Students of French seminar took part in the discussion with the families of WWII Belgian and American veterans.
“The most interesting thing from the discussion was to hear stories about the places where I go every day and I didn´t have a clue about things happening there. I was also fascinated by the story of one veteran, who after he had seen so many corpses torn apart and not having been buried, the decided to become a gravedigger.”
“Frankly, we can say, we hadn´t known what to expect before this event. Reality was far better than any of our expectations. I am very happy, that we could be there, we could be part of something like this, indescribable. I can´t even define my feelings when we were leaving the meeting. We enjoyed a lot the possibility to join the discussion (not just passive listening). Everybody was talking openly and without any obstacles which is not easy, and desires a lot of courage.”
“It was an unforgettable experience. We realized during the whole meeting that it is now up to us to keep this memories alive, how important is to spread this history a memories further among the next generations not to repeat the past.”
The shorten version of the meeting which took place on 6th of May as part of Liberation Festival 2024 Pilsen in Czech Radio Pilsen can be heard following this web link: https://www.mujrozhlas.cz/nas-host/potomci-americkych-belgickych-veteranu-2-svetove-valky-v-ceskem-rozhlasu-plzen
Mgr. Pavla Kocourková, students of French seminar, loose translation
