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‘Récupérez!’ The German Origins of French Wartime Salvage Drives, 1939–1945

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2013

CHAD DENTON
CHAD DENTON*
Affiliation:
Underwood International College, Yonsei University, 50 Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, Korea (120–749); chaddenton@yonsei.ac.kr
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Abstract

This article examines the origins, implementation and results of salvage drives carried out in wartime France from 1939 to 1945. In post-war accounts – including memoirs and local histories of the occupation – these salvage drives were understood simply as wartime frugality, a logical response to wide-spread shortages. Yet a careful study of the records of both the French Ministry of Armaments and Vichy's Service de la Récupération et de l'Utilisation des Déchets et Vieilles Matières combined with municipal and departmental sources reveals that these salvage drives were heavily influenced by Nazi German practices. From 1939 to 1940, even though French propaganda had previously ridiculed Nazi German salvage drives as proof of economic weakness, officials at the Ministry of Armaments emulated Nazi Germany by carrying out salvage drives of scrap iron and paper. After the fall of France, this emulation became collaboration. Vichy's salvage efforts were a conjoint Franco-German initiative, organised at the very highest levels of the occupation administration. Drawing on the experience of Nazi German salvage experts, Vichy officials carried out the salvage drives according to German models. Nevertheless, they carefully hid the German origins of the campaign from the chain of departmental prefects, mayors, Chambers of Commerce and youth leaders who organised the local drives and solicited participation by evoking French patriotic sentiment. After the liberation of France in 1944, the French Provisional Government renamed but otherwise maintained the Vichy-created salvage organisations and continued to oversee the collection of scrap iron, paper, rags, glass and bones until 1946. At that point, the government largely relinquished control of the salvage industry.

‘récupérez!’ les origines allemandes des efforts de récupération en france au cours de la guerre de 1939–45

Cet article examine les origines, la mise en œuvre et les résultats des initiatives de récupération en France entre 1939 et 1945. Selon les interprétations d'après-guerre – y compris les mémoires et les histoires locales de l'Occupation – ces initiatives de récupération étaient simplement le reflet de la frugalité de l'époque de la guerre, une réponse logique aux pénuries généralisées. Un examen attentif des archives du ministère français de l'Armement ou du Service de la récupération et de l'utilisation des déchets et vieilles matières de Vichy, ainsi que de sources municipales et départementales, montre pourtant que ces initiatives de récupération des déchets étaient largement influencées par les pratiques de l'Allemagne nazie. Entre 1939 et 1940, même si la propagande française avait précédemment ridiculisé les initiatives de récupération allemandes, considérées comme des preuves de faiblesse économique, les fonctionnaires du ministère de l'Armement ont imité l'Allemagne nazie en organisant des campagnes de récupération de la ferraille et du papier. Après la défaite de la France en juin 1940, cette émulation s'est muée en collaboration. Les efforts de récupération des déchets de Vichy étaient une initiative commune franco-allemande, organisée aux plus hauts échelons de l'administration vichyssoise. En se fondant sur l'expérience des experts en récupération des déchets de l'Allemagne nazie, les fonctionnaires de Vichy ont organisé des initiatives de récupération sur le modèle allemand. Ils ont cependant soigneusement caché les origines allemandes de cette campagne à la chaîne des préfets départementaux, des maires, des chambres du commerce et des responsables des mouvements de jeunesse chargés d'organiser les efforts au niveau local, et ont joué sur la fibre patriotique dans leurs appels à la participation. Après la Libération en 1944, le gouvernement provisoire français a rebaptisé sans toutefois les supprimer les organisations de récupération créées par Vichy et continué d'organiser la collecte de ferraille, de papier, de chiffons et d'os jusqu'en 1946, date à laquelle le gouvernement français a largement abandonné le contrôle de l'industrie de la récupération.

‘récupérez!’ die deutschen ursprünge der französischen abfallverwertungspolitik im zweiten weltkrieg

Dieser Beitrag untersucht die Ursprünge, die Umsetzung und die Ergebnisse der französischen Abfallverwertungspolitik in den Jahren 1939 bis 1945. Berichte aus der Nachkriegszeit – einschließlich Lebenserinnerungen und Schilderungen der Besatzungszeit – stellen diese Wiederverwertungspolitik schlicht als kriegsbedingte Sparsamkeit und logische Reaktion auf die allgemeine Ressourcenknappheit dar. Eine gründliche Untersuchung von Unterlagen des französischen Rüstungsministeriums und der für die Wiederverwertung von Abfall zuständigen Behörde des Vichy-Regimes (Service de la Récupération et de l'Utilisation des Déchets et Vieilles Matières) erweist jedoch ebenso wie kommunale und departementale Quellen, dass die französischen Wiederverwertunginitiativen in hohem Maße von der Praxis im nationalsozialistischen Deutschland beeinflusst waren. Vor dem Krieg hatte sich die französische Propaganda über die deutsche Abfallverwertungspolitik mokiert und sie als Zeichen der wirtschaftlichen Schwäche gewertet. In den Jahren 1939 und 1940 folgten Funktionäre im französischen Rüstungsministerium jedoch dem deutschen Vorbild und riefen zur Wiederverwertung von Alteisen und Papier auf. Nach dem Waffenstillstand von 1940 wandelten sich diese Abfallverwertungsinitiativen zur Kollaboration. Die Abfallverwertung im Vichy-Regime war eine gemeinsame deutsch-französische Initiative, die von den höchsten Ebenen der Besatzungsbehörden organisiert wurde. Die Funktionäre des Vichy-Regimes nutzten die Erfahrungen von Abfallverwertungsexperten aus dem Dritten Reich und führten Initiativen nach deutschem Vorbild ein. Allerdings bemühten sie sich nach Kräften, die deutschen Ursprünge ihrer Initiativen vor den Präfekten der Departements, den Bürgermeistern, Handelskammern und Jugendführern zu verbergen, die die Bemühungen vom Ort organisierten und die Franzosen durch Appelle an ihre patriotische Gesinnung zur Mitwirkung bewegten. Nach der Befreiung Frankreichs im Jahr 1944 löste die provisorische Regierung die während des Vichy-Regimes aufgebauten Abfallverwertungsorganisationen nicht auf, benannte sie jedoch um. Die Regierung übernahm weiterhin die Aufsicht über die Sammlung von Alteisen, Papier, Lumpen, Glas und Knochen. Erst 1946 trat sie die Verantwortung für die Abfallverwertung weitgehend ab.

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Articles
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Contemporary European History , Volume 22 , Issue 3: Recycling and Reuse in the Twentieth Century , August 2013 , pp. 399 - 430
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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References

1 Poster by Matthieu Auffray, Service de la récupération et de l'utilisation des déchets et vieilles matières (Salvage Service), ‘Ne jetez plus rien! Récupérez’ (Paris, Imprimerie Joseph-Charles, n.d.), Archives Nationales (AN), 72AJ/1370, http://chan.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/sdx-23b1–20090531-chan-pleade-2/pl/doc-tdm.xsp?id=FRDAFANCH0098_72AJ_2_d0e23430&fmt=tab&base=fa (accessed 25 Apr. 2013).

