À tous les Français" (To all the French people)

Item Details

Paris, France, Comité de l'Union, 1918

First edition, good condition.

This very large and fragile example of a letterpress printed broadside is an appeal titled "À tous les Français" (To all the French people) published around 1918, near the very end of World War I, by the Union of Fathers and Mothers Whose Sons Died for the Fatherland (Union des pères et des mères dont les fils sont morts pour la patrie) , chaired by Henry Bonnet.

33.5 x 48.25 inches

Condition: See images. Marginal losses and tears, but no loss of text. Creases.

Issued by “Comité de l'Union" during the final stages of WWI, the text vehemently rejects any premature or lenient "bastard peace” (paix bâtarde) or compromise offers from Germany and Austria-Hungary, demanding instead total victory, accountability, and security guarantees so that the fallen soldiers’ sacrifice is not betrayed. It invokes the voice of the dead sons ("Écoutez la voix des Morts!") to rally the French population—particularly mothers and women in mourning—to stay resolute until complete victory is achieved.

Our dead children stand to demand it of us…They want peace through victory, for which they gave their lives. May the Mothers, may all French Women in mourning, help us make their voices heard. And soon the glorious dawn will shine on the graves where the dead await it.

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