The collections held by the Mémorial de Verdun museum primarily consist of donations from veterans: objects found on the battlefield, helmets, various weapons and equipment, the products of trench craftsmen, commemorative works (sometimes realized long after the battle), photographs, letters and notebooks, posters, and other mementos. This redesign is of great importance to signal the now bi-national character of the remembrance of the Battle of Verdun. The presence of German bodies in the Ossuary, an undeniable fact which had been suppressed for decades, was finally acknowledged in 2016, when an inscription was carved into the vault of the main entrance in honour of these soldiers. For decades, the monument was dedicated to the memory of French soldiers only. The monument was erected on the edge of the road leading to the Ossuaire de Douaumont (Douaumont Ossuary), an enormous structure in Fleury, built in 1927 and inaugurated in 1932, where the remains of approximately 130,000 unidentified French and German soldiers are buried. In 1919 the zone rouge was about 170,000 hectares, of which about 10,000 hectares remain today. The Administration des Eaux et Forêts (Ministry of Water and Forests), which was in charge of the zone rouge (red zone), the vast area along the former western front which had been so completely decimated by shells that it was reforested rather than re-cultivated, granted the CNSV a piece of this land. In order to fund the monument’s construction, the CNSV launched a subscription campaign, which was supported by veterans’ associations, in particular the organization Gueules Cassées (Broken Faces). The project was placed under the patronage of the President of the Republic, but state involvement in its realization was minimal. In 1960, the association decided to create a memorial on these same battlefields to maintain the memory of the battle in perpetuity. There is free parking on site.The Comité national du souvenir de Verdun (National Committee for the Remembrance of Verdun) (CNSV) was founded in 1951 by Maurice Genevoix (1890-1980)]], a writer whose book, Ceux de 14 (Those of 14), remains the most authentic account of the battle of Verdun. If travelling from Paris, take the A4 motorway and Exit 30, “Voie Sacrée”. If travelling by car from the town of Verdun simply follow the signs to “Champ de Bataille Vaux-Douaumont”. The museum was built on the site of the old railway station in the destroyed village of Fleury-devant-Douaumont. The Memorial lies amid the network of hills around Verdun, in the middle of the “Exceptional Forest” between the town of Verdun and the Douaumont Ossuary. It also has a dedicated educational centre. Exhibits are translated into English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Dutch, making the Verdun Memorial very accessible and the museum is divided thematically.įor those wishing to tour Verdun generally and see the different sites, the Verdun Memorial offers advice and itineraries, meaning it’s a good starting point for anyone touring independently. Laid out over two floors, the Verdun Memorial Museum immerses the visitor in the realities of the battle by recreating the trench system and using multimedia presentations to guide visitors through the events of the war. The Verdun Memorial Museum displays an array of objects and documentation dating back to the Battle of Verdun, including weaponry, French and German aircraft, photographs and medical equipment. The Verdun Memorial is set amidst the site of this battle and the surrounding landscape bears the scars of the war, including mine and shell craters. Patriotism, bravery and unimaginable suffering – the Battle of Verdun symbolises all of these in French consciousness. The defiant French defence of the strategically-vital and symbolic fortress at the cost of an extraordinary amount of human life has led Verdun to become one of France’s most typical memories of the Great War. It was one of the longest, bloodiest, and most-ferocious battles of the war French casualties amounted to about 400,000, German casualties to about 350,000. The Battle of Verdun was a fierce clash between French and German forces in 1916 during the First World War which resulted in hundreds of thousands of casualties. The Verdun Memorial (Mémorial de Verdun) is both a memorial site and a museum located in the Verdun Battlefield in France.
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