Commemoration of November 11, 2024 – Official messages – Commemorations – State actions

It was 106 years ago, in 1918. At the 11^th time of 11^th day of 11^th months, from the mud of Flanders to the Swiss border, the bugles play the notes of the “ceasefire”. The pride of victory is mixed with the procession of shadows of those “perished in the earth”, accompanied by those who mourn them. It is these sacrifices that we commemorate today, to which have been added since 2012 that of all the “died for France”.

Honoring their memory means listening to what they still tell us today.

They leave us with a duty of gratitude, lucidity and hope.

The duty of gratitudeit is simply to remember the sacrifice of these young men, filled with the promises of life, who agreed to give everything so that France remains. The ordeals they went through are unimaginable.

To get a sense of it, let's give the floor to a witness, General de Castelnau. Their life was “ walk, walk again, walk all the same half-dead with fatigue, soaked to the skin, chilled with cold or exhausted from heat and thirst in the blazing air of a torrid day (…). Climbing the slope of the terrain under the heavy burden of the bag, charging with bayonets to the sound of bullets whistling, machine guns crackling and shells roaring. Fight by day, fight by night, always watch; to die obscurely in the furrow of plowing ».

The duty of lucidityis not to forget that 21 years after the guns had fallen silent, it was necessary to take up arms again in 1939. The conjunction of cowardice and blindness transformed the ” the the the the ” in ” twenty year armistice » to use the words of Marshal Foch. At a time when the tragedy of war has made a comeback in Europe, at a time when certain powers are calling into question all the foundations of order and international law, those of 14 and those of all wars murmur to continue to defend peace.

The duty of hope, it is to never doubt France's resources to overcome the challenges that present themselves to it. The face of war changes, but from generation to generation, the soldiers of France remain driven by the same desire to defend honor and the homeland.

In this year of the 80th anniversary of the Liberation, let us remember the soldiers of the Kieffer commando who set foot on the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944; let us remember the soldiers of the 1^era army of Lattre who landed in Provence; of those of the 2^th armored division of General Leclerc who from the desert, at Kouffra, went up to Strasbourg to liberate it and fulfill their oath; let us remember the heroes of the internal resistance, but also the ordeal of the forced soldiers of Alsace-Moselle, let us remember the courage of the paratroopers of Dien Bien Phu, that of the soldiers who fight in external operations and in particular those of the Lebanon who have been defending peace there since 1978: how can we not see that these fighters look like brothers to the Poilus of 1914?

Throughout our history, the soldiers who died for France, those who fell in the service of the Nation, or in the service of the Republic tell us of French perpetuities. Always, our armies are there to accomplish the mission.

This is why, gathered at the foot of the war memorial, elected officials, veterans of all generations of fire, school children, we are not only the guard of the dead, we are first and foremost the sentinels of the living.

Long live the Republic!

And long live France!