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Video length: 3 min
80 years since the landing in Provence: Mireille Bucci, 11 years old in 1944, recounts the day when everything changed
80 years since the landing in Provence: Mireille Bucci, 11 years old in 1944, recounts the day when everything changed
(france 2)
The commemorations of the landing in Provence have a particular echo for those who were present on August 15, 1944. This was the case for Mireille Bucci, who was then 11 years old.
At 91, Mireille Bussi comes every morning to the beach where her life was turned upside down. On August 15, 1944, the Allies landed in Provence. Then aged 11, she witnessed the landing after taking shelter all night. “There, as far as the eye could see, it was just one warship next to another warship (…) One after the other they approached the beach, they opened up, unloaded the Jeeps, the tanks, the soldiers,” she says.
250,000 men landed, including Americans, British, French and North African and Senegalese riflemen. At the time, Mireille Bucci’s parents managed a hotel requisitioned by the Nazis. Despite the years, the trauma has remained intact. “I see them again at the windows, with their boots on the ledges, like that, in conquered territory”she remembers. Once the hotel was liberated, she taunted the Germans who were now prisoners. This year, as she has for the past 80 years, Mireille Bucci is attending the commemorations in homage to her liberators.
- Testimony: Miteille Bucci
- archive: INA, City of Sainte Maxime, NARA
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