	European Soundscape
	Europe is Real
	Europe: A Landscape of Ideas
	Leading Opinions

	Threshold to the Kingdom
	27. Januar 1945
	This is your Victory
	Faces of Europe
	Strength and Opportunities
	Europe all Weather
	Ars Electronica Futurelab

Soundtrack of the Conference

"This is your Victory", Remix from "Words that won the War"

By Martin Landquist and Stryngford Syntagma.

This project utilizes audio material to take us back to the roots of the European Union. The first sequence begins with excerpts from one of Winston Churchill’s speeches that BBC Radio broadcast on June 22, 1941. In this address, Churchill tries to convince the listeners that only a joint effort can help defeat Hitler.

In the second sequence, we hear excerpts from the speech in House of Commons on May 8, 1945 in which Churchill announces the end of the war in Europe: “Hostilities will end officially at one minute after midnight tonight (Tuesday, May 8), but in the interests of saving lives the ‘ceasefire’ began yesterday to be sounded all along the front ..." A bit later we hear: “This is your victory ...,” which Churchill shouted to the assembled crowd in a spontaneous speech delivered that same day from the balcony of the Ministry of Health.

The third sequence has to do with the Schuman Declaration of May 9, 1955 and thus the hour of the European Union’s birth. In this sequence, oversized facsimiles of documents that assumed great importance during this first year of the New Europe will be shown on all screens. At the end, we see, lying open before us, the thick volume containing the treaty that founded the EEC.

Excerpt of Churchill speech on BBC radio from 22 June 1941:

"... Hitler is a monster of wickedness, insatiable in his lust for blood and plunder. Not content with having all Europe under his heel or else terrorized into various forms of abject submission, he must now carry his work of butchery and desolation among the vast multitudes of Russia and of Asia. The terrible military machine which we and the rest of the civilized world so foolishly, so supinely, so insensately allowed the Nazi gangsters to build up year by year from almost nothing-this machine cannot stand idle, lest it rust or fall to pieces. It must be in continual motion, grinding up human lives and trampling down the homes and the rights of hundreds of millions of men. Moreover, it must be fed not only with flesh but with oil. So now this bloodthirsty guttersnipe must launch his mechanized armies upon new fields of slaughter, pillage and devastation.
The Nazi regime is indistinguishable from the worst features of Communism. It is devoid of all theme and principle except appetite and racial domination. It excels in all forms of human wickedness, in the efficiency of its cruelty and ferocious aggression. No one has been a more consistent opponent of Communism than I have for the last twenty-five years. I will unsay no words that I've spoken about it. But all this fades away before the spectacle which is now unfolding. ..."

he ended this speech with:

"...Let us learn the lessons already taught by such cruel experience. Let us redouble our exertions and strike with united strength while life and power remain.“

Excerpt of Churchill speech at the House of Commons from 8 May 1945:

"...Hostilities will end officially at one minute after midnight to-night (Tuesday, May 8), but in the interests of saving lives the "Cease fire" began yesterday to be sounded all along the front, ..."

Excerpt of Churchill speech on the balcony of the Ministry of Health from 8 May 1945:

"...This is your victory! It is the victory of the cause of freedom in every land. In all our long history we have never seen a greater day than this. ..."

The recordings of Churchill and the music come from “WORDS THAT WON THE WAR,” a CD project by the Swedish artists group STRYNFORD SYNTAGMA.

The CD album “WORDS THAT WON THE WAR”, consists of recordings of some of the most famous speeches during World War II (by Chamberlain, Churchill, de Gaulle and Roosevelt) with a background of newly composed music. The original intention with this album was to make an album that could be used as an educational tool for making teenagers interested in history and the spoken word. It has proved to work!

Listen into "WORDS THAT WON THE WAR" by Stryngford Syntagma

Full transcript of the speech from 22 June 1941: www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/ww2/churchill062241.html
Full transcript of the speech from 8 May 1945: www.churchill-society-london.org.uk/EndofWar.html
Audio recording from "This is your victory": www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/wwtwo/churchill_audio.shtml

The Schuman Declaration and the Documents:
in French: www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/archives/dossiers/schuman/
in English: www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/archives.gb/dossiers/schuman/module03.html