St. John's News

Growing up in southwestern France near the border with Spain, Eric Touya, Ph.D. spent quality time with his grandfathers. Both were war veterans—one served at the Battle at Verdun in 1916—and his interactions with them reinforced his interests in history.

“The knowledge of history and people who experienced it has always fascinated me,” Dr. Touya explains. Having lived in the United States for the past 20 years, he became particularly interested in the experience of the American soldiers who fought and died in France during World War II and felt compelled to write about them.

Dr. Touya, an Assistant Professor of French in the Department of Languages and Literatures in St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, recently completed French-American Relations: Remembering D-Day after September 11, a book that seeks to pay homage to those “who landed in Normandy to liberate my native country, sometimes and too often at the cost of their lives. It is this act of sacrifice from the ‘greatest generation’,” he says, “that interested me most particularly on both sides of the Atlantic.

Published this month, the book is the result of a series of informal conversations Touya had with both American and French WWII veterans (32 of them, both men and women, “who were actively involved in the liberation of Europe and the defeat of Nazism in 1939-1945.”

In his conversations, which took place in both France and the US from September 2005 through May 2007, he explored French-American relations in the context of today’s issues: the dialogue among cultures, the challenges of globalization and terrorism, the war in Iraq, the fate of democracy and civilization, and the path toward peace in the world.

“I sought to provide a balanced view of French-American relations and perpetuate the long debate—about the ideals of democracy, how to reconcile liberty and equality, ethics and tolerance, how to build a just society for all—that two of the oldest modern democracies have pursued for over 200 years, from Tocqueville and Chateaubriand to Bernard-Henri Levy,” he explains.

“France played a central role in the making of the United States and Americans have played a crucial role in the history of France,” he continues, adding that he wanted to explore the role both countries have played in recent history too.

“WWII veterans were ideal interlocutors because they rose up against the formidable challenge Nazism presented. What comes out of the book and their testimony from this perspective is that, contrary to what is assumed, France and the United States share much in common.”

The Professor of French reports that all of those interviewed “had something profound to say. When you are in your mid-80’s and have lived a long life, you have a lot of wisdom to share. They did that very generously and genuinely.”

Stories of Courage, Purpose, Determination
The tales he heard from all the vets were, he says, “great stories of courage, purpose and determination, all profound reflections, from both French and American veterans. They inspire us to face and respond to the great challenges of our time: the environment, cross-cultural dialogues, the reality of injustice and poverty in the world.”

Near the D-Day memorial in Roanoke, Virginia, he recalls, he met and interviewed four veterans who were among the first to land on Omaha Beach in the early hours of June 6, 1944. He also remembers being inspired by a veteran who “escaped from the Nazis in 1938 and spent the beginning of the war in hiding in the South of France with 200 other Jewish boys and girls. Crossing the Atlantic in 1942, he later enlisted in the US Army in Brooklyn, landed on D-Day, and eventually returned to his native village in Germany where he learned that all of his family had perished.”

A 90-year-old Long Islander he interviewed had witnessed Charles Lindbergh’s trans-Atlantic take-off from a muddyRoosevelt Field in May of 1927. “Both he and I,” he explains, “explored the takeoff as a metaphor of America and the world, with all its hope and potential for the future, while being aware of humanity’s misuse of progress and resources and what impedes us from achieving our highest potentials.”

Particularly moving, he continues, was “the testimony of a Native American, a veteran of the 82nd Airborne, who discussed in very eloquent terms the fate of humanity: How can we live together taking into account our cultural, religious, philosophical differences?”

Questioning Life’s Purpose
Touya believes that the questions asked by the vets are similar to those his students ask themselves today: “We all reach a point in life, and this is particularly true in college, when we question the purpose of our lives. What can we do? What role can we play and how should we live?”

This type of self-questioning, he points out, is not unlike that done by Private Ryan in the film Saving Private Ryan, 60 years after his 1944 rescue by strangers who gave their lives so that he could live. “Have I been a good father and husband?,” Ryan asks his family. Many World War II soldiers—like many St. John’s students today, Touya notes—were between the ages of 18-22 when they joined the service. Similarly, he says, St. John’s students who are guided by St. Vincent de Paul’s life and teachings on charity and justice are asking themselves what role they can play in the lives of others—their families, their country and the world—for the betterment of humanity.”

Both American and French people, Touya concludes, need to ask themselves what our obligations and responsibilities are to others in the world. “How do we respond to the ills of the world? How are we responsible for them? What do we do with our freedom, the very freedom WWII veterans fought to defend? How do we create a just society?”

The answers, the author says, give us “the opportunity to learn from each other, across boundaries, stories and generations. I wanted to show how this dialogue with the WWII veterans projected all of us, in fact, into the future.”

Touya is already at work on his next book, currently titled, 20th Century Francophone Women Authors: Feminism, Globalization, Culture. He teaches courses on 20th and 21st Century French and Francophone culture, literature, business, film and media that enable students to discover and explore different experiences and visions of the world, and to be prepared for international careers.

Dr. Touya will discuss his new book with a member of the NYU French faculty at a colloquium, “French-American Relations Today," on Wednesday April 16 from 4:30-6:00pm in the President’s Room (previously the Faculty Club), as part of the Academic Lecture Series.