Does the U.S. pay rent for the Normandy beach memorial in France?

[DirkGntly]

I received an e-mail with an aerial photograph of the Normandy beach memorial in France. A friend mentioned that the U.S. pays rent to France for it. Is this true?

• DirkGntly

[Danimal]

No.

Barbara Mikkelson researched this one on her Snopes website.

These foreign burial grounds are administered and maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) in Arlington, Virginia, but the ABMC does not pay “millions of dollars on rent for these cemeteries.” The United States has been granted tax-free and rent-free use of all these cemetery sites, in perpetuity, by their host governments.

[Johnny_L.A]

Be sure to reply to everyone on the e-chain-mail with the snopes link and the above quote.

[DirkGntly]

Thank you, Danimal, and Johnny L.A., for once, this wasn’t part of a chain e-mail (thank God!)