Visiting Dunkirk, Dunkerque, Anzio, or Poland can bring the events in this website to life. By doing so, you connect with the latest trend in national and international travel: “Film tourism,” or “film-induced tourism.”
Hollywood films, TV shows, and even commercials are helping to inspire tourists. People experience locations a movie, for instance, and decide to experience them in real life with a visit.
One of the best examples is The Lord Of The Rings movie series, filmed in New Zealand. Surveys show that about 7 in every 10 current and future international tourists to New Zealand have that trilogy of films on their minds Films have done the same for other destinations, including Dunkerque, and adjacent areas of northern France. The 2017 film, “Dunkirk,” ignited a tourism boom for those areas. Movie fans flocked to those areas to see in person the reality they enjoyed virtually. Maybe the Dunkirk-to-Dunkerque Heritage Center can do the same for Dunkirk, NY.
Visiting Dunkirk, NY
Dunkirk is located on Lake Erie about 45 miles west of Buffalo.
Most of the landmarks mentioned in the Heritage Center are still there in Dunkirk, awaiting visitors: The Dunkirk-to-Dunkerque Day parade route, for instance. City Hall where national news media wrote their stories and CBS broadcast live and celebrities gather to review the parade.
Floral Hall, site of the 1,000-person banquet for D-to-D Day and the Anzio, Italy relief banquet. And much more from that “Second Miracle of Dunkirk” era. No need to think of Dunkirk as your sole destination. Dunkirk is in the heart of one of the Eastern USA’s most vibrant summer vacation area. That’s Chautauqua County. One analysis described it as a “premier destination for leisure learning opportunities in the Eastern U.S.” Dunkirk, Lake Erie, and the surrounding area attract tens of thousands of seasonal visitors. Many visit from elsewhere in New York State, or from cities like Buffalo,
Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Toronto,
which are only hours away by car. Dunkirk, or any of those cities can be great bases for day trips in Chautauqua County. What’s there? For example: The Dunkirk-Lake Shore Air Show;
Chautauqua Institution; fishing, sailing, waterskiing and fishing tournaments on Lake Erie and Lake Chautauqua; hiking Chautauqua Rails to Trails and the Overland Trails; the Audubon Nature Center in Jamestown; cycling routes around Chautauqua Lake, Findley Lake or Amish Country; the Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum and Center for Comedy
and wine tasting at two dozen wineries in Lake Erie Wine Country. There also are tours of breweries or distilleries and the Dunkirk Historical Lighthouse. Students and their families arrive at the State University of New York at Fredonia for orientation and tours. Among other Things to Do in the area is
the Robert H. Jackson Center, honoring the U.S. Supreme Court Justice who was chief prosecutor of the surviving Nazi WWII leaders at the Nuremberg trials in Germany. For more, download the Chautauqua County App for your iPhone or download the Chautauqua County Travel Guide.
Visiting Dunkerque & French Flanders
A visit to Dunkerque offers a rare chance to see real history and how history gets a second life in Hollywood films. Yes, we’re talking about Christopher Nolan’s 2017 blockbuster, “Dunkirk.” It focused on the “Miracle of Dunkirk,” the rescue of 240,000 Allied troops trapped there by the Nazis during WWII. But, no, we don’t mean history vs. Hollywood, the hullabaloo over how accurately “Dunkirk” portrayed the real-life rescue. We mean real history: In Dunkerque, on the one hand, you
can visit or experience venues in the actual Battle of Dunkerque and the rescue that may have kept the Nazis from winning WWII. One “don’t-miss” attraction in a reality tour is a scenic airplane flight over the following sites: the East Mole, or pier, where many soldiers boarded rescue ships; the evacuation beaches, the Fort des Dunes; the Zuydcoote military hospital; the wrecks of ships like the Zuydcoote and Bray Dunes. Another is the Operation Dynamo Museum. Housed in the 1939 headquarters of the French army, it documents the Battle of Dunkirk and the lead up to Operation Dynamo (code name for the evacuation).
And we mean the second life those landmarks got in the film, “Dunkirk.” For instance, you can step into the actors’ shoes and visit some of the actual movie sets used in the film.
“Sets” are the scenery and other things built to create the visual impression of actually being there. Shooting the film on the beaches and the streets of Dunkerque required construction of many sets, each some quite spectacular. They range from cardboard soldiers to fake military trucks and other vehicles.
Linked Trips
Key links for planning a visit to Dunkerque:
- Dunkerque Tourist Center
- Dunkirk and Operation Dynamo
- Dunkirk movie set exhibit
- Dunkirk war museum
- Movie walking tour
- Shipwrecks on the beaches
- Wormhoudt massacre site and museum
- Fort des Dunes
- Paddle steamer “Princess Elizabeth”
- Operation Dynamo aerial tour
- Dynamo tour
Nearby Attractions
Like Dunkirk, NY, Dunkerque is in the thick of other attractions that make fantastic day-trips or longer stays elsewhere in France. Dunkerque is less than 2 hours by train from Paris, for example. Once in Northern France, there are a head-spinning variety of things to do and sights to see. One example: Normandy.
