The pomp and ceremony somehow failed to make up for the absence of German chancellor Angela Merkel, writes Lara Marlowein Verdun
THE WORDS of the first World War surgeon and future Prix Goncourt laureate Georges Duhamel sounded across the battlefield at Verdun yesterday. Duhamel's letter to his wife, written on November 11th, 1918, described it as "a day of solemn gaiety".
"Solemn gaiety" was an apt description for yesterday's celebration of the 90th anniversary of the armistice. The autumn colours of the surrounding forest seemed to blaze away in the cold. Dignitaries wore red poppies and blue cornflowers.
On the eve of his 60th birthday, Prince Charles, accompanied by Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, sported a chestful of medals. France's first lady, Carla Bruni Sarkozy, flashed her supermodel smile, then grew tearful as President Nicolas Sarkozy thanked 17 nations, including Ireland, for fighting with France in the Great War.
Fields of white crosses stretched into the distance. These hundreds of thousands of war dead were fortunate to the extent that their bodies were found more or less intact.
First World War soldiers feared being blown to smithereens with no body to be buried. In the midst of the crosses stands the ossuary of Douaumont, where the bones of some 130,000 French and German soldiers, none of whom could be identified, are stored in alcoves corresponding to where they were found on the battlefield.
A letter from René Pigeard to his father, written from Verdun in August 1916, described life in the trenches. "Shreds of flesh fly through the air," said the text, read by a young Frenchman yesterday. "Blood splatters. You may think I am exaggerating, but this falls short of the truth. I wonder how it is possible that we let such things happen . . ."
What a contrast with Duhamel's letter describing the war's end: "The bells rang in all the villages. We gave champagne to the wounded. There are still some who will not make it. It breaks my heart to look at them.
"The Italians, who are numerous here, are the most exuberant. They walk around in groups, singing songs from their country . . ."
For the first time yesterday France celebrated Armistice Day without veterans, because the last poilu (French soldier in the first World War) died last winter.
In his speech, Mr Sarkozy returned repeatedly to the duty of memory: "Behind every destroyed house, every annihilated village, there is a deep wound that never closed.
"In the heart and soul of every widow and orphan, there was suffering that never ended. These wounds, this suffering, must not be forgotten."
Mr Sarkozy sought to resolve the decade-long dispute over the rehabilitation of some 600 French soldiers who were "shot as an example" when they refused to obey orders.
They were, he said, "men of whom too much was demanded ... sometimes sent to be massacred by their officers' errors . . . This total war excluded all indulgence, all weakness.
But 90 years after the end of the war, I want to say in the name of the nation that many of those who were executed were not cowards, but had simply been driven to the extreme limit of their strength . . ."
The suffering of the poilus is "the key to our salvation", Mr Sarkozy said. Mr and Ms Sarkozy laid a huge spray of red roses at the German cemetery at nearby Ville-devant-Chaumont. Mr Sarkozy alluded to the late president François Mitterrand and former chancellor Helmut Kohl holding hands at Verdun in 1984, but there was no repeat of that historic gesture.
European flags, Beethoven's Ode to Joy and the presence of the presidents of the European Commission and Parliament somehow failed to make up for the absence of German chancellor Angela Merkel.
Today, the French historian André Kaspi is to deliver a report on historic commemorations to the minister for veterans' affairs. Mr Kaspi advocates doing away with nine of the 12 commemorative holidays currently celebrated in France.
He wants to retain only November 11th, May 8th (victory over Nazi Germany) and July 14th (Bastille Day).
Already, there's an outcry from Frenchmen who fear that slavery, the Algerian harkis who fought for the French, the "Just" who protected French Jews in the second World War, veterans of the war in Indochina and others could be forgotten.