Of all the D-Day sites, none convey the horror and heroism of that pivotal moment during World War II—June 6, 1944—like Pointe du Hoc, a cliff 30 meters above the sea. You can clearly see how exposed the Americans were as they ascended with ropes that morning.
But it is disappearing, and fast. The Nazi defense and observation post between two landing beaches in Normandy, which the Americans conquered, witnessed three more landslides this spring. The waves have eaten away a cavity of approximately 2 and a half meters at the base of the cliffs.
“If I don’t have the site, I lose the story of what happened here,” said Scott Desjardins, the American Battle Monuments Commission superintendent of the site, which receives 900,000 visitors annually. In all, the Normandy tourist office lists more than 90 official D-Day sites, including 44 museums, which attract more than 5 million visitors a year.
Along the northern fringe of beaches and cliffs in Normandy, history, memory and identity are in danger. Two-thirds of these coastlines suffer from erosion, according to a Normandy climate change reportand experts forecast that the worst is yet to come with rising sea levels, increased storms and higher tides.
After centuries of resisting the ravages of the sea with rocky protections, the French Government now promotes “living with the sea, not against it”. Coastal communities work on adaptation plans, which include the possibility of moving.
One of the region’s first D-Day museums is housed inside a former German bunker on Utah Beach. Over the past few years, Charles de Vallavieille, the mayor of the site, has been given permission to reinforce the beach in front of the museum by dumping truckloads of sand. But state permission to do so ends in 2026 and declares that it can be renewed only if the museum has developed a long-term plan to move—which Vallavieille passionately rejects.
Rather than spend money on protection plans, the Juno Beach Center—a museum set up on the site where 14,000 Canadian soldiers landed on D-Day—has introduced a reduced ticket price of “low carbon” for visitors who arrive by bicycle, has reduced its energy consumption and has been building a carbon sink—by planting trees in a nearby forest.
“They lost their lives to set us free, to give us what we enjoy today.”said Nathalie Worthington, director of the center, about the former soldiers. “So what do we do to preserve it?”.
CATHERINE PORTER
THE NEW YORK TIMES
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/6771022, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-06-21 20:50:07
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