Exhibitions

On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe and Asia, discover the new temporary exhibition "1945, a better world?" at the Falaise Memorial.

^{Temporary exhibition “1945, a better world?”}

• From April 5 to January 4, 2026
• English translation
• Free admission

_Context:

With the end of the Second World War in Europe on May 8, 1945, and then in the Pacific on September 2, 1945, the world could finally celebrate the end of the deadliest conflict in history. Behind the famous images of popular jubilation relayed by the major media, however, lurks a particularly complex reality. Theorized as early as 1941, the global strategic balances were reforming around the victorious Allied powers, against a backdrop of tensions in the colonies and ideological rupture, preparing the advent of the Cold War. At the same time, in light of the atrocities committed by the Axis powers, the outcome of the war years was being settled in the courts, around the major trials of Nuremberg and Tokyo, but also in the streets, where extrajudicial and then legal purges were in full swing.  

Occupied, and now bloodless after several months of fighting, France obviously did not escape the troubles and questions of the immediate post-war period, where the need to re-establish the Republic rubbed shoulders with the thirst for revenge, but also with the desire for social progress carried by the National Council of the Resistance.

Thus, total war left indelible traces, causing a profound questioning of the political, moral and societal foundations of the world before 1940. It thus had the consequence of laying the foundations for major changes which are at the origin of the foundations of the World that we know 80 years later. 

_{Contents of the exhibition:}

This exhibition will examine the state of the world in the immediate post-war period, after six traumatic years of a war that was characterized by its ideological extremism and the unprecedented violence committed against civilian populations. 

Through some fifteen panels supported by illustrations, objects, and testimonies, it will highlight the major geostrategic and political upheavals that paved the way for the Cold War, as well as the moral developments that resulted, particularly after the discovery of Nazi crimes. It will focus more specifically on the case of France, between the upheavals of decolonization, the thirst for revenge, and hopes for social and societal progress, particularly for women.

Beyond the images of popular jubilation, which ultimately proved short-lived, the year 1945 marked a turning point between the pre- and post-war worlds, thus laying the foundations for our current world.

This is the ambition of this new exhibition at the Falaise Memorial: to recall the origins of a world order and the achievements that make up our daily lives. 

_{TECHNICAL INFORMATIONS :}

The exhibition will be produced and placed under the scientific direction of Emmanuel Thiébot, historian and head of the Falaise Memorial. It will be presented in the form of text panels supported by iconographic resources and objects from the Falaise Memorial's collections.

It takes place on the ground floor of the Falaise Memorial and will be split into two main thematic parts:

1. The World of 1945: A Fragile Peace
   1. Major international conferences
   2. Towards international justice
   3. 1945-1946: a world in crisis
   4. The discovery of the Nazi camps
   5. The beginnings of the Cold War 
2. France in 1945  
   1. Troubles in the French Empire
   2. The purges  
   3. Rethinking French society
   4. The Return of the Republic
   5. The place of women at the Liberation

It will also endeavor, as far as possible, to draw on local and Norman examples.  

_{Cultural programming around the exhibition:}