May Our Remembrance Become Our Renewal – Part 2

Remarks made at the annual Celebration of Remembrance & Renewal of the Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite of Utah, James Lowe Chapter Rose Croix in the Valley of Salt Lake on Thursday, April 23, 2009

There are four practices that will allow us to turn remembrance into renewal more often. First: We must faithfully and accurately record the memory.

Recently, the Frenchman Joseph Brocard passed away at the age of 88. Joseph was the last surviving member of the French Resistance network Agir, and is best remembered for locating and identifying the “Doodlebug” launch sites in northern France.

As noted in his Obituary in the Financial Times: In December 1941, while seeking out the French Resistance, Joseph Brocard was sent to meet “… Michel Hollard, a French veteran of the first world war who had … contacted an officer of the British Special Intelligence Service and … set up the Agir (Resistance) network.”[1]

Thereafter, “Brocard traveled around France, often by bicycle, under the cover of looking for wood for Hollard’s company … On the SIS’s instructions, to ensure secrecy, Agir agents were not to contact their families…use phones, radios or even the mail…Hollard collected their reports by hand …”

“When they first located the top-secret sites in Northern France (Brocard and other Agir Agents) did not know that these were for launching the V1, which could fly 100 miles… (And) carry a ton of explosives. With Agir’s maps, the RAF was able to destroy most of the V1 sites as part of Operation Crossbow …”[2]

“Brocard was arrested by the Nazis in July 1943 after being caught mapping a German airfield. He was tortured for five days before leaping from the fourth-floor window of a Gestapo-occupied villa near Paris, breaking his spine in two places.”

“…He found his way to Paris and to Hollard, who had his comrade’s torso placed in plaster. To get him proper treatment, Hollard smuggled his friend across the Swiss border on foot, sometimes crawling, sometimes with Brocard on his back.”[3]

Brocard returned to Paris to head the Agir network until the end of WWII. He was highly decorated, “… yet, according to his son, Michel, wartime politics and jealousies between former (resistance fighters)…brought him up against bureaucratic obstacles for the rest of his life. Wherever he applied for jobs in state or local agencies…he was always rejected.”

Brocard, “eventually discovered that this was due to a file on him in France’s internal intelligence service which referred to his work for the British SIS and described him as “an agent of a foreign power.””[4]

Brocard’s work changed the course of the Allied invasion of Europe and eventually freed France of Nazi domination.

Despite that, the official testimony of Brocard’s sacrifice, that is, how it was officially recorded, was documented in such a way that Brocard’s patriotism and sacrifice was diminished in the report.

As you can see, it matters how we record the memory. We must strive to do so faithfully and accurately.

There are four practices that will allow us to turn remembrance into renewal more often. Tomorrow, the Second of these practices: : All of us are less than perfect, and we must forgive and forget to set aside the imperfections that block our view of truth.


[1] Obituary, Joseph Brocard, Financial Times, April 16, 2009.
[2]Obituary, Joseph Brocard, Financial Times, April 16, 2009.
[3] Obituary, Joseph Brocard, Financial Times, April 16, 2009.
[4] Obituary, Joseph Brocard, Financial Times, April 16, 2009.