French Historic Figure 3

Jean Moulin

(1899 – 1943)

"I didn’t know it was so simple to do one’s duty 

when one is in danger" 
  

Jean Moulin was a high-profile member of the French Resistance during World War II. 
He is remembered today as an emblem of the Resistance primarily because of his role in unifying the French Resistance and his courage and death in the hands of the Germans.

He was born in Béziers on June, 20^th 1899. He joined the French army in 1918. 

Moulin was not only a Resistance fighter and a civil servant but an artist too. He’d been a political cartoonist for the newspaper Le Rire (under the pseudonym Romanin), as well as an illustrator for Poet Tristan Corbière’s books.

As the main Resistance leader, Moulin’s work involved meeting local resistance leaders across the country. He worked with General De Gaulle who entrusted him many important missions.

He was arrested on June, 21^st 1943 by the Gestapo of Klaus Barbie at Caluire, near Lyon. 
The president of the National Council of the Resistance (CNR) died during his transfer to Germany. 
According to the official thesis, he died at Metz after being tortured. Despite the brutality of the different interrogations, he never revealed any information about the action of the CNR.  

His ashes were transferred to the Pantheon in 1964.

Why choosing Jean Moulin?

One can admire Jean Moulin for his courage, and his determination to fight for France. He was imprisoned and tortured by the Nazis but he never revealed anything.

Jean Moulin represents fundamental values such as freedom, courage, resistance, integrity and he is a model for humanity.

On a European scale, Jean Moulin was a major figure during World War Two because he was the leader of the French Resistance, which played a vital part in aiding the Allies to success in Western Europe.

French Historic Figure 2

Marie Curie

Marie Skłodowska Curie (7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish-born French physicist and chemist famous for her work on radioactivity.  She was a pioneer in the field of radioactivity and the first person honored with two Nobel Prizes —in physics and chemistry. She was also the first female professor at the University of Paris.

She was born Maria Skłodowska in Warsaw (then in Vistula Land, Russian Empire; now in Poland) and lived there until she was twenty-four. In 1891, she followed her older sister Bronisława to study in Paris, where she obtained her higher degrees and conducted her subsequent scientific work. 

Marie Curie founded the Curie Institutes in Paris and Warsaw. Her husband Pierre Curie shared her Nobel prize in physics. She was the sole winner of the 1911 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and she is the only woman who won the award in two different fields.

Her achievements include the creation of a theory of radioactivity, techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes, and the discovery of two new elements, polonium and radium. Under her direction, the world's first studies were conducted into the treatment of neoplasms (cancers) using radioactive isotopes.

While an actively loyal French citizen, Marie Curie never lost her sense of Polish identity. She named the first new chemical element that she discovered polonium (1898) for her native country, and in 1932 she founded a Radium Institute (now the Maria Skłodowska–Curie Institute of Oncology) in her home town, Warsaw, headed by her physician sister Bronisława.

Why choosing Marie Curie?

We think this woman was very important because she discovered radium and polonium. 

She’s one of the symbols of the European Union because she was Polish and she died in France after a life of research in Chemistry and Physics.  Her husband was French.    

French Historic Figure 1

Aristide Briand

(1862 - 1932)

Aristide Briand was a French statesman who served eleven terms as Prime Minister of France during the French Third Republic and received the 1926 Nobel Peace Prize.

He was born on the 28 of March 1862 in Nantes from a bourgeois family. He studied law at the Lycée de Nantes and became a famous statesman who served as Prime Minister and Foreign Minister during the French Third Republic.

Aristide Briand received the 1926 Nobel Peace Prize together with Gustav Stresemann of Germany for the Locarno Treaties in which the First World War Western European Allied powers and the new states of central and Eastern Europe sought to return normalizing relations with defeated Germany.

Aristide Briand was the first to propose a union of European nations, in a speech delivered during a conference of the League of Nations on the 5th of September 1929. Then, in 1930, he wrote his « Memorandum on the Organization of a Regime of European Federal Union » for the Government of France, becoming the first European government formally to adopt the principle.

Why choosing Aristide Briand?

Aristide Briand was a forerunner with a pacifist approach of the problems of his time. 

He is one of the fathers of the European Union.
  

He made a great step in the direction of our actual Democracy and Republic.

Student evaluation report 3

To read the report, please click HERE.

Clues about History

HERE are the riddles written by the students:

FRANCE

1. In this city, in 804, Charlemagne received Pope Leo III.
2. Clovis I was baptized in this city between 496 and 499 AD by bishop Saint Remy.
3. The Cathedral of this city was completed by the end of the 15th century and was registered in the UNESCO heritage in 1991.
4. Charles X was the last French king who was crowned in this city, on May 29, 1825. 
5. In 1000, the archbishop of this city, Gerbert d'Aurillac, was elected as Pope Sylvester II.

BULGARIA

1. There is a hill called Tsarevets (the King’s hill) in this city. 
2. It is the town, where in 1185, Assen and Peter announced the end of the Byzantine oppression of Bulgaria.
3. The town was the capital of the second Bulgarian Kingdom (1187-1393).
4. Where was the Great National Assembly of Bulgaria summoned?

 NORWAY

1. One of the most famous battles in Norwegian history.
2. The main character in the battle was?
3. This happened in Trøndelag county, but which Municipality was it in?
4. Which year did this happen?

POLAND

1. The next stop is the largest city in the Northern part of Poland. It is the place where a political movement called 'Solidarity' was founded. 
2. It is also the birthplace of the present Polish Prime Minister - Donald Tusk.
3. The most relevant character in Polish history, connected with the city, is a well-known Polish politician who was the co-founder of 'Solidarity' as well as a human-rights activist. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983.
4. You can find his statue in London's wax museum - Madame Tussauds.

  

CZECH REPUBLIC 

- a small city in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic

- is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

- construction of the town and castle began in the late 13th century

- the castle complex is unusually large for a town's size; within the Czech Republic it is second in extent only to the Hradčany castle complex of Prague

- about 30 km from the town is the Hluboka Castle, established in the twelfth century and later remodelled in imitation of Windsor Castle

BELGIUM

1) An important Flemish town for the textile industry;  during the 19th century there were many social problems, people were living in miserable circumstances. A famous priest tried to help the suffering population by means of politics.

2) The nickname of the inhabitants of this town refers to a kind of vegetables.

3) Birthplace of this well-known author who wrote a successful novel with typical characters such as the bold Ondineke, Tippetotje, Mossieu Colson working in a ministry…

4) Every year the carnival parade attracts many lookers-on.

5) The town is also known for its numerous (Dutch) gin distilleries.