The Mémorial de Caen
According to the Normandy Tourisme website / https://en.normandie-tourisme.fr/ “the Mémorial de Caen is the largest museum in France dedicated to 20th-century history, commemorating in particular World War II, D-Day and the Battle of Normandy. We step up to the Esplanade Eisenhower named after the Supreme Commander in 1944. Before us is the smooth stone cliff face of the Memorial. A jagged gash splits it apart, and either side a huge inscription in capital letters spells out the solemn words across the ripped facade: ‘Suffering shattered me, brotherhood raised me up, and from my wound spurted forth a flood of freedom’. Now we are invited to step into that wound of history – and it will be bloody. Just as the architecture symbolises the irruption of war into peace, so the site of the Memorial was chosen as a symbol: bang on top of the German General Richter’s underground headquarters in a former Caen stone quarry. He commanded the principal defending division of the D-Day Landing Beaches – which would be almost wiped out that day.” These photos were taken in August 2023.