Nazi and Allied soldiers who lost their lives in the Second World War will be commemorated following a controversial decision to grant the D-Day landing beaches world heritage status.
The five beaches along the coast of Normandy in northern France are the first Second World War battlefields to be recognised by Unesco’s World Heritage Committee.
The committee said that the sites “symbolically commemorate the immense human sacrifice that was made to overthrow an entrenched authoritarian occupation in Europe”.
Known by their Allied code names — Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword — the beaches, along with the Pointe du Hoc promontory, were recognised by the committee at its meeting in Busan, South Korea, on Sunday.
Last month was the 82nd anniversary of the landings, which remains the largest amphibious and airborne military operation in history.
Previously, Unesco rejected granting battlegrounds world heritage status, and they were seen as symbols of division.
Normandy council argued that the beaches where 156,000 Allied troops landed on June 6, 1944, had become symbols of “peace and reconciliation”.
Hervé Morin, the head of Normandy council, said: “The landing beaches are much more than historical sites: they are universal places of remembrance, bearing a message of freedom, peace, and unity among nations.”
Morin added that his thoughts were with the “435,000 soldiers killed or wounded in the Battle of Normandy”, which includes about 200,000 Germans.
Morin said he would bring together officials from the 121 district councils in or around the sites in September to ensure that all the panels highlighting D-Day landing beaches and memorials were of the same appearance and easily identifiable.
Though the campaign was launched in 2008, it was six years before Paris approached Unesco over the issue.
A 500-page application — which also featured 18,000 pages of appendices — was submitted in 2018, but initially got nowhere owing to Unesco’s objection to listing modern battle sites.
The barrier was lifted in 2023 when the UN body agreed to give world heritage status to 139 First World War memorials and burial sites in France and Belgium, including British cemeteries.
An updated version of the D-Day application was put in last year.
Officials said the move will help preserve the 50-mile stretch of coast from development and the building of potential eyesores, like wind farms.
As part of the application, France had to pledge tighter planning rules in the area and in a controlled zone around it.
Officials have also pledged to improve information and signs for the millions of tourists who visit the sites every year.
Approval means the beaches have become the first Second World War battlefields to be given world heritage status, although other sites associated with the conflict are already listed, such as the Hiroshima Peace Memorial and Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Normandy council said that 1.4 million people visited the Normandy American Cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach, 650,000 the Pointe du Hoc visitor centre and 546,500 the Germany military cemetery in La Cambe last year.
Other sites include the Mémorial de Caen, visited by 440,000 people, the Musée du Débarquement in Arromanches, which drew 295,000, and the Airborne Museum in Sainte-Mère-Église, dedicated to the US paratroopers who parachuted into Normandy, which attracted 260,400.
To get more news, click here to sign up for our free daily newsletter.