2023-05-07 17:43:30
Prior to 1983, only schoolchildren and civil servants had leave on this date. But the economic crisis is coming. And removing a holiday saves money. May 8, the date of the Nazi surrender, then falls by the wayside. But we are not touching November 11, the date of the armistice of 1918, which is still a public holiday for everyone.
“9/11 made sense, in terms of the general populationcomments Catherine Lanneau, historian at the University of Liège. The fighting stopped at this point in the territory and the German army began to flow back from this point on. November 11 had that meaning. Today is more likely the day of remembrance of the two wars, it has somehow globalized.”
In other words, the date of the end of the first world war is the same for everyone, whereas, for the second, the conflict did not really end on the same day. Ihe end of the Second World War was officially declared on May 8, 1945 at 11:01 p.m. The day before, Nazi Germany had indeed capitulated. For Belgium, part of the country is liberated from September 1944. “The memory of the Second World War can be celebrated at different times of the year”, explains the historian. “For Belgians, the reference to May 8 is an act further removed from their daily life than the reference to September 44, the liberation as it was experienced by the vast majority of Belgians.”
In France, on the other hand, May 8 is an official public holiday. But this has not always been the case. “There was an interruption, already under De Gaulle, with a view to Franco-German reconciliation”, she continues. In fact, it was François Mitterrand who reintroduced this holiday at the start of his seven-year term.
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