On August 28, like every year, the municipality organized a memorial circuit (a great idea…) to commemorate the Liberation of Nice and honor the memory of the 32 heroes who died so our city could be freed from the Germans.
However, if we look at the list of the 32 fighters, we find only 12 from Nice (Eugène Alentchenko, Jean-Marc Ballestra, Fortuné Barralis, Jean-Marc Bobichon, Raymond Carmine, Marius Fantino, Joseph Giuge, Jean Gordolon, Auguste Gouirand, Basile Rossi, Roger Simon, Verdun Vial) and 2 from the County (Paul Vallaghe from Menton and Antoine Genouillac from Contes).
On the other hand, the majority come from elsewhere. From various parts of France: Jean Henri Authement (Créteil), Antoine Codaccioni (Bilia, Corsica), Raymond Albin (Pignans, Var), Auguste Bogniot (Draguignan), Roger Boyer (the man from the Square, Basses Alpes), Lucien Chervin (Paris), Emile Krieger (Moselle), Antoine Suarez (Bordeaux), Jean Girone (Vaucluse).
And much to the displeasure of this lady and the hardline advocates of national identity, 10 were born abroad: 6 in Italy (Auguste Arnaudo, Jean Badino, Vincent Boscarolo, Sauveur Bernardo, Venance Cantergiani, Michel Ravera), 1 in Spain (Jean Morales), 1 in Belgium (Alphonse Cornil), and 1 in Turkey (Arisdakesse Arzoumanian).
Thus, 20 of these 32 heroes sacrificed their lives for Nice. Yet, “they were not born in Nice”…
by Patrick Mottard
