Final archiving
On 12 May 1977, the Minerve and Eurydice files were simultaneously and definitively archived at the Service Historique de La Défense in Vincennes (94).
These documents are all covered by the ‘Secret Défense’. This means that access to them is protected for a period of 50 years, calculated from the most recent document in the file, i.e. from 1970, the date of the last REMINER campaign.
A secret that could last until 2040
The file must therefore remain confidential until at least 2020.
It contains all the documents relating to the Minerve tragedy, the work of the commission of enquiry, those relating to the search operations, the national tribute ceremony, the letters, sometimes fanciful, from people claiming to know the truth, will make up the Minerve file.
At the end of this period, which prohibits anyone from accessing the file without authorisation or exemption, the decision to declassify the file must be taken by a commission, which will decide whether or not to maintain defence secrecy. By default, secrecy will be extended for periods of 10 years, and we may have to wait until 2030 or 2040 for the Minerve file to be freely accessible.
(Editor's note: the law on defence secrecy changed in 2021)
Discreet archiving
Among the many files received on the same day are documents dating back to 1938, before the Second World War. The Eurydice file is one of the most recent, along with that of the Minerva.
The Navy has definitely given up on trying to understand what happened.
No information is communicated to families or anyone else.
Filing slip for files received on 05/12/1977
Extract from the list of archived files where the name of Minerva and Eurydice appears