French Colonial Soldiers in German Captivity during World War II

Discusses the experience of nearly 100,000 French colonial prisoners of war captured by Nazi Germany during World War II.

Raffael Scheck (Author)

9781107056817, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 15 December 2014

336 pages, 16 b/w illus. 2 tables
23.5 x 16 x 2.4 cm, 0.66 kg

'It is a valuable addition to the literature on POWs during World War II, ranging from Germany's murder of Soviet prisoners to assessments of its more careful treatment of Allied troops.' Norman J. W. Goda, European History Quarterly

This book discusses the experience of nearly 100,000 French colonial prisoners of war captured by Nazi Germany during World War II. Raffael Scheck shows that the German treatment of French colonial soldiers improved dramatically after initial abuses, leading the French authorities in 1945 to believe that there was a possible German plot to instigate a rebellion in the French empire. Scheck illustrates that the colonial prisoners' contradictory experiences with French authorities, French civilians, and German guards created strong demands for equal rights at the end of the war, leading to clashes with a colonial administration eager to reintegrate them into a discriminatory routine.

Introduction: a soldier's story
1. The start of captivity
2. The colonial prisoners in Franco–German diplomacy
3. The German treatment of the colonial prisoners in France
4. French guards for colonial prisoners
5. German propaganda for Muslim prisoners
6. The labor of colonial prisoners
7. The physical and mental state of the prisoners
8. Human relations: co-prisoners and civilians
9. Colonial prisoners and the end of the war
Conclusions.

Subject Areas: 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], African history [HBJH]