Interior of Foch's railway car

Category

Library Item

Item no

30678

Title

Interior of Foch's railway car where the armistice was signed, The Armistice Clearing, Compiegne Forest

Artist / maker

Unknown

Date

1926

Size

9.0 x 13.8 cm

Type

Postcard

Location

Reference Library

The railway carriage which carried Foch and his delegation to La Clairiere De L'Armistice and in which the armistice was signed became a very important artefact to the French People. After it played its part in the ceasefire it was put back into service as a dining car but was quickly commandeered as an addition to the French Presidential train and later exhibited in Paris. In 1927 it was brought back to the clearing to be part of a museum on the site and was enclosed in a specially built carriage house. After the Nazis occupied France the carriage was carried to Berlin where it stood in the Lustgarten for many years and was moved when allied forces advanced on Berlin. It was of such symbolic importance to both nations that Hitler ordered for it to be destroyed before the French could reclaim it. Unfortunately it was burned and buried by SS officers in Thuringia where it had been hidden. Thuringia became part of the Soviet Occupation Zone and it was not until after the fall of the Berlin Wall that small surviving parts could be retrieved and brought back to the clearing for exhibition next to a full reconstruction of the original.

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Related subjects

Architecture > Monuments > Memorial monuments

Architecture > Monuments > War Memorials

Events > Wars > War allies

Events > Wars > Wars

Events > Wars > World wars

Places > Europe > France

Transport > Land > Carriages (Trains)