For four years, a historical spectacle project must have seen the light of day in Normandy which reproduces the battles of the summer of 1944. For the moment, no stone has been laid, in particular because many inhabitants are firmly opposed to it. In a newspaper column The worlddescendants of French soldiers are calling for a burst of dignity and the definitive abandonment of the project.
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In France, a memorial conflict is agitating collectives, politicians and associations a few weeks before the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings. A show project, baptized by its detractors “D-Day Land” Then ” Tribute to heroes » and finally“Normandy Memory” was to be located in Carentan-les-Marais, in Manche. Finally authorized at the end of 2023 to settle on the former site of the Société Métallurgique de Normandie (SMN) in Colombelles in Calvados, the immersive show recounting the Landing and the two months that followed (Battle of Normandy) should see the light of day in 2026.
Dominique Kieffer, daughter of Captain Kieffer, is one of the signatories of the column published in The world. She doesn’t lose her temper. The life of his father, at the head of the famous Kieffer commandothese 177 men who landed alongside the Allies cannot be featured in a project carried out “ by purely economic ambitions aimed at further developing tourism by means of a spectacle and a sensationalist device “.
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She takes a stand to defend her father’s honor as she explained on the microphone ofAndréane Meslard from RFI. “ I think that if we haven’t been emotionally affected by all of this, we have a hard time realizing it. Every June 6, at 7 a.m., the moment they landed, I am on Colleville beach. In my head, I see them, they were there, our fathers. We are emotional and that is what touches us a lot. And a show… Honestly, at first, we said to ourselves, but is this thing a joke? It is not possible. We were left with our arms hanging. Then, when we saw that it was lasting, that it was serious, we had to do something. At least talk. Afterwards, come what may! But at least we will have said what we thought, what was on our hearts. Often I think about what they would all think about what we’re doing there and I’m sure they would be delighted. Our fathers would completely understand what we are doing and they would completely agree. »
The thirty other signatories, descendants of French soldiers who landed under the orders of Commander Philippe Kieffer, are no less virulent: “ a 45-minute show, with extras, a thousand spectators loaded, several times a day, on a mobile platform parading in front of sets, some twenty-five scenes of less than two minutes each “. “Everything points to a memory business machine for tour operatorss,” they add.
Joined by AFP, the president of the Normandy region Hervé Morin and the president of the urban community of Caen-la-Mer and mayor of Caen Joël Bruneau, implicated in the column published in The worlddid not wish to react.
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Also an insult to working-class memory?
Other voices are also being raised about the choice of the Société Métallurgique de Normandie (SMN) on the northern outskirts of Caen, Normandy’s largest employer for years, as the setting. Former workers consider that this type of representation is an insult to working-class memory. The factory was in fact at the heart of the Battle of Normandy. Occupied by the Germans, demolished and destroyed by the Allies, it closed around thirty years ago. People who worked there fear the mixing of genres.
Asked by France Blue Normandythe project director Normandy Memory » and the Canadian scenographer Stéphane Roy indicated that one of the thirty paintings would be entirely dedicated to the history of the Société Métallurgique de Normandie during and after the war and refuted the idea of wanting to create “an amusement park”. “ It’s not because you have an immersive character that we are “at Guignol”. Immersive exhibitions, there are dozens of extremely serious ones and the Louvre organizes immersive exhibitions (…) “, they argued.
As the official celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the Landings planned for Omaha Beach on June 6, 2024 approach, the descendants of the soldiers have decided to make people talk about them. They will interact with officials who came to pay tribute to the courage and heroism of these men who fell to save their country. Their descendants hope for a start “ of dignity “.
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