Distinguished guests,

Dear friends,

 

Here in Errol we gathered today to recollect the heroism of our forefathers who liberated the world from Nazism, to remember their sacrifices and the courage it took them to fulfill their duty and to defend future generations from the horrors of Nazism.  Five years have passed since we gathered here for the first time. And I am very pleased that more and more people come here to pay tribute to both valiant and tragic pages of our joint history.

 

All these ceremonies remind us how much it is important to give legacy to the young generations. A legacy of fraternity in battles, a legacy of reconciliation in the peace.

 

It also helps us to remember that the bravery and their sense of sacrifice deserves our respect. Let us be, in climate of peace, as brave and generous as they were in this hard time.

 

Shall we remember all those who did not come back: their courage in battle, their endurance in the face of a merciless enemy, let us bow to the memory of the men perished in the flame of the Second World War.

 

British poet Wilfrid Wilson Gibson tearfully wrote about those who never came back from war:

 

We who are left, how shall we look again 

Happily on the sun or feel the rain 

Without remembering how they who went 

Ungrudgingly and spent 

Their lives for us loved, too, the sun and rain? 

 

I thank you all for coming here today to show your respect to their sacrifice and your willingness to keep the memory of them.