Tribute to UCO Alumni who died for France

On Friday November 15, the 149th anniversary of its foundation, the Université Catholique de l'Ouest (UCO) organized a ceremony to pay tribute to its former students who died for France and our freedom on the UCO Angers campus.

Thanks to meticulous research by history students and volunteers, almost 200 alumni who gave their lives in the service of France have been identified. To honor their memory, Brigadier General Thierry Tricand de la Goutte, Commandant of the Engineering School and Departmental Military Delegate for Maine-et-Loire, presented UCO Rector Laurent Péridy with the emblem of the 135ᵉ Infantry Regiment, the regiment with the highest number of fallen UCO alumni among its ranks.

After a mass celebrated in the university chapel by Monsignor Emmanuel Delmas, Chancellor of the Université Catholique de l'Ouest and Bishop of Angers, the commemorative ceremony brought together over 500 people in front of a Palais universitaire lit up in tricolor. The names of former students who died for France were read out, and a political science student declaimed the poem "Villeroy-sur-la-Marne" by Canon Georges Duret (Licence de Lettres, 1915).

The commemoration was marked by speeches from a number of prominent figures. Among them, Boris Pistorius, German Federal Minister of Defense and former student of UCO's Centre International d'Études Françaises (class of 1983), delivered an applauded speech, in French, on the importance of reconciliation and European cooperation.

"It's a particular honor for me to attend this important day with all of you here in Angers. Not only because, 42 years ago, I spent a memorable semester at the Université Catholique de l'Ouest - probably the finest semester of my higher education. In fact, it was there that I first fell in love with your French language, even if today, unfortunately, I don't speak it as well as I did back then. But what touches me most is that you have invited me today, as German Minister of Defense, to join you in honoring the memory of the former students of this university who lost their lives in the war. Such an honor, to be invited to this commemorative ceremony by Germany's closest and most important partner, is anything but self-evident. I am deeply moved. The First and Second World Wars turned Europe upside down. After 1918, the old order was swept away. A whole generation of traumatized men returned from the war. Many lost their lives. Including former students of this university. [...] Although the end of the First World War initially brought peace, despair spread soon afterwards, ultimately enabling the rise of a dictator like Adolf Hitler.
We all know the enormous atrocities committed by the Germans and the immense suffering and pain that resulted from this second great war. It is certainly the darkest chapter in German history. [...] In spite of everything, after the war, we Germans benefited from the hand of reconciliation extended by our neighbors, by your French compatriots. Our young Federal Republic of Germany benefited from a great confidence that facilitated our return to the international community. Franco-German friendship was, and still is, an essential element. I am very grateful for the courage of men and women such as Robert Schuman and Jean Monnet, and for the trust placed in us by our European friends, France in particular.
We must engrave this commemoration and this humility in the face of peace, and in the face of all those who have won it through their commitment, very deeply in our consciences and in our hearts[...]".

Philippe Chopin, Prefect of Maine-et-Loire, Christophe Béchu, Mayor of Angers and President of Angers Loire Métropole, and Lieutenant General Patrik Steiger, Commander of the Western Defense and Security Zone, also paid tribute to the commitment of UCO alumni, underlining the need to preserve this memory in order to build a peaceful future.

In his speech, Laurent Péridy, rector of the Université catholique de l'Ouest, said:
" Tonight, we celebrate 200 of them, along with some of their families ,
200 faces of alumni, dear to the Université catholique de l'Ouest. We celebrate them at this ceremony where the emblem of the 135th infantry regiment is presented to the UCO, a regiment in which many of our students and teachers fought and fell.
They gave their lives on the Dantean battlefields of the First World War, in the countryside, in the maquis or in the camps of the Second World War and right up to the post-war conflicts, for our homeland, for peace and so that we could live free. We remember them in loyalty, with the French civil and military authorities, and in fraternity with the German people, thanks to the presence of Mr. Boris Pistorius, Federal Minister of Defense and UCO alumnus. [...] We continue on our way. So that the Catholic University of the West is always a place of formation and commitment, to learn to serve and to give. "

The Université catholique de l'Ouest would like to extend its warmest thanks to the families of the deceased alumni, and to the civil and military authorities present.
This tribute was made possible thanks to the support of the Délégation militaire départementale de Maine-et-Loire and the involvement of UCO staff.