ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the impact of destruction in Nord, Pas-de-Calais and Somme during World War II, to identify the challenge posed by emergency tasks during the course of the war and in its immediate aftermath, and to chart how definitive reconstruction was conceived and implemented. The volume of damage inflicted on northern France during World War II exceeded the legacy of World War I when 434,200 buildings had been damaged or destroyed across the same stretch of territory. The historical reality proved to be more complex than the familiar three-fold sequence suggests of war, emergency measures, and reconstruction. The emergency labor force was composed of local civilians, migrants from other parts of France, and German prisoners of war who performed a variety of tasks prior to general repatriation in 1947. With their rich resource endowment and wide array of manufacturing activities, the three départements of northern France had made an important contribution to the German war effort.
