KIRKY Posted 8 November , 2005 Share Posted 8 November , 2005 Hi do Germany and France have the same sort of remembrance as we do with Poppies? Hope all war dead are remembered. Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncle bill Posted 8 November , 2005 Share Posted 8 November , 2005 France had a flower, the bleuet, but this has disappeared. If you go to an armistice day ceremony in a larger town you might see people from the souvenir français rattling their tins so that someone will buy a little sticker. I have never seen one worn outside of this context however. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 8 November , 2005 Share Posted 8 November , 2005 Germans have no tradition with poppies -now that does not mean they do not remember as well! Traditionally they lay small fall/autumn wreaths on to the graves of their nok Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KIRKY Posted 8 November , 2005 Author Share Posted 8 November , 2005 Thank you both, seems like it is not quite as important as here? Why do you think this is? Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted 9 November , 2005 Share Posted 9 November , 2005 In this county the poppy is not only the symbol of remembrance but it is also the logo and brand of the Royal British Legion (RBL). The promotion of remembrance in this county is due to the work of the RBL. In purchasing a poppy the funds raised are used for the RBL’s objectives and activities. Therefore remembering the war dead of yesterday is supporting the needs of the charity today Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Saunders Posted 9 November , 2005 Share Posted 9 November , 2005 Thank you both, seems like it is not quite as important as here? Why do you think this is? Tony <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I am not sure that is quite true. I was at Mallnitz in July in the Austrian Alps and the War Memorial was tended by a gardener during my stay and had three large wreaths - these were fresh and had not been left over from the previous November. Also when I inquired about Remembrance I was told that it is normal to have a Remembrance ceremony (I took it this would be 11 Nov but did not think to ask when this took place). My experience is that it is important to them, at least the Austrians anyway, but their process of remembrance is just slightly different to ours. Also I travelled into Berchesgaden (Bavaria) and the War Memorial, which in addition to a names plaque, consists of about 6 mosiacs, is as impressive as any I have seen in Britain. Trust this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevew Posted 9 November , 2005 Share Posted 9 November , 2005 Thank you both, seems like it is not quite as important as here? Why do you think this is? Tony <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I wouldn't have thought that was true, I know the French have VE Day as a national holiday with ceremonies for those who fell in WW2, and they remember those who fell in the WW1 on armistice day (although I am not sure if it is a national holiday) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healdav Posted 9 November , 2005 Share Posted 9 November , 2005 No other country uses the poppy and France tried to say that the bleuet was their 'traditional' flower when the Queen was there in 1998 for the cememonies. In fact, Chirac more or less invented it for the day. I have never met a Frenchman whether veteran or not who has ever heard of it. On the other hand, they are never less than very admiring of my poppy - I wear one to every commemoration I go to and lay them liberally in any and all war cemeteries. In fact, they think so highly of British poppies that you will find a wreath that Christina Holstein laid at Mourmelon in the Russian cemetery some years ago, now hanging in the chapel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncle bill Posted 9 November , 2005 Share Posted 9 November , 2005 well I've met a few people who have heard of it. Like I said you can buy a lttle bleuet sticker to put on your coat if you go to an armistice day ceremony in a largish town. Well you can here in anycase and I do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncle bill Posted 9 November , 2005 Share Posted 9 November , 2005 whereabouts are you Healdav ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncle bill Posted 9 November , 2005 Share Posted 9 November , 2005 oh and Chirac ( not that I like him) didn't invent the bleuet for the day, you sometimes see the tins, not unlike the poppy day ones, that were used in the twenties and thirties. I would say that it's just something that has faded away, the consequence of a country that isn't quite as on the ball, remembrance wize as we are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon Posted 9 November , 2005 Share Posted 9 November , 2005 I've seen bleuets on sale in Natzwiller Struthof (concentration camp) and people wearing them there. Gwyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healdav Posted 9 November , 2005 Share Posted 9 November , 2005 Well, I'm just on the French border and am there more than frequently. I go regularly to a commemoration ceremony in a village. And I spend a good part of the year in the South of France and visit cemeteries, etc there as well. The only special wreath is mine - poppies - and the only person wearing any insignia is me - the poppy. They think it really something to be proud of. I mentioned the bleuet once and everyone from the Prefet to the bloke who looks after