Lycée Victor Hugo put to the test during the Second World War

"Le Lycée Victor Hugo à l'épreuve de la 2ème Guerre Mondiale" (Victor Hugo High School during the 2nd World War)
This exhibition by Besançon's Collège Victor Hugo, produced with the support of the Collectif Histoire des Chaprais, is on display at 8 rue du Lycée, in the Cour d'Honneur of what is now the Collège Victor Hugo, on the site of the Lycée Victor Hugo, which was established there between 1803 and 1980.
You will discover the life of the students and staff of the Lycée Victor Hugo during this difficult period and how many of them undertook to resist the occupying forces.
This exhibition is the result of both good fortune and emotion.
We were fortunate to have access to an exceptional collection of archives, giving an almost day-to-day account of daily life at the Lycée Victor Hugo in all areas affected by the Second World War.
It was a thrill to come into contact with these archives and to be immersed in the life of the pupils and staff of this great school throughout this period, in the same way that you can be immersed in a film or a novel.
What we are offering you is to relive with us the trials, hopes and struggles that your parents, your grandparents and our elders experienced between 1939 and 1945:
The problems of staff shortages, supplies, heating, shoes, the reforms and propaganda of the Vichy regime, the repression of foreigners, citizens of the Jewish faith, Gaullists and Communists, the compulsory labour service and the treatment of draft dodgers, bomb alerts, insubordination and then resistance by pupils, and staff, the actions of the Gestapo at the Lycée, the moments of glory and the tragedy of the deportations, the executions, the joy of victory and the tears of mourning, are all evoked to give you an insight into life at the Lycée Victor Hugo based on documents from the period and the latest eyewitness accounts.