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Merkel helps French mark end of WWI
“This small flame is also ... the flame of hope,” Sarkozy said. The bold departure from traditional Armistice Day commemorations came two days after Sarkozy traveled to Germany to help fete the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
“One must learn to rise above one’s history,” Merkel said in a speech. “What happened cannot be forgotten, but there is a force that can help us ... the force of reconciliation.” Tens of millions of civilians and soldiers were killed during what was labeled the Great War between Germany and allied nations France, Britain and its former colonies, including the United States, Australia and Canada.
The last of 8.4 million French who fought in the war that tore Europe apart died in March 2008, and Sarkozy wanted to use the Armistice commemoration to look to the future with the nation that was vanquished but which, with France, now has a central role in the European Union.
“For us, Nov. 11 is a day of peace in Europe and the fall of the wall is a day of freedom,” said Merkel, who herself escaped from East Germany to the West after the collapse of the wall that defined the Cold War.
With evident emotion, Sarkozy and Merkel listened as the French Army Choir sang the French and German national anthems. Together, they reviewed troops posted around the Arc de Triomph at the top of the Champs-Elysees Avenue. Some 2,000 French and German youths were taking part in day-long ceremonies commemorating the end of World War I. Other nations that served as World War I battlefields, notably Britain and Belgium, also were marking Armistice Day.
Wednesday’s service at Westminster Abbey in London coincided with the ritual two-minute silence that marks the end of the Great War and pays respect to all war dead. In Belgium, which saw some of the fiercest and bloodiest trench warfare on the Western Front during the 1914-1918 war, King Albert II was leading the royal family and government officials in a solemn commemoration in Brussels at the tomb of the unknown soldier.
In Ieper, better known to soldiers by its French name, Ypres, tens of thousands of people lined the narrow streets of the town left in ruins during the 1914-1918 war and now a world symbol of peace. Ceremonies were held around the Menen Gate war memorial where the names of 55,000 missing soldiers are engraved.
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