Lettre de Guy à sa famille – 22 octobre 1941

This letter is causing controversy in France:

“Ma petite maman chérie,
mon tout petit frère adoré
mon petit papa aimé”

“Je vais mourir ! [1] Ce que je vous demande, toi, en particulier ma petite maman, c’est d’être courageuse. Je le suis et je veux l’être autant que ceux qui sont passés avant moi. Certes, j’aurais voulu vivre. Mais ce que je souhaite de tout mon cœur, c’est que ma mort serve à quelque chose. Je n’ai pas eu le temps d’embrasser Jean. J’ai embrassé mes deux frères Roger et Rino. Quant au véritable je ne peux le faire hélas ! J’espère que toutes mes affaires te seront renvoyées elles pourront servir à Serge, qui je l’escompte sera fier de les porter un jour. A toi petit papa, si je t’ai fait ainsi qu’à ma petite maman, bien des peines, je te salue une dernière fois. Sache que j’ai fait de mon mieux pour suivre la voie que tu m’as tracée.

Un dernier adieu à tous mes amis, à mon frère que j’aime beaucoup. Qu’il étudie bien pour être plus tard un homme.

17 ans 1/2, ma vie a été courte, je n’ai aucun regret, si ce n’est de vous quitter tous [2]. Je vais mourir avec Tintin, Michels. Maman, ce que je te demande, ce que je veux que tu me promettes, c’est d’être courageuse et de surmonter ta peine.

Je ne peux en mettre davantage. Je vous quitte tous, toutes, toi maman, Serge, papa, en vous embrassant de tout mon cœur d’enfant. Courage !

Votre Guy qui vous aime

Guy

Dernières pensées : “Vous tous qui restez, soyez dignes de nous, les 27 qui allons mourir ! [3]

For those who don’t speak French here are the key parts:

[1] I am going to die.

[2] 17 and a half years old, my life is to be short, I have no regrets, if only I didn’t have to leave you.

[3] My last thoughts: You all who remain, be worthy of us, the 27 that will die!

Guy Moquet was a resistance fighter. He joined after France fell and was turned over to the Germans by the Vichy regime. After a German officer was killed by the resistance, the German occupation forces demanded that 27 prisoners be executed as a collective punishment. Guy Moquet was the youngest of those executed.

This is now controversial because President Sarkozy as his first order of business wants to make this letter mandatory reading in all French schools. From the Post (not on line, but from Kim Willsher, May 28, p.A3):

Mr. Sarkozy was moved to tears when a young student read out the leter at the Bois de Boulogne ceremony. “A 17-year-old who gives his life to France – it’s an example not of the past, but of the future,” he said. “I have never been able to read the letter by Guy Moquet without being profoundly moved,” he added

Teachers around France have refused to read the letter to their students. Again from the Post:

“I will not be reading Guy Moquet’s letter to my pupils,” said Pierre Schilli, a history teacher in Montpellier. He said that doing so risked turning the history of Moquet into an “emotional reflex” of limited educational use, and a carricature, and added: “Leave history teachers the autonomy to teach the Resistance their own way.”

I wonder how he teaches his students about the resistance? However it is, I bet you a nickle that France doesn’t come out of that looking well.

I found an article from Le Figaro by a French teacher. He’s clearer than Mr. Schilli on why he won’t teache Moquet to his students:

I will not read it because for thirty years, school has taught them nothing but contempt and mistrust of the past. I will not read it because this letter shames me, shames me by contrasting the maturity of a teenager from sixty years ago and the teenagers of today who have been infantilise by our schools. I will not read it because our children are unaware of the events to which it refers…

Here’s that letter (in French)

UPDATE: English translation of Guy Moquet’s letter

My dear, sweet mother, my little baby brother that I adore, my dear
father that I love–I am going to die! What I ask of you, especially my
dear mother, is to be courageous. I am, and I want to be as courageous
as those who went before me.

Sure, I would have liked to have lived. But what I wish for, with all
my heart, is that my death means something. I didn’t have time to hug
Jean. I hugged my two brothers Roger and Rino [note: his
brothers-in-arms]. As for you, I’m afraid that I can’t! I hope that
all my things will be sent to you–Serge can use them; I trust he will
be proud to wear them one day. To you, dear father, if I ever gave you
or dear mother any trouble, I praise you one last time. Know that I did
the best to follow the path you set out for me.

One last goodbye to all of my friends, to my brother whom I love
dearly. He should study hard so that one day he will become a man.
Seventeen and a half years old–my life was short, I have no regrets,
other than leaving you all. I will die with Tintin, Michels. Mother,
what I ask of you, what I want you to promise me, is to be courageous
and to rise above your pain.

