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65 years after the first major meeting of former French prisoners of war from Hünfeld, the descendants came together in Dijon.
Hünfeld – 65 years after the first major meeting of former French prisoners of war from the Hünfeld camp, their children and grandchildren have gathered again in Dijon, France. René Sabot, son of a former prisoner of war, with the support of his son Jérôme, invited the descendants to the remembrance meeting in Dijon. The “formers” initially met every year in a different place in France. The first major meeting took place in Dijon in Burgundy in 1961.
The former mayor Dr. Eberhard Fennel (CDU) with his wife Rita. Fennel has attended all meetings since 1978. The delegation also included Claudia Scholl-Kleinfelder with her husband Dieter Kleinfelder and Hans Beuting, who at 91 was the oldest participant. Beuting had captured numerous meetings in impressive video documentation over the years.
Hünfeld's delegation travels to Dijon for a memorial meeting
The participants experienced a varied program with a city tour. The final evening took place in the same room where the “alumni” had already gathered in 1961. After remembering the deceased, organizer René Sabot thanked the Hünfeld group for coming. He described the friendship between the “formers” and the city in which they had spent four and a half years as prisoners as unique in Europe.
Claudia Scholl-Kleinfelder brought greetings and gifts from her mother Rita Kohlmann, who, together with her husband Bernard, had set up a foundation in 1999 to care for the memory of the “formers”. The foundation was dissolved in 2023. Dr. Eberhard Fennel gave greetings from Hünfeld's incumbent mayor Benjamin Tschesnok (CDU), also accompanied by small gifts.
Rita Fennel remembered the planting of an oak tree in 1977 by the alumni in the Hünfeld community park. Each of the former prisoners had brought soil with them from their hometown. She quoted Carl Zuckmayer's text on the bronze plaque there: “If yesterday it was our duty to be enemies, today it is our right to become brothers.”
The friendly contacts with Hünfeld began with a first visit by a group of “alumni” in 1962. At a chance meeting with the then city priest, Dean Karl Medler, the confidant Jean Vermesse expressed the desire to meet in Hünfeld. The mayor at the time, Wolfgang Gleis, immediately sent him an invitation from the magistrate for the “formers” and their families.
At that first meeting in Hünfeld, the guests were able to enjoy “Hünfeld Medicine” – the Aha Excelsior – for the first time. This tradition lives on: after the dinners in Dijon, Dr. Eberhard Fennel a round of the liqueur, which the participants sang about with the Hünfelder Aha song.
