Description
Book Synopsis2022 Heggoy Prize from the French Colonial Historical Society
Royal Historical Society''s 2022 Gladstone Book Prize Shortlist
Hostages of Empire combines a social history of colonial prisoner-of-war experiences with a broader analysis of their role in Vichy’s political tensions with the country’s German occupiers. The colonial prisoners of war came from across the French Empire, they fought in the Battle for France in 1940, and they were captured by the German Army. Unlike their French counterparts, who were taken to Germany, the colonial POWs were interned in camps called Frontstalags throughout occupied France. This decision to keep colonial POWs in France defined not only their experience of captivity but also how the French and German authorities reacted to them.
Hostages of Empire examines how the entanglement of French national pride after the 1940 defeat and the need for increased imperial control shaped the exper
Trade Review
“Hostages of Empire opens a fascinating window to the experiences of French colonial prisoners in World War II. Frank positions colonial captivity in a wider context and sensitively examines the interplay between racism and political pragmatism.”—Ruth Ginio, author of The French Army and Its African Soldiers: The Years of Decolonization
“Based on meticulous, pathbreaking archival work, Hostages of Empire offers an impressive new history of wartime captivity. Skillfully centering the voices and experiences of colonial prisoners, it deepens and nuances in important ways our understanding of the entangled histories of the French Empire and the Second World War.”—Claire Eldridge, author of From Empire to Exile: History and Memory within the Pied-Noir and Harki Communities, 1962–2012
Table of Contents
List of Maps and Tables
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Genesis: French Colonial Soldiers under the Third Republic
2. Phase One: Building the Frameworks for Colonial Captivity
3. Everyday Life in Captivity: Conditions in the Camps
4. Occupying Their Time: Colonial Prisoners’ Work in Occupied France
5. Maladies and Mistreatment: Colonial Prisoners’ Health and Welfare
6. Helping “Our” Prisoners: Aid and Escape
7. Hostages to Misfortune: Politics and Colonial Prisoners of War
8. Colonial Prisoners under the Influence: German and French Propaganda
9. The Long Road Home, 1940–1945: Repatriation and Reintegration
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
