12 August, 2013

Angers liberation anniversary : forgotten stars and stripped history

The presence of America in the mind of people living in Western France looks to be variable. On August 11th, some local flag-bearers present on the 69th anniversary of Angers liberation found regrettable that "too few persons stopped to attend the ceremony" on Leclerc square. But, in the same time, ads were published on another local media website about a West Country Festival taking place a few days later in a neighbouring city of Loire-Atlantique where "40 000 persons" were waited.

The indifference of Angers people for the Liberation anniversary may be explained by a lack of knowledges about that historical event but also by the feeling Angers inhabitants were not actors of those days, what is illustrated by the story detailed by the Maine et Loire archives website. If a few Angevins did really take part of the Liberation of their city, their names have been forgotten by the public and even by official authorities. One of them, Pierre-Yves Labbé, died a few weeks ago and no officials were present for his burials.

If only one American banner was present on Leclerc square on August 11th, many will be displayed during the next West Country Festival as that is illustrated by pictures galleries of previous editions. That would to mean that American culture is more present in French minds than French history in which French people didn't always had (like in 1944) a great part.

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