In a small room of the establishment, students from the theater class retrace the daily lives of the wounded received in the establishment during the Great War. ” Damn Krauts! They could have knocked out my left instead of my right. No, it's the right that they massacred me ” laments Antoine, a young soldier wounded at the front and transported to Toulon for treatment. The scenes follow one another illustrating the pain, the distance of the wounded, who escaped death.
“The more time passes, the more difficult it is to highlight this period of history, but we still manage to arouse interest among students by doing it in another way. It's important not to forget. We commemorate those who died so that today France is still what it is ” summarizes Louis Fraissaice, professor of history and geography in Toulon.
The establishment also chose to involve the college choir, responsible for making the Marseillaise resonate in the courtyard. Poems from young students of the time, paying tribute to their comrades sent to the front, are also read.
106 years since the Armistice was signed. This period of history is precisely part of the third year program. And some students were very sensitive to it. ” They experienced the cold, the hunger, the rats, they saw their friends die next to them. We are lucky to live today in a country where we are free. And it's thanks to those who died. They fought for France. We must not forget them. It's important ” answer Yannis, Gabriel and their friends.
Quoting André Malraux, Louis-René Baldé, the president of the French remembrance committee recalled that: ” Life is the present given to us by the past “.
Christelle MARQUES
France
