyed by humans because of the war. I find it interesting that show what could happen if we continue to wage war rather than peace. I don’t think we have made much progress as humans in being much more pacifist than before because there are always plenty of. conflicts and I don’t have the impression that people are making an effort”she says.
This letter greatly touched Corine Valade, novelist, member of the La Courtine 1917 association and member of the jury. “It devastated me, it hurt me. The wars continue and we believe that by explaining things we will calm things down, that it will no longer happen, that we need this duty of memory so that it does not happen again. It’s not true, and the children are aware of it. And that’s what scares me, we no longer give them hope. It’s the worst we could do to our children. We have to explain to them that there is hope and that they can build things even if it is very complicated with what is happening around them.” She was pleasantly surprised by the letters from the youngest, which referred to current conflicts in the world: “I found it very poignant. We already feel that they are aware, even though some are very young, of what a war can produce, of this devastation, and how, as actors of their life they will be able to act to rebuild and avoid this devastation.”
