Photographs of a refugee camp in Normandy after the liberation of the region
Normandy celebrated its liberation from German Occupation as fervently as did the Channel Islands, but in the days to follow there was extreme hardship. Unlike the islands, which, despite all the deprivations of the Occupation years, suffered little structural damage, tens of thousands of residents of Normandy lost their homes, flattened by Nazi and Allied bombardment. Whole towns were reduced to ruins and families were displaced to hastily erected refugee camps. Women and children, and their elderly relatives, did what they could to establish their daily routines, many not knowing if their menfolk would ever return from active service.
These photographs show the activities at one of those camps. We are trying to discover more details about exactly where they were taken, but believe the camp to have been situated in the Manche department of the Cotentin Peninsular, across the water from Jersey. The photographs were taken in August 1944