Never Another War — France & Belgium Blog #2
There is very little that I can feel truly patriotic about. Patriotism is too adjacent to nationalism in my mind and feels somehow both too ritualistic and too mundane; it is often built out of unwarranted pride and lacks a level of nuance that I feel is critical.
The American Revolution was established on incredible, commendable ideals, but was conducted by many people who were, in a way, living refutations of their own principles. I’ve visited — and am soon moving to — Gettysburg, a battlefield that produced one of the defining moments of American history. However, the glorification of the Civil War is fraught in itself with the spector of slavery and the fact that it required 77 years of political and cultural strife, 5 years of civil war, and the lives of 620,000 Americans in order to liberate 4,000,000 enslaved people. That’s not to say that there weren’t good people involved, our good deeds carried to fruition — there were — but to praise the entire event as a unanimous triumph of spirit and will is to ignore reality and endanger the very ideals that were being advanced in the first place. The whole ordeal of national vainglory seems to be driven by something akin to a fear of being found out.
But the invasion of the beaches of Normandy in June 1944 is different from much of the rest of United States history. What sets it apart in my mind is that it is one of those rare times in history where morality, the will of the people, and the positioning of politicians aligned, to the destruction of a genuine evil; there is a pride that can be found in that success.
I think the reason a lot of Americans love to learn about World War Two is that it was a rare period in which the U. S. had the undeniable moral high ground. In the American conscience, the conflict represents a great crusade: it was the ultimate confrontation of good and evil, the example of good triumphing serving as something to both reflect on and aspire to.
We visited Utah Beach on Wednesday. My grandpa was actually an army photographer on Utah Beach on D-Day, so it was a great experience to go to the same beach that he landed on 75 years ago. We got up early (thanks, Mari) and toured the beach at low tide, revealing the landscape as it was in 1944. Additionally, as we were there early in the day, the beach was very quiet, adding to the desolate atmosphere of the place. The Utah Beach museum was also fantastic, describing in detail the entirety of Operation Overlord, with a focus on the specific beach.
We then headed to the German Military Cemetary, which was completely different from the British and Australian World War One cemeteries we had visited in the Ypres area. There was a small visitor center/museum focusing on the stories of some of the German soldiers buried there. Fittingly, the environment of the Cemetary itself was much more about remembering the horrors of war than about remembering individual soldiers, and it was therefore incredibly valuable to be able to observe the dichotomy in portrayal of the Normandy theater of war through this somber lens.
Our next stop was the American Cemetary and Memorial, which was very similar to the kind of military memorial I had experienced in the U.S. at Arlington. What made this visit worth it was again the comparison with the German Cemetary. One observation that struck me was how much larger the American Cemetary seemed to be, despite the fact that the German Cemetary had almost three times as many soldiers buried in it.
All things considered, I would say the German Cemetary is more worth the visit as it imparts a much more powerful message; I took a picture of a crayon-colored sign left at the foot of the the German Memorial, below the sculpted-from-stone faces of a weeping German mother and father, that read “Plus Jamais La Guerre / Nie Wieder Krieg” (Never Another War).
The next day we journeyed to the mythologized, fantastical Mont Saint-Michel, the island-monastery first established in the 8th century. This was on Mari’s bucket list, and you could tell (she was very excited).
I enjoyed walking around the super-compact hill town and my favorite part was definitely the monastery at the top of the island. The earliest parts of the monastery that still stand today date back to the 11th century. As Mont Saint-Michel evolved through the past thousand years, so the structure expanded and new rooms replaced the old. The effect is a supremely historic building, with layers of time visible in the variety of architecture and design.
My only reservation with the Mont Saint-Michel adventure is how crowded it was. The island is incredible and because of that, in today’s world of accessible oversea travel, more and more people are making their pilgrimage to the World Heritage Site, us among them. I fear that more of the world’s most magnificent places will be overrun by tourists, similar, in a way, to what we’ve seen happen on Mount Everest. I am a part of that problem and I believe it is our responsibility to be conscious of our place in it.
I am writing this from Sarlat-La-Caneda, our gateway to the Dordogne region of France. We left Normandy yesterday morning, after we completed our survey of the area with a tour of Bayeux and some sightseeing on Omaha Beach. We then headed south, stopping in Chinon and Chauvigny on the way. I may get around to talking about my adventures there, or I might not, we’ll see how I feel. Regardless, I am looking forward to exploring the Dordogne and thanks for reading.