I can’t add any more. I’m leaving you all, all of you, mother, Serge,
dad–my child’s heart holds you in its arms. Courage!

Your Guy who loves you.

PS – “Final thoughts: You who remain, be worthy of us, the 27 who will die!” I suspect Sarkozy’s fondness for the letter comes, in large part, from that last sentence.

Sarkozy and Secularism

From: “To the Moon“:

So what does the new president of France have to say about religion?

Here is what it says on the back of the book:

“With this book, Nicolas Sarkozy is confronting one of the taboos of French society: the place of religion in the République. Sarkozy wants to create an open and serene secularism, in which each person can live out his own vision of hope and participate in building up democratic society. He speaks of his faith, of his encounters with spiritual figures who have influenced him, of the convictions he wants to pass on to his children. The book is a great contribution to the reflection on the founding values of the République and on the future of secularism in France.”

Out with the old, in with the Jew – Sarkozy Wins

The headline is from the Jerusalem Post. They have an extensive interview with France’s new leader.

Fantastic. Humdullah. The last time I was in France (on business) I found myself at a swap meet on the industrial edge of Montpellier. In twenty-first century France I saw men in silly dresses and silent women dressed-up to look like English post boxes. Poor families were going from blanket to blanket on this rough rubble strewn industrial parking-lot scrounging around for Atari video games and beige leather jackets. On the side streets were burnt out cars, charred trees and garbage.

I saw similar sights in the suburbs of Dijon, Nimes, Marseilles, and Paris. This campaign has been fought over the people from the miserable French hinterland. It’s the people from these places that are threatening France with violence if Sarkozy wins, and ironically it is these same people that a Sarkozy win will help most. [note to self: take a look at the number of recent elections in the west in which the left threatened violence if they didn't win. I'm thinking quite a few]

This is what the Associated [with terrorists] Press had to say on the Immigrant opinion of a Sarkozy victory:

“If Sarkozy wins, there will certainly be riots here in Clichy and all over France,” said Mohammed Saidi, a first-time voter who was born in Morocco. The 43-year-old electrician and father of four voted in Clichy-sous-Bois, where the riots broke out and spread nationwide.

Another first-time voter, 20-year-old Fatma Celik, said that if Sarkozy wins the runoff May 6, “people are going to go crazy here.”

You kind of expect that from the AP and the ‘Youths” of the banlieue. But it’s not just coming from them but from the entire European press and most surprisingly from Sarkozy’s socialist opponent, Segolene Royal:

“The choice of Nicolas Sarkozy is a dangerous choice, I do not want France to be oriented toward a system of brutality,”

“[I feel a] responsibility to raise the alert about the risks of this candidacy and the violence and brutality that will be set off in the country. Everyone knows it, but no one says it. It is a kind of taboo.”

“[if Sarkozy is elected] democracy will be threatened.”

This is why they hate him – on the riots:

“I intend to continue to call a hoodlum a hoodlum and scum, scum,” he said last week. “It’s not a word that’s insulting, it’s the behavior of hoodlums that’s insulting.”

On Turkey joining the EU:

The EU cannot have infinite borders, and it seems to me that for reasons of history, geography and culture, Turkey has no place inside of these borders. I find hard to accept an EU which extends to the borders of Syria and Iraq.

On the French social model:

Le modèle social français n’est plus le meilleur. Nous avons des chômeurs. Le système d’intégration n’est plus le meilleur. Notre système économique n’est pas le meilleur puisque nous avons moins de croissance que les autres. Il faut apporter des réponses à ces questions-là. Je dis aux Français qu’il nous faut changer pour rester fidèles aux idéaux de la République. Je crois que le plein emploi est possible. Je crois qu’on peut maîtriser l’immigration, qu’on peut réconcilier la société avec une école de la République qui soit une école de l’excellence et de l’exigence.

France is important, maybe the most important country in the world after America. We English-Canadians seldom realize the influence that French politics and culture have on our national life (by way of Quebec). I like Sarkozy. In order for us to take a reasoned and effective stand against militant islam and it’s other Green cousin, we need strong and confident leaders, like Sarkozy, who won’t shy away from making unpopular decisions.

One of my kinsmen (much removed) is a French MP and big supporter of Sarkozy. Take a look at his blog and look at what Sarkozy’s done. He’s been fearless, he’s not been afraid of being unpopular, or of losing friends to do the right thing. He believes in western civilization enough to defend it.

He doesn’t do this by keeping people out of France, but by bringing people in – in a meaningful way. It sounds trite, but this is what he has been doing since he became PM. Probably the most important thing he has done has been to create the Muslim Council [Conseil Francais du Culte Musulman] with the mandate of creating a ‘French’ Islam – which is to say, an Islam that is compatible with living in the western world.

Will there be violence?  Probably, it is France after all.