STRASBOURG: French President Emmanuel Macron marked on Saturday the 80th anniversary of Free French troops liberating the eastern city of Strasbourg from Nazi occupation and called for overlooked victims of World War II to be honoured. The president reviewed troops and attended a military ceremony at the Broglie Square in central Strasbourg, bowing before a monument to General Philippe Leclerc who led Free French troops into the city on November 23, 1944.
France's colours flew from the cathedral's spire during the ceremony in homage to the city's liberators. Macron was also scheduled to visit Natzweiler-Struthof, around 60 kilometres west of Strasbourg, the only concentration camp built by the Nazis on French soil.
Speaking after the ceremony in Strasbourg, the president highlighted the fate of tens of thousands of Alsatian men forcibly enlisted into the German army. "These children of Alsace... were captured, dressed in a uniform they loathed in the service of a cause that made them slaves, instruments of a crime that killed them too, and threatened with reprisals if they attempted to flee," he said.
The conscripts' "tragedy must be named, recognised and taught"" Macron added. — AFP
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