“Everything is story here”: in Caen, the collection of testimonies on life during the occupation and the post-war period is a success

Bread tickets escape films by Fanny Brée and Elsie Faith. The two archivists of Caen (Calvados) present the donations of individuals collected for a year, on the life of Caen and its inhabitants during the period 1938-1963. “We have received around thirty donations, where there are five and six per year usually. We decided to give people more time and extend the collection until September 2025, ”they detail, satisfied that the extension has already made it possible to accumulate new documents.

An old map is unfolded. It represents the pre-war Caen, less urbanized than today. Less straight. “Today’s streets are more straight because of the reconstruction plans,” note the archivists. Speaking of reconstruction, the archives of the manager of the site of that of the Saint-Jean church have reached us. A file rich in photographs, “from the church before the bombings, with details, to rebuild identically. Plans also “, for this project started in the early 1950s and delivered in 1964. This time jump made it possible to measure how the war changed the landscape, with the disappearance of adjoining houses.

The collection also presented on correspondence day. For example, the letters of a girl, who arrived in Normandy in February 1941, to her mother, who remained in the Paris region. “They tell Caen, housing difficulties, market prices, the fact that Caen is more chic than Paris,” smiles Fanny Brée. A hundred letters placed next to another, even more supplied, addressed to a Caennais deported to Germany for the compulsory labor service. The stamps bearing the image of Hitler and Marshal Pétain are still on the colored envelopes. “These are the letters written by the parents to their son in Germany. We feel that they minimize their daily lives under the occupation, ”said the archivists. The service also received a donor from the books produced by the deportee in question, Yves Rots, returning in particular to his experience in Germany.

The last days before the Liberation, seen from the court

These objects may not seem more spectacular and yet, “everything is story here, especially by contextualizing the documents”, insist the archivists. Like a list of victims of the bombings to bury or even exhume. A vestige of a civilian in charge of this mission and which will have annotated the document, providing certain details, adding names.

Fanny Brée and Elsie Faith also want to show the testimony “of an unknown who worked in the Caen court, probably in a good position. He tells day by day, from June 5 to August 16 “1944:” June 5. Eight hours (…) noise of bombs exploding. It is not very far away. I will learn at noon (…) that 80 people were under the rubble, ”narrates this resident who, over the 29 pages caught in the machine, expresses daily, fears, the activity of the court maintained, in particular for judge the porses. “The news from the outside (…) suggest that this time is for us the liberation,” concludes this long testimony on August 16.