This ambitious symposium will take place at the Andre Labarrerere media library on Saturday, June 4th in Pau. The symposium will take the curious on a journey into the past. It is called "Pau and Bearn 1940-1944."

At 9 AM, the mayor of Pau Francois Bayrou will open the event. Monika Serelman, a great witness, will close the colloquium around 4:30 p.m. She is the daughter to the German philosopher Paul-Louis Landsberg and an important member of the journal Esprit.

From 1940 to 1943, when he was deported and arrested, he lived in Pau in hiding. He died from exhaustion at the Oranienburg camp, April 2, 1944. His daughter was born in Pau, November 1941. She spent part of her childhood in Bordes with her family and at the Orphanage of Mercy, Pau.

Pierre Birnbaum, Emeritus Professor in Political Sociology, will present "The Vichy lesson: a personal story" at 11 AM.

Guillaume Piketty, professor of contemporary history at Sciences Po Paris, will speak at 2 p.m. about "Pierre de Chevigne: from the free French outposts, to a bittersweet Liberation 1940-1945."

The symposium will take place under the scientific direction of Olivier Forcade (professor of contemporary history, University of Paris-Sorbonne). Between 3:30 and 4:30, he will host a roundtable discussion.

Ricardo Saez and Claude Laharie organize the day. Jean-Francois Vergez is director of ONACVG, the Departmental Service National Office for Veterans and War Victims.