The General Management Secretariat was responsible, on behalf of the Director General and Deputy Director General, for receiving and dispatching mail, filing matters, keeping the archives, liaising with the Regional Directorates and Central Departments, coding, printing and distributing instructions, and preparing official travel.

Contents

It is worth highlighting the importance of the thematic files compiled by this department in the course of its activity. It is notably within these collections that the correspondence of the Secrétariat W is scattered — a special office of the General Management Secretariat, responsible for translating the correspondence exchanged between SNCF and the German Authorities.

There is also a substantial number of files relating to military matters, as well as material from the Commission centrale des Chemins de fer, dealing with preparation for the War. Finally, readers will find information on commemorations, Légion d’honneur awards, military medals and acts of merit.

The range of document types is varied: correspondence, notes, ministerial orders, protocols, agreements, decrees, orders, memoranda, instructions, decrees, laws, drafts, programmes, conference records.

List of record series for the 1939-1945 period

• 0020LM: 101 files
• 0068LM: 18 files
• 0138LM: 90 files