2 Circular from François Delannoy, head of the Salvage Service, to the director of the action and propaganda committee for the salvage of waste and old materials, prefecture of Côtes d'Armor, ‘Affiches “Récupérez”’, 27 Oct. 1941, Archives Départementales (AD)-Côtes d'Armor, Saint Brieuc, 3W 86; Circular from Pujes, prefecture of Rhône, ‘Récupération des déchets et vieilles matières’, to mayors and presidents of special delegations of Rhône, 22 Dec. 1941, Archives Municipales (AM)-Lyon, 963WP 52. Both of these documents, though not exact copies, are similar to the instructions that Girvès received.

3 Letter from Colonel Georges Girvès to the prefect of Hérault, 15 Jan. 1942, AD-Hérault, Montpellier, 2W 1213.

4 Handwritten inspection report ‘1ère tournée du 26 Janvier: Mèze, Montagnac, Pézenas, Servian, Puisserguier, St. Pons, Lamalu les Bains, Bédarideux, Clermont l'Hérault’, 26 Jan. 1942, AD-Hérault, 2W 1213.

5 At the time Colonel Girvès wrote his letter, Puisserguier was still in the ‘non-occupied zone’ under the nominal control of the Vichy government, but these salvage drives occurred throughout all France. These drives are a good example of how the demarcation line did not cleanly divide German and Vichy spheres of influence despite the tendency of contemporaries to refer to the Vichy zone as the zone libre (free zone). See L'Économie de la zone non occupée 1940–1942, ed. Hervé Joly (Paris: CTHS, 2007).

6 Michel, Henri, Paris Allemand (Paris: Alban Michel, 1981), 159Google Scholar, 231. For a more recent version, see the salvage references in Durand, Yves, ‘The Miseries of War in Daily Life’, in Histoire générale de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale (Paris: Éditions Complexe, 1997), 541–2Google Scholar. Even a recent 850-page compendium on daily life in occupied France, which devotes almost four pages to the subject, adds little, besides the statement that Vichy undertook these collection drives ‘under German pressure’. Alary, Éric, Vergez-Chaignon, Bénédicte and Gauvin, Gilles, Les Français au quotidien, 1939–1949 (Saint-Armand-Montrond: Perrin, 2006), 256Google Scholar.

7 Because mayors and prefects organised these salvage drives, their study has been compartmentalised within local or departmental histories of the occupation. These works, lavishly illustrated with photographs, propaganda posters and cartoons, offer excellent portraits of salvage drives as part of the landscape of occupied life but they do not explain how or why they happened. See Vernay, Laurie, Lyon des restrictions (Grenoble: Editions de Terre de et Mer, 1982), 46–7Google Scholar; Lecouturier, Yves, Dictionnaire du Calvados occupé (Caen: Paradigme, 1990), 239–40Google Scholar; Pouget, Germain, La Vie quotidienne dans le Cantal (Aurillac: Cercle des collectionneurs du Cantal, 1994)Google Scholar, 200–8; Froger, Jean-Pierre, Watiez, Jacques and Croubois, Claude, Les Tourangeaux sous l'Occupation (Chambray: C.I.D., 1997), 63Google Scholar, 84, 153–4, 231; Belser, Christophe, La Collaboration en Loire-Inférieure (La Crèche: Geste, 2005), 122Google Scholar; Potron, Daniel, Le Pays fléchois dans la tourmente (Daniel Potron, 1993)Google Scholar, 37–8, 232–3.

8 Georges Antoine Bonaventure Girvès (1883–1971) was born in Béziers in the Hérault. A career soldier, he fought in the First World War from 1914 to 1918, during which time he was promoted to the rank of captain and received the Croix de guerre. After the war, he was posted as a captain of the 3rd Regiment of Artillery. In 1921 the Ministry of War named him as a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. Later, in 1936, as a Lieutenant Colonel at the headquarters of the artillery of the region of Paris, Girvès became an Officer of the Legion of Honour. Shortly after his mobilisation in September 1939, he received command of the artillery of the 9th Motorised Infantry Division (9e Division d'Infanterie Motorisée, 9e DIM) of Giraud's Seventh Army. Following the German invasion of France, his division moved to northern Belgium where it supported the Seventh Army's offensives in the Netherlands from 10 to 20 May. After the annihilation of his division, he helped organise a counter-attack south of Paris. He was mayor of Puisserguier from 1941 to 1943. For his biographical details see his file at the Leonore Database of Legion of Honour recipients, GIRVÈS, n° 19800035/1108/26954, www.culture.gouv.fr/documentation/leonore/leonore.htm (accessed 25 Apr. 2013). For Colonel Girvès's posting on 10 May 1940, see the following website: ‘7ème Armée Order of Battle / Ordre de bataille, 10/05/1940’ France 1940, france1940.free.fr/oob/7armee.html (accessed 25 Apr. 2013). The website cites a guide published by the historical services of the French army, Service Historique de l'Armée de Terre (SHAT), Les Grandes Unités Françaises de la guerre 1939–1945, Historiques Succints (Vincennes: SHAT, 1967). For his military action from 10 to 20 May see the activities of the 9e DIM described in Lerecouvreux, Marcel, L'Armée Giraud en Hollande, 1939–1940 (Paris: Nouvelles Éditions Latines, 1951)Google Scholar.

9 Gildea, Robert, Marianne in Chains: Daily Life in the Heart of France during the German Occupation (Picador: New York, 2002), 188Google Scholar.

10 Gildea, Marianne in Chains, 16; Taylor, Lynne, Between Resistance and Collaboration: Popular Protest in Northern France, 1940–1945 (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2000), 3Google Scholar. See also Laborie, Pierre, Résistants, Vichyssois et autres: L'Évolution de l'opinion et des comportements dans le Lot 1939 à 1944 (Paris: Editions du CNRS, 1980)Google Scholar; Sweets, John, Choices in Vichy France: The French under Nazi Occupation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986)Google Scholar; Zaretsky, Robert, Nîmes at War: Religion, Politics and Public Opinion in Gard, 1938–1944 (University Park, Penn.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995)Google Scholar; and Fogg, Shannon Lee, The Politics of Everyday Life in Vichy France: Foreigners, Undesirables and Strangers (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009)Google Scholar.

11 Freeman, Kirrily, Bronzes to Bullets: Vichy and the Destruction of French Public Statuary, 1941–1944 (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2009)Google Scholar and Karlsgodt, Elizabeth Campbell, Defending National Treasures: French Art and Heritage Under Vichy (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Chapter 7, ‘Recycling French Heroes: The Destruction of Bronze Statues’, 145–64.

12 Letter from Colonel Georges Girvès to the prefect of Hérault, 15 Jan. 1942, AD-Hérault, 2W 1213. The prefecture received the letter on 26 Jan. and noted in a handwritten annotation that the bronze bust as well as the pile of non-ferrous metals had been removed on 22 Jan.

13 Freeman, Bronzes to Bullets, 10–20; Karlsgodt, Defending National Treasures, 148.

14 For a discussion of the history of this ‘binary opposition’ see Sweets, John, ‘Hold that Pendulum! Redefining Fascism, Collaborationism and Resistance in France’, French Historical Studies, 15, 4 (Autumn 1988)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, as well as the response by Taylor, Between Resistance and Collaboration, 1–4 and 142–61.

