D Day

The confession manual for a politician’s mistress

by Tory Maguire

110
Token ceremony openings must be brought to an end

by Chris Gardiner

210
Yes to housing affordability, but don’t take my home

by Nicole Gurran

310
Baseless attacks on Bob Geldof threaten foreign aid

by Mark Colvin

410
SA election: A party that can’t run itself…

by Bruce Hawker

510
SA election: Why Mike Rann’s time is up

by Jamie Briggs

610
The dark side of cute: the truth about puppy farms

by Rhiannon Elston

710
What are you really doing about grocery prices, PM?

by Frank Zumbo

810
Punch on: Open thread 17/03/10

by Lucy Kippist

910
Making the swill less unrepresentative

by David Penberthy

1010

Remembrance of things past: history without an airbrush

10 Jun 05:55am

Filed under: D Day, History, Tiananmen Square, World War Two

In the town of Caen, in Normandy, is one of the most remarkable museums I’ve ever visited.

I went there in 1994, the week of the fiftieth anniversary of D-Day, and what I remember most clearly about the Memorial de Caen – the Caen Peace Museum – is the long spiral ramp down which you must walk to enter it.

Memorial de Caen (Peace Museum) in Caen, France: recreation of a daubed wall from the French resistance

You can read about it here: or if your French is up to it, take a virtual tour here: but nothing will really reproduce the experience of walking in person down the spiral of history that led to world war and genocide.

Continue reading "Remembrance of things past: history without an airbrush" »

Latest 2 of 5 comments

View all comments

Paul says:

03:02pm | 10/06/09

Mark, Great to see that journalists have something more to add than reporting of the facts. My own take on this, is that its the ideas behind the events? ie, why did Hitler do as he did? The same can be asked of Pol Pot, even Bush, perhaps Chamberlain, Churchill,… Read more »
Gareth says:

01:53pm | 10/06/09

Great article, will visit that museum next time I’m in Caen! It seems that as advertising revenues decline, journalism gets increasingly compromised as it seeks to focus on its more commercial requirement - get eyeballs! As this occurrs, balance, fairness and objectivity (what history seeks to achieve) give way to… Read more »