DA-VMF Caucus Member Participates in French National Deportation Remembrance Day

On April 21 the DA France-VMF Caucus was invited to participate in France's National Deportation Remembrance Day in Paris. The invitation was in recognition of the Americans who were deported from France, in many cases because of their involvement with the French Resistance during WWII. About 150,000 people were deported from France during WWII. Over 100,000 never came back.

The first part of the ceremony took place at the Shoah Memorial, a WWII Holocaust Museum opened in 2005 with survivors’ testimonies in videos, explanatory documents, archives, a teaching center and the marble walls with all the victims’ names inscribed.

After this, an army band led the attendées through the streets of Paris to an emotionally moving ceremony at the Deportation Martyrs Memorialbehind Notre Dame Cathedral, which included poems, speeches including one by a 97-year old deportée who wo
re a jacket from his concentration camp, an army chorale, and the lighting of the flame, all in beautiful pomp and ceremony.

The third ceremony took place at the Arc de Triomphe where the DA France-VMF Caucus was represented by Karen Kenny and Tilly Gaillard, who participated in the wreath-laying ceremony.

For more information and photos, please visit our DA VMF France website by clicking here.

 May 2022 Memorial Day Commemoration Events: Please join us!

• The DA-Germany VMF Caucus and DA-Luxembourg will lay wreaths at the Luxembourg American Cemetery on May 28th at the Memorial Day Commemoration Event. Send an email here to request details.
• DA-France will lay wreaths at the different American cemeteries in France on Sunday, May 29th at the Memorial Day Commemoration ceremonies. This is a tradition that began in 2009 with our Normandy Chapter and then expanded to the other ABMC cemeteries throughout France. It is natural for us to want to honor the service, memory, and sacrifice. Here we are today, carrying on the legacy with Democrats who are laying wreaths, honoring the memory and sacrifice, and showing the rest of the world that DA-France deeply cares, and will never forget. Send an email here to request details.
• DA-UK will lay wreaths at the Cambridge American Cemetery on Saturday May 28th. Send an email here to request details.

Ghost Army Congressional Gold Medal Act: Last year the DA-Germany VMF Caucus and DA-Luxembourg honored SSgt. George Peddle from the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, aka Ghost Army, buried at the Luxembourg American Cemetery. Efforts have been underway to convince Congress to award a Congressional Gold Medal to SSgt. Peddle and the other soldiers of The Ghost Army. We are happy to announce that the bill finally passed in the Senate and President Biden signed S.1404, the Ghost Army Congressional Gold Medal Act, into law on February 1, 2022. To watch Biden sign the Ghost Army Congressional Gold Medal Act into law, click here and here. Click here for a short video about SSgt. Peddle. For a website dedicated to the Ghost Army, click here. ​Click here to watch Ghost Army: How American Troops Fooled The Nazis During WWII.