15 Joly, Hervé, ‘The Economy of Occupied and Vichy France: Constraints and Opportunities’, in Lund, Joachim, ed., Working for the New Order: European Business under German Domination, 1939–1945 (Copenhagen: University Press of Southern Denmark, 2006), 93–103Google Scholar; Kitson, Simon, The Hunt for Nazi Spies: Fighting Espionage in Vichy France, trans. Tihanyi, Catherine (London: The University of Chicago Press, 2008)Google Scholar; Mitchell, Allan, Nazi Paris: The History of an Occupation, 1940–1944 (Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2008)Google Scholar; Laub, Thomas J., After the Fall: German Policy in Occupied France, 1940–1944 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010)Google Scholar; Torrie, Julia, “For Their Own Good”: Civilian Evacuations in Germany and France, 1939–1945 (New York: Berghahn Books, 2010)Google Scholar.

16 I use the term ‘Salvage Service’ to simplify a complicated bureaucratic history. The Service de la Récupération et de l'Utilisation des Déchets et Vieilles Matières (SRUDVM), created on 24 Jan. 1941, became the Section de Récupération et Mobilisation in September 1942. The ‘Salvage Service’ had separate divisions for research, propaganda, second-hand clothing, rags and paper, iron and metals, bones and glass. Its financial duties were eventually transferred to the Groupement Auxiliaire pour la Récupération des Produits Industriels et Commerciaux (GARPIC), which was created in April 1943 and reconstituted as Comptoir Administratif et Financier de la Récupération (CAFR) in August 1944. This central administration also interacted with the organising committee for the scrap trade, Comité Général d'Organisation des Industries et Commerce de la Récupération (COGIREC), created on 21 June 1943, and renamed Office Professionel des Industries et Commerces de la Récupération (OPIREC) on 26 Oct. 1945. All these organisations maintained their functions until 1946.

17 The Ministry of Commerce handed over the Salvage Service archives to the National Archives in Paris between 1951 and 1952, while departmental and municipal archivists haphazardly classified Salvage Service directives in either prefectural administrative collections or as ‘exceptional wartime measures’. Three of the most complete sets of salvage records are contained in the Hérault, Savoie and Côtes d'Armor departments.

18 For the scholarship on Nazi Germany see Huchting, Friedrich, ‘Abfallwirtschaft im Dritten Reich’, Technikgeschichte, 48 (1981), 252–73Google Scholar; Köstering, Susanne, ‘Pioniere der Rohstoffbeschaffung: Lumpensammler im Nationalsozialismus, 1934–1939’, WerkstattGeschichte, 17 (1997), 45–65Google Scholar and ‘“Millionen im Müll?” Altmaterialverwertung nach dem Vierjahresplan’ in Köstering, Susanne and Rub, Renate, eds, Müll von Gestern? Eine umweltgeschichtliche Erkundung in Berlin und Brandenburg (Berlin: Waxmann, 2003), 139–149Google Scholar; and in this special issue see Heike Weber, ‘Towards “Total” Recycling: Women, Waste and Food Waste Recovery in Germany, 1914–1939’. For other examples of Nazi recycling policy in occupied Europe see the contributions to this special issue by Ruth Oldenziel and Milena Veenis, ‘The Glass Recycling Container in the Netherlands: Symbol in Times of Scarcity and Abundance, 1939–1978’ and Finn Arne Jørgensen, ‘Green Citizenship at the Recycling Junction: Consumers and Infrastructures for the Recycling of Packaging in Twentieth-Century Norway’. For the development of scrap recycling in the USA, see Zimring, Carl A., Cash for Your Trash: Scrap Recycling in America (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005)Google Scholar and Strasser, Susan, Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash (New York: Metropolitan Books, 1999)Google Scholar. For very similar wartime recycling measures in Great Britain, see Cooper, Tim, ‘Challenging the “Refuse Revolution”: War, Waste and the Rediscovery of Recycling, 1900–1950’, Historical Research, 81, 214 (2008), 710–31Google Scholar, ‘Burying the “Refuse revolution”: The Rise of Controlled Tipping in Britain, 1920–1960’, Environment and Planning A, 42, 5 (2010), 1033–48, and ‘Recycling Modernity: Waste and Environmental History’, History Compass, 8, 9 (2010), 1114–24; Riley, Mark, ‘From Salvage to Recycling: New Agendas or Same Old Rubbish?’, Area, 40, 1 (2008), 79–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and in this special issue see Peter Thorsheim, ‘Salvage and Destruction: The Recycling of Books and Manuscripts in Great Britain during the Second World War’.

19 Boudriot, Pierre-Denis, ‘Essai sur l'ordure en milieu urbain à l'époque pré-industrielle: Boues, immondices et gadoue à Paris au XVIIIe siècle’, Histoire, économie et société, 5, 4 (1986), 515–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20 Talbot, Frederick A., Millions from Waste (London: T. Fisher Unwin Ltd., 1920), 20–1Google Scholar, 301–2; ‘The Regeneration of Refuse’, in Roberts, Chalmers, ed., The World's Work: An Illustrated Magazine of National Efficiency and Social Progress, Vol. 9 (London: William Heinemann, 1906–07), 484–90Google Scholar; Wurtz, Drs and Lauradour, de, ‘Le Chiffonage à Paris et dans la banlieue en 1916’, Revue d'hygiène et de médecine préventive, 38 (1916), 409–33Google Scholar.

21 Chalmers Roberts, ed.,‘The Regeneration of Refuse’, 489–90.

22 Prival, Marc, ‘Les chiffonniers-récupérateurs auvergnats et limousins’, in Les Migrants de travail d'Auvergne et du Limousin au XXe siècle (Clermont-Ferrand: Institute d'Études du Massif Central, 1979), 141–58Google Scholar; Benbassa, Esther, The Jews of France: A History from Antiquity to the Present (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999), 69Google Scholar.

23 Laloum, Jean, Les Juifs de la banlieue parisienne des années 1920 aux années 1950 (Paris: CNRS Editions, 1998)Google Scholar.

24 Goldschmidt, André, L'Affaire Joinovici: collaborateur, résistant . . . et bouc émissaire (Toulouse: Éditions Privat, 2002), 11Google Scholar; Grenard, Fabrice, La France du marché noir, 1940–1949 (Paris: Payot, 2008), 44Google Scholar; Sanders, Paul, ‘Economic Draining: German Black Market Operations in France, 1940–1944’, Global Crime, 9, 1 (2008), 136–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 164–5.

25 Commission Consultative des Dommages et des Réparations, Ingérences allemandes dans l'activité industrielle: Monographie A.I. 40: Récupération de déchets et vieilles matières (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1947)Google Scholar.

26 CG, ‘Note sur le triage et la récupération des ordures ménagères’, n.d., and ‘Note sur l'organisation de la récupération à la T.I.R.U.’, 8 Nov. 1943, AN, 68AJ 518. On the TIRU see Barles, Sabine, L'Invention des déchets urbains: France, 1790–1970 (Seyssel: Champ Vallon, 2005)Google Scholar, 218 and 222, and Guillerme, André, Lefort, Anne-Cécile and Jigaudon, Gérard, Dangereux, insalubres et incommodes: Paysages industriels en banlieue parisienne XIXe–XXe siècles (Seyssel: Champ Vallon, 2004), 236–43Google Scholar.

