Key stage 4 (14-17)

Find here all the resources you need to prepare your visit to the Memorial Museum with your students.

Guided visits

The educational team at the Caen Memorial Museum offers guided visits adapted to the level of your students. The children are equipped with headsets. They listen to the mediator and answer questions on the various objects and documents encountered during the visit.

Duration: 1 hour 15

Ask your students to bring their own wired headphones if they have them.

World War II

From the origins of the Second World War to its end, the first exhibition recounts and explains the first half of the 20th century.

  • 1918-1939, from one war to another: the disaster

From the catastrophic outcome of the First World War to 1939. How the idea of peace after the «war to end all wars» gradually disintegrated.

  • France in the dark years

What was daily life like for French people? In this section, a wartime newsreel presents the Battle of Britain, a country which “would never surrender”.

  • World war, Total war

In a war that becomes «total», aggressors devote all their human resources and equipment on achieving final victory.

  • D-Day and the Battle of Normandy

For the first time ever, this exhibition space deals exclusively with the Invasion of Normandy, a key episode in the liberation of Europe.

MIG-21

The Cold War

From the end of World War II to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the second half of the 20th century is decrypted in this space.

  • Berlin at the heart of the Cold war

Divided into four zones of occupation in 1945, the city became a major issue for the Americans and the Soviets during the Cold War. Berlin has become a symbol of the Cold War, an emblem of East-West antagonism.

  • The Balance of Terror

During the Cold War, the two powers waged an unbridled arms race. A genuine Soviet Mig-21 and a French missile from the plateau d’Albion are real-life examples of the frantic nature of the arms race in general and, more particularly, of the nuclear arms race.

Guided tour

American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer

The D-Day landing beaches

How the site visits are organised:

  • The guide meets you at the Caen Mémorial museum, in your coach (which must be fitted with a microphone).
  • During the outbound trip, the guide gives an introduction which sets the D-Day landings against the general background of the Second World War. They explain why Normandy was chosen to reconquer Europe, and the stakes involved in the D-Day landings.
  • At the end of the circuit, return to the museum to drop the guide off.

Duration: 3 hours 30

German Battery
Located in the heart of the Allied landing zone, between Omaha Beach and Gold Beach, the German battery at Longues-sur-mer is one of the batteries of the Atlantic Wall. In 1944, it comprised four casemates, each housing a 150mm gun, a fire direction post built into the cliff edge and various concrete installations used as shelters or ammunition bunkers.

American Cemetery
The Colleville-sur-Mer military cemetery is one of two American cemeteries in Normandy. Overlooking Omaha Beach, it contains 9,386 graves of American soldiers who fell during D-Day and the ensuing battle. With its impressive array of white crosses, this place of remembrance pays tribute to the sacrifice of American youth in the liberation of Europe.

Omaha Beach
Omaha is the code name for one of the five landing sectors. Closed in by a small cliff giving the defenders the upper hand, this 6 km long beach quickly became a hellish place for the GIs who landed at dawn on June 6. The loss of life was so great that the beach earned the nickname "Bloody Omaha".

German Cemetery
With 21,222 graves, the La Cambe cemetery is the largest German necropolis in Normandy. Its grey granite crosses and ground stelae give it a very austere appearance. In the center, a tumulus contains the bodies of unidentified combatants. A peace garden with over a thousand trees has been laid out nearby. Each tree represents a signatory to the petition of the Volksbund, an association for peace and against violence in the world.

American Cemetery
The Colleville-sur-Mer military cemetery is one of two American cemeteries in Normandy. Overlooking Omaha Beach, it contains 9,386 graves of American soldiers who fell during D-Day and the ensuing battle. With its impressive array of white crosses, this place of remembrance pays tribute to the sacrifice of American youth in the liberation of Europe.

Omaha Beach
Omaha is the code name for one of the five landing sectors. Closed in by a small cliff giving the defenders the upper hand, this 6 km long beach quickly became a hellish place for the GIs who landed at dawn on June 6. The loss of life was so great that the beach earned the nickname "Bloody Omaha".

Booking service

+33 (0)2 31 06 06 45
Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm.

Mémorial de Caen

Don't forget

  • To help your students relax and enable our teams to present the site, you are advised to arrive 1/4 hour prior to the scheduled time.
  • For safety reasons, bags are not allowed in the museum and students must leave them in the coach.
  • The students remain under the authority of the accompanying adults. They will not be able to access the visit without supervision.
  • The Caen Memorial Museum has a free coach park for 22 vehicles and a cleaning station.
Mémorial de Caen