Mémoires de guerre

Written Testimonies

Normand stories

Eight testimonies from Norman civilians and soldiers, preserved at the Mémorial de Caen, translated and annotated.

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Written Testimonies

Tuscan stories

Ten testimonies from Tuscan civilians and members of the Resistance, spanning the period from the German occupation and the liberation of Florence in 1944.

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Audio Testimonies

La voix des témoins

Rare oral recordings collected from witnesses of the Second World War, transcribed and available for download.

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A Multilingual European Collective Memory

Created through a collaboration between scholars from Normandy and Tuscany, *Mémoires de guerre* brings together written and oral testimonies from civilians and soldiers who experienced World War II. Each story has been transcribed, annotated, contextualized, and translated into several languages.

The project aims to build a shared European collective memory. For collective memory to be truly shared, it must be accessible in everyone’s language—not only in English. These vivid, spontaneous stories, rooted in popular and oral traditions, speak to a wide range of audiences, from specialists and students to the general public.

The project is led by Viviana Agostini-Ouafi, Professor at the University of Caen Normandy, with the support of an international team of researchers, translators, and computer scientists.Learn more →

« Ce projet international né à Caen est une première car ce site internet est le réceptacle de points de vue très différents sur un même événement. Il associe des universitaires de très nombreux domaines : histoire, géographie, langues étrangères, linguistique, sociologie. »
Viviana Agostini-Ouafi — Ouest-France, mai 2013

What's New

2026
Website redesign. The Mémoires de guerre website has been completely redesigned, featuring improved readability, enhanced navigation, an interactive table of contents for each testimony, a dynamic notes panel, and a mobile-friendly interface.