27 ‘Œuvre des vieux papiers en faveur des œuvres militaires’, La Croix, 24 Mar. 1885; ‘Économie domestique: Vieux Papiers’, La Croix, 13 Jan. 1886.

28 ‘L'Œuvre des aveugles’, La Croix, 24 Mar. 1895; ‘Une charité qui ne coûte rien’, La Croix, 14 Apr. 1896; ‘Pour les aveugles’, La Croix Supplément, 7 Mar. 1899.

29 ‘La Crise du papier’, La Croix, 19 Feb. 1916; ‘Gardez vos vieux papiers’, La Croix, 25 Mar. 1916; ‘Gardez vos vieux papiers’, La Croix, 5 Apr. 1916; ‘Choses et autres’, La Croix, 12 Apr. 1916; ‘La recolte des vieux papiers: Plus d'un million de kilos’ La Croix, 25 Apr. 1916.

30 ‘Toute la main-d'œuvre scolaire est utile au pays’, Journal des débats, 12 Aug. 1917.

31 ‘Réglementation de l'utilisation des sacs et des vieux papiers en Allemagne. . . et réglementation de l'emploi du fer’, La Croix, 8 Aug. 1937; Edouard Bonnefous, ‘La Portée économique de l'Anschluss’, Le Figaro, 8 May 1938; ‘Allemagne 39 Les Armements du Reich et la défense passive’, Le Petit Parisien, 1 Mar. 1939. According to Ruth Oldenziel and Milena Veenis, similar articles appeared in the Dutch press, suggesting that Nazi autarkic policies were the subject of international journalistic attention. See Oldenziel and Veenis, ‘The Glass Recycling Container in the Netherlands’.

32 Camille Loutre, ‘Le Reich sous le régime des restrictions draconiennes’, Le Petit Parisien, 13 Sept. 1939; ‘Le Livre qu'Adolf Hitler a fait interdire, L'Allemagne ne peut pas Gagner la Guerre’, Match, 24 Aug. 1939; ‘Le Fait du Jour – Matières premières’, Le Petit Journal, 1 Sept. 1939; S. Conin, ‘Où en est le potentiel industriel et minier de l'Allemagne?’, L'Illustration, 9 Sept. 1939; Lajos, Ivan, Germany's War Chances as Pictured in German Official Literature (London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1939), 116Google Scholar.

33 Revel, Raoul, ‘L'Allemagne peut-elle soutenir la guerre des matières premières?’, Le Petit Journal, 23 Sept. 1939Google Scholar.

34 McAuley, Mary Ethel, Germany in War Time: What an American Girl Saw and Heard (Chicago: Open Court Publication Company, 1917), 40Google Scholar; Goebel, Otto Heinrich, Deutsche Rohstoffwirtschaft im Weltkrieg einschließlich des Hindenburg Programms (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, 1930), 87–8Google Scholar; Chickering, Roger, The Great War and Urban Life in Germany: Freiburg, 1914–1918 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 188–92Google Scholar; Heike Weber, ‘Women, Waste and Food Waste Recovery’.

35 Niewyk, Donald L., The Jews in Weimar Germany (Baton Rouge, La.: Louisiana State University Press, 1980), 17Google Scholar; Steinberg, Jonathan, All or Nothing: The Axis and the Holocaust 1941–43 (New York: Routledge, 1990), 235Google Scholar.

36 In 1936, an article in the national socialist paper, Der Angriff, claimed that Jews accounted for 80% of the scrap trade. The number was certainly exaggerated. Because of economic developments after the First World War, the Jewish share of the metal trade declined from 72 to 57% from 1923 to 1930. Yet this decline did little to change the perception of metal trading as a Jewish profession. Köstering points out that scrap dealers also included other social marginals such as those who were physically disabled, recently unemployed or impoverished. Der Angriff, 13 July 1936, cited in Köstering, ‘Pioniere der Rohstoffbeschaffung’, 47; Köstering, ‘Millionen im Müll?’, 140; Huchting, ‘Abfallwirtschaft im Dritten Reich’, 252–73.

37 Deutschland-Berichte der Sozialdemokratischen Partei Deutschland, Vol. 2, Mar. 1935 (Frankfurt am Main: Nettelbeck, 1980), 340 (from now on cited as Sopade); Köstering, ‘Pioniere der Rohstoffbeschaffung’, 50.

38 ‘Richtlinien der Anordnung vom 26. November 1936 für die Erfassung der in den Haushalten anfallenden Alt- und Abfallstoffe’, in Ziegler, ‘Arbeitsplan: Stand vom 6. Oktober 1937’; Sopade, Vol. 4, Jan. 1937, 75.

39 Köstering, ‘Millionen im Müll’, 139–40; Evans, Richard, The Third Reich in Power (New York: Penguin, 2005), 365Google Scholar; Deutschland-Bericht der Sopade, Vol. 4, Oct. 1937, 1391.

40 ‘Anordnung zur Durchführung des Vierjahresplans über Erfassung und Verwertung der Alt- und Abfallstoffe aus dem Müll vom 11. Aug. 1937’, in Ziegler, ‘Arbeitsplan: Stand vom 6. Oktober 1937’; Deutschland-Bericht der Sopade, Vol. 4, July 1937, 1396–7.

41 Deutschland-Bericht der Sopade, Vol. 5, Nov. 1938, 1219.

42 Paul Elbel, ‘Ne rien laisser perdre’, Le Petit Parisien, 14 Nov. 1939.

43 Ibid.

44 Letter from Dautry to Daladier, 18 Dec. 1939, AN, 23F 346; ‘Revue des faits’, Journal des Débats, 20 Dec. 1939.

45 L'Époque, 18 Dec. 1939; Le Matin, 19 Dec. 1939; Le Figaro, 21 Dec. 1939; and Le Petit Journal, 23 Dec. 1939. The British salvage efforts Dautry described have been marvellously detailed by Thorsheim, ‘Salvage and Destruction’.

46 Elbel, ‘Ne rien laisser perdre’, Le Petit Parisien, 6 Dec. 1939; L. Gabriel-Robinet, ‘Les A-Côtes de la Guerre: Rien ne se perd . . .’, L'Époque, 13 Jan. 1940; ‘Des millions de tonnes d'acier’, L'Époque, 20 Jan. 1940; ‘Une idée de récupération’, L'Époque, 31 Jan. 1940; ‘De la ferraille à ramasser’, L'Époque, 15 Feb. 1940.

47 ‘La Collaboration des écoliers’, L'Époque, 23 Jan. 1940.

48 The first decree legislating the commerce of waste paper was actually passed on 9 Dec. 1939. It required everyone (including chiffonniers) to declare all stocks of waste paper over 100 kg and banned the burning of large quantities of paper. The Ministry of Commerce's decision to organise a national collection of waste paper was decreed on 2 Jan. 1940. See ‘Des vieux papiers pour en faire du neuf’, Le Petit Parisien, 12 Dec. 1939. For the strikingly similar situation in Great Britain, see Thorsheim, ‘Salvage and Destruction’.

49 ‘La Récupération des vieux papiers entre dans une phase énergique’, Canard Enchaîné, 10 Jan. 1940.

50 ‘Vieux papiers, vieilles maisons’, Progrès de Lyon, 10 Jan. 1940.

