Today's Date:

If there are places that are symbolic of our nation, places that rally the French people, regardless of their differences, origins and divisions, Verdun is one of them.

The indescribable acts against the Douaumont Memorial are a collective injury. In insulting the memory of Jewish soldiers who gave their lives for their country, they are an offense to the entire nation.

Anti-Semitism, racism and hatred of the other are profoundly contrary to the values that all French people share.

In addition to the full and complete mobilization of the public authorities, and the unshakeable determination of the government which is doing everything to ensure that the guilty are found, tried and punished with all the rigor of our laws, I call on every French man and woman to be vigilant, to reject hatred and to respect the Other.

Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, engraved on the pediments of our buildings and enshrined in the founding texts of the Republic, are an obligation every day.

It is up to us all to serve, defend and transmit these fundamental principles which we have received as our heritage.

Jacques Chirac