War memorial

Monument aux morts

Situated at Henri Barbusse Square, this monument consists of a base (a stone mount), surmounted by a World War I soldier. The front of the base features a plaque reading (in French) “From Neuilly-sur-Marne to its children who died for France, 1914-1918, 1939-1945”. On the sides of the base, two plaques list the dead in the First World War.

Two tablets can be seen in front of the base. The first reads: “The War of 1939-1945, to the soldiers who died for France (…), to the resistance fighters and deportees, who died for France, killed in action or during deportation (…)”.

The second reads: “The war of 1939-1945, to the civilian victims who died for France (…). The Indochina War 1946-1954 (…). The Algerian War 1954-1962 (…).”

A remembrance day plate (‘Souvenir Français’) appears at the foot of the monument.

This monument has the particularity of having been made by the sculptor Paul Moreau-Vautier. He was born on 26 November 1871 and died on 2 February 1936. He is buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris. He designed the “Bornes Vauthier”.

These “bornes” or border stones were erected between 1921 and 1927 to mark the front line as it stood on 18 July 1918, at the end of the First World War, from the North Sea to the Swiss border (between Nieuwpoort in Belgium and Moosch close to Altkirch/Belfort on the French/Swiss border.

Paul Moreau-Vauthier also created other war memorials in Bischwiller, Thonon-les-Bains, Yvetot, Calais, Suippes and elsewhere.