What we know about the project of the President of Normandy Region, Hervé Morin, is causing great concern in France among mayors in the Battle of Normandy area, military historians, and citizens; and it should concern Americans, too.

Far from being a new museum or another place of contemplation, it is a historical masquerade with commercial undertone that is planned to open on the 80th anniversary of D-Day in 2024.  Investors seek to create an amusement park known as "D-Day Land" directly on the area where D-Day occurred, June 6, 1944. This live spectacle is being contemplated by 3 private promoters specializing in communication, musical drama, movies and television. Their goal is to present to the general public, in 45 minutes, a condensed version of D-Day and the battle of Normandy via audiovisual projection and 150 comedians and acrobats, a la “Cirque de Soleil”.   A budget of 250 million euros has been announced, as well as the siting of about 30 hectares, close to the D-Day beaches. The investors also seek to take and reconstitute one of the local villages, building hotels, restaurants, and gift shops, for tourists to occupy while they enjoy the rides on the park, destroying the traditional and increasingly rare rich Normand farmland.

In seeking to attract 600,000 visitors each year, the project is fraught with threats as follows:

-          Economically, one of the immediate consequences will be the downfall of the 40 various museums and sites around Normandy which seek to educate the public and preserve the memory of the soldiers who died on D-Day. The scope of this spectacle will draw the public away from the history of the site, and focus their attention on gift shops to buy cheaply made knockoffs of "D-Day memorabilia".

-          Regarding the relationship between Normandy and the United States, the risks are no less:  These two countries are strongly marked by the respect for the dead and by the knowledge that Normandy, France, Europe and the world owe everything to the sacrifices of the Americans.  Don’t the promoters understand that D-Day veterans, their families and supporters will be shocked when they become aware of this project?  How are they going to perceive this spectacle other than as a simulation of memory, trivializing the suffering endured, reducing history to a succession of performances by actors and acrobats usurping the real heroism of the veterans, just to satisfy their economic appetites?  Memorial tourism is respectable but ceases to be when it functions like a big show machine.  This project is indecent, unethical, and an insult to the memory of the dead.

History and memory cannot be taught and impressed upon in shows no longer than ¾ of an hour, 6 times a day, 6 months a year, to hundreds of spectators who will be encouraged to spend money, rather than contemplate, meditate, and remember.

This project is an insult to the numerous American, French, British, Canadian, and Danish soldiers who lost their lives not only on D-Day, but throughout WWII. If one of your loved ones lost their life serving their country and fighting in its wars, would you feel respected if their sacrifice was remembered with a rollercoaster and Dippin' Dots ice cream on the very field where they died? "D-Day Land" is nothing more than an attempt by politicians and business owners to line their pockets on the memory of the dead, and it needs to be stopped.