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"Commemorating 50 Years Since Nazi Surrender
Benjamin Pimentel, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, May 8, 1995
Monique Sisich fought the good fight as a courier for the French Resistance and as a prisoner of war in Nazi concentration camps.
Yesterday, she remembered those times of courage and sacrifice with about 300 people -- mostly World War II veterans and their families -- who gathered at San Francisco's Notre Dame des Victoires church to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Nazi Germany's surrender that ended the war in Europe.
``I am always thinking of the day I was freed,'' said Sisich, now 74, who wore a light blue shirt decorated with war medals. ``This year, there is much more impact. Fifty years -- it's just something special.''
Victory in Europe Day will also be remembered by the U.S. Sixth Army today with an afternoon ceremony on Pershing Square at the Presidio, where a 15-round cannon salute will honor those killed during the war.
At the Notre Dame des Victoires, French and American flags decorated the 139-year-old church where a Mass was celebrated to honor the war's victims, heroes and survivors. An honor guard of war veterans also presented the colors of the other Allied nations.
``All of us, young and old, we remember that together we were able to get that victory,'' the Rev. Etienne Siffert, the church's pastor, said during the Mass.
Sisich, now a Peninsula resident and a member of the Northern California chapter of the French War Veterans, relayed coded messages on German troop movements to the Allies. She was later captured and spent the rest of the war in concentration camps, where she was severely tortured by the Nazis.
For years after the war ended, Sisich said, she tried to ``obliterate'' memories of her experiences. But she eventually learned to live with her past, and now regularly visits her former colleagues in the French Resistance.
``I try to keep in touch with my old comrades, but they are vanishing little by little,'' she said.
Some at the service praised those who led the struggle against the Nazis.
David Klugman, 75, another former French Resistance member, remembered how French General Charles de Gaulle organized and inspired the French Resistance against the Nazis.
It was not an easy task, he said, for the Nazi occupation really tore France apart.
``It was like an earthquake,'' he said. ``The whole country collapsed.''
Others still spoke with passion against their former enemies.
Henry Planel, a 71-year-old former French underground fighter who now lives in San Francisco, recalled with bitterness how the Nazis and the Fascists killed millions of people.
Among those who attended the service were crew members of the Jeremiah O'Brien, the last seagoing Liberty ship, which returned to Europe last year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Europe.
The Jeremiah O'Brien crew members came to honor one of those who made the historic voyage -- Francois Le Pendu, a decorated veteran of the Free French Navy, who helped organize the ship's journey.
Le Pendu, who was born in France and lived in San Francisco, became ill after returning from Europe. He died in December at age 70."
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(the San Francisco Chronicle) Laurent Laloup le mercredi 30 avril 2008 Contribution au livre ouvert de David Klugman Montrée dans le livre ouvert de 2 Monique Lefèvre Duclos épouse Sisich | |
