Three years later, on May 8, 2008, I was watching the news on French TV, as I was in an apartment in the Alps which did not have cable and CNN, etc. I closely monitored the reports for mention of the exact reference made to the commemoration. Almost all referred to it as the end of the war, and there was even one reference on France 2, the national government channel, that May 8, 1945 marked the end of World War II. Apparently, it is not generally accepted (or known) in France that World War II actually ended when Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945.
After some thought, it occurred to me that this oversight may not be entirely innocent. French denial of historical truth of this world conflict may have something to do with a complete lack of aid to the Allied cause following victory in Europe. In other words, the country which owed its liberation to the United States did absolutely nothing to help this country in the continuing conflict. An absolute lack of awareness of this fact frees the French of any responsibility in this matter.
mardi 20 mai 2008
It all started on May 8, 2005
Have you ever been around a bunch of people who are absolutely convinced that something is true and you are the only one who knows it's false? Are you continually on the wrong end of group dynamics? If so, then you are experiencing cultural dissonance. In this blog, I will mostly be talking about the extreme case in which you suddenly realize that an entire country believes a thing which is patently false.
What really got me thinking happened on May 8, 2005. On that date, the French were celebrating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the city of La Rochelle from the Germans. What no one else but me seemed to notice is that May 8, 1945 was also V.E. day, that is, the day that Germany formally surrendered to the Allied forces and World War II was over in Europe (more about that later!). In other words, La Rochelle was never "liberated," rather, it was the Germans forces there who were told to give up by their high command!
In fact, in May 1945, there were four German enclaves still resisting the French forces: La Rochelle, Dunkerke, Lorient, and St. Nazaire. The fact that German forces were still successfully defending themselves on French soil almost a year after the Allied invasion of France on D-Day, June 6, 1944, is a testament to the ineffectiveness of French fighting forces. Indeed, with Allied help, Paris was liberated on August 25, 1944, just 6 weeks after D-Day, but left to their own devices, the French were unable to completely clear their territory of Germans, even after a year. It is instructive to read General de Gaulle's speech upon the liberation of Paris on August 25, 1944:
Paris! Outraged Paris! Broken Paris! Martyred Paris! But liberated Paris! Liberated by itself, liberated by its people with the help of the French armies, with the support and the help of the whole France, of the fighting France, of the only France, of the real France, of the eternal France!
Not one mention of Allied help, all was done by the French. You can check that the same holds true for the rest of his speech. So according to de Gaulle, the French managed to march from Normandy to Paris defeating all the implanted German forces in a mere 6 weeks, when in fact, the French left to their own devices were unable to rid themselves of Germans in a year, even after most of them had retreated months before. Welcome to the French world of denial!
What really got me thinking happened on May 8, 2005. On that date, the French were celebrating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the city of La Rochelle from the Germans. What no one else but me seemed to notice is that May 8, 1945 was also V.E. day, that is, the day that Germany formally surrendered to the Allied forces and World War II was over in Europe (more about that later!). In other words, La Rochelle was never "liberated," rather, it was the Germans forces there who were told to give up by their high command!
In fact, in May 1945, there were four German enclaves still resisting the French forces: La Rochelle, Dunkerke, Lorient, and St. Nazaire. The fact that German forces were still successfully defending themselves on French soil almost a year after the Allied invasion of France on D-Day, June 6, 1944, is a testament to the ineffectiveness of French fighting forces. Indeed, with Allied help, Paris was liberated on August 25, 1944, just 6 weeks after D-Day, but left to their own devices, the French were unable to completely clear their territory of Germans, even after a year. It is instructive to read General de Gaulle's speech upon the liberation of Paris on August 25, 1944:
Paris! Outraged Paris! Broken Paris! Martyred Paris! But liberated Paris! Liberated by itself, liberated by its people with the help of the French armies, with the support and the help of the whole France, of the fighting France, of the only France, of the real France, of the eternal France!
Not one mention of Allied help, all was done by the French. You can check that the same holds true for the rest of his speech. So according to de Gaulle, the French managed to march from Normandy to Paris defeating all the implanted German forces in a mere 6 weeks, when in fact, the French left to their own devices were unable to rid themselves of Germans in a year, even after most of them had retreated months before. Welcome to the French world of denial!
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