This week in Bayeux, I visited many amazing places that I have never been and tried things that I have never tried. I visited the beautiful beach and oceanside town and cliffs of Arromanches, saw beautiful stained-glass windows at the Bayeux cathedral and a 1000-year-old tapestry, and tried escargot for the first time (something that I never thought I would have the stomach to do). Even more significant for me, I visited the British military cemetery in Bayeux, a place I would not have seen except for this class. Walking the cemetery grounds and reading the inscriptions of the headstones of thousands of fallen soldiers was more important and impactful than I would have ever imagined.
The British cemetery differed in key ways from the nearby American and German military cemeteries that we also visited. At the German cemetery, flat black stones provide basic information about the soldiers laid to rest there, two per grave, giving a very somber feeling. The American cemetery has a much more triumphal feeling, with headstones depicting a Christian cross or a Jewish Star of David on which are inscribed essential data about each soldier. These religious markings are bright white, which combined with the grand entry, landscape, and fountains, promotes a feeling of celebration of victory, while honoring those lost in the process.
By contrast, the British cemetery has a more personal and welcoming feeling. An inscription at the entrance declared, “their names liveth forevermore”. The gravesites featured rounded, grayish headstones inscribed with personal messages. This makes this cemetery impactful on the visitor seeking some understanding of the tragedy inherent in war.
These inscriptions were composed or selected by the family of each fallen soldier. Some are religious words (such as lines of Scripture) or excerpts from famous poems. Common messages included “At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember him” and “greater love hath no man than this”. The inscriptions that I found the most impactful were those composed by the family, because they revealed the personality of the soldier and the agony of the family. These inscriptions invoked strong feelings of contemplation in me, thinking about my family and loved ones and how they would feel if I were one of the men lost in a war. I was moved to tears by some of the verse’s messages. These messages made me consider the cruel and inhumane nature of war, which is the most important virtue that a war cemetery or museum can portray.
The cruel and inhumane nature of war is something that can be challenging to communicate, especially to a generation of people that have never seen war. In my visits to various museums, there were some personal letters but very few. Reading even these small bits of a family writing about a loved one, I had infinitely more appreciation for the sacrifice made by soldiers and the unfair nature of war. Personal letters make the far-reaching effects of war personal not only to the recipient, but also to anyone reading the letter. Putting these letters in a museum or a memorial reminds the reader that these soldiers were real, and that a conflict such as World War II did awfully cruel things to real people. To me, these letters accomplish the purpose of communicating the horrors of war far more than any display of weaponry or picture can do. The main goal of war museums should be to communicate how awful and tragic war is, so that the public can understand what they are voting for and supporting when a country decides to go to war, as well as honoring the sacrifices of those who fought. War museums would be far more successful in accomplishing this if they were to display more personal letters.