Tears of grief over victims, wreaths laid
100 years after the guns fell silent
A MALMESBURY mother could not hold back the tears as she and her daughter laid wreaths honouring her son at yesterday’s Remembrance Day Memorial Parade at the Cenotaph on the Foreshore.
Eleanor Apolis’s son, Rifleman Carlo Apolis, serving as a British soldier, was killed in Afghanistan in 2010.
The 74-year-old Apolis and daughter Olivia Apolis, 38, as well as a British Rifles representative, laid two wreaths in memory of Carlo under statues commemorating soldiers who died in the two World Wars and subsequent wars.
“I felt very heartsore because I have thought a lot about him, and still think a lot about him.
“I feel very happy that they took notice of him in honouring him and others at today’s event,” said Apolis.
Olivia said her 28-year-old brother was serving as a British Rifleman in Afghanistan when he was killed.
“He was shot dead on March 1, 2010, and every year since 2011 we have been coming here to the commemoration,” she said.
The two were among a line of local and foreign dignitaries as well as SANDF Army, Navy and Air Force personnel, representatives of local institutions and deceased soldiers’ relatives who laid wreaths.
World War II veteran soldiers who laid wreaths at the commemoration included Trooper Walter Brewis, 93, Gunner Douglas Robertson, 93, and Sydney Ireland.
Speaking at the commemoration in front of 300 guests and dignitaries, City deputy mayor Ian Neilson said:
“On this, the 11th day of the 11th month, at 11 o’clock, we join the rest of the world in commemorating the bravery of those who fought, lived through, and died during World War I, and all subsequent wars.
“Today, this commemoration is particularly significant. It marks the centenary of the signing of the Armistice that brought an end to a horrific, cataclysmic war.
“This historic event marked the end of four brutal years that claimed the lives of between 15 and 19 million people – an estimated seven million civilians, and 10 million military personnel.”
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron used an address to world leaders in Paris for Armistice commemorations to send a stern message about the dangers of nationalism, calling it a betrayal of moral values.
With US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin sitting metres away listening to the speech via translation earpieces, Macron denounced those who evoke nationalist sentiment to disadvantage others.
“Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism: nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism,” Macron said in a 20-minute address delivered from under the Arc de Triomphe to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.
“By pursuing our own interests first, with no regard to others’, we erase the very thing that a nation holds most precious, that which gives it life and makes it great: its moral values.”
Macron said that “old demons are reawakening” and warned against ignoring the past.
“History sometimes threatens to repeat its tragic patterns, and undermine the legacy of peace we thought we had sealed with the blood of our ancestors,” he said.