November 2021 – LRE Foundation

LRE Foundation and Kuoni Tumlare team up to offer a range of engaging WWII trip itineraries

Posted on November 25, 2021November 25, 2021 by Cecilia Badano

The LRE Foundation is pleased to announce a new collaboration with Kuoni Tumlare, a leading international Destination Management company. In a new and exciting venture, the Foundation has teamed up with Kuoni Tumlare to create a selection of engaging trip itineraries for US and Canadian travellers who are looking to discover the history of Europe in the final years of WWII and the stories behind its liberation.

Kuoni Tumlare is a leading Destination Management company providing travel partners services throughout Europe since 1906. Kuoni Tumlare’s strength is the nineteen (19) local European offices that allow the company to provide personalised group services and customised itineraries, which offer travellers memorable, exciting, and educative experiences.

Thanks to this cooperation, American and Canadian travellers and history enthusiasts will be able to enjoy four expertly-designed packages focused around sites in Normandy, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy and Norway, through which they will be able to explore the important places and learn the incredible stories of Europe’s liberators along the Liberation Route Europe. “Kuoni Tumlare is honoured to partner with the LRE Foundation to provide these important World War II remembrance tours, especially for the generations of Americans and Canadians to come”, says David Shield, Sales Manager at Kuoni Tumlare.

The tours created through this collaboration will enable the Foundation to spotlight many of its members, including museums, cemeteries and memorials related to WWII history and remembrance, and make the Liberation Route Europe network even more accessible and internationally known. The four packages available are:

Normandy, France: a 9-day itinerary encompassing the principal battlefields of WWII in the Normandy region of Northern France. Sites include Omaha and Utah beaches, the Contentin Peninsula, Saint-Lô and finally Falaise before returning to Paris.
Benelux: a 10-day trip focusing on key sites in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg area. This excursion focuses on Operation Market Garden and the Battle of the Bulge. From Eindhoven to Arnhem, Bastogne, the Ardennes, to Malmedy and ending in Brussels, some highlights include visits to important battle sites, museums, and the notable Hells Highway.

Italy: An 8-day itinerary starting in Rome and ending in Florence, taking in a tour of the Eternal City, including Mussolini’s “new city”, and the Ghetto. Discover story of the Ardreatine Caves, and the Abbey and military cemeteries of Cassino, before heading to Lucca and Florence to explore their WWII history.
Norway: an 11-day excursion taking in some of the immense wartime fortresses and fascinating museums the country has to offer, as well as a trip on the impressive Flambaan railway and a Nærøyfjord cruise. The route starts in Hirtshals/Bergen, onto Stalheim, Geilo and Rjukan area before ending in Oslo.

“We are beyond happy to be collaborating with Kuoni. The combination of Kuoni’s expertise in tourism and travel and the Foundation’s network and remembrance knowledge resulted in four exciting tours touching many of the most important sites linked to our common history. We went into this venture with special attention to our members and partners, intending to bring their stories to many tour operators and US and Canadian travellers, and we are pleased to see this becoming a reality.”

Rémi Praud, LRE Foundation's Managing Director

LRE Foundation becomes a partner for “Belgium, Battlefield of Europe”

Posted on November 23, 2021November 25, 2021 by Cecilia Badano

On 8 November, representatives of the LRE Foundation attended the opening event of “Belgium, Battlefield of Europe” in Brussels, a new project organised by the War Heritage Institute (WHI), the Belgian federal institution responsible for military heritage and remembrance.

Over the centuries, hundreds of conflicts, from small struggles to large battles, have taken place in the territory of present-day Belgium, all the way through from the Roman conquests to World War One and Two. “Belgium, Battlefield of Europe” aims to uncover these 2000 years of war history in the country.

The project is based on three axes. Firstly, this initiative brings together a wide range of partner museums, sites and organisations working on the history of conflict and memory, publishing their information, temporary exhibitions, and activities on its website. Secondly, historical research of this period provides information about the countless battles in Belgium, including those largely forgotten today, whilst the website highlights where it is possible to find traces of these confrontations. Finally, “Belgium, Battlefield of Europe” contributes to preserving and transmitting the memory of events and their consequences with the WHI’s War Dead Register, which lists Belgian military victims, helping to keep them in our memories.

The LRE Foundation is excited to be part of “Belgium, Battlefield of Europe” as one of the many partner organisations working to keep WWII’s memory relevant and accessible and we look forward to seeing the project progress. For further information, visit their website and our partner’s page.

EASTory through their Eyes workshop at the Freedom Museum

Posted on November 11, 2021November 11, 2021 by Cecilia Badano

The events of the EASTory through their Eyes project, funded by the Europe for Citizens programme of the European Union, officially began with a workshop for project partners at the Freedom Museum in Groesbeek, the Netherlands. On 9 November, representatives of the Bastogne War Museum (Belgium), the City of Pilsen (Czechia), the German-Russian Museum Berlin-Karlshorst (Germany) and the Home Army Museum in Krakow (Poland) met in person for the first time to discuss the application of the multi-perspective approach to their work, exchange experiences, and learn from each other.

The Freedom Museum is a perfect case study of a multi-perspective, cross-border museum that presents the German and the Dutch perspective on the 20th century until the present, taking into account the experiences of other ethnic, social, or political groups and stimulating a deep reflection on the meaning and value of freedom.

The day began with a guided tour of the Freedom Museum by director Wiel Lenders and historian Ralph Trost. It continued with interventions from LRE historian Jory Brentjens, who discussed the approach of the LRE Foundation to history, events and research, and from Freedom Museum curator Rense Havinga, who presented the thorough historical work behind the creation of a multi-perspective museum. EASTory through their Eyes project partners then presented their work, institution and methodology, offering a broad view on WWII and the concept of liberation in the Eastern and Western European perspectives. To conclude the session, German historian Heiko Suhr discussed the evolution of the concept of liberation in Germany, moving from an individual to a collective national – and later European – memory. Sylvia Fleuren, city councillor of the Municipality of Berg en Dal, where the Freedom Museum is located, greeted the project partners, speakers and other workshop attendees.

The EASTory through their Eyes project is composed of a travelling exhibition and a series of youth events. The travelling exhibition presents personal stories of young people from the East and the West of Europe, and it was displayed in Groesbeek for the first time. It will then travel to the Bastogne War Museum, in Belgium, where the first youth event will take place on 10 December 2021. The other youth events will be organised in Krakow, Pilsen, and Berlin in the first half of 2022.