Abstract
In the aftermath of French military defeat in summer 1940, around 100,000 colonial troops from the French Empire spent time in prisoner of war camps in both Nazi Germany and Occupied France over the course of the remainder of the war. In this ambitious new work Raffael Scheck seeks to reconstruct their diverse experiences from the very beginning of their time in captivity through to their liberation and their eventual, often distressing, postwar repatriation. Not only does this enable him to provide considerable insight into the human experience of captivity, but he weaves prisoners' stories into a larger narrative which complicates our understanding of Nazi Germany's racial policies, Vichy France's collaboration, and the construction of French postwar memory.
Scheck employs the term ‘colonial prisoners’ to refer to the diverse range of men from North and West Africa, from Indochina as well as a small number of French citizens of full or partial non-European heritage who form the subjects of his study. In his detailed and lucid introduction four key arguments are set out. These are then fed through nine part chronologically, part thematically organized chapters. For the author himself his ‘most surprising finding’ was the change in the German treatment of colonial prisoners over the course of 1940 (p. 8). Here he builds on his previous ground-breaking work into German massacres of French West African soldiers in the summer of that year. He convincingly argues that after this initial violence German conduct towards all French colonial prisoners increasingly followed the terms of the Geneva Convention. This is partially explained by a consideration of German propaganda interests, such as attempts to win over Muslim North Africans, as well as by considering developments at a ground level. Scheck provides convincing evidence of positive relationships evolving between colonial prisoners and German guards, who often showed little commitment to Nazism.
The author's second key argument concerns the diplomatic side of captivity. He contends that the Vichy government, largely through its appointed diplomatic mission under Georges Scapini, sought to protect the rights and welfare of colonial prisoners. In light of Vichy hopes for the postwar situation this was strategically seen as a means of both gaining legitimacy in the eyes of colonial populations and of restoring French prestige throughout the Empire. Through looking at issues such as camp conditions, opportunities for early release and opportunities for escape, Scheck reaches his third key conclusion that in comparative terms colonial prisoners were treated differently, but no worse than their white French contemporaries imprisoned in Germany. A final chapter dealing with the end of the war and the immediate postwar period demonstrates the frustration and growing feelings of bitterness that colonial prisoners felt towards both Vichy France and the new successor French government. While the experience of wartime and captivity led colonial prisoners to demand equality with their white French counterparts, the French authorities instead wanted to recreate the pre-war Empire and to restore a strict sense of colonial hierarchy.
Employing an impressive range of primary materials from not just French, but crucially also from underused German, Swiss and North American archives, Scheck provides both quantitative and qualitative detail throughout. The lack of first-hand written and oral accounts from colonial prisoners makes it difficult to access their voices, and at times the human element is understandably missing in Scheck's analysis. It is, however, to his credit that through closely interrogating the available materials such as camp inspection reports he is still able to provide a measured overview of their day-to-day lives which moves beyond simply considering their conditions of work and captivity. Throughout he stresses the agency of his subjects as well as the diversity of experience. In key chapters he looks in detail at the impact of incarceration on their physical and mental states and at their relationships with fellow prisoners, civilians and their captors. Fifteen black and white photographs are also imaginatively employed to gain insight into prisoners' everyday lives and the cordial bonds that could develop between prisoners and guards.
The attention that Scheck pays to the German side of the story is an important aspect of the contribution that his work makes. He contrasts the situation of colonial prisoners to that of other groups racially targeted by the Nazis for persecution, such as Jews. Surprisingly, however, he does not take the opportunity to reflect on how the handling of French colonial prisoners intersected with the Nazis' increasingly violent anti-Black policies and practices towards its small resident Black population; a population whose roots lay primarily in Germany's former colonial empire. Equally, while Scheck spends some time looking at the negative views of the competing French authorities towards mixed relationships that developed between colonial prisoners and civilians, scarce attention is paid to German views of such relationships.
These minor criticisms aside, by shedding light on this largely neglected group of prisoners Scheck has produced a comprehensive and authoritative study which makes an important contribution not simply to the thriving field of POW studies, but which will also be of significant interest to historians of Nazi Germany, France and the French Empire.