51 Minister of National Education to Prefect of Rhône, 10 Jan. 1940, AM-Lyon, 963WP 52; Prefect of Savoie to mayors, 11 Jan. 1940, and Prefect of Savoie to Sub-prefect of Savoie, 17 Jan. 1940, AD-Savoie, 1411W 1; Prefect of Rhône to mayors, 15 Jan. 1940, AM-Lyon, 963WP 52; Prefect of Nord to mayors, 25 Jan. 1940, AM-Villeneuve d'Ascq, Ascq 4H 151.

52 Journal des Débats, 14 Jan. 1940.

53 ‘Il faut récupérer tous les vieux papiers’, La Croix, 4 Sept. 1940.

54 Decree of the Commerce Minister, 2 Oct. 1939, letter from Dautry to the president of the Chambre Syndicale des Métaux, n.d., and letter from Lefevre, director of metallurgical products, to the president of the Chambre Syndicale des Métaux, 2 Nov. 1939, AN, 307AP 127; letter from Dautry to the president of the chamber of commerce, 19 Dec. 1939, and letter from Dautry to the prefect of Côtes d'Armor, n.d. (received 25 Dec. 1939), AD-Côtes d'Armor, 3W 85. In French GIAF stood for Groupement d'Importation et d'Achat des Ferrailles.

55 Memorandum from the minister of national education to academic inspectors, 5 Jan. 1940, and lesson plan, ‘Le Fer et l'acier dans la guerre moderne – Le Ramassage des vieux objets de fer’, 5 Jan. 1940, AD-Côtes d'Armor, 3W 85.

56 Letter from the SNCF to the mayor of Flers, 12 Jan. 1940, Métaux & Matériel Industriel Etablissements Georges Cornu to mayors, 15 Jan. 1940, and Alexandre Mazelier to ‘Monsieur le maire’, n.d., AM-Villeneuve d'Ascq, Flers 1H8 3; letter from the prefect of Nord to mayors, 29 Dec. 1939, AM-Villeneuve d'Ascq, Flers 1H8 3; letter from the prefect of Nord to mayors of Ascq and Flers, 23 Jan. 1940, AM-Villeneuve d'Ascq, Ascq 4H151.

57 Letter from Paul Cocat, the mayor of Grenoble, to the prefect of Isère, 3 Jan. 1940, and letter from the mayor of Grenoble to ‘Monsieur et cher concitoyen’, 25 Jan. 1940, AM-Grenoble, 4F 193.

58 Letter from the deputy mayor of Nantes to Martin, 13 Feb. 1940, and letter from Martin to the deputy mayor of Nantes, 22 Feb. 1940, AM-Lyon, 963WP 52.

59 ‘Compte rendu . . . Lyon’, 29 Dec. 1939, AN, 23F 344.

60 Letter from the president of the chamber of commerce to the prefect of Lyon, 27 Dec. 1939, and letter from the prefect of Rhône to the mayor of Lyon, 10 Jan. 1940, AM-Lyon, 963WP 52.

61 Martin's willingness to look abroad for models was characteristic of the engineering community at the time, which maintained close transnational contacts. The best example was X-Crise, founded in 1931, an economic study group organised by graduates of France's elite École Polytechnique. By 1939 it had 2000 members. They sponsored guest speakers from foreign countries, including Henri Laufenburger for Germany. Individuals associated with the group include Yves Boutillier, Jacques Barnaud, Raoul Dautry, René Belin and Jean Bichelonne. See Jackson, Julian, France: The Dark Years, 1940–1944 (New York: Oxford University Press), 61Google Scholar; Kuisel, Richard, Capitalism and the State in Modern France: Renovation and Economic Management in the Twentieth Century (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 105Google Scholar; Dreyfus, François-Georges, ‘Les Économistes français face au Reich hitlérien: Introduction à une étude de la collaboration économique’, in Meyer, Michèle and Barjot, Dominique, eds, Les Entreprises et leurs réseaux: Hommes, capitaux, techniques et pouvoirs, XIXe–XXe siècles (Paris: Presses de l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 1998), 85–92Google Scholar; Clarke, Jackie, France in the Age of Organization: Factory, Home and Nation from the 1920s to Vichy (New York: Berghahn Books, 2011), 95–127Google Scholar.

62 Martin, ‘Rapport – Récupération des déchets utilisables’, 22 pages, 10 Jan. 1940, AM-Lyon, 963WP 52. His calculations were based on a 1938–9 questionnaire sent out to municipalities (excluding Paris), asking about the annual tonnage of waste produced each year. Cities responded either with estimates or actual numbers and included percentages of recyclable material: 12% paper, 2.5% scrap metal, 3% rags, 2% glass.

63 ‘Annuaire 1941 F.M.U. de la Chambre Syndicale des Ferrailles, Métaux et Matériel d'Usines du Centre et du Sud-Est’, 1941, AM-Lyon, 961WP 172.

64 ‘Réunion Récupération’, 18 Jan. 1940, AM-Lyon, 963WP 52. The committee also decided to sell the metal at market price and, because of the non-profit status of the chamber of commerce, donate any profit to Secours national.

65 ‘Réunion Récupération’, 26 Jan. 1940, AM-Lyon, 963WP 52.

66 Martin, ‘Récupération des déchets utilisables – Schéma de l'organisation envisagés au 26 Janvier 1940’, 27 Jan. 1940, AM-Lyon, 963WP 52.

67 Letter from E. Antoine Marchand to the mayor of Lyon, 19 Feb. 1940, and letter from the mayor of Lyon to Antoine Marchand, 26 Feb. 1940, AM-Lyon, 963WP 52. Lyon police later arrested four others for theft, see the letter from Secretary General of Police Gaston Mumber to the prefect of Rhône, 19 Mar. 1940, AM-Lyon, 963WP 52.

68 ‘Caen – Un system malhonnête’, L'Ouest-Eclair, 20 Feb. 1940.

69 Martin, report on ‘Récupération’, 24 Feb. 1940, AM-Lyon, 963WP 52.

70 ‘Note pour Monsieur Chevat’, 16 May 1940, and Martin, ‘Situation de la récupération au 15 mai 1940’, 16 May 1940, AM-Lyon, 963WP 52.

71 ‘Note sur la consommation des ferrailles dans les hauts-fourneaux’, 17 May 1940, AN, 307AP 127.

72 Martin, Roger and Jaillant, Robert, Prélèvements allemands de matières premières: Monographie M.P.1 Métaux ferreux et sidérurgie (Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1948), 83–103Google Scholar. The first contract, no. 166, was signed on 1 Oct. 1940 and 94,012 tonnes had been delivered by the summer of 1941. The second contract, no. 246, was signed between 28 and 31 July 1941. ‘Négociations officielles: Ferrailles’, n.d, AN, 41AJ 82.

73 Vichy remained silent about the scrap iron drive, preferring to shift the blame of disorganisation and inefficiencies onto the defunct Third Republic. Much of that metal in the occupied zone was gathered by the newly arrived German troops. Not until Jan. 1941 did Vichy request prefects to carry out a survey of the tonnage of remaining scrap metal. Letter from H. Maillard, prefect of Savoie, to mayors of the department, 6 Jan. 1941, AD-Savoie, 1411W 1.

