Cheat sheetsTips and toolsAncestors' storiesChallenge AZNews
On the occasion of the 78th anniversary of the D-Day Normandy landings in June 2022 - a look back at these useful archive sources for your research on World War II (1939-1945).
N.B.: The links in the titles take you to the home pages of each site, while the links in the paragraphs redirect you to the thematic pages of World War II.
Discover the archive contents under the folders World War II (1939-1945) and War 1939-1945. These archives, digitized or not, come from various Departmental and Municipal Archives.
Many departments and municipalities have digitized their archives related to World War II. You can conduct various searches in the contemporary archives (W series), the modern series, the municipal archives (EDT series), the private archives (J series), the iconographic archives (FI series) and the audiovisual and sound archives (AV series).
Browse the many archive databases available to trace the paths of your ancestors: the military personnel who died during World War II, the foreign volunteers engaged in 1939-1940, the Alsatians and Mosellans forcibly incorporated into the German army, the Medals of the French Resistance, the civilian victims, the titles, certifications, and services for acts of resistance, the Fusillés du Mont-Valérien, the Deaths in deportation, the French Interior Forces (FFI), the Personnel of the Free French Air Forces (FAFL) and the collection of photographs by Rev. Father Jean de Geuser.
If you are looking for information about a person who was a victim of World War II, a prisoner of war, or a civilian internee, you can send a request to the ICRC (limited number of requests).
Browse the virtual collection of the Musée de la Résistance online to trace your ancestors.
Find on Gallica many documents about French prisoners of World War II, including: the official list of prisoners provided by the German military authorities between 1940 and 1941, a brochure presenting Stalag I-A, the novel 'Dialogue des prisonniers' by Maurice Betz, L'Homme libre - clandestine newspaper...
This database groups the names of over 92,000 people who died in deportation, who were deported from France due to their ethnic, religious, political affiliation or for acts of resistance.
Discover the archives of the documentation, information, and research center on Nazi persecution, forced labor, and the Holocaust.
With keywords, discover the individual journeys of victims. You can conduct a biographical search, read thematic articles, browse through many photographs, and learn through the educational resources available.
Patrice Marcilloux is a French archivist, professor of archival studies, and lecturer at the University of Angers since 2005. This site gives you special access, chapter by chapter to an article published by the author in the Revista Tempo et Argumento, vol. 5, no. 9, pp. 288-311 in 2013 for the Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina.
Many resources and archive sources are available to trace the path of a soldier or victim of World War II. This Geneawiki article has listed them for you!
Military archives are very useful for your genealogy. In this article, we explain how to use departmental archives to search for draft records, as well as several other military databases.
If you have the chance, book your visit to the ECPAD media library to discover the archive image collection on World War II with the 'French and Allies' Collection (121,617 images and 2,810 films) and the German Collection (353,632 images and 1,128 films).
For digitized collections, many visuals are available online on the Images Defense website.
Discover the period 1939-1945 through works and archive images. 85 studies (the song of the partisans, immigrants at work, the Kieffer commandos...) will help you delve into the lives of your ancestors during this period.
Discover many editorial, video, and audio contents on the theme of World War II on the INA website - the ideal resources to immerse yourself in the lives of your ancestors during and after the war.
Happy research!