cw – Page 2 – Ad pacem servandam

Newsletter 23

22 April 202322 April 2023 cw

Dear friends, dear members of Ad Pacem,

Throughout the year 2022 the activities of our association were strongly conditioned by the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. Our help went to Ukrainian refugees who first came to the big cities of western Ukraine and then to families who came to our Region to find refuge. In the second half of the year, the bombardment of cities by Russian missiles and drones again accentuated these population movements. Throughout the year we have been supporting the hospitals in Kramatorsk and Kharkiv with material and medicine, as well as a team of doctors who are helping in a small field hospital behind the Ukrainian front in the Kharkiv region. We are now helping these doctors mainly with the proceeds from the sale of this year’s calendar.
As the front has now “stabilised” in the south-east and south of Ukraine, there is less movement of people, although the number of wounded and dead soldiers on the Ukrainian side (Russia does not give any information about its dead or wounded soldiers) is in the hundreds every day.

On 22 March 2023 we held our 6th General Assembly. You can read the minutes by clicking on the following link: Minutes of our 6th General Assembly 2023

In the coming months we will resume activities that we started in 2018 and 2019, and that we had to drop during the pandemic years.
On Saturday 29 April from 9.15 a.m. until about 5 p.m. we will organise a “Bike for future – bike for peace” day on the cycle paths in the south of Luxembourg. On the link Ad Pacem Bike Tour you can discover the route. This day is open to all our members and interested friends. You can communicate your participation at [email protected].

Finally, we are organising an outing to learn about the history of the wars through a visit to the Bastogne War Museum where we will be able to relive some of the highlights of the Battle of the Bulge. This will be on Saturday 17 June, from 8.30 a.m. (departure in Esch/Alzette) until the return around 4 p.m. Those who are interested can already save this date. You will have more information and the possibility to register in a future Newsletter.

I bid you a good reception of this Newsletter 23,
with my best wishes for more peace,

Claude Pantaleoni
President of the asbl
“For Peace and Against War”

Newsletter n. 21

15 February 202314 February 2023 cw

Ad Pacem is pleased to announce that Mr Manfred Sapper, editor-in-chief of Osteuropa, the oldest monthly magazine on Eastern Europe published in Berlin, will give a lecture at the Book and Culture Fair organised by CLAE, on Saturday 25 February 2023.

The title of the conference is:
Testfall Ukraine – Russlands Krieg, der Westen und die Wege zum Frieden
(Test Case Ukraine – Russia’s War, the West and the Paths to Peace)

After studying Eastern European history and political science, Mr Sapper (1962) has been editor-in-chief of the interdisciplinary monthly journal Osteuropa since 2002. The journal was founded in 1925, banned in 1939 and relaunched in 1951.

Mr Sapper and the journal have received several awards for their work, such as the “Dialog-Preis” of the German-Polish Society and the “Fricke-Preis” of the Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung.

The journal is the publisher of, among others, the volumes:
Widerstand. Ukrainische Kultur in Zeiten des Krieges (Resistance. Ukrainian culture in times of war) (2022),
Russlands Krieg gegen die Ukraine, Propaganda, Verbrechen, Widerstand (Russia’s war on Ukraine, propaganda, crime, resistance) (2022),
Der Geist der Zeit. Kriegsreden aus Russland (The spirit of the times. War speeches from Russia) (2021),
Babyn Jar. Der Ort, die Tat und die Erinnerung (Babyn Yar. The place, the deed and the memory) (2021),
Schlachtfeld Ukraine. Studien zur Soziologie des Krieges (Battlefield Ukraine. Studies on the sociology of war) (2019),
Vernichtung durch Hunger. Der Holodomor in der Ukraine (Extermination through Hunger. The Holodomor in Ukraine) (2004).

The conference will be held at the Kirchberg in Luxembourg-City, on the LuxExpo site, from 2.30 to 4 pm in room 1 on the ground floor.

In view of the war in Ukraine, it is important for me to invite you to this conference, which is about possible ways to peace and security on our continent.

With best regards for peace!

