Reflections of World War I at the In Flanders Field Museum

Devastation of Flanders during World War I
(Courtesy: Imperial War Museum)

YPRES, BELGIUM -- For the Baby Boom generation and younger, the First World War is, in many ways, a ghost of the past because World War II dominates with reflections of parents and grandparents who fought so valiantly to preserve our liberty and freedom in the 1940's.

All the more reason the In Flanders Fields Museum in Belgium is a permanent reminder that we should never forget the tragedy of "The Great War."

Cloth Hall as it looks today

Located in the renovated historic Cloth Hall of Ypres (pronounced "ee-per"), the In Flanders Fields Museum tells the dramatic, heartbreaking story of World War I in the West Flanders region of the country.

In Flanders Fields Museum is a reverent place. Like similar sites such as the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, it is a place of solitude, a place of peace, a place of quiet, a place where visitors pause to solemnly consider the echoes of conflict a century ago.

Cloth Hall during WWI
(Courtesy: In Flanders Fields
Museum)

The death and destruction of the "Great War" still linger 100 years later. Here more than 600,000 fell. Here more than 425,000 graves and names etched on memorials that dot the landscape trace the horrors and devastation of human insanity.

Each museum visitor receives a "Poppy Bracelet" as they enter. Poppies are the symbol of the WWI conflict in Flanders, northwest France and Gallipoli where constant bombardment disturbed the soil and brought the seeds to the surface.

Fertilized by the nitrogen in the explosives and the lime from the rubble of destroyed buildings, combined with the blood and bones of millions of men, horses, donkeys, dogs and other animals, the soil where they died became a place where poppies thrived.

Exterior of the In Flanders Fields Museum  (Photo: Taylor)

The bracelets activate a chip which selects the appropriate language for each visitor, relating the personal stories of four individuals who dramatically tell their tales in vivid video detail. It is perhaps the simplicity of their narratives that is so mesmerizing.

Each narrator stands alone with a neutral background as they describe the personal intimate details of their experiences. There is no music. No fast editing. No computer gimmicks. Only the solemn remembrances of four people who enter the frame, then softly, almost painfully, relate their accounts before disappearing silently into the darkness.

Artillery shells and other weapons are on display
(Courtesy: In Flanders Fields Museum)

The exhibition focuses upon the invasion of Belgium, the first weeks of mobilization, the four horrifying years of trench warfare, the end of the war and the permanent remembrances since.

Trecnhes at Hill 62
(Photo: Taylor)

It is the intent of the In Flanders Fields Museum to encourage visitors to view the actual sites themselves. Places like Sanctuary Wood Museum Hill 62 where guests can walk through trenches that remain in the Belgian countryside. Places like Essex Farm and Canadian Hill 62 Memorial where a sculpture of a brooding soldier looks down upon landscape architecture designed to recreate the first use of gas warfare in combat.

The city of Ypres, officially known as "Ieper" in Flemish, was completely leveled during the war and then rebuilt stone by stone afterwards. Thus no building in the city today is more than 90 years old, though they have been lovingly restored to their original appearance.

Visitors are always reverent, silent and in awe of the displays
(Courtesy: In Flanders Fields Museum)

One of the more dramatic displays in the In Flanders Fields Museum is a diorama that incorporates moving colored lights to highlight troop movements and battles in the region.

Appearing as amoeba-like blobs of light shaded to represent the combatants and their movements, the lights glide across the 3-dimensional exhibit, combining into larger bubbles of light or dividing into smaller ones.

Mounds of mud were home
(Courtesy: In Flanders Fields
Museum)

In the end, the most telling aspect of the exhibition is the futility of the conflict where one side pushes while the other retreats and vice-versa in a perpetual tug-o-war of death.

The In Flanders Fields Museum is much more than a reflection upon the past, however. It is designed as a personal cultural and artistic representation that conveys a  universal contemporary message of peace.

Ypres, in fact, is known as the "City of Peace" for obvious reasons. As the museum reminds us, the "nature of war does not change in time."

The Bell Tower is now open
(Courtesy: In Flanders Fields
Museum)

Until recently the Cloth Hall Bell Tower had been closed to visitors, but has now been re-opened as part of the tour of the refurbished museum. Be warned, there is no elevator, so guests must climb 231 steps to reach the top.

If successful however, they are rewarded with       a high-angle view of the many of the Ypres Salient battlefields that dot the landscape.

In military terms, a "salient" is a battlefield feature that projects into an opponent's territory.

Cutaway 3-dimensional model of battlefields and bunkers
(Courtesy: In Flanders Fields Museum)

The Ypres Salient was formed by British, French, Canadian and Belgian troops in a defensive effort to halt the German incursion in 1914. Surrounded on three sides by German soldiers, the allied troops occupying the salient were vulnerable to attack.

Museum hours vary according to season. Winter hours from mid-November through the end of March and Sundays are from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Between April 1 and November 15 closing time is an hour later at 6 p.m. There are also holidays when the museum is closed; December 24-25, December 31-January 1 and January 7-21, 2019.

Admission for adults is 9 Euros, visitors 18 to 25 pay 5 Euros, ages 7 to 18 are admitted 4 Euros and under 7 get in free. There are also group rates for a minimum of 15 guests but they must be booked in advance.

Washing up in a trench was part of the daily routine
(Courtesy: Saskatchewan Military Museum)

In Flanders Fields Museum is a great place to begin an understanding of the Baby Boomers "forgotten war." Once there it will be forgotten no longer, for it is a visit that will be forever etched in your memory.