We watched the D Day ceremonies on TV today, commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Normandy invasion. It was a beautiful and moving ceremony, with an excellent speech by French president Hollande. He expressed the gratitude that the French people feel, and that free people everywhere feel, for the enormous sacrifices made to defeat the Nazis.
This may well have been the last
time that veterans of D Day were able to join the ceremonies. The youngest of them are in their late 80’s and
will be close to 100 the next time such a memorial is held. Even Queen Elizabeth, a spry 88 herself, has
said that this is her last state visit abroad.
After Hollande’s speech, there
was an hour-long program describing the war and the Normandy invasion. It combined real war footage shown on giant
screens while people moved around on a big stage, reenacting different events.
At first it seemed a little like modern dance and was too weird for me, but it
turned out to be really great.
The best part was the portrayal
of the invasion itself - a large group
moved across the stage, in slow motion, as if they were soldiers slowly
capturing the beach. Many of them fell
to the ground as they crossed the stage, as if killed by enemy fire. You could see viscerally at the end how many
had sacrificed their lives in battle. Very
moving.
Toward the end of the program
they introduced two former soldiers who have been good friends for decades. The nice touch was that one is French and the
other German and they opposed each other during D Day.
As I watched people talking
before and after the ceremony, I was struck yet again by the multilingual
nature of Europe. People from different
countries chatted with each other and it wasn’t necessarily English that formed
the common language.
At one point the cameras showed
German chancellor Angela Merkel talking to Russian president Vladimir
Putin. The commentators tried to guess
what they were speaking because each of them is fluent in the other’s language. And the commentators noted that Queen
Elizabeth didn’t need to wear translation headphones during Hollande’s speech
because “she is fluent in the language of Molière.” Even president Hollande was able to chat with president Obama
because Hollande speaks good English, having spent a year in the US as a student.
After the end of the
commemoration, the cameras moved on to other events. There were memorials at a number of different
places in Normandy, honoring British soldiers here, Americans there, Canadian
or Polish somewhere else. There were so
many that they had to show them on split screens, two or three at a time.
It was nice to see that such noble sacrifice
is still honored and remembered.
KVS
Nazis crushing Europe
Many lost their lives at Normandy
Former enemies but friends today
Queen Elizabeth then and now
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