Claude Pantaleoni
President

General meetings

Report of our 5th General Assembly 2022

4 April 202221 August 2022 cw

Contents:

Welcome and war in Europe
The first “Bike for climate – bike for peace”
Operation Igor
Peace march in Bosnia-Herzegovina
The second “Bike for climate – bike for peace”
Invitation Ihor Kozlovsky
Ad Pacem 2022 calendar sale
Financial report 2021
Our support for Ukrainian scholarship holders and patients in 2021
Conference with Mrs Galina Ackerman on 7 May 2022
Updated charter of projects and objectives of the association

On Saturday 26 March 2022 the board of the association “Ad Pacem servandam – For Peace and Against War” held its fifth general assembly online. Four of the board members were present, Mr. Anselmo Malvetti excused himself for professional reasons. Several members were also excused.

Opening of the meeting

After giving a general overview of the items on the agenda, President Claude Pantaleoni explained why since 24 February Europe has entered a new area of conflict. The period of peace that had preserved our continent since 1945 was over. Therefore, in recent weeks, all the activities of the association have been focused on organising humanitarian aid sent to Ukraine and receiving Ukrainian refugee families in our Greater Region. He spoke about the many difficulties in finding people willing to take in mothers with their children, especially when these people have space. He then went on to give an overview of the activities carried out during the year 2021.

Continue reading →

Support actions for Ukraine

Success of the “Igor” operation

21 July 202121 July 2021 cw

In Newsletter No. 10 we made an appeal to support the urgent operation of Igor, a civilian victim who was seriously injured in February 2021 during clashes between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists.

Since then, Igor has been waiting at home for the possibility of an operation. But the family could not raise the money needed to pay for the operation. In the meantime Igor’s condition was getting worse.

At the end of April, we heard about his case from someone we knew. We decided to pay the costs of the operation and all the necessary treatments.

In May the operation, which had been postponed several times, could be performed. It was an operation that lasted from morning to night and where all the pieces of projectiles that Igor had received in the abdomen were removed. And his organs were put back in their place. Igor was in hospital for a month and went through a very tough post-operative period.

Today he has returned home and continues daily rehabilitation treatment in hospital. For weeks he will have to keep a strict diet but will remain disabled for the rest of his life. In a recent phone call, he thanked our association and all the donors who spontaneously made a donation to save his life.

Newsletter, Support actions for Ukraine

Igor, civilian victim of the war in Eastern Ukraine

15 May 202115 May 2021 cw

The war in Eastern Ukraine, which has almost disappeared from our media, continues to claim victims every day. Here is an urgent case that our association “Ad Pacem” has decided to support these days, if it is possible with your help.

It is an urgent operation for young Igor, a civilian victim wounded by stray bullets on the front line. His family does not have the money to pay for the operation and his stay in hospital.

Urgent surgery

In recent weeks, shooting has increased on the frontline where the Ukrainian army and Russian-armed separatists face each other. Many families continue to live there because they cannot flee elsewhere, having any friends or family to take them in.

This is the case of 22-year-old Igor, who lives with his father (who earns his living from temporary jobs) in a village near the front line.

At the end of February, he was in his garden when he was seriously wounded by stray bullets to the abdomen and hand. A first operation was carried out to urgently and temporarily treat his abdominal wound and remove two fingers. The second and more important operation was postponed several times because of the Covid health crisis in the region. We know that his father’s financial situation does not allow him to pay for this second operation, which should take place next Wednesday, 19^th of May. But it will only be done if he pays the hospital in advance and brings the medicines he has bought in advance. The surgeon advised him not to buy Russian medicines, which are cheaper but also of much lower quality and ineffective for this operation.

It was through a good acquaintance whom we have been helping for years that we were put in touch by phone with Igor’s desperate father. The operation is necessary to save the life of his son, who will have to stay in hospital for at least twenty days with special treatments. And it is also up to the father to buy all the medicines for after the operation.

According to the information we have at the moment, the expenses for Igor’s operation amount to €800, the purchase of medicines to €400, the hospitalization with special medicines to €400. It is important to know that an average worker earns at best 150 € per month in the territories occupied by the pro-Russian separatists, which is not the case for Igor’s father who has no paid job.

