Réfugiés, prisonniers et sentiment national en milieu rural en 1914-1918. Vers une nouvelle approche de l'Union Sacrée

Abstract

Populations displaced in the First World War remain largely unkown, though they had a major impact on life in the rear and on the mental representations of the populations who sheltered them. The Sacred Union implied free and spontaneous integration of colonial workers, and repressive rejection of those belonging to enemy nations, wether they be civilians or soldiers. As soon as 1915, the coming back on the forefront of material and manpower concerns entailed a progressive reversal of representations and of local policies : economic actors and simple citizen were all fighting over enemy workforce, whereas French of Belgian refugees became unwelcome, particularly in the countryside. Beyond accusations about their would-be idleness, emerges an actual rejection of difference. If the Sacred Union was never a myth in the rural world, it proved fragile in the long run, thus demonstrating that at the beginning of this century the sense of nationhood was an ideal cut out for a short war.