Lecture: Schools in Wartime, 1939–1945

As soon as the war began, educational establishments faced a total or partial reorganisation: premises were requisitioned, and schools and universities in Paris and Strasbourg were relocated to the provinces. Pupils, too, were ‘mobilised’ for all manner of collection drives right up until the end of the war, gathering metals, waste paper, rags, as well as chestnuts – not to mention hunting for Colorado beetles in the fields. Schools also became a focus of indoctrination for the Vichy regime, with intense propaganda aimed at teachers and pupils, as well as new school curricula. School life remained in turmoil during the fighting that accompanied the Liberation. Emmanuel Thiébot, historian and director of the Falaise Memorial – Civilians in the War, is the author of numerous books on the Second World War.