Tiananmen Square

Question Time Live: 15/03/2010

by Tory Maguire

110
The A-League needs Sydney FC to win the Grand Final

by David Hall

210
Bunny boilover

by David Penberthy

310
Our travel warning system is the boy who cried wolf

by Ellen Whinnett

410
Maybe celebrities deserve our sympathy, not our scorn

by Carrie Miller

510
What does MySchool do for non-academic kids?

by Jayne Kearney

610
Someone let the Dogs out

by Julie Tullberg

710
Royal palaces crumbling

by Barry Everingham

810
Punch on: Open thread 15/03/10

by Lucy Kippist

910
To damage your reputation, hire Max Markson

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 »