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World War II

V-E Day, 70 years later, and memories abound in France

Bill Hinchberger
Special for USA TODAY
Parisians march through the Arc de Triomphe, jubilantly waving flags of the Allied Nations, as they celebrate the end of World War II on May 8, 1945. German military leaders signed an unconditional surrender in Reims, France, on May 7.

PARIS — When French President François Hollande lays a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier at the base of the Arc de Triomphe on Friday, commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Allied victory in World War II, 90-year-old veteran Rene Roché will be there.

Roché was a 20-year-old sergeant stationed in the southern German town of Constance when the war ended. Asked about his memories of V-E Day, Roche kept it simple: "The war was over. I was just happy to be able to get out of there."

Veterans and civilians will reminisce about V-E Day, a holiday here in France, with events around the country.

In Reims, a city of 180,000 about 80 miles east of Paris, U.S. Ambassador to France Jane Hartley is scheduled to make an appearance. This is where German Gen. Gustav Jodl signed the unconditional surrender on May 7, 1945 — the eve of the victory announcement — in a red-brick schoolhouse that U.S. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower called his headquarters.

And in Grenoble, in the Alps near the Swiss border, a 10-kilometer race will take runners past historical sites related to the French resistance.

With this year's special commemoration of the end of World War II, and last year's 100th anniversary of the start of World War I, Hollande has been making the rounds of battle memorials. About 10 days ago, he visited Natzweiler-Struthof in Alsace, the only Nazi concentration camp on French soil.

"The most important thing about the commemorations is their magnitude," said Henry Rousso, research director of France's Institute of Contemporary History and a leading World War II scholar. "Practically every month, if not every week, there has been an important commemoration involving the president himself. From my point of view, this is remarkable."

Géraldine Lepère, in a video on her popular website CommeUneFrancaise.com, told her mostly young, foreign audience to avoid any war-related faux pas if they are in France this weekend.

"If you have French people living around you, be very careful," she warned. The war "is a very sensitive topic, and some people don't wish to talk about it."

Lepère later expanded on that in an interview. "People in my family don't want to talk about it," she explained. She compared it to American veterans of the Vietnam or Iraq wars. "I have American colleagues who had an uncle in Vietnam or a brother in Iraq," said the Grenoble-based entrepreneur. "And they don't want to talk about it."

Yet some who were there are quite happy to share their memories of V-E Day 1945.

Robert Lion, then 22, found himself with a communications unit on the northern shore of Lake Constance, in a town called Uberlingen, on May 5.

"The war seemed almost over, and we could take it easy after the hectic days of moving behind the lines from Alsace across the Rhine through the mountains and forests of 'Schwarzwald,' " he recalled, referring to the Black Forest region in southwestern Germany.

On that day, he got orders to report to French Air Force headquarters on May 9 to begin training as a translator. Lion, who was born in Metz, on the French-German border, was fluent in German.

But trains were not running in Germany. So he stuffed into his backpack a dagger of the Hitler Jugend, or Hitler Youth ("I used it for many years as a letter opener"), and hitched a ride to Paris. He made it there in time to join the huge crowds in their May 8 revelries.

"But our festive mood got spoiled," he said. "We had parked our jeep in front of the 1st French Army EM Club for dinner. When we came out, there was no more jeep! My friend had forgotten to remove the distributor cap from the engine — a routine anti-theft procedure."

His buddy had to slink back to report the heist to his superiors, but that didn't stop Lion from continuing to party until he had to report to his translation course.

The French air force precision flying team streams blue, white and red smoke (the colors of the French flag), over the Arc de Triomphe to conclude the parade during the commemorations of the 50th anniversary of the German surrender during WWII, in Paris on May 8, 1995.

Marie-Jeanne Delannoy was then 20, studying for her teacher's certificate in the small town of Macon, 250 miles southwest of Paris, when news of the victory reached the students at 8 a.m.

The young women declared "school's out." They rushed for the exit and a rendezvous to dance the day away with the local college boys — only to find that the director had locked them inside the building. At noon, when the cafeteria served spinach, they went on a hunger strike.

The director finally gave in. Afternoon classes were canceled, and they were allowed out for a walk — topped by a round of lemonade for everyone. "The victory celebration," she recalled. "The next day, we got back to work."

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