74 ‘La Collecte des vieux papiers est un devoir national’, Journal des débats, 23 July 1940.

75 ‘Ne jetez plus vos papiers!’, La Croix, 31 Aug. 1940; ‘Il faut récupérer tous les vieux papiers’, La Croix, 4 Sept. 1940; ‘Pour parer à la crise du papier’, Journal des débats, 4 Sept. 1940; ‘La Récupération des vieux papiers – Chaque immeuble doit être pourvu d'un récipient spécial pour les vieux papiers’, Journal des débats, 6 Sept. 1940; G.C., ‘Le Problème du papier’, Journal des débats, 8 Sept. 1940.

76 Elmar Michel was appointed economic administrator for occupied France on 13 July 1940 and began negotiating with Vichy economic officials on 20 July 1940. ‘Résumé des indications données par le Major Burandt, le 20 juillet 1940’, cited in Radtke-Delacor, Arne, ‘La Pomme de discorde des commandes allemandes en 1940–1941’, Les Comités d'organisation et l'économie dirigée du régime de Vichy, ed. Hervé Joly (Caen: Université de Caen, 2004), 66Google Scholar.

77 Memorandum from the state secretary for provisioning, Charles Brasart, to prefects, ‘I. Ordures Menagers II. Le Sang des Bovins et Ovins III. Marrons d'Inde’, 1 Oct. 1940, AD-Côtes d'Armor, 3W 85; ‘L'Utilisation du marron d'Inde’, Journal des débats, 19 Sept. 1940. ‘Utilisation des marrons d'Inde’, Journal des débats, 10 Oct. 1940. The articles on collecting horse chestnuts (marrons d'Inde) explicitly referred to earlier French collections of 1917–1918.

78 Letter from the chief engineer of chemical industries to the prefect of Côtes d'Armor, 24 Oct. 1940, AD-Côtes d'Armor, 3W 85; memorandum from Pétain to ministers and state secretaries, ‘Objet: Conservation des ressources, n° 829 S.G’, 15 Oct. 1940.

79 Richard F. Kuisel, Capitalism and the State in Modern France, 136–7.

80 Journal Officiel, n° 230, ‘Loi portant organisation de la répartition des produits industriels’, 12 Sept. 1940.

81 Kuisel, Capitalism and the State in Modern France, 137; Margairaz, Michel, L'État, les finances et l'économie: histoire d'une conversion: 1932–1952 (Paris: Comité pour l'histoire économique et financière de la France, 1991), 513–8Google Scholar.

82 Burandt, ‘Rohstoffbewirtschaftung in Frankreich’, 20 Dec. 1940, AN, 40AJ 779.

83 Memorandum from Burandt, Baier, MBF, Verwaltungssttab, Wi II to all German military district heads and field commanders, ‘Rohstoffbewirtschaftung in Frankreich’, 20 Dec. 1940, AN, 40AJ 779. For the mid January economic meetings see ‘Synthèse zone occupée, 18 fevrier 1941 (DGTO)’, 18 Feb. 1941, AN, AJ41 397, at www.ihtp.cnrs.fr/prefets (accessed 18 Apr. 2013).

84 ‘Loi du 23 janvier 1941 concernant la Récupération et l'Utilisation des Déchets et Vieilles Matières’ and ‘Création d'un Service de la Récupération et de l'Utilisation des Déchets et Vieilles Matières’, Journal Officiel, 25 Jan. 1941, 415–16. For an organisation chart of the Salvage Service, see ‘Section ‘Récupération’, AN, 68AJ 475. François Delannoy was the secretary general and Robert Anglès was the director general. Including Lyon and regional offices, the Salvage Service had 110 employees, including an office of ‘Jewish Affairs’. Decrees regulated the ‘commerce and industry’ of waste paper on 14 Feb., of rubber on 16 Aug., of scrap iron on 5 Sept. and of leather on 4 Dec., 1941.

85 Letter from François Delannoy to Paul Niessner, 23 Jan. 1941, AN, 68AJ 496.

86 Annuaire Lesourd (1944).

87 For press coverage of these Franco-German economic meetings see ‘Les entretiens économiques franco-allemands’, Le Matin, 21 Feb. 1941, and ‘Rénovation de l'industrie française’, Le Matin, 5 Mar. 1941.

88 Letter from Delannoy to Dufau-Peres, ‘Position de Mr. Niessner’, 11 Feb. 1942, AN, 68AJ 479.

89 In the spring of 1940, when Heck succeeded Ziegler as Reich Commissioner for Scrap Salvage, he compensated for the Jewish loss of labour by making even more use of school children as collection agents. Köstering, ‘Pioniere der Rohstoffbeschaffung’, 141–2, 149; Sopade, Vol. 7, Apr. 1940, 238.

90 French translation of the summary for the 20 Feb. 1941 salvage meeting, ‘Au Service de la Récupération’, n.d., and ‘Sitzungsprotokoll über die Tagung des gemischten Ausschusses (Altmaterialerfassung) vom 20.II.41’, 7 Mar. 1941, AN, 68AJ 499. Niessner's sole contribution to the meeting was to point out the 15 May 1940 law requiring French buildings to have a separate bin for waste paper. For Niessner's official title as ‘Chef du Service Altmaterial du Militärbefehlshaber in Frankreich’, see ‘Réunion des services français-allemands intéressés à la campagne “os-savon”’, 19 Sept. 1943, AN, 68AJ 478.

91 French translation of summary for 22 Feb. 1941 closing salvage presentation, ‘Au Service de la Récupération’, n.d., and ‘Auszugsweise Wiedergabe der Rede des Herrn Reichskommissars H. Heck bei der Schlusssitzung der Tagung der deutschen Reichsstellen mit den französischen Repartiteuren am 22.2.1941 im Hotel “Royal Monceau” Paris’, 7 Mar. 1941, AN, 68AJ 499.

92 Sopade, Vol. 5, June 1938, 629–31; Kostering, ‘Pioniere der Rohstoffbeschaffung’, 55.

93 Köstering, ‘Millionen im Müll?’, 140; Sopade, Vol. 4, Oct. 1937, 1396.

94 Letter from François Delannoy to the minister of the interior, ‘Création dans les départements de comités d'action et de propagande pour la récupération des déchets et vieilles matières’, 14 Feb. 1941, AN, 68AJ 499; OCRPI, minister of the interior to prefect of the department, draft circulars in French and German, 17 Feb. 1941.

95 Secretary for the allocation of industrial products, Jean Bichelonne, to the prefect of Côtes d'Armor, 19 Apr. 1941, AD-Côtes d'Armor, 3W 85.

96 Letter from Delannoy to prefect of Hérault, 15 Nov. 1941, AD-Hérault, 2W 1213. For the origins of Vichy's aryanisation bureau (SCAP), see Paxton, Robert and Marrus, Michael, Vichy France and the Jews (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1995), 8–9Google Scholar and Thomas J. Laub, After the Fall, 203–4.

97 Letter from Delannoy to Destoumieux, report on origin of the ‘Jewish Affairs’ division of the Salvage Section, 2 Dec. 1942, AN, 68AJ 478.

98 ‘Ordonnanz für die jüdischen Erfassungsbetriebe (Sammeln und Mittelhandeln)’, Verordnungsblatt des Militärbefehlshabers in Frankreich (VOBIF), 10 May 1941; letter from Niessner to Delannoy, 14 Feb. 1941 and letter from Delannoy to Niessner, 7 Mar. 1941, AN, 68AJ 496.

