a podcast of memories with “The Children of the Liberation”

In 1944, at the Liberation, they were aged 9, 10 or 14 years old. While the commemorations of the landing of June 6, 1944 will soon begin, franceinfo found these witnesses 80 years later to give them a voice.

The podcast “Les Enfants de la Libération”, produced by the franceinfo editorial staff, in partnership with the Mission Libération, is available on Wednesday May 22. These eight episodes are filled with the memories of girls and boys who lived through the Second World War, until the liberation of France initiated by the landings of June 6, 1944.

Moving stories, like the testimony of Jean Pivain, who at the time was tossed between Cherbourg and Saint-James, in Normandy. LOne of his first memories of the war, at age 14, was the distribution of gas masks. “It was almost a game of having our gas mask, with our schoolbag, it was quite fun”, tell-t-he. Then he remembers the Allied landings and the terrible Battle of Normandy that followed.

Others, like Jaqueline, remembers a daily life which, when she was 9 years old, seemed natural to her: “It was normal to be cold and have power outages, she explains. It was normal that the windows be painted blue, so as not to light up the street and so that the planes do not see us.”

Andrée, for her part, remembers the wonder felt at the age of 12, when she saw “beautiful” American paratroopers “with branches on his head and all motleys black” and above all smiling: “It was rare to see someone smile.”, she confides. And Gérard recounts his cohabitation in a high place of resistance nestled in the mountains, in one of these farms which served as a “great landmark for the maquis”.

“Les Enfants de la Libération”, a series in partnership with the Mission Libération to be found in podcast, on the RadioFrance application and platforms.