Concert, choirs, documentary, readings marked this afternoon of commemoration on Omaha Beach, the 80th anniversary of the Landing. Several actors read letters from soldiers writing to their families about what they experienced on a daily basis, or to say goodbye to them.
“If it was the United States that landed on Omaha Beach, ten other nations participated in the Normandy landings, including the United Kingdom, Canada and France,” declaims actor Lambert Wilson, narrator of the ceremony, who played the General de Gaulle in the film De Gaulle in 2020.
Clément Hervieu-Léger, member of the Comédie Française, read the letter that Ferdinand Malardé wrote to his parents, shortly before being shot by the Nazis, when he was 20 years old.
Actress Charlotte Rampling read British soldier Frederick Gibbons’ letter from the front. Françoise Gillard, Belgian actress, member of the Comédie Française, read a work by the poet Anna Akhmatova.
Several children’s choirs also performed. The ode to joy by Beethoven, The partisans’ song, Three beautiful birds of paradise by Maurice Ravel, or The song of the swamps.
Source: BFM TV
