Handwritten copy of 1930 speech by French ambassador to American Gold Star Mothers donated to ABMC
Published: 13 April 2024
By Dr. Monique Seefried
Commissioner, U.S. World War I Centennial Commission
On February 28, 2024, Marie Claudel, the granddaughter of Ambassador Paul Claudel, donated to the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) the handwritten copy of the speech her grandfather gave to a group of Gold Star Mothers. He spoke to them on June 5, 1930. These ladies were on a pilgrimage to visit the places in France where their sons and husbands fought and died during WWI, as well as the cemeteries where they were, are honored and buried. Claudel was French ambassador in Washington at the time.
The donation ceremony took place at the Chateau-Thierry American Memorial Visitors’ Center in the presence of ABMC personnel, including Edmund Ryan, ABMC Executive Director for Operations, and of Cindy Chip, past National President of the Gold Star Mothers (mother of SGT Michael C. Hardegree Dec.20 1985 -Sept 10, 2007).
Towering over the city, the American Memorial could not be a more fitting destination for this powerful and moving tribute to the Americans who gave their life for the defense of democracy.
Claudel was a diplomat, but he was also a poet and a dramatism, one of the giants of French literature in the first half of the XXth century. His deep-seated faith contributed to the mysticism and the breath of his writings.
With his sister, the famous sculptor Camille Claudel (1864-1943), he had spent his childhood in the dark forests of the Tardenois, near Château-Thierry, playing in the woods. At an early age, Camille started kneading the local heavy clay, while Paul was dreaming and already composing poetry. He would remain deeply attached to this land that had seen so many battles, so many conquerors, and where he had first felt his inspiration.
While this gift, this ceremony, have meant a lot to me, not only as a WWI Centennial Commissioner, but also because Marie Claudel is my son’s godmother, and our fathers were already friends at the time of this speech, it would be preposterous for me to say anymore. The reader should let the words of Claudel speak for themselves.