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This study aims to analyze the behavior of teachers from the Manche who went through the ordeal of the Second World War. It measures the impact of the war on a professional group whose members sometimes struggled to reconcile state prerogatives with their personal aspirations and convictions: How and why did teachers in the Manche react, or not, to the calling into question of republican values? Firstly, examining the immediate pre-war period until the summer of 1940 makes it possible to identify the state of mind of teachers on the eve of the conflict and to reveal the first impacts of the defeat. Next is a study of the Occupation, the strain of the German presence on daily life, the pressures of Vichy, and the involvement of some teachers in the French Resistance. Finally, the behavior of primary school teachers during the liberation and its aftermath is analyzed.