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First world war places of remembrance

American monument in Meaux, detail. Source: Musée de la Grande Guerre

The Memorial heritage of Paris and its greater region is not particularly rich in monuments relating to the memory of the first world war since Paris was not directly concerned by the fighting. Paris did not experience the war so few monuments concern military operations.

Operation Jubilee, Dieppe – 19 August 1942

The port of Dieppe and the cliffs seen from beach at Puys, 2002. Source: Private collection

With the German attack on the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, the Japanese aggression on the American base at Pearl Harbor the following 7 December and the United States' subsequent entry into the war, the conflict became a World War.

Protecting our memorial heritage

Fréjus (on left) - Tunisia (on right)

The origins of remembrance tourism

Between the 17th and the 20th centuries, France was the site of a great number
of armed conflicts which left behind many remnants as a lasting legacy.

Battle of Dunkirk

The port of Dunkirk in May 1940. Source: ECPAD

After the seemingly endless ”Phoney War” which followed Britain and France's declaration of war on Germany as a result of the invasion of Poland, the situation suddenly changed in the west when, on 10 May 1940, Germany launched an offensive on Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg.

La bataille de la Dyle - mai 1940

10th May 1940. The arrival of French regiments in Belgium

Liberation of the camps

Entrée de camp allemand nazi Birkenau (Auschwitz II), vue depuis l'intérieur du camp. Source : Libre de droit

Sixty years after the collapse of the National Socialist dictatorship and the end of the Nazi concentration camp system, certain questions have yet to be answered despite everything we have learnt about the subject.

In the end, nobody will ever know exactly how many victims were lost during that period, nor how many prisoners were still living in the camps when they were liberated by the Allied troops.

1918: the Second Battle of the Marne (27 May - 6 August)

Le mémorial des batailles de la Marne. Dormans. Source : GNU Free Documentation License

Following the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, on 3 March 1918, Germany hastened to transfer its troops from Russia to France. Now with numerical superiority over its British, French and Belgian adversaries, in order to secure victory it had to launch a series of offensives before the Americans arrived at the front.

The resistance in Corrèze and Creuse

Photograph of armed resistance fighters from the Maquis of Neuvic, winter 1943-1944 © Musée départemental de la Résistance à Neuvic

The Combat movement was established in Haute-Corrèze

The Resistance and the Networks

They rubbed shoulders with death to keep London informed, to help prisoners escape, to get pilots back home, to organise sabotages… They were part of a network.

La période Vauban

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