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French and German leaders joined together on Armistice Day for the first time to remember their war dead and pledged to work more closely together as partners in Europe.

To the sound of the national anthems of the two former enemies, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy laid down a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

It was the first time a German leader had attended France’s Armistice Day, marking the end of World War One hostilities on the Western Front on November 11, 1918.

“We gather this November to commemorate not the victory of one people over another, but hardship that was as terrible for one side as it was for the other,” Sarkozy said in a speech.

“German orphans cried over the death of their fathers in combat just as French orphans did,” he added…

A visibly moved Merkel shook the hands of frail, grey-haired veterans of World War Two.

Here in the United States, most have no perception that the “invalids of war” encompasses whole populations. The death of many millions of civilians is a vast ocean of sadness – even on a day when we remember those who died in the course of battle, the accepted confrontation of military against military.