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Oublié des media, sinon du public, le Mémorial de Verdun semble perdre sa place d’honneur parmi les musées de la Grande Guerre. Il présente pourtant une nette spécificité par rapport à l’Historial de Péronne ou au musée de Meaux : il a été voulu et pensé par les anciens combattants, soucieux dans les années 1960 d’assurer la transmission de leur mémoire. L’histoire de la construction du Mémorial témoigne de leur fort investissement affectif, parfois source de conflits. Le musée, financé par un appel au don qui rappelle le grand mouvement national autour de la construction de l’ossuaire de Douaumont, s’est intégré dans la zone rouge et a contribué à la modifier profondément, grâce aux aménagements financés par les entrées. Le parcours historique présenté a aujourd’hui évolué : autrefois modelé par la mémoire combattante, il a intégré de nouveaux enjeux historiographiques. Malgré tout, sa modernisation s’avère problématique : l’ancienneté du Mémorial est ainsi à la fois son atout, gage d’authenticité, et un frein à son évolution, en raison d’un phénomène de path dependence.

“The Memorial de Verdun and the aims of a fighting memory: 1959-2011”The Memorial de Verdun has been relatively forgotten by the media, if not by the public, and seems to have lost its place of honour among the French museums of the Great War. Yet, it is still unique compared to the Historial in Péronne or to the new Museum in Meaux : it was designed and desired in the 1960s by the war veterans themselves, who were anxious to make sure that their memory would be passed on to future generations. The history of the Memorial shows their strong emotional investment in the project : most of the men involved had been part of veterans’ associations for many years and saw the museum as their last legacy. This led to violent conflicts between them over questions of leadership and organizational details. It also shows the veterans’ attachment to the battlefields and the city of Verdun. To build the Memorial, the veterans actually inspired themselves as much from the battle itself as from the construction of memory in Verdun : like the Douaumont Ossuary in the interwar period, the museum was funded by a public subscription meant to establish its national legitimacy. The Memorial was designed as an educational complement to the Ossuary : it became an integral part of the Red Zone and contributed to the landscaping of the battlefields thanks to the money it yielded. In the 1960s, the first exhibition was very much shaped by the veterans’ memory as well as by the traditional military history of the war. It has evolved along with the historiography of the First World War : the sufferings of the civilians and the colonial troops, for example, are much more present in the current exhibition. However, the Memorial remains difficult to modernize, precisely because of its long history, which guarantees its authenticity but also subjects it to a phenomenon of path dependence.