Commemorations of May 8 submitted to the health emergency

The 75th anniversary of the victory of May 8, 1945 will be done with wreaths of elected officials or prefects but without public.

In Paris, the President of the Republic laid a wreath at 10:45 am in front of the statue of General de Gaulle on the Champs Elysées, before going under the Arc de Triomphe for the traditional solemn ceremony where he rekindled the flame of the Unknown Soldier and laid a wreath in the presence of a single flag bearer.

During this non-public ceremony, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, the Minister and Secretary of State for the Armies Florence Parly and Geneviève Darrieussecq, the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo and military authorities including the chief of staff François Lecointre, were present around Emmanuel Macron as well as his predecessors, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande as well as the presidents of the two assemblies, Gérard Larcher and Richard Ferrand.

During this period of confinement, rallies cannot be held on May 8, with the exception of commemoration ceremonies and wreath laying not open to the public. However, the President invited the French to “unite by thought in a silent tribute to the Nation. For those who wish, it will be possible to display the colors of France on their balcony or window.

In the provinces, commemorations around war memorials will be prohibited to the public, but associations nonetheless call for an individual tribute like the Parisian Liberation Committee which launched an appeal on social networks (relayed throughout France) to that the French citizens go “individually to deposit on May 8, 2020 a flower, a bouquet, a drawing, a poem on the monuments to the dead, at the foot of the plaques of the memory of all the victims of Nazism” of their commune.

The National Office for War Veterans and Victims of War (Onac), which usually collects donations during ceremonies from May 8 by selling the traditional blueberry from France, offers to make it at home with a tutorial, to wear it despite all on this day of commemoration.

If May 8, 1945 is considered the date of end of hostilities with Nazi Germany in Europe, during the Second World War, it is also marked in Asia by August 15, 1945, end of the Pacific War with the capitulation from Japan. Today, May 8 is celebrated by France. In Russia, we commemorate May 9 the “Victory Day” since the accession to power of Vladimir Putin as well as in emerging countries such as China and India or even Venezuela and South Africa.

The month of May 1945 marked the collapse of the Third Reich with April 30, the suicide of Adolphe Hitler in his Chancellery bunker. From May 4 to 6, all of the remaining Nazi forces (in the Netherlands, northern Germany, Denmark, Bavaria, Breslau) surrender to the Allies. Two capitulations will be signed on May 7 in Reims and then on May 8 at 11:01 p.m. (1:01 a.m. in Moscow) in Karlshorst, near Berlin in the presence of the representative of Russia.

May 8 and 9, 1945 are exceptionally public holidays to celebrate the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of the war. The following year, the law fixes 8 May (if it is a Sunday or the following if it is a week) as the date of the commemorations of the victory of 1945. It will really become a public holiday in 1953 in the same way as November 11, regardless of the day of the week it falls. In 1959, he was no longer unemployed. In 1975, President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing removed all official status on the date to mark Franco-German reconciliation while irritating the veterans. In 1981, François Mitterrand restored May 8 to its holiday and non-working day character. However, the shops are not closed. This day is not celebrated in Great Britain, the United States or Germany.

The other commemorations of May 8

May 8 is also a day of remembrance in Algeria. The massacres of Setif (20 dead on each side) Guelma (1 dead) and Kherrata started on May 8, 1945 with a demonstration by Algerian nationalists, demanding the independence of their country and the release of their leader – Messali Hadj – chief of the PPA (Algerian Popular Party), imprisoned by the French authorities who demand that the demonstrators carry neither arms nor Algerian flag. We deplore 102 dead in the countryside and French repression lasts until May 22, causing thousands of deaths.

May 8 is the date of the feast of Joan of Arc which delivered Orleans in 1429. At the beginning of the 20th century, the extreme right, led by Action française, organized its rally on May 8 in front of the statue of Jeanne Arc in Paris. and since 1970, the National Front has participated in these processions, Jean-Marie Le Pen decides to move this annual event to May 1 in 1988.

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VERONIQUE YANG

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