D-Day announcement at World War II museum heralds planned pavilion on end of war, post-war years

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The National World War II Museum in New Orleans chose the 79th anniversary of D-Day to announce plans for its final permanent exhibit hall. The museum announced Tuesday that the Liberation Pavilion will open in November. Exhibits in the three-story pavilion will deal with the end of World War II, the Holocaust and the postwar years. The war’s continuing effect on modern life also will be explored. The Liberation Pavilion will be adjacent to an outdoor gathering space — the 24,000-square-foot Col. Battle Barksdale Parade Ground — that will be formally dedicated in November. The museum opened in 2000 as the National D-Day Museum — a project spearheaded by University of New Orleans professors and historians Stephen Ambrose and Gordon Mueller.