This postcard was part of a recent acquisition by the Vincentiana collection at DePaul University’s Archives and Special Collections. At the separation of Church and State in France at the beginning of the 20th century the Daughters of Charity and other nursing sisters were largely expelled from their hospital work. Ten years later when World War I broke out and the French military hospital system was overwhelmed by a deluge of casualties the sisters were welcomed back to work at newly-formed hopitaux auxiliaires sponsored by women’s division of the French Red Cross. Many of these hospitals were set up in commandeered schools, convents, mansions and other institutions. It is estimated that there were more than 900 French military hospitals set up on an emergency basis during the war. This card pictures a Daughter of Charity working in surgery at Hopital Auxiliaire #115 located in La Raincy outside of Paris.

“The Germans do not respect the dead, the dying, or ambulances.”
This French postcard produced in 1914, already indicates the tone of bitterness and revulsion for the Germans that was produced by the French propaganda efforts.

This card was recently purchased for the Vincentiana collection at Archives and Special Collections at DePaul University in Chicago.

As we enter the great centenary of the World War I anniversaries one of the enduring memories is of epic carnage. The battlefield casualties on all sides of this conflict still stun the mind today. The image of the Daughter of Charity as a battle-field nurse whether in the Crimean War or the American Civil War is an enduring one. However, the greatest involvement of the Daughters of Charity in war nursing was undoubtedly the Great War. Throughout France, and throughout the combatant countries as casualties mounted military hospitals sprang up everywhere hastily thrown together in commandeered schools, orphanages, noble chateaus and other large institutional spaces. In France in particular the sisters who had only a decade before been expelled from French health care at the separation of Church and State were now welcomed back without hesitation. The attached is a 1916 postcard issued by the Societe Francaise de Secours aux Blesses Militaires (the French Red Cross). It had its headquarters at 21, rue Francois 1er (Paris VIII). This card is a scene from the Val de Grace Military Hospital in Paris and captures a haunting moment as a wounded soldier (to the right) is carried by stretcher into the ward, accompanied by the surgeon as the other patients, a lay nurse, and a Daughter of Charity stop for a moment as the scene is captured.

This postcard was recently purchased for the Vincentiana collection at Archives and Special Collections of DePaul University.