
French soldier’s room unchanged 96 years after his death in the first world war - benbreen
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/14/french-soldier-room-unchanged-first-world-war
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dej
The French Ministry of Defence has a public database of soldiers who died on
duty during the 1st World War. I just found the entry for this officer:
[http://www.memoiredeshommes.sga.defense.gouv.fr/en/ark:/4069...](http://www.memoiredeshommes.sga.defense.gouv.fr/en/ark:/40699/m005239fef772670)
The most interesting part is the _Images_ link (with an eye): it will show you
a scan of the official death certificate from 1918. There are 1.3 millions
soldiers in this database. 3 of them from my family.

~~~
Someone
Also, [http://www.greatwar.co.uk](http://www.greatwar.co.uk) has links to many
foreign sites with information on those who died in e.g. Italian or Belgian
service. [http://www.greatwar.co.uk/research/military-
records/ww1-war-...](http://www.greatwar.co.uk/research/military-
records/ww1-war-dead-records.htm).

It surprised me to see that many of the british data sources are of the "visit
the official archive or buy digital access" kind. Also, judging from a few
samples at [http://www.naval-military-press.com/cd-rom/](http://www.naval-
military-press.com/cd-rom/), most of it is Windows only, and not priced for
impulse buyers (for example 220 pounds for a database of all British who died)

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huuu
Also check this 70 years untouched Paris apartment:
[http://www.messynessychic.com/2012/05/09/the-paris-time-
caps...](http://www.messynessychic.com/2012/05/09/the-paris-time-capsule-
apartment/)

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wldcordeiro
It'd be nice if there were more than just small thumbnails of the room.

~~~
EpicEng
My thoughts exactly. I went there to see pictures, not read the article. The
pictures are tiny...

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wldcordeiro
Well I read the article, but at the same time if the article's whole point is
about how unchanged this room is and how we should see it I expect a gallery
of images showing off the room.

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TeMPOraL
This has great historical value. Someone should come there with high
resolution cameras and make a 360° street-view like panorama. I would love to
see this room and learn how people lived then.

~~~
assignedM
I doubt it's typical or even genuinely untouched. Maybe he was a tidy-freak,
or maybe he tidied it specially before going to the war. But it's surely not a
typical person's room. That takes away some of the historical interestingness.

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vince_refiti
The whole thing exudes the great sadness of the loss of a child. War sucks,
but we keep doing it.

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ExpiredLink
_they_ keep doing it.

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rayiner
Who is "they"? If your home was being invaded, as France was, you'd do it too.

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dreamweapon
The room appears to be filled with a lot of interesting personal effects, but
it's hardly "unchanged." Looks more like a museum exhibit than a room someone
would actually live in.

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T-zex
Just how cosy and natural this room looks like.

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conradfr
I really doubt there can't be a museum who would transfer the room in a
permanent installation.

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saalweachter
Yeah, but along the way you'd lose an ephemeral something. You'd stop having a
single place in space frozen in time, and start having a collection of
artifacts in a museum. Artifacts from the first World War are not so scarce as
a room unchanged for a century.

~~~
conradfr
Of course but the chance of that room to be changed, destroyed, dismantled etc
is quite hight as it relies on owner's good will and luck.

Also, you could visit it !

Like the famous untouched apartment in Paris. Never really understood what it
became except they sold painting they found in it.

[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/8042...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/8042281/Parisian-
flat-containing-2.1-million-painting-lay-untouched-for-70-years.html)

I visited the Getty Museum this summer and found the displayed rooms of
European apartments quite great and interesting, as I was fascinated by the
Napoleon III ones at the Louvre.

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eru
Wow, the cigarette pack still smells of tobacco after 100 years?

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informatimago
Even more so, I'd say. Tobacco smelled something years ago. Nowadays, it's
just awful pestilence.

~~~
eru
Oh, I would have just expected all the volatile vapours to have already gone.

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ASneakyFox
Who forgets the hat to their uniform when they go off to war?

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chrisbennet
His effects were probably returned to his parents. They probably didn't bury
him with is hat on.

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astrodust
That's not the sort of hat you'd wear when fighting in a trench, either.

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rorski
Wow. The inspiration for Ray Finkle's parents?

