Programme of events in Pas de Calais

«La guerre déclarée, j’ai pris mon courage à deux mains et je l’ai étranglée.»
“When war was declared, I took my courage in both hands and strangled it.”
Jacques PREVERT
 
Our region was the stage for a world conflict: English, Belgians, Canadians, New Zealanders, Poles, Czechs, Portuguese, Native Americans, Senegalese, Indians, Chinese and Germans were just some of the nations that fought on our territory. Thousands of letters from young soldiers left the Pas-de-Calais each day for every country in the world. Numerous cemeteries commemorate the bloody battles which took place here. France’s largest national cemetery, is at Notre-Dame-de-Lorette in the Commune of Ablain-Saint-Nazaire, and the largest British military cemetery in the world is at Etaples-sur-Mer.

On a more positive note, once the conflict was over, the Pas-de-Calais, with great resolution and with the help of France, managed to recover: more than a hundred towns and villages were rebuilt in the post-war period.

Today, the Council for the Pas-de-Calais is particularly concerned to apply the principles of sustainable development to the memorial sites, so that they can welcome and educate a wide audience in the right environment. This is the thinking behind our participation in the European Regional Programme « In Memory of the Great War » with the Belgian Province of West Flanders and the French Departements of the Nord, the Aisne and the Somme; and its promotion of the « Remembrance trails » which were initiated by the Regional Council of Nord-Pas de Calais.

I feel that this anniversary should be an occasion not simply to reflect on the facts. We must also, and more importantly, acknowledge the barbarity of war, encouraging those who are young today to make seeking and maintaining peace their primary concern.

I hope that all those living in the Pas-de-Calais, as well as the visitors who will join them, will find the many events marking this 90th anniversary both moving and memorable.

Dominique DUPILET
President of the Pas-de-Calais Departmental Council
Honorary Member of the French Parliament


The “90th Anniversary of the end of the Great War” brochure presents events which will occur in Pas-de-Calais during the following weeks but is also a very useful guide to Wartime Memory sites in the department.