A few gray cards are placed on the table.
One of them seems to crack under the number of documents it conceals.
The string all around has come undone.
There are reports, letters, summary sheets, sketches… Some of them date back more than sixty years.
The mention “Très secret” in capital red letters nevertheless warns the reader of the nature of the exchanges.
They tell the secret military history of nuclear testing in Polynesia.
The texts have been typewritten on onion paper from another era, fragile and translucent.
"You shouldn't put too many fingers on it
," jokes historian Marion Soutet, heritage curator at the Defense Historical Service (SHD), presenting these boxes chosen from more than six hundred.
The call numbers indicate which archives it is.
It reads:
“General Staff of the Army”
.
Or, sibylline:
“13R132/1”
.
Or:
“GR13R169/2”
.
The “/2” symbol means that the documents are not…
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