We appeal to your generosity to help Igor. Every donation, no matter how small, will make a difference.

You can make your donation to our bank account IBAN LU28 0099 7800 0064 0276 (BIC: CCRALULL) with the mention “Operation Igor”.

Thank you all very much! We will keep you informed about the follow-up of this urgent help in the coming weeks.

General meetings

The fourth General Assembly 2021

8 May 202116 May 2021 cw

On Saturday, March 6, the committee of the association Ad Pacem servandam (For Peace and Against War) held its fourth general assembly online. All the members of the board were present, 18 members of the association followed the meeting online, and 22 people apologized.

After giving a general overview of the different items on the agenda, President Claude Pantaleoni reviewed all the activities and operations for the year 2020.

The vice-president, Mrs. Natalya Pantaleoni, presented the aid to the victims of the war in Eastern Ukraine as well as the three new scholarship holders from this region that Ad Pacem has been supporting for a few months.

An important point of the 2020 activities was the elaboration of the Ad Pacem 2021 calendar. It was based on photos taken by four members of the association during the Peace March that runs along the front line of the Great War between 1915 and 1918 between Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was sold in parishes, high schools, and among members and friends.

Mr. Christian Welter, the treasurer, presented a detailed financial report for the year 2020 which was validated by the auditor Mr. Patrice Picart.

The committee is pleased to announce the acceptance of a new member, Mr. Laurent Tran Van Mang. The last items on the agenda concerned the next Peace March that the association plans to make in Bosnia-Herzegovina on the traces of the Balkan wars of the 1990-s. It also plans some outings with young people (bike trips, museum visits, etc.) and plans meetings with war victims.

Support actions for Ukraine

PEACE MARCH ON THE WAR FRONT 1915-18

25 September 202015 November 2020 cw

For one week, from Monday 7 September to Friday 11 September 2020, some of our members walked a stretch of the 650 km “Sentiero della Pace” (Path of Peace), which runs along the Italian or”Alpine front”of the First World War. It was here that the Italian and Austro-Hungarian armies faced each other between 1915 and 1918. The chosen route is located in the Pre-Alps of Vicenza, near the town of Rovereto and Lake Garda.

The aim was to discover, in places of the “Great War”, as the Italians call the First World War, the very harsh reality of a mountain war – little known in Europe – although it claimed about one million victims in the military corps of both countries.

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Conferences / debates / testimonies

Presentation by Mr Gabriel Becker

25 April 20202 September 2022 cw

The Ban Saint-Jean camp in Moselle (F)

On Saturday 29 February 2020, our association “For peace and against war” invited Mr Gabriel Becker, from Lorraine, to present the Nazi camp of Ban St-Jean in Moselle (F) on the 20th “Salon du Livre et des cultures” in Luxembourg. This camp is in fact a mass grave containing the remains of 20,000 Soviet prisoners of the Second World War.

Before giving the floor to the guest, the President of the Association, Mr Claude Pantaleoni, introduced Mr Becker and his research work within the AFU (French-Ukrainian Association), which is responsible for the rehabilitation of the camp.

The mass grave of Ban St-Jean is in Moselle, near Boulay, about one hour from Luxembourg. Gabriel Becker, a retired German teacher, has been researching testimonies, archive documents and memorabilia for twenty years to save the history of this Soviet prison camp from oblivion. He is vice president and co-founder of the Franco-Ukrainian Association (AFU), which works to preserve the camp.

Becker has published four books in which he explains the drama of the last world war and the ups and downs of the camp’s rehabilitation.

Nazi transit camp

The speaker began by explaining that the local population did not want to deal with this camp after the war and did everything they could to forget the place, partly because the people were worried about their survival and were busy with the difficult organisation of their daily lives.