Its beaches were ground zero for the June 6, 1944 D-Day landings that liberated France and Europe. The area has multiple military cemeteries, museums and memorials relating to the landing and the Battle of Normandy that followed. If we were to visit just one, it would be the Normandy American Cemetery. And the beautiful countryside, the charming villages, the food, the wine, the Bayeux Tapestry . . .
Visiting Anzio
Anzio’s World War II’s battle scars have healed. The city has been rebuilt and restored. Despite being home to 45,000 people, Anzio retains some of its ancient small fishing-town atmosphere. It really is an ancient ambience. For Anzio attracted ancient Roman emperors who vacationed there centuries ago. And it does the same for their modern spiritual.
But landmarks and other remembrances from the Battle of Anzio, so important for that you-are-there sensation, do remain. The Anzio Beachhead Museum, for instance, offers a convenient sampling, being just a short walk from the Anzio train station.
Train is the best way to reach Anzio, which lies about 32 miles south of Rome. The fare from Rome’s Termini, the main train station, is only a few dollars and there are frequent departures. Take the train for “Netunno,” the last stop on the route. Downtown Anzio, the beaches, and restaurants are a pleasant 10 minute walk, downhill, from the station.
American & British Cemeteries
Several must-see memorials to the sacrifices during the liberation of Italy are in the area. One is the World War II Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial. It holds the remains of American dead in all military operations in Italy, from the invasion of Sicily to the liberation of Rome.
With 7,860 gleaming white headstones, the cemetery is located in nearby Nettuno, on Piazzale Kennedy. A memorial to the 3,095 other soldiers who died during the fighting, but were missing in action, is inside the chapel. It’s a compelling list of all their names.
Two cemeteries honor British and Commonwealth soldiers who died in Italy. One is the Beach Head War Cemetery, about 3 miles north of Anzio. It contains the graves of 2,316 Commonwealth soldiers, 295 of them unidentified. The other, the Anzio War Cemetery, is a half mile north of Anzio, near the city’s municipal cemetery.
As with other Dunkirk-to-Dunkerque Heritage destinations, there’s no need to think of the WWII sites as your sole destination. There are plenty of other attractions in Anzio, ranging from ancient Roman ruins to broad sand beaches. The same is true for this whole region of Italy, Here is a good first stop for exploring the area, the Lazio region of Italy.
Visiting Poland
Where to go to experience the impact of the Dunkirk-to-Poland relief program? Ah, that’s the question! Dunkirk’s aid for Dunkerque and Anzio impacted specific cities. So far as we know, the $1.7 million (in today’s money) donated for Poland helped people in multiple parts of the country. And Poland had almost 900 towns and cities in 1947.
We do know that Dunkirk’s aid had life-changing impacts in Gdynia, a seaport city near Gdansk. Does “Gdansk” sound familiar? It was in the headlines in the 1980s. A shipyard worker in Gdansk named Lech Walesa started an uprising against Communist rule of Poland. Walesa founded “Solidarity,” a labor union movement spread like wildfire. It helped end Communist domination of Eastern Europe. Walesa won the Nobel Peace Prize and became President of Poland.
How do we know that Dunkirk’s aid reached the Gdansk area? One generous Dunkirk resident left his name and address in the pocket of a coat donated during the Dunkirk-to-Poland relief campaign. Months later, the coat found its way to Felicya Gutkowska, of Gdynia. She wrote the note of thanks to the donor described on our Dunkirk-to-Poland page. Gdynia now is part of a big metropolitan area called the Tricity, which includes Gdansk and has more than one million people.
Poland’s past is a big draw for tourists. The past includes the somber events, such as the WWII devastation in the capital city of Warsaw and the Nazi concentration camps. Warsaw is one of the best bases from which to glimpse those terrible times from the past. It has earned the title as the most destroyed city on Earth.
The Warsaw Rising Museum, for instance, offers exhibitions on everyday life and the fighting during the 1944 struggle by the Polish resistance movement, and related topics. The Museum of Independence covers all the key patriotic dates of Polish history, including the 1794 Kościuszko Uprising, the 19th century insurrections, Piłsudski’s return to Poland, WWII, and the rise of Solidarity. The 1,000-year history of Poland’s Jewish residents, including the Nazi terror during WWII? Try the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, and the walking tour of the Jewish Cemetery.
Poland also is a showcase for its glowing present and future, with some of Europe’s most attractive and magnificent cities. Warsaw, for instance, has risen from its war-and-Communist-era ashes into a thoroughly modern city. It offers world-class museums, a reconstructed Old Town (listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site), and one of the most dynamic cafe/restaurant/shopping scenes in Europe.
For starters on any visit to Poland, here is an overview of the tourism industry in Poland, and access to Poland’s official travel website.
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