Different representations of trench warfare in World War One.

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History Notes on Q2: -

The Museum at Notre Dame de Lorette and Source E (a novel written in the 1970’s by an Australian author – David Malouf) both show different representations of trench warfare in World War One.  

The Museum at Notre Dame de Lorette focuses on the day-to-day life on the soldiers.  It shows that life did not only contain fighting, but also soldiers resting and socialising whilst playing cards, smoking or planning future attacks.  The display does show signs of causalities by the First Aid Post and a soldier being operated on.  This implies that there was always help available and that the soldiers were looked after in all cases.  There is also a Priest giving the ‘Last Rites’ in order to remove a soldier’s sins so he could go to heaven.  Likewise, there is a communications room, which shows that the soldiers were not alone and that they had constant companionship; and that they would have been involved in activities other than fighting and killing.  

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The Museum portrays the war as this as people would visit the museum are likely to already have knowledge on the subject - for example, they would understand that there was mass killing.  The museum has been built to provide a wider knowledge of the war itself and therefore shows aspects other than killing – showing the war from another point of view.  

The Museum is also restricted in showing some aspects of the war as it is a secondary source that uses original artefacts.  The museum can only show the war with available sources and artefacts.  Hence, ...

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