Should the memory of the Rodina detachment be used to glorify the totalitarian regimes of Russia and Belarus?
Invitation to join a peaceful demonstration
on Sunday 27 September from 9.30 am
on the forecourt of the mine in Thil (F)
GPS coordinates:
Latitude: 49.4667° N (49° 28’ 00” N)
Longitude: 5.9000° E (5° 54’ 00” E)
On Sunday 27 September, in Thil (near Villerupt in Meurthe-et-Moselle), statues will be unveiled in memory of the Soviet women of the Rodina detachment. These women escaped from the Nazi labour camp at Thil during the Second World War to join the French Resistance, where they fought until the end of the war.
Our association, ‘Ad Pacem servandam – For Peace and Against War’, fully recognises the merit of these heroines. We support the mayor, Mr Stéphan Brusco’s, initiative to preserve the history of their struggles against Nazism for future generations.
HOWEVER, we do not agree that representatives and diplomats from the Russian and Belarusian states should come and usurp this moment of honouring these Soviet women who fought for freedom. Indeed, Russia and Belarus are totalitarian regimes that imprison, torture and deport thousands of their own citizens who oppose them and fight for freedoms and human rights. Most are also opposed to the war of aggression against Ukraine.
Furthermore, Russia is killing, deporting and torturing tens of thousands of Ukrainians in the territories it has occupied militarily since 2014.
Dear members, you are all invited to come and publicly demonstrate your opposition to the presence of Russian and Belarusian diplomats on the free soil of France. Moreover, these statues commemorating Soviet women were funded by the Russian oil company Tatneft PJSC, which is not permitted to sell its oil in Europe.
We have notified both Thil Town Hall and the Prefecture of Meurthe-et-Moselle in Nancy of our association’s presence at the ceremony.
We hope to see you on Sunday in Thil from 9.30 am on the forecourt of the mine.
Best regards!
Claude Pantaleoni
Chairman of Ad Pacem servandam