Places and Spaces: The Remembrance of D-Day 1944 in Normandy

Abstract

With World War II having razed vast parts of Europe by 1945, many citizens of the continent’s war-torn countries hoped they would soon leave behind the effects of turmoil, destruction, and trauma. The author examines the commemoration of D-Day (June 6, 1944), exploring why war commemoration rituals still captivate thousands of people and illustrating attempts that have been made to shape a peaceful future in postwar Europe. She draws on concepts of action theory to demonstrate how rituals create, in a single place, various kinds of space informed by ideology, beliefs, and knowledge and how they can help people come to terms with a harrowing past. The chapter is based on more than 100 qualitative interviews with participants in rituals, tourists of battlefields, and people who redesign former war zones for commemorative purposes. The interviews underwent qualitative content analysis and were studied together with extensive archive material.