They shall not pass

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Image:On Ne Passe Pas 1918.jpg

On Ne Passe Pas!
Propaganda poster by Maurice Neumont

"They shall not pass" (French: "Ils ne passeront pas", Spanish: "¡No pasarán!") is a propaganda slogan used to express determination to defend a position against an enemy. It was most famously used during the Battle of Verdun in World War I by French General Robert Nivelle (although some have attributed it to his commander, Philippe Pétain). It appears on propaganda posters, such as that by Maurice Neumont after the Second Battle of the Marne, which was later adopted on uniform badges by units manning the Maginot Line.

It was again used in the Siege of Madrid during the Spanish Civil War by Dolores Ibárruri Gómez in her famous "No Pasarán" speech. "¡No pasarán!" became an international anti-fascist slogan (used by British protestors during the 1936 Battle of Cable Street, for example), and is still used in this context in left wing political circles. It was often accompanied by the word pasaremos (we will pass). The right wing riposte to this slogan was "Hemos pasado" ("We have passed") said by general Francisco Franco when his forces conquered Madrid.

The phrase has been used as recently as December 2002 by Colonel Emmanual Maurin, commanding a French Foreign Legion unit in Côte d'Ivoire.

[edit] Use in fiction

In popular media, a slight variation was used in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy by Gandalf in the Mines of Moria when fighting against the Balrog ("You shall not pass"). In Tolkien's novel, the line is "you cannot pass". Interestingly, J. R. R. Tolkien fought on the Western Front, although not at Verdun.

This slogan was also quoted in Chapter 14 of David Weber and Steve White's In Death Ground, just before executing a plan named for Leonidas in defending the Sarasota System.

The saying was taken to ridiculous effect by Monty Python in the "Black Knight" sequence of Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail, although the Black Knight actually says, "None shall pass".

In the comic book Asterix in Spain , Pepe, son of Chief Huevos Y Bacon, paraphrases these words to Julius Caesar as the Romans approach his village.

Vittorio Giardino's Max Friedman series has a two part book series titled No Pasaran!. The story is set in Spain during the Spanish Civil war,

Characters in Umberto Eco's novel Foucault's Pendulum also used the phrase. In the movie "Frances", starring Jessica Lange, she also used the phrase.

The phrase is also quoted in Max Brooks' book World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, used by a French soldier clearing the Paris sewers of zombies.