99 The secondary literature has not systematically explored the aryanisation of the French scrap trade. There are a handful of references in Prost, Antoine, Skoutelsky, Re′mi and Lebreton, Sylvain, Aryanisation e′conomique et restitutions (Paris: Documentation française, 2000), 185Google Scholar, 188, 192–3. The small sample in these pages confirms the large presence of immigrants from Eastern Europe. They refer to the following dossiers in the CGQJ archives, the 41AJ series in the National Archives: 1866/15135 – Ichock S. (rag and scrap iron peddler, Polish), 1866/15136 – Joseph H. (second-hand goods peddler), 1642/15467 – Sander A. (second-hand goods peddler, Romanian, naturalised French, Saint-Ouen), 1722/32541 – Isaac ou Leb CH (second hand clothes dealer, Russian), 1762/35374 – Beck P. (chiffonnier), 1866/16223 – Haim Z. (second-hand goods dealer, and rag and scrap iron peddler, Russian), 1866/16224 – Icek K. (rag and scrap iron peddler, Polish), 1866/16226 – Salomon G. (second-hand goods peddler, Romanian). A good overview is Verheyde, Philippe, Les mauvais comptes de Vichy: l'aryanisation des entreprises juives (Paris: Perrin, 1999)Google Scholar, in particular, see his chapter on the place of Jews in the French economy, 54–72.

100 Letter from Niessner to Delannoy, 12 Sept. 1941, AN, 68AJ 496. Hans Heck and Neumann, in charge of second-hand and discarded materials (Hauptschäftsführer der Fachgruppe Alt- und Abfallstoffe), met with Salvage Service delegates again on 18 and 19 Sept. 1941.

101 Michel Couturaud, inspection report by the Salvage Service, ‘Voyage fait à Nancy, du 16 octobre au 19 octobre 1941, Comité d'Action et de Propagande – Meurthe-et-Moselle’, n.d., AN, 68AJ 479. For a similar assessment, see Couturaud's inspection report for Bordeaux, ‘Voyage fait à Bordeaux du 23 septembre au 2 octobre 1941’, 10 Oct. 1941.

102 For a sense of how this legislation was received by the public, see J.L., ‘Les poubelles – N'y pourra fouiller le premier venu!’, La France au Travail, 8 Oct. 1941.

103 Riedinger, report on a visit with Couturaud to Daudonnet, general secretary of the prefecture of police, 7 Oct. 1941, and Riedinger, report on a visit with Daudonnet, 15 Sept. 1941, AN, 68AJ 518.

104 Letters from Delannoy to Niessner, 27 Nov. 1941, AN, 68AJ 496.

105 Letters from Delannoy to Niessner, 13 Jan. 42, AN, 68AJ 496.

106 Letters from Delannoy to Niessner, 23 Jan. 1942 and 11 May 1942, AN, 68AJ 496.

107 Letters from Delannoy to Niessner, 30 July 1942, 12 and 26 Aug. 1942 and Lavarde to Delannoy, 28 Sept. 1942, AN, 68AJ 496. Léon Zelkowitch, a Polish national, was arrested and interned in Drancy in July 1942 and Delannoy tried to get him out of the camp. But when another Jewish wholesaler's business was expropriated at the same time, Delannoy simply asked Niessner for his approval to liquidate it.

108 Delannoy, monthly Salvage Service reports, ‘Rapport de l'activité du service de la récupération’, July to Dec. 1942, AN, 68AJ 478. Possibly the ‘Jewish Affairs’ section did continue to protect some Jewish members. The July 1942 report mentions ‘interventions at the Prefecture of Police for the liberation of certain members’.

109 French translation of letter from Niessner to Delannoy, 10 Nov. 42, AN, 68AJ, 497.

110 Letter from Delannoy to Destoumieux, report on origin of the ‘Jewish Affairs’ division of the Salvage Section, 2 Dec. 1942, AN, 68AJ 478. For the list of licensed dealers, see ‘Liste des négociants classeurs autorisés à vendre aux industries consommatrices’, Bulletin officiel du service de la récupération, n° 2, 23 Aug. 1941.

111 Sanders, Paul, Histoire du marché noir: 1940–1946 (Paris: Perrin, 2001), 163–4Google Scholar.

112 Letter from S. Jolly, director of primary education at the ministry of education, to academic inspectors, 28 June 1941, AD-Côtes d'Armor, 3W 85.

113 Folder titled ‘organisation’, Nov. 1941, AD-Hérault, 2W 1213. This folder contains handwritten notes as well as black-and-white photographs of the Montpellier collection.

114 ‘La Récupération des déchets et leur utilisation vont être organisées sur des bases nouvelles’, Le Matin, 17 Apr. 1941.

115 ‘La France utilise ses restes . . . Grâce au service de la récupération’, Le Matin, 12 Mar. 1941.

116 Handwritten inspection report ‘1ère tournée du 26 janvier: Mèze, Montagnac, Pézenas, Servian, Puisserguier, St. Pons, Lamalu les Bains, Bédarideux, Clermont l'Hérault’, 26 Jan. 1942, Colonel Girvès to Director of the Action and Propaganda Committee for Waste and Scrap Salvage, Hérault Prefecture, Montpellier, 27 Apr. 1942, AD-Hérault, 2W 1213.

117 Kedward, H.R., In Search of the Maquis: Rural Resistance in Southern France, 1942–1944 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 186Google Scholar; ‘Répertoire numérique détaillé de la sous-série 177 J’, Fonds Joseph Lanet (1909–2009), 1 Apr. 2011, AD-Hérault: archives-pierresvives.herault.fr/data/files/ad34.ligeo2/pdf/inventaires/FRAD034_000000559_all.pdf?1363990972 (accessed 24 Apr. 2013).

118 Undated table of collection statistics for the 1942 collection drive, AD-Hérault, 2W 1213. A combined population of 461,791 individuals collected nearly 10 tonnes of paper, almost a tonne of rags, 60 tonnes of scrap iron, half a tonne of bottle caps, two tonnes of bones and two tonnes of glass. For a population this size, the numbers are quite small. Looking at the data for scrap given by each individual, this ranged from 1 g of rags and bottle caps to 130 g of scrap iron. As a point of comparison, Dautry's scrap iron drive in the spring of 1940 brought in 85,000 tonnes of metal, representing over 2 kg for every French man, woman and child. Compared to his fellow mayors, Girvès performed relatively well, based on his population. His townspeople, per person, gave 152 g of paper, 611 g of scrap iron and 61 g of glass. Only sixty-five municipalities collected paper; of those, only six had a collection rate higher than Girvès.

119 Head of the Salvage Service to Dufau-Peres, head of the central section, 10 Mar. 1942, AN, 68AJ 479.

120 ‘L'Industrie récupère les déchets utilisables’, Le Matin, 13 Mar. 1942.

121 Draft script and contract for ‘Les Métamorphoses de la matière: Film réalisé avec le concours du Service de la Récupération, Section Centrale de l'OCRPI’, 20 and 24 Apr. 1942, AN, 41AJ 92.

