Thread by @TheSpaceshipper

[Thread] "We will have to rebuild everything and we, the young people, will have to try to do everything so that such atrocities never happen again."

Allow me for #VictoryDay to deviate from my subject to share with you excerpts from the memoirs of my late grandmother.

In fact, this is not very far from my usual subject, which was sometimes (partly) inspired by WW2 and the fight against fascism. Star Wars is a good example. By the way, #StarWarsVisions The Spy Dancer by @Studiocachette , released a few days ago, is inspired by real events.

These memoirs were written in the 2nd half of the 20th century, transcribed by my brother after my grandmother's death, and then translated by myself.

Here are four extracts from the life of my beloved grandmother, Jacqueline, in France during WW2. In 1944, she was 12 years old.

I'll skip the many pages about bombings, hunger, collaborators, children manipulated by propaganda, and other horrible situations.

To arrive in June 1944, just after the Normandy landings.

"Escalation in horror.
On June 9, in Oradour-sur-Glane in the Limousin, a small quiet village...
On the BBC, they talked about it a few days later. An SS officer having been kidnapped by the resistance fighters, the Germans of the 'Das Reich' division decided in reprisal to..."

"...to shoot all the men of the village. Then, gathering the 250 women and 200 children in the church, they threw dynamite and set fire to it. The whole village was transformed into an inferno, with about 540 dead, only 52 bodies were identified."

"On the monument raised in memory of the victims, the first of the long list are Papou [my grandfather]'s cousins, whom their father had wanted to protect by putting them in a small village lost in the countryside. But fate caught up with them..."

Fate, and fascism.

For a long time, I believed that WW2 was "just" this horrible thing that my grandparents lived through. I did not know that people in my family had been massacred.

Jacqueline: "My darlings, you, who have the chance to live in peace, if you pass through these regions or through these martyred villages, think of all those dead resistance fighters or civilians who gave their lives so that you could be free."

I can't forget.

Let's move on to August 2014. Don't worry, I've only kept some nice things for the rest of the thread.

Well, mostly 😬

Jacqueline: "We have learned that the liberation armies are not far away, probably in the suburbs of Kremlin-Bicetre. Everybody is excited, we can feel it around us. No more electricity. We are beginning to know how to live in the dark. End of August, the days are long..."

"According to the news, the Germans were still resisting the French advance. In Paris, there is fighting in every corner, the resistance fighters attack the tanks with molotov cocktails."

"Around 10:30 pm, all the bells of Paris and suburbs started to ring. The Savoyarde of Sacré-Coeur answering the Bourbon of Notre-Dame. One would have said that each church had in heart to spread this extraordinary news: Paris is liberated".

"In the night, the sounds echoed and soon the whole city will be awake. People go down in the street, sometimes without taking the time to get dressed and are still in pyjamas or nightgown... From my window, I witnessed this unusual spectacle: passers-by falling into..."

"...into each other's arms; holding hands, they made a great farandole by singing and dancing, then started a vibrant "Marseillaise" replayed by hundreds of voices. I would have liked to mingle with this crowd that I could see from my perch, but I was still too young and..."

"...and I had to be content with receiving the shock of this popular jubilation, of this flow of joy that rose from the street. It was extraordinary, an indescribable atmosphere: it was freedom regained!"

"Never during my life, I will find again this particular sensation; it is true that we left five terrible years of prison..."

The feeling must indeed have been incredible. Especially after reading her account of these years under the yoke of a dictatorship.

Jacqueline: "It was with difficulty that I managed to fall asleep, I was so excited for this wonderful night. I was well aware that I had the chance to attend an extraordinary event, at a moment impossible to forget: the liberation of Paris."

"No more seeing the Nazi flag flying everywhere, no more signposts in German, no more verdigris on uniforms, and above all:

no more this perpetual feeling of fear."

"I wonder if words are enough to understand the joy of a whole country that had been oppressed for many years."

Paris is liberated, but the war is not over.
Let's go to May 8, 1945.

"This time, it's over! Capitulation of the Wermacht in Reims on May 7 and in Berlin on May 8."

"It's wonderful: we won! This time, it is really finished: goodbye atrocities, alerts, deaths... Life begins!!!"

I can't imagine what a 13-year-old girl must have felt.

Jacqueline: "In the midst of these days of joy, I will find myself facing horror, cruelty pushed to the highest level. I had witnessed the return of our prisoners of war, a little pale, emaciated but able to walk."

"They had been gathered in the Gaumont-Palace cinema, Place Clichy ; there was joy in their eyes!"

Sorry, I have reached the thread limit, I have to take the time to publish the second part.

Even if the war is over, people will soon discover new Nazi atrocities.

"But little by little, I saw undead people in striped pajamas, emaciated, with fixed eyes, unable to smile. Most of them were carried on stretchers, the more able-bodied ones supported by paramedics. It was frightening, excruciating, unbearable."

"I could never have imagined that people made of flesh and blood could be responsible for such an ignominy, that they were able to martyr other men to such an extent..."

"I did not know yet that they had burned in crematoria old people, sick people, women and children after having gassed them under the pretext that they were Jews, gypsies or resistance fighters... Horror, Horror."

"If God really exists, I hope that these executioners will be punished. The most terrible thing is that I only saw the least affected, the most sick or dying having been transported to the Lutetia hotel."

"In August 1945, the Americans dropped two atomic bombs, one in Hiroshima (80,000 killed and 75,000 wounded) and the other in Nagasaki (60,000 dead). The Japanese surrendered on August 15, 1945."

"This time it's over. This war will have cost over 40 million dead, including 12 million deported to Germany.

We will have to rebuild everything and we, the young people, will have to try to do everything so that such atrocities never happen again."

"Above all, don't forget that the war and propaganda has made men who were good fathers, good husbands, perhaps nice in normal times, worse than wild animals. Because animals only kill to survive, not for sadism."

When I read the news, I am afraid that we have started to forget what happened. Never dehumanize those who are different.

Thank you so much to those who came to liberate Europe. I probably wouldn't be here, or I would have other things to worry about than fictional spaceships :)

(apart the one of my young grandmother, all pics were taken on Google)

I have spared you very hard passages of the life of a child during the war. This is typically what is happening daily in Ukraine or Sudan today. My thoughts to all who are currently suffering.

That's sweet, but please stop thanking me lol. Those are my grandmother's words.

I miss her so much, but she would be so happy to know that people are reading this. And even more so if people actually think about what she's warning about.