On the occasion of this remembrance day, Patrick Mottard reminds us of some truths… very precious in these times of short memory!
“Anyway, he wasn’t born in Nice”: such is the comment from a florist on Cours Saleya regarding the dismissal of Benoรฎt Kandel by the mayor of Nice (according to today’s Nice Matin).
To this lady and to all those who think like her, I want to offer a small demonstration here. On the 28th, as every year, the municipality organized (a great idea…) a remembrance tour to commemorate the Liberation of Nice and to honor the memory of the 32 heroes who died to free our city from the Germans.
Thus, along with the deputies and my friend Gรฉrard Corboli (Secretary General of the National Committee of Resistance and Deportation 06), I laid wreaths at several locations in the 5th canton to honor the fallen resistance fighters in my neighborhood.
Yet if you look at the list of the 32 fighters, you find only 12 from Nice (Eugรจne Alentchenko, Jean-Marc Ballestra, Fortunรฉ Barralis, Jean-Marc Bobichon, Raymond Carmine, Marius Fantino, Joseph Giuge, Jean Gordolon, Auguste Gouirand, Basile Rossi, Roger Simon, Verdun Vial) and 2 originating from the County (Paul Vallaghe from Menton and Antoine Genouillac from Contes).
On the other hand, the majority comes from outside. From various parts of France: Jean Henri Authement (Crรฉteil), Antoine Codaccioni (Bilia, Corsica), Raymond Albin (Pignans, Var), Auguste Bogniot (Draguignan), Roger Boyer (the man from Square, Basses Alpes), Lucien Chervin (Paris), Emile Krieger (Moselle), Antoine Suarez (Bordeaux), Jean Girone (Vaucluse).
And much to the dismay of this lady and the staunch 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 weren’t born in Nice”…
Patrick Mottard
