An Unconcluded Microhistory of Compensation: The Unfinished Recognition of the Racial Discrimination Endured by Jewish Prisoners of War in the French Army During Their Captivity in Germany

During the Second World War, several thousands of Jews from France were detained on German territory as prisoners of war. Although many endured racial discrimination, they survived. This article will deal with this exceptional as well as largely unknown micro-history through the thorny issue of the recognition of their status as racial victims in the aftermath. On their return to the bloodless France of 1945, these survivors who had remained on the bangs of the genocide faced great material and moral difficulties. Although they were excluded from the legislation governing war victims in both France and the FRG, some of them tried to assert their rights on the grounds of antisemitic discrimination at the end of the 1950s. Their perseverance in the face of an initially hostile German administration enabled some prisoners of foreign origin to obtain compensation under the BEG Act. However, this recognition was not only imperfect, but also incomplete: their comrades of French origin remained excluded from French compensation legislation.