In the gymnasium of a Parisian college resounds the Partisan Song, a hymn of the Resistance, performed by forty teenagers. A happy spectacle for those involved in the transmission of memories, challenged to keep alive the memory of this piece of history as the great witnesses die off. "
Friend, do you hear the deaf cries of the country we are chaining ...
": accompanied on the piano, the young people of third from the François-Villon school complex, in the priority education zone, sing in unison. On their t-shirt, a quote from Simone Veil: "
Our heritage is here, in your hands
".
At the initiative of their teachers, they participate in the National Resistance and Deportation Competition.
Their educational project combines song, poetry and visits to places of memory, to explore this key chapter in contemporary history.
An initiative joined by high school students from the establishment who have chosen to apply this theme to the oral examination of the bac.
Read also: Resistance: the stuff of heroes told on France 2
“
At my age, at 17, Jacqueline Fleury joined the Resistance. In 1944, she was imprisoned by the Nazis, but managed to escape. Today, she is 97 years old and continues to act. His career touches me personally
”, moved Aïcha, presenting her work. "
When we started our research, we realized how many things we didn't know
" about the clandestine struggle against the German occupiers and the deportation, confides the young girl, who intends to study History at the 'university.
"
This period is less and less obvious for the new generation, as it moves away,
" said the president of the National Resistance Foundation, Gilles Pierre Levy.
Its foundation also trains teachers in the teaching of this period, "
because they or their parents did not know the war
".
Memory versus conspiracy theories and denial
“
Passing on to young people is a priority of our ministry. Against conspiracy theories, against negationism. Seeing them, we have reason to be optimistic
”, welcomes the Minister for Memory and Veterans Affairs, Geneviève Darrieussecq to the students. And to salute "
the invaluable support of the teachers in this memorial transmission, which conveys the republican values of commitment, of citizenship
". "
The loss of the great witnesses forces us to reinvent ourselves to reach the greatest number, the youth but also their parents
", explains the minister in an interview with AFP.
This June 18, 81st anniversary of the famous call of Charles de Gaulle, will be present alongside Emmanuel Macron, the only companion of the Liberation still alive, Hubert Germain, aged 100.
The last companions, distinguished for their early engagement in Free France, have disappeared one after the other over the past decade.
The health crisis, which occurred in the year of the 80th anniversary of the defeat in 1940 and the beginnings of the Resistance, prompted the ministry to innovate to keep the flame of remembrance alive: webseries launched last summer on 1940, launch of 'an app called "
de Gaulle
" to play while learning ...
Read also: Frankfurt: 25,000 people evacuated after the discovery of a bomb from World War II
The commemoration ceremonies, whose rituals sometimes seem obsolete, should for their part "
be an opportunity to develop an educational, digital action by capitalizing on archives, filmed testimonies, writings, in order to be able to transmit them more widely
", pleads Ms. Darrieussecq. "
When we talk about memory, it should not be fixed, it is on the contrary something alive, which helps to understand who we are
", she argues. At the start of the year, his ministry launched a call for projects aimed at creative people, so that they could propose innovative modes of transmission. College, local authority, historian, military spouse, production company: around twenty files were presented. The winners will be known by early July.
