My name is Gilberte Fournier. I was born in 1931. I therefore experienced the war, the Second World War, when I was about ten years old. I lived it with my parents and my three brothers here in Paris, in the Halles district.
War is a terrible thing. When I hear about wars and rumours of war today, it scares me. Because I lived through it, the war. And I have never forgotten it. You can’t forget it, even at 93 years old. We had to constantly go down to the cellar as soon as the siren sounded. One day, the door suddenly burst open from the explosion of a bomb. There were screams and shouts. We were very scared, even the adults. We had to stay lying down as much as possible. There were sandbags everywhere in front of the doors. I saw the bombs falling not far from me. It’s not nice for a child to see such things.
Every morning, at 6 a.m., we had to queue with ration tickets in front of the dairy or the grocery store to help my mother. I fell seriously ill. I weighed less than 26 kg. You don’t eat every day when there’s war, and I weakened due to scurvy, as well as fear. We fled to the free zone to get away from the fighting. We slept on the ground, in barns, in the sacristies of churches. Then we came back.
I am speaking today at the invitation of my friends from Sant’Egidio because there are fewer and fewer of us from my generation who can testify to the great evil that is war. However, we must not forget it. I want to say this especially to the younger generations: war destroys everything. War destroys lives, like those of many of my little friends from my street, rue Saint Martin, or the neighbourhood, who were forced to wear the yellow star and whom I have never seen again. A sad time that weighs heavily on your heart. Those who have not lived through it do not know what it is like. When I hear people talk as if war were a game! They do not realize. They have not lived it. I am here, in front of you, to tell you that we must not lose the memory of the great evil, the great defeat of humanity that is war. That is why I testify today. To unite the young with the memory of the elderly like me. I want to tell you: do not let yourselves be convinced that war is inevitable, but keep and nurture the peace that my generation imagined after the war. Love peace! Love the others. And build a common future.
Thank you for your attention.