On the occasion of the 68th anniversary of the landing of French and Allied forces on the coasts of Provence, and in memory of the resistance martyrs who were executed on August 15, 1944, in Ariane, an official ceremony is organized at 9:30 a.m. at the Carré des fusillés in Ariane.
The landing in Provence was a military operation conducted during World War II starting on August 15, 1944, by Allied troops and French armies in the southeastern part of France. The objective of this operation was to open a new front in France, which also included the aim of destroying the 19th German Army present in that region at the time.
News of the landing spread through Nice during the day. In retaliation, the same day, the Nice Gestapo selected 21 resistance members from among the detainees in the German quarter of the New Prisons. They added to this group two members of the Action Groups of the French Popular Party. Taken to an isolated vacant lot in Ariane, they were executed one after the other. Today, a commemorative space inaugurated on August 15, 1945, named the Carré des fusillés, honors these executions.
Provence was liberated in two weeks. Nice, August 28, 1944.
