Website review: Old soldiers refuse to play ball - ...
Teiresias discovered this in Humanitarianism
•15 reviews since Nov 15, 2007
humanitarianism, france, news
•nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm
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Teiresias discovered 10 months ago- The Last Poilu Defiant in Twilight Years "War is completely stupid. You are firing on fathers of children," Lazare Ponticelli, 109, one of France's two living World War One veterans. PARIS - One is so frail he spends most of his day bedridden, attended by home helps and his 81-year-old son. The other is in a wheelchair, but can still coax his ancient body to stand to attention for the Armistice Day silence. They are France's last two soldiers from World War I, and their survival into the opening decade of the 21st century is both an extraordinary personal odyssey and a political thorn in the Government's side. Louis de Cazenave, 110, and Lazare Ponticelli, 109, have slapped down an initiative by former President Jacques Chirac, who in November 2005 proposed France stage a "funeral of nationwide scope" for the last French soldier of the Great War. His remains would then be interred in a symbolic place. Chirac did not spell out where this would be, but supporters of the idea enthusiastically began campaigning for the last "poilu" to be given a resting place in the Pantheon, the gilded necropolis in the Latin Quarter which houses the remains of Voltaire, Rousseau, Saint-Exupery, Louis Braille and other French greats. Alas for the politicians, the last two survivors of the 8.4 million Frenchmen called to arms in the 1914-18 conflict have rejected Chirac's scheme as an odious glorification of war. "If I turn out to be the last survivor, I say no. It would be an insult to all those who died before me and were not given any honours at all," Ponticelli said as he attended an Armistice Day ceremony near his home in Kremlin-Bicetre, a suburb south of Paris. Born in Italy, Ponticelli came to France to escape poverty. In 1914, aged just 17, he enlisted in the Foreign Legion and survived some of the major battles of the Western Front before being transferred to the Italian Alps to fight Austrian troops. He was demobilised in 1916, surviving with just a wound to the cheek. "War is completely stupid. You are firing on fathers of children," he said. De Cazenave, a survivor of the Chemin des Dames offensive at Verdun where 100,000 men lost their lives, says the notion of a state funeral "is a con". He lives in a small house in Brioude in the Loire region, and says he wants to be buried "in simplicity" alongside other members of his family in Saint-Georges-d'Aurac. "The idea of honours has always made him angry. He used to tell us that those who died on the field of battle didn't even get a coffin," said his granddaughter Alix. "He's become a hard-and-fast pacifist. He's always said that war is horrible." Faced by such obstinacy, officials are starting to emphasise that any funeral arrangements will be held in accordance with family wishes and the idea is taking root that the anniversary of the war's end should be an occasion for European reconciliation rather than a show of patriotism. In November 2008, France will hold the rotating presidency of the European Union. At the Armistice commemoration, President Nicolas Sarkozy paid tribute to European integration as "a great dream of peace born out of the blood and tears".
- Moonrays rated 10 months ago
- www.ece.okstate.edu/News/Mr_Mrs_International.html - PARIS - One is so frail he spends most of his day bedridden, attended by home helps and his 81-year-old son. The other is in a wheelchair, but can still coax his ancient body to stand to attention for the Armistice Day silence. They are France's last two soldiers from World War I, and their survival into the opening decade of the 21st century is both an extraordinary personal odyssey and a political thorn in the Government's side.
- LightChaser rated 10 months ago
- I've seen many interviews with soldiers who have survived war, so many of them insist they aren't the heroes. They insist their fallen comrades are the real heroes. It's always humbling to here that, for some reason.
- bookspace rated 10 months ago
- Old soldiers refuse to play ball 5:00AM Thursday November 15, 2007 By Catherine Field Lazare Ponticelli. Photo / Reuters Lazare Ponticelli. Photo / Reuters PARIS - One is so frail he spends most of his day bedridden, attended by home helps and his 81-year-old son. The other is in a wheelchair, but can still coax his ancient body to stand to attention for the Armistice Day silence. They are France's last two soldiers from World War I, and their survival into the opening decade of the 21st century is both an extraordinary personal odyssey and a political thorn in the Government's side. Louis de Cazenave, 110, and Lazare Ponticelli, 109, have slapped down an initiative by former President Jacques Chirac, who in November 2005 proposed France stage a "funeral of nationwide scope" for the last French soldier of the Great War. His remains would then be interred in a symbolic place. Chirac did not spell out where this would be, but supporters of the idea enthusiastically began campaigning for the last "poilu" to be given a resting place in the Pantheon, the gilded necropolis in the Latin Quarter which houses the remains of Voltaire, Rousseau, Saint-Exupery, Louis Braille and other French greats. Advertisement Advertisement Alas for the politicians, the last two survivors of the 8.4 million Frenchmen called to arms in the 1914-18 conflict have rejected Chirac's scheme as an odious glorification of war. "If I turn out to be the last survivor, I say no. It would be an insult to all those who died before me and were not given any honours at all," Ponticelli said as he attended an Armistice Day ceremony near his home in Kremlin-Bicetre, a suburb south of Paris. Born in Italy, Ponticelli came to France to escape poverty. In 1914, aged just 17, he enlisted in the Foreign Legion and survived some of the major battles of the Western Front before being transferred to the Italian Alps to fight Austrian troops. He was demobilised in 1916, surviving with just a wound to the cheek. "War is completely stupid. You are firing on fathers of children," he said. De Cazenave, a survivor of the Chemin des Dames offensive at Verdun where 100,000 men lost their lives, says the notion of a state funeral "is a con". He lives in a small house in Brioude in the Loire region, and says he wants to be buried "in simplicity" alongside other members of his family in Saint-Georges-d'Aurac. "The idea of honours has always made him angry. He used to tell us that those who died on the field of battle didn't even get a coffin," said his granddaughter Alix. "He's become a hard-and-fast pacifist. He's always said that war is horrible." Faced by such obstinacy, officials are starting to emphasise that any funeral arrangements will be held in accordance with family wishes and the idea is taking root that the anniversary of the war's end should be an occasion for European reconciliation rather than a show of patriotism. In November 2008, France will hold the rotating presidency of the European Union. At the Armistice commemoration, President Nicolas Sarkozy paid tribute to European integration as "a great dream of peace born out of the blood and tears".
- BluePeriphery rated 10 months ago
- Words from the wise
- MajorTomServo rated 10 months ago
- From the page: ""The idea of honours has always made him angry. He used to tell us that those who died on the field of battle didn't even get a coffin," said his granddaughter Alix. "He's become a hard-and-fast pacifist. He's always said that war is horrible."" - Oh how we forget.
- danyeilat rated 10 months ago
- The last of the Poilus, who faught in WWI. The voice of the ast victims of stupid pompous generals of the 1914-1918 french army. You need a lot of courage, especially when you're 110 y/o, to stand against a world praising politicians who send us all to war, to kill fathers, children, husbends whom we don't know and never have the chance to know, while politicians drink champagne and shake hands and make money and power...
- metalkpretty1 rated 10 months ago
- From the page: ""War is completely stupid. You are firing on fathers of children," he said."
- annelock rated 10 months ago
- ..."War is Completely Stupid"... the last French soldiers of World War I, Do Not wish to have a state funeral. Bravo.
- yobaba rated 10 months ago
- What a beautiful report. One would hope that other veterans who have served in combat are not so very different in soul than Louis de Cazenave, 110, and Lazare Ponticelli, 109.
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