Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Le dernier poilu. Lazare Ponticelli

Le dernier poilu. Lazare Ponticelli

Fourcade, Véronique

Paperback

Fiction AnthologiesFrench History

ISBN10: 2234061849
ISBN13: 9782234061842
Publisher: Stock
Published: Feb 28 2018
Pages: 234
Weight: 0.58
Height: 0.49 Width: 5.32 Depth: 8.47
Language: French

From now on the name Ponticelli will remain known in History as the name of the last witness of the First World War's atrocities. What is less known about him, because he was very discrete about it, is that he figures in the annals of the economic world and of French industry. Indeed, the extraordinary life of Lazare Ponticelli cannot be reduced to his feats of arms, his 6 years mobilisation and his Italian Military Cross.
When Lazare, alone, runs away from the poverty of his native Italy at 9 years old to join up with his mother and 2 brothers in Paris, he does not know how to read or write, or speak French. After the ordeal of WWI, the three brothers worked hard as chimney sweepers. Albeit illiterate, their hands were bursting with cleverness and their muscles with courage. They created a company which built and maintained factory chimneys. After WWII, the Ponticelli company diversified its activities, employing thousands of people, opening several agencies abroad and outside Paris.
In spite of his social advancement, the man never left his little suburban house in Kremlin-Bicêtre, where he had settled in 1922. Over 100 years old, he was living there on his own, doing his shopping at the market every day. In 1996, he received the Legion of Honour. His last challenge was to be the last of the last. He succeeded: he died on March 12, 2008, at the age of 110.

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