Strasbourg honors the Memory of those who fought to Liberate Europe's Heart from oppression

- "Be thrilled, with all our Heart, by the Memory of Strasbourg's Liberation" from NAZIsm, at the city which stands as symbol of Franco-German Reconciliation spearheading EU integration, Human Rights and Parliamentary Democracy, Citizens' defense (EU Ombudsman), Freedom and security of Movement (Shengen), etc., is a feeling both for France and all Europe, particularly now, that New EU Institutions, Europe's re-Unification, and Peace throughout the entire continent, after 2 centuries of tension, division, clashes, Wars and destructions, costed Europe its role in the World, ended, opening new possibilities to start developing fast Europe's unique potential.     

The imminent entry into Force of Lisbon Treaty, bringing, for the 1st time, the Charter of fundamental Rights, faster European decision-making, and further possibilities for advanced initiatives via "reinforced cooperations", while, 65 years after 1945's struggle against Oppression, precious eyewitnesses' Memory risks to be lost for ever unless they succeed to transmit it urgently to younger People, make the matter  urgent, as 2009 anniversary's events clearly indicated this week-end here.    

Speaking on behalf of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Defense State Secretary Hubert Falco was probably more right than he thought, when he concluded his remarks by saying that : - "Be French is get thrilled, with all his Heart, by the Memory of Strasbourg's Liberation". The problem is that the significance of Strasbourg's Historic Liberation from Nazism, precisely here where its total Antithesis : the claim to respect Human Rights, Democracy and Rule of Law, has its institutional headquarters, with the European Court of Human Rights, CoE, EU Parliament's Plenary Sessions, EU's Ombudsman ("Citizens' defender"), etc, should make many conscious European Citizens "thrilled" by such a "Memory"...

    Should, then, all those who really feel as European Citizens say in Strasbourg : - "Here, we are all French", as President Sarkozy recently said, applauded by German People at Brandenbourg's Gate, on the 9 November 2009 Summit for "Freedom's feast" at the 20th Anniversary of Berlin's Division Wall's fall (See relevant "EuroFora"'s NewsReporting from the events), that : - "Wir sind Berlin. Wir sind Berliner" ("We are Berlin. We are Berliners"), evoking the famous former US President John Kennedy's Historic sentence during the "Cold War" ?

    After all, the best Historic moments of France's, Germany's and other important EU Countries' History, are all part of an overall European Identity. And, (as Falco's word reminds), Identity, both  National and European, stands for a Human Feeling vis a vis exceptionally important Historic Facts which shape a Society accros decades and centuries,  Thanks to a "Multi-Level identity", one can feel both French and European, both German and European, as fex. Strasbourg's neighbour, Stuttgart's Mayor, and Germany's representative to EU's Wisemen's Committee due to reflect on "Europe's Future", Wolfgang Schuster, recently said to "EuroFora" at the CoE in Strasbourg.

    After Civic and Inter-Religious popular events, with Minister's, Mayor's and Jewish, Christian and Muslim representantives' salute, at downtown Kleber's Square, an Ecumenic gathering, followed by a Mass at Strasbourg's Cathedral, (an Historic Symbol for those who struggled in 1945 to liberate the City from NAZIsm), gave more insights :

    - Strasbourg's Liberation in 1945 was more important for many, than a simple question of territorial integrity of states as in 1918, becaus it was a common struggle against an Oppressive regime, part of Totalitarian regimes, who had vowed to destroy all Democraties, stressed Christian Catholic ArchiBishop Mgr. Gralet.

    - As Christ himself said, according to the Gospel, when he had been slandered, humiliated, ill-treated and arrested, "my kingdom is not of this world", since "this world" was, before Strasbourg's liberation, at the mercy of oppresive, totalitiarian regimes, which wanted to subdue also all other peoples and countries.  But,  -"there is no Legitimacy for any Regimes based on Oppression and Violence", he concluded.

    - However, "Material Liberation, is not enough : It must be completed also by a Spiritual Liberation", Gralet added, obviously meaning that it's not only Land, Hands and Feet, but also Values, Ideas and feelings which should become really free, in a work which still remains to be completed in modern Europe, by those who work together now for reconciliation, cooperation and for the developpement of European integration's "Values'" message to the World.