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Conferences / debates / testimonies

Video of the conference by Mr Gabriel Becker

29 February 202018 October 2022 cw

Conferences / debates / testimonies

Our guest at the 20th “Salon du Livre et des cultures du Luxembourg” – Gabriel BECKER

11 February 202012 February 2020 cw

Saturday, February 29, 2020 at 3:30 pm

LUXEXPO KIRCHBERG LUXEMBOURG, 2nd floor

“The BAN SAINT-JEAN: Fighting for the memory of a Ukrainian and Soviet prison camp in the Moselle”

Gabriel Becker, a retired professor of German, has been collecting testimonials, archive documents and memorabilia for the past twenty years to bring back to life the history of this prison camp. He is the author of four books on the subject:

Le camp du BAN SAINT-JEAN (1941-1944), Lumière sur une honte enf(o)uie
Le drame ukrainien en France (Moselle) (1941-1944), Mementote…
Camp du Ban Saint-Jean, Moselle, La Revie
Camp du Ban Saint-Jean Moselle, Nadejda : Espoir

He is vice-president and co-founder of the Association Franco-Ukrainienne (AFU) for the rehabilitation of the Ban Saint-Jean mass grave near Boulay, Moselle.

During his lecture, he will present the twists and turns of the dark history of this transit camp (300,000 prisoners) and death camp (22,000 dead).

Support actions for Ukraine

Musical instruments for young people in Avdiivka

22 January 202022 April 2020 cw

Our non-profit organisation “Pour la Paix et contre la Guerre” financed and sent in 2019 all the musical instruments to a group of young people who want to oppose music to war.

Avdiivka is an industrial town in Ukraine, which borders the town of Donetsk controlled by pro-Russian militias. In the pre-war period, i.e. before 2014, cultural life was mainly concentrated in Donetsk. In Avdiivka there were only factories and dormitory towns. Since the summer of 2014, the inhabitants of Avdiivka have been living close to the front line.
A Ukrainian-patriotic couple, Svetlana and Oleksiy Savkevych, have been working since the beginning of the war to promote leisure activities for the young people of their town. In May 2018, they even managed to organise a festival of Ukrainian culture in Avdiivka.
This festival generated great interest in music among young people. That is why Oleksiy wanted to find and set up a music room for young people. It should be a space where young people could meet each other away from the streets and war, learn from each other and make music together.

In the beginning, the young people met in garages and abandoned houses and formed a rock band. They had poor quality guitars and only one old drum kit, which a local woman had given them as a gift. Broomsticks were used to hold the microphones. Oleksiy asked the city council and political leaders to give him a room where young people could continue to make music.
In December 2018, our association contacted Oleksiy Savkevich and offered to organise a charity concert for the benefit of young musicians in Avdiivka, so that the instruments could be financed. We then invited Oleksiy and his daughter Marika to our home. On March 24, 2019, we organized a big charity concert in Villerupt (France).
The day before, on 23 March, at the end of the mass in the church of Bascharage, Oleksiy spoke about the dangers and difficulties of daily life in Avdiivka, his hometown near the front. On this occasion, people also made donations to the project.
Thanks to the donations from Bascharage and the profits from the charity concert in Villerupt, we were able to buy the following equipment: three electric guitars, two acoustic guitars, a bass guitar, four amplifiers, a keyboard, a mixing table, two microphones, two stands and the necessary cables. The material was sent to Avdiivka at the end of December 2019. In the meantime, a large room in a school in the town has been made available to the young people for their “music room” project. They have renovated this room, and since January 2020 they have been playing music there in peace and freedom.

Support actions for Ukraine

2020 Calendar with photos of the Peace March

6 January 202012 February 2020 cw

From the end of July to the beginning of September 2019, a young member of our association, Mr. Anselmo Malvetti, undertook a peace march from Lake Geneva to the shores of the Mediterranean. He thus wanted to draw attention to the Russian-Ukrainian war which, since 2014, has caused more than 14,000 deaths and has driven 1.5 million Ukrainians from their homeland. Most of them have taken refuge in free Ukraine.

In autumn, Anselmo gave us the twelve most beautiful photos he took during his walk to make a beautiful calendar for 2020, thanks to Lisa Battestini’s design.

Since the beginning of December it has been sold for 10€ (8€ for students). 100% of the profit goes to the victims of the wars that we help to rebuild their lives. On our website you can see examples of how we are helping them in a concrete way.
If someone still wants to buy a calendar, they can do so by ordering it by phone (+352 621 280 850) or by sending a text message, leaving their name and phone number.