Open to the public in 1990, the museum, by means of a pluri-disciplinary approach - historic, literary and artistic - recreates an entire epoch : the pre-war to the Liberation. Integrated into a variety of cinematic set decorations inspired by a poetic realism, the museum's collection of over 10000 objects and documents evokes daily life of the French under the occupation. There follows a presentation of the Redidtance movement in the Vaucluse, exemplary of the National attitude, through firsthand accounts from those who participated in the events, revealing the underlying motivations and behavior of the times. The third section of the museum is devoted to "freedom of the Mind" and allows for a thoroughgoing reflection concerning "the intelligence at war, the ideals of the Resistance, what they teach and their significance. Gathered for presentation are many underground publications, censured in France or printed abroad, militant reviews, the manuscirpts of René Char, Georges Rouault... as well as original works by Henri Matisse, Joan Miro and others...