    - It's precisely there where the darkest periods of fierce struggles took place that appeared a light on Europe's future, in a similar way as in the religious text of "Apocalypse" we have also God's "Revelation", while "Martyr" means also "Witness", according to the Greek origin of these words, observed earlier pastor Geoffroy Goetz, President of Alsace-Lorraine's Christian Protestants' Synodic Council.

    (NDLR : Obliged to work overnight for urgent matters related to a particularly important EU Parliament's Plenary Session starting on Monday, "EuroFora"s editor was totally deprived of sleep, and, standing without a chair for more than 1 hour at the church after running since 7 o'clock at this early Sunday morning, exhausted, we "lost" the piece of paper where we had noted the exact wording of what was said by Goetz and Gralet inside Strasbourg's cathedral, or it was "taken" by someone : Therefore, exceptionally, "EuroFora"s readers should excuse the fact that these specific observations are made on the sole basis of our Memory.  But, precisely, isn't all real History registered according to eyewitnesses' Memory ?... )
    
    It's, precisely, a Symbolic Paradox and a huge dialectic change, to have f.ex. the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, near which was located in the Past probably the worst NAZI Concentration Camp, that of Struthof, where political and other prisoners from all over Europe, (and mainly "MISSING" persons whose Enforced Disappearance, abandoning their Families into a persisting Dark Agony, was organized by the infamous "Dark and Fog Decree"), were "collected" and largely submitted to atrocious "experiments" by some decadent NAZI "doctors", as Historians have documented. (See also previous "EuroFora"s publication describing Struthof, for more concrete details).

     - '"What united them all together, was Human Brotherhood", among those who risk their lives in the battle, "and the oath to liberate Strasbourg", while many people had been tortured, executed or jailed. "The words "Duty", "Honor", and respect of commitments, acquired the biggest meaning in History on that day, 22 of November 1945, when Strasbourg was liberated". Since then, "be French, is give all his heart to the Memory of Strasbourg's liberation", stressed French State Secretary of Defense, Hubert Falco.

    - The oath to liberate Strasbourg was taken ..at an African Desert, at Koufra, when the anti-NAZI French a.o. forces, "after the 1940 desaster, succeeded for the 1st time to win their 1st victory at a battle given at their own initiative", it reminded today Me Jedan-Francois Martin, National President of the 2nd armoured division ("DDB"), in front of Napoleon's general, Kleber's statue.

    - "Faithful to the promise of Strasbourg's historic Mayor Charles Frey, the City welcomes each 5 Years those who struggled to liberate it from oppression in the past, said new Strasbourg's Mayor, socialist Senator Roland Ries. But it's also here, in Strasbourg's area of Medieval and Renaissance's Humanism, that Visionaries as Robert Shuman and Winston Churchil created at first the Council of Europe, symbol of Franco-German reconciliation, to live together with "the Spirit of Resistance and Liberation", he concluded.

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   - There is a "primordial need" for a "New, Popular and Democratic Europe", "well alive in Strasbourg", "according to lessons of the Past", but also in order "to meet, Today, an Urgency to make Europe's voice better heard in big Global decisions", "organize better its Institutions, .. reinforce Europe for balanced Global politics and for Peace in the World", had stressed here former Prime Minister Raffarin  in the previous Anniversary, back in 2004. - "Our Memory meets our Future" in Strasbourg, 60 Years since the city was Liberated from Nazism after fierce battles in 1944 : To preserve from errors condemned by History and "meet the Social need for a meaning, in quest of Humanity", "we must make appeal to a Universal concept, a Value beyond material world" : "This Value is Freedom : The freedom for which struggled and died many men and women to whom we pay tribute". And "this Freedom is, I believe, today as well as yesterday, European". "Write Europe's Future with Law instead of Arms, in ballot boxes instead of battlefields, offer to new generations Peace and Freedom : That's being really Faithful to the Ideals which inspired those who resisted and struggled" many years ago, he had concluded in an unforgettable Strasbourg speech.

