“Monuments still make too little use of new technologies to promote memory,” said the Secretary of State for Veterans Affairs and Memory on Friday March 3.
Since November 11, 2022, the names of the 3,226 Dijonnais who died for France from 1915 to the present day have been listed on a digital stele installed in the alleys of the Park, at the level of the Edmond-Michelet roundabout.
As the monument of Victory and Remembrance – inaugurated in 1924 by the mayor of Dijon Gaston Gérard – does not include an engraved list of names, the digital tool compensates for this absence.
Inauguration in song in the presence of students
This Friday, March 3, 2023, the digital stele was inaugurated by Patricia Mirallès, Secretary of State to the Minister of the Armed Forces in charge of Veterans Affairs and Memory.
Around her, among many civil and military authorities, were in particular the deputies of the Côte-d’Or Benoît Bordat (FP) and Didier Martin (RE) as well as Emmanuelle Coint (LR), first vice-president of the departmental council of the Côte-d’Or, Jean-Philippe Morel (PR), deputy mayor of Dijon in charge of veterans, the duty of remembrance, civic engagement and national defence, Franck Robine, prefect of the Côte-d’Or, Pierre N’Gahane, rector of the Dijon Academy, and Lieutenant-Colonel Étienne Royal, deputy departmental military delegate.
Third-grade students from Saint-Michel college, final year students from Les Arcades high school and elected officials from the Dijon children’s municipal council also attended the ceremony.
The stele was unveiled by the authorities to the sound of the song “FRANCE” and the voice of Candice Parise, singer within the Paris fire brigade, having been chosen in 2022 to close the July 14 celebrations. on the Champs-Élysées (find the video).
All generations of fire are concerned
The digital stele project was initiated by the Departmental Union of Veterans of Côte-d’Or (UDAC), led by Benoît Bordat when he was deputy mayor of Dijon then relayed by Jean-Philippe Morel when he succeeded the one who was elected in 2022 deputy for the second constituency of Côte-d’Or.
The City of Dijon’s heritage and digital development services as well as the municipal archives have combined their skills with those of the company Aji Digital, located in Quetigny, to develop the content of the stele.
All generations of fire are concerned. The list lists the names of the men and women – born in Dijon or having Dijon as their last known residence – who died for France in the First World War, the Second World War, the Indochina War, the Algerian War. and external operations.
“The platform is intended to enrich it,” said Stéphane Valcauda, president of Aji Digital, with reference to visual or editorial content that can be added later.
The digital terminal works at all times. Access by conflict is possible and a search engine makes it possible to find a particular individual. An interactive map identifies all the places of memory in Dijon associated with each of the conflicts, from the commemorative plaque to the monument.
The device is connected to the power supply of the urban lighting and works with gel-lead batteries which are recharged during the night. Located in a public place, the site is subject to “discreet” surveillance, according to Jean-Philippe Morel.
“Passing on the long list of our heroes”
“Today we complete our anonymous monument. (…) The duty of memory honors our nation and allows everyone to come together, beyond differences,” said Jean-Philippe Morel, the first to speak during the official speeches.
“We, the children of the 20th century still alive, representing the third generation of fire, wanted to transmit to young Dijonnais of the 21st century, by a modern means of communication (…) the long list of our heroes”, indicated Jean Lecrigny, secretary general of the UDAC.
“Adapt the tools to enrich our national novel”
“This stele is fully in line with the work of memory of our nation, in my commitment to the service of the fighting world and in the transmission of memory”, reacted Patricia Mirallès.
“Monuments (…) still make too little use of new technologies to promote memory. However, it is our responsibility that the tools to enrich our national novel are adapted to our new way of life and to the new uses that digital technology has generated”, she considered.
“The fighting world continues to defend the security of France through external operations, from Lebanon to the Sahel, from Yugoslavia to Afghanistan, today in Romania”, recalled the Secretary of State in charge of Veterans Affairs and of Memory.
“At a time when war is reappearing on our continent, when the Ukrainian people give us an example of courage and commitment, this challenge of transmission is more than crucial if we want fellow citizens committed to serving the nation. , ready to defend its values because they have appropriated their memory, if we want to prevent our children from unbolting statues, we must continue to be memory smugglers”, she claimed.
The ceremony ended with the laying of wreaths at the foot of the war memorial.
“The duty of memory has skipped a generation”
“It’s amazing”, commented Patricia Mirallès discovering the operation of the digital stele, “it’s fun, very simple”. “It allows young people, who do not necessarily go to a museum, to be able to learn about the memory of history through this monument and then perhaps be able to go to a museum afterwards, it allows them to put down roots. .”
“The duty of memory has almost skipped a generation,” she analyzed. “It’s the grandfathers talking to their grandchildren, more to their children. There is a passage of memory from this third generation of fire to this youth. It’s important because they still have that living memory, the explanations when they tell the story. This is how we will be able to root our young people.
“The duty of my secretariat is to work on memory with young people, from an early age. (…) Today, more than ever, rather than suppressing commemoration days as requested, let’s learn to commemorate differently”, considered the Secretary of State.
“Our youth is beautiful. You have to trust them. (…) This war in Ukraine challenges them, questions them. They have images today, (…) these are current facts, this is not what we teach. (…) More than ever, they want to understand things and it’s like we will seek the moral forces of our country, ”she assured.
The request that a street in Dijon bear the name of “a hero of the Algerian war”
Speaking indirectly to the mayor of Dijon, Jean Lecrigny asked that a street be named after the quartermaster Bruno Curtil, called up from the contingent during the Algerian war, who died at the age of 24 and who received posthumously awarded the Cross of Military Valor with Palms.
“It would only be fair for at least one street in our regional capital to bear the name of a hero of this conflict, while the heroes of other wars have, moreover, given their name to many arteries of our city”, insisted the secretary general of the UDAC.
The Secretary of State then continued her trip to Dijon with a decoration of the National Order of Merit at the prefecture then an exchange with students from the Charles de Gaulle high school who worked on the memory of Dijon Jews deported during the Second World War. world.
Jean-Christophe Tardivon
