“Les clochers de la liberté”, commemorating in a different way
June 6, 2020 at the Normandy Victory Museum
As a Normandy museum of the Second World War, the June 6 ceremonies are important events for us in many ways. That year, many of us were saddened to see the day arrive, with no opportunity to pay tribute to and honor our liberators. Nicholas Bellée, one of the museum’s founders, came up with the idea for this initiative, which has been widely taken up, even across the Atlantic.
To pay homage despite everything, a unifying idea
No sooner had he put forward this idea than he was joined by the other two founders of the Normandy Victory Museum, Patrick Fissot and Christophe Beaussire, and soon by a number of other key players in the Manche region: the D-Day Experience, the World War II Foundation, the C.A.P.A association (Camp Arizona and L’Atelier à Carentan), and the International WWII Film Festival. Since then, many others have joined them: institutions, communes, museums, and the information relayed by the local media seems to have won over private individuals too.
The Bells of Freedom, June 6, 2020 at 6:44 PM
What is this alternative event? In the heart of the summer of ’44, the bells rang out with glee to announce liberation, a sound that travelled, a sound that united, a sound that those who were there have not forgotten. Since this very special year doesn’t allow us to come together, let’s take our turn in ringing the bells of Freedom. More precisely, at a symbolic hour: 6.44 PM (6.40 p.m. here) as in June ’44. This sound will be a link between us all, in La Manche, in Normandy, in France. And why not across the Atlantic to America? Some people have already relayed this over there. This sound as a link between past and present. This sound as a vibrant and moving tribute to our liberators that we’d like to carry to the ears of the few veterans still with us. A travelling sound that carries with it the word Freedom, the importance of which we have come to appreciate in these early months of 2020.
Listen to Nicholas Bellée in podcast on Tendance Ouest.
… upcoming events
“2nd DB” day: exhibition and signing
April 20, 2024 – Dedication of the comic strip Normandie 44, the 2nd DB of General Leclerc by Jean Blaise Djian and mini-exhibition 2nd DB in the museum
La Horse – Film screening and meeting
On 27 April 2024, at the D-Day Experience in Carentan (our partner for the event), attend the screening of the film La Horse starring Jean Gabin, in the presence of Mathias Moncorgé, his son and patron of the exhibition, and actor Antoine Duléry.
Conference Henriette Leprovost et Jean Turco
May 11, 2024 – Conference on the 1940 campaign with two exceptional witnesses: Henriette Leprovost and Jean Turco
Push open the doors of history
Visit the Normandy Victory Museum Museum of the Battle of the Hedges. We are in Normandy, Manche dpt, France