Their story.
Le Luc-en-Provence: The War Memorial—A Century of Remembrance in a Single Place. In the form of an obelisk, indeed, the war memorial in Le Luc brings together far more than just the names from 1914–1918: five conflicts, two liberating armies, and a contemporary artwork coexist there.
The monument bears the inscription “Le Luc, in memory of its sons who died for France, 1914–1918,” beneath a relief of palm and laurel leaves and the town’s coat of arms. Engraved on its sides are the names of more than seventy residents of Le Luc who fell during the Great War. All around it, the memorial wall has, over the decades, been adorned with plaques commemorating those who died in 1939–1945, deportees and members of the Resistance, the battles in Algeria, the Clandestine Liberation Committee, and the village’s liberators.
- One Liberation, Two Armies: On August 17, 1944, Le Luc was liberated—and two plaques commemorate the event. One, in French and English, was installed in 2016 at the request of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Division Association: “Rock of the Marne!” The other honors General de Lattre de Tassigny’s 1st French Army. That same day, four crew members of the tank *Tonnerre*, from the 2nd Cuirassiers, fell in defense of the town: Maurice Bernin, Roger Millerand, Raymond Baclet, and Jean Bisbal.
- Newton on a war memorial: A plaque unveiled on November 11, 1938, for the 20th anniversary of the Armistice, bears a quote attributed to Isaac Newton: “Honest people of all times, all countries, and all philosophies—we are all friends and we fraternize in the pursuit of truth, which is the highest object of human ambition.” A call for universal brotherhood engraved less than two years before the invasion.
- Two Hands for an Olive Tree: Unveiled on November 10, 2022, by Mayor Dominique Lain, Thierry Hermier’s work, *La mémoire de 2 mains* (*The Memory of Two Hands*), encases an olive tree between two stone palms: “The men we honor here gave their lives for peace.”
