Article published in Ouest France – 19/05/2016.
This small commune has brought a little-known episode of history out of the shadows: the existence of a German prison camp through which 100,000 men passed.
Foucarville, a small commune of 125 inhabitants, became part of Sainte-Mère-Église on January 1. A commune that has just unearthed a little-known part of the history of the Second World War: from June 1944, it housed a German prisoner-of-war camp.
In fifteen months, almost 100,000 men, troops, officers, senior officers and field marshals passed through Foucarville, then under the command of Colonel Kennedy.
What functions does the camp have?
That’s what we learned from the exhibition at the Airborne Museum in Sainte-Mère-Église, which opened on Friday. “When Foucarville approached us, we said yes straight away. Hosting this exhibition fits in perfectly with our cultural missions,” emphasizes Marc Lefèvre, the museum’s president.
The exhibition tells the whole story of Foucarville and its prison camp, which at the time covered an area of 100 hectares. A village that grew and modernized to cope with the constant influx of prisoners of war, with public lighting, a hospital, paved streets, a cinema, a theater, a school and a little train called “le rapide de Foucarville”.
US Army balls and parties were popular with Foucarvillais. But exchanges between prisoners and the population were rare. According to Red Cross reports, the camp “was a success”. But what was its function? A prison, a sorting camp, a re-education center? Everything at once,” comments Elisabeth Aubert, the deputy mayor. In strict compliance with the Geneva Conventions,” reads a blackboard.
Continental Central Enclosure No. 19″ was not a labor camp. Well, not quite, because although the POWs didn’t work outside, they did work on the camp’s fittings, using all kinds of skills: carpenters, joiners, bricklayers, boilermakers, painters, blacksmiths, shoemakers, tailors…
A church was also built in the camp for American prisoners and soldiers. Re-educating young people in democracy would be the Americans’ constant preoccupation. Re-education “as a basis for peace and for building the future Germany”.
