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Temps de lecture : 3min Рvid̩o : 4min
Witnesses to the Second World War, German blockhouses, vestiges of the Atlantic Wall, still mark the French coasts and certain territories in the interior. Between maintenance costs, security risks and the duty to remember, these vestiges of the conflict today constitute a heritage that is as precious as it is cumbersome.
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It is a very cumbersome heritage. World War II bunkers on the beach at Cap Ferret (Gironde). Built on the dune 80 years ago, some are in danger of collapsing. Like this winter, after the storms. The mayor had to intervene. “This one was at the top. And at one point, he started to want to slide. We helped him slide so there wouldn’t be a disaster”explains Philippe de Gonneville, mayor of Lège-Cap Ferret. To secure the beach, a few months ago, public works equipment broke and pushed the blockhouses below. An operation worth several thousand euros paid for by the town hall. “This year, we pushed two of them, this one and the one at the very bottom, which is still a little across. You see, the one that is a little bit further away, one of these days is going to fall too. So, if it presents a danger, we will be obliged to push it”indicates Philippe de Gonneville.
The solution might be to destroy them, but they were designed to be virtually indestructible. “We demolished one around twenty years ago and it cost a small fortune at the time, at least 150 or 200,000 euros”he explains. 200,000 euros per destruction. And there are around fifty in the town.
These are the remains of the famous Atlantic Wall, the French coast fortified by the Germans to prevent any Allied landings. There are nearly 8,000 blockhouses, spread over 4,400 km of coastline, and also in the east of France. Example in the commune of Margival, in Aisne. A unique site in Europe, nicknamed the Ravin du Loup. It housed the headquarters of the Nazi high command: 22 bunkers over 110 hectares. Here, it is not erosion that threatens, it is abandonment. For Jean-Pierre Poletz, mayor of Margival, this part of French history is a poisoned heritage. Its small town of 380 inhabitants does not have the means to maintain it or protect it against looters. “Everything electrical was looted to recover the pipe. Of the heating, only the pipes remain. Today, we don’t even look. We can’t. What to do with it? We asked ourselves the question. There were project studies, but each time, we came up with things pharaonics. It was not playable”he assures.
The only solution to preserve this heritage: entrust its management to a volunteer association. In a bunker, thanks to donations from individuals, they reconstructed the pieces identically. Period furniture with desk, extra bed and even a bathroom. And in this air raid shelter, they display photos to recall a historic moment: a secret meeting between Adolf Hitler and his generals, eleven days after the landing. “Part of the fate of France was at stake here. We have the only intact headquarters in Europe. It’s as if we were letting the Eiffel Tower rust. It’s the historical heritage of France. It must be maintained, it must be visited”estimates Didier Ledé, president of the W2 safeguarding association.
With 800 euros in annual subsidies, the association has few resources to promote the site. Each year, it attracts more than 4,000 visitors to its bunkers, now listed in the Inventory of Buildings of France.
