Remembrance Tourism

Note: “Blowin’ in the Wind” will be on hiatus for several weeks while I travel in England and France.  It will be fun to see Dale, the Wizard of The Back Road Café, in London.  I’ll be doing some pilgrimage walking and touristing among medieval churches in Norfolk, Eastern Wallonia, Champagne and Burgundy.  I hope to enjoy a green and wet North Atlantic landscapes after too long in brown, drought-strangled California.  I’m curious what America will look and feel like from afar.  See you in late June.

American soldiers and supplies arrive on the shore of the French coast of German-occupied Normandy during the Allied D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944 in World War II. (AP Photo)I don’t need to tell my European readers that 2014 is the 100^th anniversary of the beginning of World War I, or that this June 6 is the 70^th anniversary of the World War II D-Day landings on Normandy beaches. War seems to be an ever-present memory in Europe.   In every French and British church and town center, small and large, there are plaques and statues and monuments honoring the dead, praising their sacrifice. Maybe it’s because I often travel in June, but I always seem to be running into a parade or ceremony marking some war anniversary. 

But my American readers might be unaware of these anniversaries, because we can be pretty ignorant and uninterested in war or history or other parts of the world. Millions of Americans fought and died in wars during the past century, but since none took place here on American soil, we’ve not had to live with war in our front and back yard. Very few of our towns have war memorials.  Since we now have an all volunteer military, drawn in large part from minority and low income enlistees, many Americans simply don’t know any fighting men and women.

We hailed the returning conquering heroes of the World Wars, but since 1945 we’ve had little to be proud about in our international war efforts, no welcome home parades. We shunned and spat on Vietnam vets and now the vets of Iraq and Afghanistan suffer more when they come home, and commit suicide at a higher rate than war casualties.

The rest of the world may experience America as a military monster, but we citizens tend to be in denial about war’s prevalence and devastation.

Preparing for this European trip, especially since I’ll be in historic war corridors like the Ardennes and the Somme, I’ve discovered a new phenomenon, “remembrance tourism.”  On a Belgian tourist website I read, “Memory is the presence of the past in a society.  The expressions of this past are part of our daily environment.  Remembrance tourism focuses on the heritage sites that are linked to events or historical situations whose memory and heritage, often painful, have marked previous generations up to the present day….Remembrance tourism, combined with the cultural riches of Wallonia and Brussels, offers a vast array of exceptional discoveries, in a relatively small area, an area that hosted great confrontations and major moments of history.” 

After landing at the shore, these British troops wait for the signal to move forward, during the initial Allied landing operations in Normandy, France, June 6, 1944. (AP Photo)Those “hosted great confrontations” have become the inspiration for hundreds of special tours and events and exhibits this year to commemorate the two World Wars. For example, the new visitors center at Pointe du Hoc in Normandy expects several million visitors this year. After the big 50^th anniversary of D-Day in 1994, French and British and American tourist boards and military historians expected a drop off in interest and visits to Normandy landing sites.  But just the opposite has happened, in large part because of books and movies – think “Saving Private Ryan” and “Band of Brothers.”  And not just from history buffs.  There continue to be families wanting to see where Grandpa fought.  I find particularly touching the poignant tales of folks my age trying to understand their fathers better, these men who fought and bled and killed, but never spoke of it afterwards.  And those trying to make peace with fathers who came home mentally or emotionally destroyed.

Another new feature in French and British war commemorations is the inclusion of Germans, facilitating face to face encounters and even friendships between former sworn enemies.  This is another thing Americans wouldn’t do, I think; we are not great at forgiveness or getting along with folks in groups we have historically hated or feared (see: slavery and racism.)  I know in the East and South there are Civil War reenactments and memorials and commemorations.  Do North and South, Union and Confederates, commemorate together?  I would hope so, but I doubt it.

AP PhotoI happened to be a tourist in Normandy in June of 1984, not long after the big 4Oth anniversary D-Day celebrations.  Then President Reagan had just been there; there were still lots of American and French flags around, and an old guy at a beach hotel showed us the brass straight razor he’d gotten from a G.I American soldier, and he praised General Eisenhower.  It was odd and sort of nice to be appreciated as an American. 

We had our 2 year old son with us that trip and he galloped around the vast American Cemetery and climbed over the rusty German gunnery stations with gunmounts aimed at the beaches.  Every generation in my family had served in the army, even my brother in Vietnam.  I was a new mother.  Would my son have to go to war in 2004, I remember asking myself. 

He’s 31 now.  Not yet has his generation had to face a draft or a war in their own country or a moral imperative like Hitler that compels a whole people to go to war.  Maybe it’s just that we have privatized and profitized war to the extent the majority can ignore it. 

Putin just announced he’ll be at the D-Day ceremonies.  The image of him and Obama and other world leaders in front of the cemeteries of war.  Where have all the flowers gone?

Copyright © 2014 Deborah Streeter