 - "Freedom came a foggy November day, by heroic men who fought with self-sacrifice and saw many comrades killed, during a long way through oceans, from Africa until Strasbourg, Leclerc's men kept an Oath taken at Koufra (Libyan Desert) to raise the Flag with freedom's colours  at Strasbourg Cathedral's spire, and wrote one of the best pages of Freedom's adventures. They came from various regions, Countries and Beliefs. ..But one idea united them, one horizon guided them : Bring Freedom in Strasbourg. ..We owe them to live Free and build a Europe of Peace", added then, former Strasbourg's Mayor, christiandemocrat Senator Fabienne Keller.

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 Significantly, the 2009 event attracted personal interest from a large range of Diplomats dealing with European issues, going as far as from the Southern EU border with Malta's Ambassador to the CoE, Joseph Licari, up to Europe's Northest borders, with Russia's deputy Permanent Representative to the CoE, M. Kapyrin, etc. who both marked their presence also by saluting "EuroFora". Similar with French MEP Catherine Trautmann, of the Socialist Group, and the President of EU Parliament's largest Group of MEPs, ChristianDemocrats/EPP, Joseph Daul.

    And a new Monument for Resistance, marking the names of barbary's victims from the NAZI period, was inaugurated near Strasbourg's European quarter, at Schiltigheim, in the presence of famous French resistant Raymond Aubrac, who escaped to NAZI jails thanks also to his pregnant Wife's struggle, with the cooperation of an Artist from nearby German city of Karlsruhe..
                 

 

    Meanwhile, in concrete terms for Citizens' everyday life, Strasbourg and Kehl's Mayors, Ries and Petry, meet on Monday a hundred of Young Students of bi-lingual, Franco-German Schools, located at both sides of the border, at Rhine Rivers' pedestrial Bridge at the two shores' Garden.

    However, "back in 2004, we had some 500 living persons among those who fought for Strasbourg's Liberation, and now only 258". That's why we need them to describe the History they lived, in their own words, to help forge Society's Collective Memory", stressed Ries on Sunday..
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Lebrun's "wind"
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    Indeed, now that the last survivants of 2nd World War and of the Liberation risk to progressively disappear by age, it becomes more urgent than ever to collect, restore and transmit their unique testimonies.

    This risk was illustrated in 2009 by the recent  Death of famous Maurice Lebrun, at the age of 88, the former young soldier who rushed to lift anew France's flag up to the spire of Europe's tallest Cathedral, while battles were still going on to complete Strasbourg's liberation back in 1945.

    It's thanks to an EuroCorps' former Press Officer, Commandant Roger, a common friend, that "EuroFora" had a chance to meet and speak with the famous Maurice Lebrun, at his last public appearance to the previous Strasbourg liberation's 60th Anniversary ceremonial, back in 2004 :

    It was at the famous "Tank Zimmer", there where, according to the legend, a young exilee volunteer soldier from Strasbourg had sacrificed his Life by running too fast in front of NAZI fire to complete the Liberation of his childhood's hometown up to the Rhine River, (his tank remaining still as a Memorial Statue in front of a School and a Church), that Roger introduced us to Lebrun, well alive and eager to talk. Despite his honorable age, Lebrun looked athletic to "EuroFora", making him joke about the advantages of living near Nature "somewhere at the Vosges"' mountains area..

    Here is what we had published then from Lebrun's original sayings, in the last Strasbourg ceremony he appeared alive :  

"- Flag Symbol : From Memory to Future : Famous Maurice LeBrun, who succeeded to lift the tricolor Flag Hundreds of meters up to the top of the spire of the highest Cathedral in Europe, despite a cold November while battles were still going-on around Strasbourg in 1944, to realize an Oath taken in Desert by Leclerc's men, passed over the symbol to the new generation, in 2004. - "I took the initiative to ask our officers to let us lift the flag, but we couldn't find a flag with the right dimension, so we just made one from scratch !", said LeBrun to "SeNas". "It was the 1st time I went up to the top" of Strasbourg Cathedral's spire, and we had to pass through various levels : "First we arrived at the terasse, where we opened a door, and afterwards walked upstairs, until I came out, facing a strong Wind", added LeBrun."