(The like of which we are
unlikely to see listed officially in the UK)
« Shot as an Example
1914-2014. The Republic’s Ghosts»
In the media the resonance accorded to the victims of military tribunals
is immense, almost disproportionate: from the end of the conflict, press,
literature, cinema and comic strips took it in turn to tell the story of the
suffering of those shot for the sake of example, transformed in the collective
unconscious into emblematic victims of the leaders’ presumed incompetence. This
process ended with the executed being now merged with the mutineers of 1917.
Detaching itself from polemics and going beyond the components of a
collective memory which is often painful, conflicted, and therefore sometimes
liable to bias and blockage, present-day historiography is now able to
contemplate with clarity the functioning of military justice at the time of the
conflict, restoring it to the long-term context of its evolution since the French
Revolution and incorporating it in that of the Great War.
Taking into account, but not limiting itself to, the omnipresence in the
media of the 650 or so executed men,
over-represented in collective memory in
view of the 1.4 million French dead in te Great War, the exhibition «Fusillé
pour l’Exemple 1914-2014. Les fantômes de la République» aims to
present to the public the state of historical research on the subject to shed
light on it and enable them to form an opinion.
Arranged in the rooms of the Hôtel de Ville in Paris, it will open in
spring 2014 for three months.
To achieve the goal of giving citizens the means to take over their
history in order to let them consider calmly the idea of justice in wartime and
the results of its application, it was decided to combine a rational and
rigorous presentation of the facts and of the exaplanatory work carried out by
historians, particularly in the last 15 years or so, with another, more
subjective style giving access to war as lived experience, suffering,
incomprehensibility, and daily strangeness which are difficult for us to
imagine now.
The solution has been to devise a layout to serve this basically
educational project. Consequently it made perfect sense for the exhibition’s
director (commissaire) Laurent Loiseau, to assemble a scientific management
team made up of the leading French specialists on the topic and an artistic
team tasked with setting out a sensitive, contemporary arrangement for a public
seeking knowledge but also involvement/ to be informed but also to participate.
It’s an ambitious project, in scale and strength, and has surprised the
organisers with the evocative power it unleashes.
The emotion engendered by the productions of the associated artists is
balanced all along the line by recollection of the facts, supported by archival
research.
Further, the exhibition does not limit itself to describing how military
justice in 1914-18 worked, it also analyses what happened after the conflict,
in the interwar period and in the present day, when civil society and
contemporary historiography has difficulty in knowing how to deal with the
empathy aroused by the suffering of the ordinary soldier (« poilus »). Beyond
the facts, the exhibition goes on to questions the role of the historian in the
City: how can we move from a time of conflicted memory, painful for descendants
of the executed men, to a time of reconciled (apaisée) history ?
Far from supplying answers, this exhibition sees itself as stimulating
questions by appealing to each individual’s rationality and understanding. This
approach, appealing to intelligence, a critical mind, and perception, seemed to
us a priori a way of evading a risk of divisive discourse,. It makes the
most recent knowledge available while giving the visiting citizen the
opportunity of forming an opinion on the debate which has already started in
the run-up to the 1914 commemorations. What about those shot « by
France » ? Were there cases of injustice ? Can we, should
we, redress them symbolically ? The debate couldn’t be.more relevant. The
exhibition is meant to contribute to this sensitive discussion.
Those who planned it were bearing in mind Paul Ricoeur’s reflection in
his master work La Mémoire, l’Histoire, l’Oubli (Memory, History,
Forgetting): « C’est sur le chemin de la critique historique que la mémoire
rencontre le sens de la justice. Que serait une mémoire heureuse qui ne serait
pas une mémoire équitable ? » (It is by way of historical critique that
collective memory meets the sense of justice. How could such memory be happy
without being fair?)
Historians and artists have addressed that question, with their own
sensibilities and with humility. They will thus present their historical and
artistic approach to this particular memory within the vast and painful
collective memory of the Great War.
From an article on the official French site listing 1914-18 centenary events: Fusillés http://centenaire.org/fr/fusillés - > Les Fusillés de la Première Guerre mondiale
http://www.france24.com/en/20131001-france-world-war-one-executions-report-deserters/#./?&_suid=1390140240286012958691551641505 (dated: 2013-10-03): A new report requested by France's
Ministry of Veteran Affairs recommends that French WWI soldiers who were
executed by their own side for desertion be officially considered under a new
light.
and
ExecutedToday.com » 1915: Four French Corporals, for
cowardice [Today, i.e. On This Day]: http://www.executedtoday.com/.../1915-french-corporals-maupas-lefoulon-gir...
17 Mar 2008 - A 1999 study numbered 550 French executions. ....
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