Euro tribute over Verdun WWI battle
Print Edition
IN solemn ceremonies yesterday in the forests of eastern France, French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel marked 100 years since the Battle of Verdun, determined to show that, despite the bloodbath of World War I, their countries’ improbable friendship is now a source of hope for today’s fractured Europe.
The 10-month battle at Verdun — the longest in World War I — killed 163,000 French and 143,000 German soldiers and wounded hundreds of thousands of others.
Between February and December 1916, an estimated 60 million shells were fired in the battle. One out of four didn’t explode. The front line villages destroyed in the war were never rebuilt. The battlefield zone still holds millions of unexploded shells, making the area so dangerous that housing and farming are still forbidden.
With no survivors left to remember, yesterday’s commemorations were focused on educating youth about the horrors and consequences of the war. Some 4,000 French and German children were taking part in the day’s events, which conclude at a mass grave where, in 1984, then-French President Francois Mitterrand took then-German Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s hand in a breakthrough moment of friendship and trust by longtime enemy nations.
“Verdun is the more than the name of your town — Verdun is also one of the most terrible battles humanity has experienced,” Merkel said in a speech at city hall, calling Hollande’s invitation to join the centenary “a great honor”.
Hollande praised the city of Verdun as “the capital of peace”.
Merkel said the ceremonies show “how good relations between Germany and France are today” and the achievements of European unity.
“In a world with global challenges, it is important to keep developing this Europe,” she said in a weekly address Saturday, expressing hope that Britain would not vote to leave the European Union in a June 23 referendum.
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