The article below was published in the daily newspaper L'Est Républicain, Nancy, France, on August 8, 2016.
At the end of October 1954, from Toul to Sarreguemines, abundant testimonies of UFO sightings multiplied.
October 10, 1954. The day has not yet risen in the region of Toul and a fairly dense fog makes it difficult to see. On his way to his workplace, the Ecrouves penitentiary, a 40-year-old supervisor nevertheless managed to see an aluminum shape at a crossroads in the light projected by the headlight of his motorcycle. For the prison guard, no doubt, this is a "saucer". At least that is what he entrusts to our colleagues. In our October 24 columns, he said: "It was about 2 m in diameter and 1 m 40 in height. It was circular with a dome and pierced on its periphery with two portholes.
Is it an hallucination? Two of his colleagues will confess to having seen this same day, this time around 4 pm, a disc that left behind a glowing trail. Yes Yes! Even better. In Longwy, again and again on October 10, 1954, an observer will claim to have witnessed an identical phenomenon at around 1:30 am where the delirium eventually prevailed is when the supervisor said he did not believe in a Martian explanation but "weapons built by a foreign power" and which would have taken off from "the Antarctic, land of refuge of foreign political and scientific leaders". But of course.
At the same time, testimonies of UFO observation multiplied in Lorraine. One narrative receives particular media attention. That of a young photographer of 23 years of Vézelise. He says he was the first to have photographed a flying saucer. Photographs he unveiled to the press and which he assures to have taken on Saturday 23 October 1954, in the district of Welferding, in Sarreguemines. That evening, he had an appointment with two comrades to go and chew a movie at the communal cinema. Tired of waiting, he decides to go to the Welferding district where, he believes, a party is in full swing.
"Twelve meters from the saucer, trembling from head to foot, I took three views"
Along the way, he sees a bright orange shade in the distance intriguing him, he recounts. Carried by a curiosity which "frightened him," it can be read in the newspapers of the day, he approaches this object which resembled a hollow plate turned upside down. "Twelve meters from the saucer, trembling from head to foot, I took three views," he said. Photographs that he will propose to the newspapers and that will make the buzz of the time. Aviation specialists will be contacted. They will be skeptical, but by the end of 1954, the population is wondering about the existence of an extraterrestrial life, especially since testimonies abound. A few days later, several people will claim to have also seen saucers in Sarreguemines.
The truth broke out very quickly. A student of Sarreguemines will indeed declare to be the author of the photographic montage that the young man of Vézelise used to make the buzz.
However, an investigation was opened by the gendarmes. Harassed by questions, the resident of Meurthe-et-Moselle fainted during his interrogation before confessing. The motive is as funny as it is unlikely. The young student who made the photographic montage had the idea to make a saucer at the end of a cinema show, discovering an advertising poster of the "Pie qui chante". It said: "We offer a kilo of candy to anyone who can bring us a picture of flying saucers"! His friend used it to build up his story from scratch.
Whereas the two young people had a bad time, their abracadabra narrative had the merit of shutting down the extraordinary psychosis around the flying saucers which reigned at the end of 1954 in Lorraine. Since then, the observation evidence of saucers are concentrated in the summer. Often on Saturdays. At the moment when newlyweds let go of luminous balloons [Chinese lanterns] that many perceive as objects from an extraterrestrial life.
Alexandre POPLAVSKY