122 ‘L'Utilité de la récupération: La Collecte des vieux papiers préserve la forêt française’, La Croix, 20 July 1942; ‘La Récupération des papiers imprimés’, La Croix, 7 Sept. 1942; ‘Une nouvelle campagne de récupération des vieux papiers’, La Croix, 19 Oct. 1942; ‘Le Ramassage des vieux papiers’, La Croix, 31 Oct. 1942; ‘La Collecte des vieux papiers par les écoliers est prolongée’, Journal des débats, 19 Dec. 1942; ‘La Campagne de ramassage des vieux papiers par les élèves des écoles’, Journal des débats, 30 Dec. 1942; Circular from Delannoy to directors of the action and propaganda committees, ‘Ramassage par les écoles’, 14 Mar. 1942, AN, 68AJ 476.

123 Poster for ‘Campagne de Ramassage des Vieux Papiers par les Élèves des Écoles du 1er novembre au 31 décembre 1942’, AD-Savoie, 1411W.

124 France Actualités, ‘Récupération des vieux papiers’, 17 seconds, 19 Feb. 1943, available on the website of the Institut national de l'audiovisuel, www.ina.fr (accessed 18 Apr. 2013).

125 ‘Apportez à la récupération vos déchets de textiles! Vous toucherez des points supplémentaires’, Le Matin, 4 Sept. 1942; ‘La Récupération des déchets textiles’, Journal des débats, 13 Feb. 1943; ‘Rapport d'activité de la section récupération pour août et septembre 1942’, Aug.–Sept. 1942, NA, 68AJ 478. The collections in Paris, Bordeaux and Lyon netted 473 tonnes of rags. Letter from Delannoy to director of the Propaganda Abteilung of the German military administration, 1 Sept. 42, AN, 68AJ, 496. This letter is a request for permission for Films de France to film the textile collections in Lyon, Bordeaux or Paris between the 10 and 13 Sept.

126 ‘La Récupération des déchets: Une campagne va s'ouvrir à Lyon’, Le Figaro, 9 June 1942; ‘Fougères a organisé de façon très simple le ramassage des déchets utilisables’, Le Matin, 8 Apr. 1942.

127 At the end of Aug. 1942, when salvage delegates from Berlin came for a meeting to discuss the price of waste paper, Niessner organised a formal dinner at the Hotel Royal Monceau. A handwritten tentative guest list showed seven French officials – including Delannoy and Anglès – and seven out of eight of the German officers, in addition to Niessner. Letter from Niessner to Delannoy, 21 Aug. 1942, and letter from Delannoy to the economic office of the German military administration, 25 Aug. 1942, AN, 68AJ 496.

128 Riedinger, ‘Rapport: Pourquoi modifier la rédaction du 30 septembre de la loi sur les ordures ménagères’, Paris, 25 Nov. 1941, and Delannoy, ‘Rapport sur le problème des ordures ménagères et les solutions susceptibles d'y être apportées’, 19 Feb. 1943, AN, 68AJ 518.

129 R. Martin, ‘Rapport sur la situation actuelle des ordures ménagères en France’, Lyon, 1 June 1942, AN, 68AJ 518. In his report, Martin cited letters from Swiss municipal officials he had received in the summer and fall of 1941.

130 R. Martin, ‘Rapport sur la situation actuelle des ordures ménagères en France’, Lyon, 1 June 1942, AN, 68AJ 518. A journalist cited Martin's figures (unattributed) in an article in the spring of 1943, F.J.A., ‘Poubelles’, Journal des débats, 10 Apr. 1943. As a note of comparison, in 1936, a survey of Parisian rubbish revealed the following breakdown: paper 20.21%, metals 2.2%, rags 2.17%, bones 1.38%, glass 2.07%. CG, ‘Note sur le triage et la récupération des ordures ménagères’, n.d., AN, 68AJ 518.

131 Delannoy, untitled report on the French mission to Germany, Paris, 22 Dec. 1942, AN, 68AJ 518. The delegation was led by Niessner and Beck and included Delannoy, Anglès, Riedinger (the head of the household waste section of the Salvage Service) and Roche-Bruyn (the head engineer for the treatment of urban waste in Paris). In Germany, they were accompanied by Heck's delegate for household waste, Mr Suewer. In Hanover, the delegation discovered that French prisoners of war participated in the weekly household collection.

132 Delannoy, ‘Rapport sur le problème des ordures ménagères et les solutions susceptibles d'y être apportées’, 19 Feb. 1943, AN, 68AJ 518.

133 ‘Tonnages de déchets récupérés courant Décembre 1943: Tonnage enlevés courant de mois et stocké au 31 Décembre’, Paris, 7 Jan. 1944, AN, 68AJ 518.

134 Letter from Delannoy to Niessner, 5 Mar. 1942, AN, 68AJ, 496.

135 Letter from Destoumieux to Niessner, in which he refers to Niessner's letter sending the information about the special number for waste-paper wagons, ‘Versand von Altpapier von Frankreich nach Deutschland’, 23 Dec. 1942, AN, 68AJ 496.

136 ‘Rapports d'activité du délégué de Montpellier, 1945’, AN, 68AJ 478. This report is just one example, but the box contains several similar series of reports from 1944 to 1945 throughout France.

137 ‘Journal Officiel des 12,13 et 14 novembre 1944 – Amnistie des fausses déclarations des stocks de produits industriels’, AN, 68AJ 475.

138 Jean Rieu (interim director of the Salvage Service), ‘Décision Générale Z 12 – Blocage et transfert des déchets et vieilles matières provenant des armées alliées’, 23 May 1945, ‘Décision Générale Z 14 – Récupération des douilles d'obus et déchets de vieux métaux cuivreux, provenant de l'utilisation d'engins de guerre abandonnées sur le territoire français’, 25 May 1945, and ‘Décision Générale Z 17 – Réglementation de l'échange os contre tickets de savon’, 26 July 1945, AN, 68AJ 475.

139 Baudouï, Rémi, ‘Raoul Dautry, la conscience du social’, Vingtième Siècle, 15 (July–Sept. 1987), 45–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

140 Commission Consultative des Dommages et des Réparations, Ingérences allemandes dans l'activité industrielle: Monographie A.I. 40: Récupération de déchets et vieilles matières (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1947)Google Scholar. The commission issued similar reports for all areas of French economic life, including separate reports on the iron and steel industry and on textiles.

141 Commission Consultative des Dommages et des Réparations, Ingérences allemandes dans l'activité industrielle.

142 ‘Matières récupérés (en tonnes) en 1942–1943–1944–1945 et 1er semestre 1946’ (n.d. but a handwritten annotation is dated 16 Aug. 1946), AN, 68AJ 479.

143 Pearson, Chris, Scarred Landscapes: War and Nature in Vichy France (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

144 Bess, Michael, The Light-Green Society: Ecology and Technological Modernity in France, 1960–2000 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003), 3Google Scholar, 180.

145 Jean-Noël Badenas, Président de la Communauté de Communes Canal-Lirou, ‘Lettre d'information aux habitants de la communauté de communes Canal-Lirou’, www.cc-canal-lirou.fr/index.php/lettre-dinformation-collecte (accessed 24 Apr. 2013). I would like to thank Corinne Milhet, president of the Association ‘Les Mémoires de Puisserguier’, for this information.