In Memoriam

Following our visit to Bayeux, Rebekka, Nicolas, and I headed off to the lovely Norman coast to see the D-Day beaches, and namely the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach. And here is where I explain to you why my blogging has been backed up for the last month. How do you write about a place such as this? No words, nothing I could say or recount, have seemed adequate to describe my visit to such a strange, beautiful, hollow place. I've started and stopped writing this post at least ten times, and each time, it has been because my words sounded cliché or empty of meaning. They sounded like the words of every memorial speech I've ever heard about the Invasion of Normandy. I've finally chosen to write here about what it feels like to be in this place, because it is a surreal, unforgettable space.

"Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one cannot stay silent." (History Beyond Trauma, Davoine & Gaudillière, 2004)

It is a humbling experience to stand and look out at the rows and rows of crosses, with the beautiful, calm beaches and water beyond, and to realize what happened there.

You almost want to photograph every name, just to mark the person's fate, and to memorialize the event in your own mind.

Walking around, there were many groups visiting the cemetery, but most were French: French schoolchildren learning about the history, or French families. I came across one dad talking to his son and daughter about the war. He was explaining (in French, of course) that "a great big country called the United States of America helped France..." as I walked by them.

Ever since I've been in France, I've met many people, all over Normandy, who have talked to me about the war. There are people in the town I live in who lived here when Flers was bombed, or whose grandparents lived through the war. Oddly, I feel like the French, more than Americans, seem to be more conscious of the war, because it happened on their own land, and because many of them are still alive today. Visiting the site really gave me a new understanding of this part of our mutual history, and made me appreciate the great sacrifice these men* made.

*It's important to note, and many Americans tend to forget (or, sadly, do not realize), that many countries participated in the Invasion of Normandy. Canada, the U.S., the U.K., and the Free French Forces made up the initial invasion; after that they were joined by Australia, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Poland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Norway.