64, not being a memorable number, doesn't have the same symbolism as, say, 65. I'm talking about commemorations, as in today's ceremonies throughout France and other European countries, marking the beginning of the end of World War II - "V.E. Day." Victory in Europe, May 8, 1945 - sixty four years ago.
Bill Clinton did the right thing by traveling to Moscow for the last big one, the 50th in 1995. We tend to forget the crucial Soviet role in defeating the Nazis these days - but Russian President Medvedev won't let that happen.
Forgotten too are the promises made to rectify the unjust treatment of "colonial" troops who helped liberate France in the Second World War (the photo at left is of one of the Algerian tirailleurs buried in the First World War cemetery of Notre Dame de Lorette, regularly desecrated by vandals).
Today French President Nicolas Sarkozy, marking the anniversary of the German surrender at Reims, decided to travel to the Mediterranean coast, the scene of the landing by (mostly colonial) French forces in August 1944, and today a gathering of much of France's naval might.
"France will never forget their sacrifice," said the President of the colonial soldiers, nor their "admirable courage." Perhaps.
But by choosing this particular site and by singling out the colonial troops, he called attention to one of the major items of unfinished business in post-war France: how it is that 64 years after the end of the war, the average metropolitan French war veteran gets an $800 monthly pension and the average North African gets about $100?
Was this a conscious decision to make them return to their villages in the Atlas Mountains? Separate them from their children, born in France? Many of these veterans still have only limited rights when it comes to length of stay in France.
"Les oubliés de la République," as they are called by an association of the same name (logo below right), do indeed appear to be forgotten by the Republic that they helped save. As one of their members noted wryly on French radio, "will the last indigène get a state burial and then be forgotten?" Indigènes, the 2006 film that brought then-President Jacques Chirac to pledge an end to discriminatory treatment of the colonial veterans, was a reasonably good war film that portrayed a group of North African French soldiers, "Band of Brothers" style. It packed a powerful ending: a few minutes of flash-forward showing one of the heroes in present-day France, eking out a living in a decrepit one-room apartment.
The disgraceful treatment of these French soldiers of color began early, and not only at the hands of the French. As German troops blitzkrieged their way through Belgium and France in May-June 1940, some 17,000 African soldiers were killed, many executed by the Germans after they had surrendered. But the Allies were little more enlightened in matters of color. Last month the BBC unearthed documents that showed how American and British generals insisted that their French counterparts constitute photogenic "all-white" units to parade through liberated Paris.
On this day of solemn commemoration and pious hypocrisy, "Les oubliés de la République" reminded us that President Sarkozy's first act in office was to give a generous "bouclier fiscal" or tax cut to his wealthier constituents. And that it would cost a fraction of that bill to give the dwindling ranks of "les oubliés" a decent living.