the cemetery burst out laughing. The Souvenir Francais are usually there and they don't wear anything either (other than the usual veterans roundel - as do many others). I go or have been to lots of others as well and never seen any sign of the bleuet or any other standard insignia or whatever you want to call it - apart from the roundel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon Posted 9 November , 2005 Share Posted 9 November , 2005 Mine was simply an observation. I wasn't extrapolating it to the rest of France or indeed anywhere outside the boundaries of Struthof. Unfortunately I didn't take a photograph, of bleuets or anything else there, nor did I buy one. However, I recall distinctly the boxes of little blue cornflowers on sale. I presumed that some people felt the need to do something to show that the place had affected them. Gwyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Smith Posted 9 November , 2005 Share Posted 9 November , 2005 You might visit the thread 'lack of poppy sellers' in post 30 I mention this subject and ask a couple of questions that you may be able to answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncle bill Posted 11 November , 2005 Share Posted 11 November , 2005 this is the bleuet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Posted 11 November , 2005 Share Posted 11 November , 2005 A bleuet is what we in the UK would know as a cornflower. Andy (just noticed that Gwyn got there before me) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonycad Posted 12 November , 2005 Share Posted 12 November , 2005 A day late. In September 1998 I attended a ceremony involving American and French soldiers, including brass hats and diplomats, at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery near Romagne sous Montfaucon, to commemoratre the 80th anniverary of the Meuse-Argonne Battle of 1918. Each of the 10,000 (I think) graves were decorated with the flags of both nations. The American 'Buddy Poppy' was much in evidence. Photograph below. The back of the label reads: 'ASSEMBLED BY AMERICAN VETERANS' For Veterans Assistance programmes of Veterans of Foreign Wars. Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TD60 Posted 14 November , 2005 Share Posted 14 November , 2005 Hello from France Of course the "Bleuet" exists. When a was a young boy it was a flower (in cloth) and now it is a sticker as shown above. I was in the armistice place two days ago and I noticed some with a enamel badge with a bleuet . It seems new. On the other hand, the "Bleuet" is not so important for frenchmen than the poppy for british. Maybe because we missed the corresponding poem... or the poet who should have writen something about the cornflower died too early in the war.... Regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Hederer Posted 14 November , 2005 Share Posted 14 November , 2005 Thank you both, seems like it is not quite as important as here? Why do you think this is? Tony <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Tony, I wouldn't say not as important, only different. Germans don't categorize their dead--"tot ist tot." Families visit the graves of their families on certain days of the year, perhaps 3 or 4 times. I've seen the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge folks out on the streets a few times, but they only distribute small pins, not poppies. Local communities lay wreaths on the war memorials in their villages on or near 11 Nov. For Germans you have to think of their past also in relation to their remembrance of their military dead. Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wrighty Posted 14 November , 2005 Share Posted 14 November , 2005 Just as a matter of interest. In Arnhem, each child in the local school is given the name of one of the British soldiers in the Commonwealth cemetery. They stand by that grave during a moving ceremony and lay orange flowers (perhaps chyrysanthamum?) by the grave. Each year the children are given a different name. The idea being that, by the time they leave school, they will have remembered many of the names of the men that fought and died to free them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healdav Posted 14 November , 2005 Share Posted 14 November , 2005 Brilliant idea. For much the same reason I print out copies of the death certificates of men buried in a French cemetery where I take groups (and groups of schoolchildren from time to time). I give each two or three a certificate (I don't have enough for one each yet) and a poppy and tell them to find the man's grave in the register and then put the poppy on the grave. They can sometimes be amazed to find that the graves are for real people from real places and weren't much older than them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SOMMESOLDIER Posted 14 November , 2005 Share Posted 14 November , 2005 Just as a matter of interest. In Arnhem, each child in the local school is given the name of one of the British soldiers in the Commonwealth cemetery. They stand by that grave during a moving ceremony and lay orange flowers (perhaps chyrysanthamum?) by the grave. Each year the children are given a different name. The idea being that, by the time they leave school, they will have remembered many of the names of the men that fought and died to free them. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Hi, I think that is a really lovely idea, very moving !! Cheers Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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