On the occasion of the commemorations of 82e anniversary of the Landing and the Battle of Normandy, the University of Caen Normandy presents the new version of the War Memories site. Born in 2012, this unique project, dedicated to the European memory of the Second World War, brings together and translates the stories of Norman and Tuscan civilians and soldiers who experienced the Second World War. He therefore gives voice to anonymous witnesses, not only to soldiers and resistance fighters but also to populations from all levels of society.
According to the wishes of its designers, Memories of War contributes to the creation of a common European identity. It is also a way of entering, via the Internet, middle and high schools because not forgetting the errors of the past can help future generations to defend the idea of a more democratic and united world. “, explains Viviana Agostini-Ouafi, lecturer at the University of Caen Normandy and project leader.
The new version put online, completely redesigned, offers smoother navigation, optimized reading on all media and new tools making it easier to discover these autobiographical war testimonies, written and oral. Let us note, among the main technical novelties:
- un design entièrement repensé ;
- better readability of multilingual content;
- a new enhancement of the multilingual dimension of the project;
- une navigation simplifiée ;
- an interactive summary of each testimony with tracking of the section currently being read;
- a dynamic notes panel allowing access to context information without leaving your reading;
- an interface adapted to smartphones and tablets.
This overhaul is also accompanied by the enrichment of the Norman and Tuscan corpora with new translations into several languages. In the future, the team plans to extend these autobiographical accounts of the Second World War to other European countries (Ireland, England…), or even extra-European countries (United States and Canada).
Academics are also continuing their research to identify certain Norman witnesses whose accounts have been preserved but whose identity remains partially unknown. The witnesses themselves, their descendants or the people who participated in the collection of these stories are invited to contact the team in order to enrich this collective memory and to pay tribute to those who passed on their story.
