today They have little market value, but represent a part of the History of France : maps stolen by the nazis during the Second world War, Lille have emerged 70 years later in the United States, tells the Voice of The North.
as early As July 1940, units of the Wehrmacht seized the funds of the geological maps of the north of France, Belgium, or Algeria. Assets of potentially strategic, in the world conflict, including the establishment of underground bunkers or exploit the riches of the soil. In April 1942, the Germans captured the same, before sending it to Berlin, maps of the university library of the geological Society of the North (SGN) and the geological Institute of Lille.
In 2014, professor Philippe Cleat, of the Academy of sciences, reports to the director of the SGN, the existence of an article published in an academic journal american. We see a photo of the geological map with the name of the agency in lille. “It takes a bit of time, but we decide to lead a mission in the United States, at the University of Reston, Virginia, where the photo had been taken”, explains to La Voix du Nord Patrick Auguste, a researcher at the CNRS.
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“Their market value is today relative”
He then goes on the end of 2019, with Laure Delrue, curator at the University of Lille. They must examine some 750 000 cards. “And then we fall on a first map, a map of Algeria, with the stamp of the university of Lille !”, Patrick continued Augustus. The duo identifies finally 87 from Lille, and other stolen by the Wehrmacht in the whole of Europe, or even Russia.
then Starts another mission : to recover the cards. The option of a restitution claim the official is on the table, “but for the moment, as we have good relations with the Americans, who have welcomed us, opened the doors of their library, we would prefer to find an amicable agreement”, adds Patrick Augustus. All the more, ‘ continues the researcher, that “these cards mostly have a heritage value, historic. Their market value is today relative. The Americans know it”. Therefore, “now that we have the evidence of their origin, a refusal on their part would be inappropriate,” hopes the scientist.
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