Paris ? The Champs-Elysees, free at last, was awash with wild joy Aug. 25, 1944. But deep in the heart of France the war raged on, with Frenchmen killing Frenchmen to aid a desperate Germany.

And now, 60 years later, the people who suffered most are among the staunchest supporters of a new Europe in which France and Germany are, essentially, just two members of a 25-nation super-state.

“This is the great triumph of the 21st century,” said Jean-Marie Delabre, 81. “Peace is accepting the idea that you must live with others and forge natural differences into something stronger.”

He added: “I don’t think I’d have said that a few years after the war.” While Paris celebrated, his Resistance unit fought on near Dijon. Captured, he was in German prison camps until armistice in May 1945.

With time, Delabre decided that since wars were much easier to start than to finish, the only answer was to avoid them.

“A united Europe is a lesson for the rest of the world,” he said.

War that left millions dead had not only pitted France against its ancient neighbor and foe, it also forced deep divisions among the French themselves. Some resisted, but many collaborated.

Ugly rivalries

Jacques Delarue, now 85, heard only faint echoes of the joy in Paris from his Vichy France prison cell in Limoges.

A veteran talks to soldiers during a ceremony in Paris to commemorate French General Philippe Leclerc. Leclerc was the head of the 2nd French Armored Division that helped liberate Paris, along with the 4th American Infantry Division, 60 years ago. The ceremony was Tuesday, and liberation ceremonies continue today.

“We all thought the war would be over after Paris, but we were wrong,” he said. “That just increased the bitterness and deepened divisions between collaborators and real Frenchmen.”

As allies pushed toward Paris, he said, he watched the French milice, militiamen loyal to Germany, sweep into the prison yard to deal with three captured French Resistance fighters.

“I could hear it all from my cell,” he said. “The three were tried, sentenced, lined up against a wall and shot. The whole thing was over in less than an hour. Such things went on all the time.”

But today, like nearly every one of dozens of veterans interviewed by The Associated Press, he lauded efforts to meld ancient foes into a modern union. “We have to stop old stupid rivalries,” he said.

Bittersweet memories

People who remember Aug. 25, 1944, are celebrating it with a bittersweet mix of emotions. For many, the horror and humiliation of occupation did not sink in until years, if not decades, later.

“When it ended, we had all more important things to worry about, like finding our family members and repairing our lives,” Delarue said. “Only later did we have the luxury of analyzing things.”

Life magazine writer William Walton described how he liberated the girls of the Moulin Rouge. Crossing Paris under a hail of flowers, he wrote, “I estimate I kissed a thousand females, from 2 to 90 … For one night, every American was a Lindbergh.”

Jacques Fouet, 81, was a fireman who in the final days put on an army uniform to hunt down Germans. He watched that tank battle with a mix of pride for a revived France and hatred for Nazis who caused such pain.

Nowadays, Fouet says he is thrilled to see tight new links between old adversaries. “I have always said that on the day Germany and France come to an understanding, there will be no more war in Europe.”