During our trip to Bayeux, we visited many of the D-day beaches and other monuments that focused on the history of these invasions and their effect on this area. For instance, we visited Caen, which was a major city captured by the allies after months of long, treacherous battle following the invasion of Normandy. At the Caen Memorial Museum, we analyzed the French perspective on the war as it pertains to their involvement in the war and opinion of the nations involved during the creation of the museum at the end of the Cold War. One point of note was that there was a large amount of reading, pictures, and videos throughout the exhibit, much more so than was in the British Imperial War museum. I noticed that the French identified some of their failures, which was not seen to the same extent in the British Museums. The French noted themselves for cooperating with Germany, but seemed to make many convincing excuses as to why they chose to do so and did not describe the full extent to their cooperation. This allowed them to distance themselves from all the responsibility of awful wartime actions they completely put on Germany. They emphasized the history and significance of their resistance that was present, but it was considered a smaller movement than they portrayed it to be.
The French also seem to give more credit to British and American actions by always including them in the casualty count and mentioning their efforts repeatedly, such as with the Lend Lease Act and the significance of the emergence of the United States into WWII. They included a large amount of information about the war in the Pacific, of which England did not do as much, and described the entire role of the United States in the war. This was interesting and different because the Pacific side of the war did not directly apply to mainland occupied France, while it was a factor in their liberation by the allies who were directly affected by the war in the Pacific. The French seemed to honor the U.S. much more than I expected, given that their alliance did not seem to be nearly as strong as the British-American friendship that the British museum portrayed. Regarding the Holocaust, the French made excuses for not protesting it and claimed that its existence at the time was just too inconceivable for their citizens to understand. They blamed most of the deportations on the Germans, but they had a large role in the deportation of French Jews to Nazi concentration camps. This falsehood was also seen at the Memorial des Martyrs de la Déportation in Paris. At this memorial, there was a display of about 200,000 light bulbs down a hallway that represented the 200,000 French who were deported to concentration camps during WWII.
http://https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7I0LERguVD4MVByVnE5WjBnQzQ
About 76,000 of these deportees were Jews. The memorial’s lack of recognition for the Jews in this situation and minimizing of the role of antisemitism in this event create a universal-suffering view of the Holocaust. This view can be controversial because although people want to recognize all who suffered during this time, many negate the importance of racism in this terrible event. Though this Memorial recognized the atrocities that happened to this innocent group of people, it did not recognize that the French played a role in their deaths which effectively made it a memorial to France’s ignorance during and after the war.
The Caen museum romanticizes the idea of French resisters who were deported to concentration camps by the Germans to create sympathies for the French and make the historical account more in favor of France’s actions. Most notably, the exhibit condemned the strategic bombing by the allies because of its view of it being an “anonymous version of civilian annihilation” which mostly affected France before the D-day invasion. They also discussed profusely the heavy price France and Normandy specifically paid for liberation, which was a little shocking because the American perspective of D-day normally leaves out that information in favor of more heroic portrayals. Although the French typically included positive information about the United States’ involvement in the war, they excessively emphasized the terrors involved with their presence as well as it pertains to their bombing and destruction of the cities in Normandy.
The exhibits had less of an emphasis on the eastern front. But, this museum was built a year before the Cold War ended so anti-communist sentiment may have influenced that decision. The French did not want to glorify the accomplishments from nations that were communist at the time of the museum’s creation, preventing a large amount of recognition to be placed on the Soviet Union’s war efforts and contribution to allied success. The museum also claimed that Eisenhower “let” the soviets take Berlin, effectively invalidating the incredible sacrifice the USSR paid in its participation with the allies.
The Caen Museum, like museums in general, makes a political statement that idealizes its home nation and portrays a view of history that aligns with its social, political, and economic ideologies at the time. The refusal of the French to take responsibility for their collaboration with the Nazis was an effort to emphasize the tragedies they faced and establish a national sense of pride after the war literally tore France in half. This lack of acknowledgment was a comforting idea to France as it repaired itself from the war and needed a hopeful message for its citizens to believe in a successful future – for both themselves and their nation.