History and society People
Profils 14-18 - Témoignages de la Grande Guerre
2016
From all four corners of the world, they are the last surviving witnesses who directly experienced the First World War. They recounted their stories between 1996 and 2008. Personal accounts that are both rare and remarkable, with additional material provided by the French historian Jean-Pierre Verney.
Episode 1
8 min
Combats - Partie 1
Yser, Chemin des Dames, Verdun : "En quelques centaines de mètres, c'était déjà l'hécatombe."
Episode 2
9 min
Combats - Partie 2
Le front russe, troupes de choc, fraternité : "On n'était pas volontaire pour tuer, mais il le fallait bien."
Episode 3
9 min
Les débuts
Août 1914, incompréhension, impréparation : "Ils sont tous convaincus que la guerre sera courte."
Episode 4
9 min
Désobéissance
La chanson de Craonne, les mutineries de 1917 : "Dès août 1914, la justice militaire devient féroce."
Episode 5
8 min
Hasard et destin
Pourquoi moi ? intuition : "L'obus et la balle ne choisissent pas leur victime."
From all four corners of the world, they are the last surviving witnesses who directly experienced the First World War. They recounted their stories between 1996 and 2008. Personal accounts that are both rare and remarkable, with additional material provided by the French historian Jean-Pierre Verney.
Sixty years of music, thousands of concerts, four and a half million albums sold, fifteen gold discs, thirty schools bearing his name... Henri Dès is a monument. In Switzerland, France, Belgium and Quebec, four generations of children know his songs. An intimate look at the creator.
Claudia Lebeuf arrived in Toronto fifty years ago, to marry an Egyptian widower. Later, when selling the family property, La Reille, in Carcassonne, she discovered a series of letters between her ancestors. For Claudia it's the start of a quest for identity, in the footsteps of her great-grandmother Rosine.
Before starting her career as a citizenship judge, Suzanne Pinel captivated the heart of thousands of children across Canada with her iconic character as Marie-Soleil. A great ambassador for French-speaking culture, she highlights the importance of protecting all languages and cultures in a multicultural Canada.
1950. At the dawn of the wildest decade in Argentina, a promising Italian illustrator arrives in Buenos Aires. He is dazzled by the country's dramatic economic development and its lively cultural scene. The young man soon makes a name for himself, and Hugo Pratt is born.
How to become the funniest and most popular cartoonist of your time? We discover the archives of Philippe Becquelin, alias Mix & Remix: from childhood and through the lean years to final fame... His friend Frédéric Pajak, writer and illustrator, paints his portrait in the form of an open letter.
Being confronted with having a family member in prison is always difficult, particularly for children. Prisoners' families, around 50,000 people in Switzerland, feel as if they are sharing the sentence and with few organisations offering support coping is even harder. Their personal stories come across as a cry for help.
They were aged between 5 and 12 in 1940. The war and the Occupation would forever mark their lives. For four years, every day, mostly at school, sometimes at home, these children were brainwashed into supporting Marshal Pétain, the self-proclaimed saviour of a crippled France. Here are their testimonials.
