The Vierville Museum, a local history from the Occupation to the Liberation

An article devoted to the Vierville Museum points out that a small private initiative can be as documented as large institutions. He compares the approximately four hundred thousand annual visitors to Arromanches and the almost one hundred thousand to Bayeux to the large attendance of Vierville: forty-six thousand people the previous year, including many foreigners. However, the museum is installed in a simple sheet metal shed on the edge of departmental road 514.

According to the story, this building had been installed by the Americans in 1944. The municipality had used it as a party room until 1964, then as a warehouse, before leaving it abandoned. Two enthusiasts, Mr. Leveel and Mr. Tréfeu, had asked to make it a museum. Mayor Michel Hardelay had given his authorization two years earlier and largely helped their project.

Mr. Leveel explained that he began to preserve objects fifteen years earlier and thought of a museum in 1969, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the landings. At that time, he said, memories of war were still easy to find. It dated the beginning of the "razzia" about ten years ago and regretted that there is now almost nothing left to discover.

The purpose of the museum differs from those of Arromanches, devoted to the Landing, and Bayeux, centered on the Battle of Normandy. Vierville wants to show the life of an era. The journey begins in 1940 with the Occupation: newspapers that disappeared during the war, but also Nazi propaganda titles in French, such as La Gerbe, Aujourd'hui, Je suis partout and Le Cri du peuple. Then comes the Resistance. Leveel judges this subject delicate, because protagonists are still alive, but the great local figures are cited.

This local dimension is at the heart of the establishment: the rooms concern Vierville and its surroundings, or, at the farthest, the canton of Isigny. Repression, deportations and torture are also mentioned. Leveel reports that this part displeases some German visitors, while defending its necessity in the name of historical truth.

The route continues with the Atlantic Wall and a collection of German ammunition that the article describes as unique in France. For June 6, the presentation changes: the collection is succeeded by a striking reconstruction of the Landing, of which Omaha Beach is a few hundred meters away. The evocation then follows the departure of the troops from Vierville to Saint-Lô and Caumont, then the end of the war. A large painting, made from a period document, represents a rue d'Isigny in August 1944.

Hundreds of documents were sorted and labeled in two languages. Some attract particular attention, such as a letter addressed to his family by an American soldier on the evening of June 6. The managers chose the free visit, without a guide, to let everyone stop on what interests them. The courses last from five minutes to two hours. Leveel, however, deplores the lace of interest of some visitors and says, with disappointment, that Americans are the most jaded.

At the time of the article, the museum was open from April 1 to October 1. Its managers wanted to better distribute attendance by attracting more visitors in May and June: July and August were approaching saturation and did not always allow good visiting conditions.

Reconstructed or uncertain passages:
- The date of April 2, 1983 comes from the file name; no dated cartridge is visible on the image.
- The attendance figures, the uniqueness of the ammunition collection and the assessments on visitors are those of the article and of Mr. Leveel, without independent verification.
- The benchmarks "two years ago", "fifteen years" and "ten years" are kept as relative benchmarks of the testimony, without deducing certain dates of creation.

Archive image: https://vierville.cordelle.eu/PhDoc10/1983Avril2-Musee.jpg