Reconciliating with the ennemi héréditaire ? German prisoners of war in Normandy at the end of World War II, 1944-1948.
The reapproachement process between France and Western Germany after World War II had been considered until now through the sole consideration of government policies and the raison d’état of both countries in the larger context of the Cold War. Little attention has been paid until now to the role held by individual experiences of French and German citizens in this reconciliation process.
My PhD research project addresses this gap in scholarship by analysing the evolution of the relationship between German prisoners of war and French civilians in a French region at the end of World War II and during the immediate after-war period.
German prisoners of war were present in Normandy by the hundreds of thousands at the end of World War II. While France had been liberetad from the German occupation in 1944-45, German soldiers remained in the country as prisoners of war until 1948, and they were as numerous as the former occupation soldiers – especially in Normandy where the Allies set up a large number of huge central prisoner of war camps.
As a regional study, considering individual experiences of both German prisoners and French civilians living and working with each other, my PhD project can be considered as the writing of a “history from below”.
Through the examination of French and German testimonies, official documents from French and Allied offices, and reports from non-governemental organisations as the Red Cross, my work aims to reconsider the reapproachement process between France and Germany after World War II.