What’s in a name....
Sue Hicks continues her look into the history of Street names
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treet signs marking the end of war in Europe might well have been for 7 mai 1945 when an act of unconditional German surrender was signed at Reims had not Stalin, furious that a junior Russian general signed the surrender in France, ordered General Zhukov to sign another unconditional surrender document in Berlin on the following day. So it is that 8 mai 1945 is still so widely celebrated with a férié (national holiday) in many European countries. Some of the key leaders during the 1939-1945 war, referred to by Mao Tse-tung as the European Civil War, were no longer alive to witness the surrender and collapse of the Third Reich. President Roosevelt had died of natural causes on the 12th April, the Italian Fascist leader and Axis partner Mussolini had been executed on 28th April and Adolf Hitler had committed suicide in his bunker in Berlin on 30th April. At Reims, the delegates from USA, USSR, Great Britain and France met in a schoolroom which had been transformed into operational HQ for the Allied Expeditionary Force and is now preserved intact within the lycée Roosevelt. The two page document drawn up in English and German, with the English version being named as the authentic text, was signed by General Jodl for the German High Command. General Jodl expressed the hope that the victors would treat them with generosity to which there was apparently no reply. The unconditional surrender was signed at 2.41a.m on 7th May, 1945. In Berlin the following day, at a house in the suburbs, representatives of the Allied powers assembled and General Keitel signed the unconditional surrender drawn up in English, Russian and German with the English and Russian versions being named as the authentic texts. General Zhukov was present to sign for the Supreme Command of the Red Army and the unconditional surrender came into effect at 23.01h Central European time which was 1.01h on the 9th May Moscow time. In many places, the celebrations in France on 8th May were a pale shadow of the wild festivities following the Liberation in August 1944 perhaps because of a hard winter of shortages, months of prosecutions of Vichy collaborators, revenge attacks and the lowering of expectations of what peace could bring. Prisoners of war, men and women who had been forced to go to work in Germany under STO (service travail obligatoire) and deportees had not yet returned to France. “The day the war ended” in 1945 has never rivalled 11th November 1918 in public consciousness. What took place in towns and villages in France has left somewhat muted memories and records but this is not the case with Setif in the French colony of Algeria.
Thousands of Algerians, many of whose fellow countrymen were still fighting overseas for the Allies, joined the 8th May victory parade in Setif, some carrying placards denouncing both fascism and colonialism. According to an account by the British consul John Carvell, a policeman tried to seize a flag which called for the freeing of the imprisoned Algerian nationalist politician Messali Hadj and a native Algerian was shot dead. “Pandemonium ensued. Indiscriminate firing by French and natives took place: unarmed natives seizing chairs and anything on which they could lay their hands and persons were attacked regardless of race, colour or creed.” The number of deaths is still hotly disputed but in the days of repression which followed, up to six thousand people were thought to have died. Thus on the day war in Europe ended, some say the Algerian War of Independence, which is formally dated 1954-1962, began. The celebration of 8th May 1945 has had a colourful history as a political football in France. In 1945, there were two days of férié and in 1953 it was declared a férié de commemoration. Then the date was cancelled as a holiday in 1959 and moved to the nearest Sunday by de Gaulle to encourage economic reconstruction. President Giscard d’Estaing, as part of his reconciliation plan with Germany, cancelled the holiday in 1975 but it was reinstated by Francois Mitterrand in 1981. So if you faire le pont (take leave when a férié is close to a weekend to make the holiday longer) you might actually be free to celebrate all the alternative dates for the end of the Second World War in Europe.
Earl Grey The Podcast Episode 2 available now at www.theheraulttimes.com - More controversial than Piers Morgan on gun control - More outspoken than Ken Livingstone on tax avoidance - More male than Brad Pitt talking Chanel No 5 -
Tango Hérault There are more than a dozen associations in Hérault who promote Argentian tango through regular classes, workshops and performances. If you have a secret, burning desire to put on your dancing shoes visit www.tangherault-montpellier.com to find all the latest info. Look out for The 12th Montpellier TangOsud Tango Festival on the 9th-12th May. 19