Editing Battle of Verdun (section)

==Commemoration==
[[File:The other side of the medal how Germany saw the First World War DSCF9953 12.JPG|thumb|upright=0.8|{{centre|French commemorative medal for the battle, "Heroes of Verdun" by [[Charles Pillet]]}}]]
Verdun has become for the French the representative memory of the First World War, comparable to how the [[Battle of the Somme]] is viewed in the United Kingdom and Canada.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36372478 |title=Verdun: France's sacred symbol of healing |work=BBC News |date=2016-05-28 |access-date=2019-09-21 |archive-date=22 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190922000334/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36372478 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Antoine Prost]] wrote, "Like [[Auschwitz]], Verdun marks a transgression of the limits of the human condition".{{sfn|Jackson|2001|p=28}} From 1918 to 1939, the French expressed two memories of the battle. One was a patriotic view embodied in memorials built on the battlefield and the Nivelle quote "They shall not pass". The other was the memory of the survivors who recalled the death, suffering and sacrifice of others. Verdun soon became a focal point for commemorations of the war. In 1920, a ceremony was held in the citadel of Verdun to choose a body to bury in the [[Arc de Triomphe#Tomb of the Unknown Soldier|Tomb of the Unknown Soldier]] at the [[Arc de Triomphe]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.verdun-meuse.fr/index.php?qs=fr/lieux-et-visites/lieu-du-mois---novembre-2011---la-citadelle-s |title=Lieu du Mois – Novembre 2011 – La citadelle souterraine – lieu du choix |language=fr |trans-title=Place of the Month – November 2011 – The underground citadel – place of choice |website=verdun-meuse.fr |access-date=20 September 2019 |archive-date=19 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221219111325/http://verdun-meuse.fr/index.php?qs=fr/lieux-et-visites/lieu-du-mois---novembre-2011---la-citadelle-s |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[File:Memorial de Verdun.jpg|thumb|left|{{centre|[[Verdun Memorial]] on the battlefield near [[Fleury-devant-Douaumont]], opened 1967: to the fallen soldiers and civilians}}]]
Six [[French villages destroyed in the First World War|destroyed villages]] in the area were not rebuilt but were given special status as [[Communes of France|uninhabited communes]] of Beaumont-en-Verdunois, Bezonvaux, Cumières-le-Mort-Homme, Fleury-devant-Douaumont, Haumont-près-Samogneux and Louvemont-Côte-du-Poivre. Alain Denizot included period photographs that show overlapping shell craters in an area of about {{cvt|100|sqkm|order=flip}}.{{sfn|Foley|2007|p=259}} Forests planted in the 1930s have grown and hide most of the {{lang|fr|[[Zone rouge]]}} (Red Zone) but the battlefield remains a vast graveyard, containing the mortal remains of over {{nowrap|100,000 missing}} soldiers, except for those discovered by the French Forestry Service and laid in the [[Douaumont ossuary]].{{sfn|Holstein|2010|p=124}}

In the 1960s, Verdun became a symbol of Franco-German reconciliation, through remembrance of common suffering and in the 1980s it became a capital of peace. Organisations were formed and old museums were dedicated to the ideals of peace and human rights.{{sfn|Barcellini|1996|pp=77–98}} On 22 September 1984, the German Chancellor [[Helmut Kohl]] (whose father had fought near Verdun) and French President [[François Mitterrand]] (who had been taken prisoner nearby in the [[Second World War]]), stood at the Douaumont cemetery, [[Mitterrand and Kohl holding hands in Verdun|holding hands for several minutes]] in driving rain as a gesture of Franco-German reconciliation.{{sfn|Murase|2002|p=304}}