“Protecting the Memory of the Nation” From the Time of the Occupation: Studies and Uses. The National Archives and the National Library in the Shadow of History (1940-1994) (PROMETEUS)

This project aims to investigate the history and policies of the National archives and the French National library (BnF), two sovereign institutions of written heritage, and explore their activities during the Occupation. It examines how memorial issues from the post-war period dictated the practices of conservation professionals, and their attitudes toward document libraries and collections and their users. The year 1940 marked the arrival of the war and the evacuation of collections, and then a return to work in the context of a new political regime under the Occupation. The project takes a long-term perspective because the central hypothesis is that the functioning organised under the Occupation had a lasting impact on documentation practices. This perspective is based on the turning point that occurred in 1994, which was a symbolic year in many respects. This was the year that the book, Vichy un passé qui ne passe pas was published. Paradoxically the publication demonstrated a kind of shift in era. The same year, Sonia Combe criticised archival practices through her book Archives secrètes and 1994, was also the year the National Library became the Bibliothèque nationale de France, as a result of a merger with the Public Establishment for a French Library (l’Etablissement Public pour une Bibliothèque de France).