“The shocks of History sometimes leave deep scars, poignant testimonies of tragic destinies immersed in the tumults of a tormented era. On September 1, 1914, in Remenoville in Meurthe-et-Moselle, a dark page was written in the annals of the Great War. Commander Frédéric-Henri Wolff, an eminent figure of the war, was shot in front of a firing squad. The twilight of his life was draped in the shadow of infamy, leaving behind a legacy tinged with controversy and drama.
In the folds of the past, between the yellowed lines of the archives, the portrait of a man with a broken destiny emerges, engulfed by the torments of the First World War. Appointed to command the 36th Colonial Infantry Regiment, Frédéric-Henri Wolff was confronted with the unspeakable horror of the trenches, the roar of the cannons and the bloody jousts of the Battle of Lorraine. That fateful day of August 25, 1914, marked by rout and terror, sealed his destiny forever.
Under heavy fire from the German troops entrenched in Einvaux, the commander’s fatal decision to wave a white handkerchief, like a final appeal for clemency from a merciless enemy, was interpreted as an act of treason, a sign of capitulation. The roar of the rifles echoed in the twilight, carrying away with it a man and his honor, condemned to the icy lawn of death.
The glimmers of martial justice, implacable in its rigor, pronounced a final verdict. Accused of “attempted capitulation and provocation to flee in the presence of the enemy”, Frédéric-Henri Wolff was sentenced to be shot as an example. A cruel sentence, a human tragedy among many others inscribed on the pediment of the losses of the Great War.
Against the passing of time, the author Éric Viot, a fervent history lover and ardent defender of the memory of those shot, has looked into the tragic fate of Commander Wolff. Through the shreds of memory and the distant echoes of testimonies, he has woven the poignant story of this man crushed by the merciless mechanisms of war. His work “Sauver mes hommes” resonates like a vibrant homage to a forgotten figure, to an injustice revealed, to a tragedy too long relegated to the darkness of the oblivion of History.
Thus, like a modern-day scribe, Éric Viot exhumes the ghosts of the past, rekindling the flickering flames of memory. Through the torments of Frédéric-Henri Wolff, the muffled echo of the sacrifices of the Great War emerges, men crushed by the terrible spiral of violence and madness.
The tragic fate of Commander Wolff, the final tremor of a troubled era, reminds us of the urgent need to preserve memory, to pass on the testimony of the forgotten. In the shadow of silent monuments, in the murmur of yellowed archives, resonates the echo of broken lives, stolen destinies, men and women swept away by the whirlwind of History.
Thus, let us remember, with respect and emotion, the sacrifice of these lost souls, the destiny of these forgotten men and women, who, in the eternal shadow of the trenches, burn like so many stars in the dark night of oblivion.”