November the 18th, 2024 – Brave foreign volunteers stood selflessly alongside Croatian defenders when the Serbs began to attack the country. French defender Jean-Michel Nicolier reportedly told his Croatian comrades that he hoped to move to Vukovar when the war ended. Tragically, Jean-Michel never lived to see the end of it.
As Index vijesti/news writes, Croatian defender Dražen Dujić recently recounted his memories of meeting French defender Jean-Michel Nicolier to Dalmatinski portal. Today, all the remains of this incredibly brave young man who was murdered at Ovčara is a monument to him.
“I was with him for a while we were together in the same unit. It wasn’t for long, only for about ten days. We somehow communicated in English, but I remember well that he said to us: “Guys, when one day you rebuild this city, I’m going to come to live here,” recalled Dujić.
the mother of french defender jean-michel nicolier visits her son’s memorial daily
He added that Lyliane Fournier, the mother of the tragically killed Frenchman, visits her son’s memorial every week and walks the bridge that bears his name.
“She left everything she had back home in France and came to live in the country and city for which her dear son Jean-Michel gave his life,” said Dujić, who himself returned to home to Vukovar after 32 long years.
“There are a lot of guests who visit Vukovar these days, you should tell them some things about this city. Believe me, for many years not a single bird could be heard singing here because of the noise, it chased them all away,” he said.
“A young woman was killed by a shell, I saved her baby”
Dujić also has his own emotional story from wartime.
“A shell fell that cut a young lady completely in half. She was very young, maybe 30 years old. When the sound of the detonation subsided, I heard an infant screaming. The little girl was crying. Her mother was cut in half by the shell. I doubt that baby was even three months old. I managed to wrap her in a sweater and I ran with her about seven kilometres to the hospital. You won’t believe it, but just a couple of months ago I met that girl, the little girl I took to the hospital,” he said.
“Her name is Ema, she lives in Germany now and she graduated in biology. Someone told her about a terrible event at the very beginning of her life, and after that, Ema kept returning to Vukovar. After more than three decades, we managed to find each other recently.”
