By the end of 1944, about 25,000 German soldiers captured during the North African campaign were in French custody. They were first taken to Géryville and later distributed among roughly 30 camps in Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco.
By mid-1947, almost all of these prisoners had been transferred to metropolitan France, where they were used in reconstruction work.
From 1945 onwards, France also received large contingents of prisoners from British and, above all, American custody.
Many of the prisoners transferred were in very poor physical condition. Of the 103,000 prisoners taken over from the Americans in three camps around Dietersheim, the account states that 32,000 were elderly people, women, small children, sick or disabled. It further reports that these emaciated people, referred to as “déchets” (“waste”), found no food supplies waiting in the camps.
Prisoners transferred from the U.S. Rhine camps who hoped conditions would improve in French custody were quickly disappointed. Hunger, violence and exploitation were also reported in French camps during the early period, and thousands of inmates died.
Altogether, about 1,065,000 German prisoners passed through French custody, in camps scattered across the country.
They were assigned to many forms of labour. Mine clearance, with the account giving a fatality risk of around 10 per cent, was among the most dangerous tasks.
German POWs in France
