Abstract
Most research on Normandy in World War II has concentrated on the construction of Hitler’s “Atlantic Wall” and then the military offensives associated with the Allied landings. Little consideration has been given to the logistics involved in the management of the vast numbers of German prisoners of war captured during the Allied offensive, despite the scale of this operation. Moreover, local memory of the role of German PoWs in the latter stages of the war and in the immediate postwar recovery period have been erased during a process of creating a national memory in which the Germans were perceived simply as military occupiers. Research on the documentary sources, combined with archaeological survey and excavation, reveals this hidden phase of Normandy’s wartime experiences and has revived local positive memories of PoW contributions to reconstruction.
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Schneider, V. (2013). American, British, and French PoW Camps in Normandy, France (1944–1948). Which Role for Archaeology in the Memorial Process?. In: Mytum, H., Carr, G. (eds) Prisoners of War. Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology, vol 1. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4166-3_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4166-3_7
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