Division of Archives of Victims of Contemporary Conflicts

A collection with an eventful history

In Caen, the Archives Division for Victims of Contemporary Conflicts (DAVCC) holds the archives that have enabled and still enable the rights of five million civilian and military victims of the last two world conflicts to be honoured and asserted, as well as those of more recent wars such as those in Indochina, Algeria, the Korean War, overseas operations, etc.
Currently, 20 linear kilometres of archives are kept in Caen, whose origin and the very history of their creation reflect the diversity and complexity of the policies implemented by the various institutions in charge of war victims over the last century. The collection originated during the First World War, in 1915, with the creation of the mention "died for France" and the evolution of pension law, which led to the creation of the Ministry of War Pensions, Grants and Allowances. It was attached to the Veterans' Administration in 1940, and in 1999 was placed under the authority of the Directorate for Memory, Heritage and Archives, before being integrated into the Historical Service of Defence in 2005.

The archives kept at the DAVCC, mainly files and individual dossiers, are those produced by the Ministry of Pensions and its successors since 1916 in the context of their missions:

• establish death and disappearance certificates;
• awarding the mention "Died for France";
• repatriating, exhuming and returning bodies
• maintaining national graves and necropolises;
• researching archives after the Second World War;
• awarding the title of Resistance or political deportee or internee.
• awarding war widows', orphans' or ascendants' pensions, military invalidity pensions (funds currently being processed)

Warning for consultation requests in the reading room

Research, the free or non-disclosure of documents and the storage of archives for consultation can be very time-consuming and consequently lead to long waiting times for communication in the reading room. 

For this reason, and taking into account the constraints of the service, requests to consult the archives held by the DAVCC, which can be consulted on site, are only made by appointment after having made a request by post (see postal address) or by e-mail to 

shd-caen.courrier.fct@intradef.gouv.fr 

A written reply will be sent to the applicant as soon as the archives identified can be made available. It is then up to the applicant to contact the DAVCC on 02 31 38 45 82 or 02 31 38 45 44 to arrange one or more dates for consultation in the reading room.

Due to security measures linked to the state of emergency, readers are invited to contact the DAVCC secretariat (02 31 38 45 82) to inform them of their arrival. They must bring their reader's card or an identity card.