Pierre Caron facing the exodus — the archivist and his post
Summer 1939: , Director of the National Archives since 1937, put into effect a protection plan prepared well in advance. Some of the most valuable holdings were evacuated to provincial châteaux (Loire, Haute-Loire); the rest remained in the Paris depositories, too vast to be moved.
In June 1940, the rout accelerated. The government abandoned Paris for Bordeaux, millions of civilians took to the roads of the exodus, and the German army entered the capital on 14 June. Caron had to make a decision for himself and his institution.
Staying exposed the director and the Paris holdings to the occupier; leaving left the depositories without anyone in charge at the very moment they were most vulnerable. No clear order reached him from a state in full collapse.
Paris, June 1940, the government fleeing and the Wehrmacht nearing: what does the Director of the National Archives decide?
chose to remain at his post in Paris to watch over the collections and the institution, even as the government withdrew to Bordeaux. He ensured the administrative continuity of the National Archives under the Occupation. As early as mid-June 1940, Captain Plassmann, attached to the German embassy, contacted him; then a German archive-protection service (Archivschutz), led by , set up at the Hôtel de Rohan in August 1940 and obtained the return to Paris of most of the holdings evacuated in 1939. Caron headed the Archives until 1941.
Learn more about this event
Related polls
10
Hannah Arendt, Stateless and Interned, Facing Exile
Langeron — Prefecture of Police, 14 June
When the Louvre Must Vanish
Billancourt under threat: the old boss and his machines
Edmond Michelet — Brive leaflet, 18 June
Gilbert Renault — the road to London
A Schoolteacher at Périgueux Amid the Exodus
Jean Moulin — Chartres, 17 June
Joulun rauha — Christmas 1939 in the trenches
June 1940: the Mona Lisa at Chambord, the Enemy Near
Hannah Arendt, Stateless and Interned, Facing Exile
Langeron — Prefecture of Police, 14 June
When the Louvre Must Vanish
Billancourt under threat: the old boss and his machines
Edmond Michelet — Brive leaflet, 18 June
Gilbert Renault — the road to London
A Schoolteacher at Périgueux Amid the Exodus
Jean Moulin — Chartres, 17 June
Joulun rauha — Christmas 1939 in the trenches
June 1940: the Mona Lisa at Chambord, the Enemy Near
T03-174