Relief Work as Pilgrimage

In 1945, Elsie C. Bechtel left her Ohio home for the tiny French commune of Lavercantière, where for nearly three years she cared for children displaced by the ravages of war. Bechtel’s diary, photographs, and letters home to her family provide the central texts of this study. From 1945 to 1948, she recorded her encounters with French society and her immersion in the spare beauty of rural France. From her daily work came passionate musings on the emotional world of human interactions and evocati