Scene from the Fête de la Victoire celebration in the Hotel de la Collectivité garden on May 8. (Collectivité photos)
MARIGOT--State representative Sous Préfet Fabien Sésé and Vice Presidents Bernadette Davis and Michel Petit joined the Territorial Police, Gendarmes and war veterans to celebrate Fête de la Victoire on Wednesday, May 8, in the garden of Hotel de La Collectivité.
Colonel Maxime Wintzer Wehekind pins a decoration on David Rabeau’s lapel
May 8, 1945, marked the end of World War II in Europe with victory of the allies over Nazi Germany. The elected officials and St. Martin War Veterans Association President Robert Garron laid wreaths at the war memorial in memory of the fallen.
Children from SOS Children of the Northern Islands presented the trip they had made on the beaches of Normandy while Colonel Maxime Wintzer-Wehekind, Commandant of the Gendarmerie of St. Martin and St. Barths bestowed the Combattant Cross decoration on David Rabeau for his participation in foreign operations.
The surrender of the German army was signed on May 7, 1945, in Reims, at the headquarters of the Allied Forces in Western Europe, led by American General Eisenhower.
On May 8, 1945, a new act of surrender was signed in Berlin by the German high command, in the presence of the USSR, France, the United Kingdom and the United States.
