European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)
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In the beginning of 1943, Hitler had begun to lose some battles.
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He lost the battle of Stalingrad, the battle in Libya.
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He had to mobilize his entire male population, having occupied almost whole Europe.
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He had to keep his war machinery going.
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An agreement was signed between the French Pétain-Laval government
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and the German administration to create the so-called STO (Forced Labor).
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In the beginning, they tried it with propaganda, saying that one worker going to work in Germany would liberate ten Prisoners of War.
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That didn’t work well, as very few volunteered.
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From then on lists with the names of some of the workers were sent to the factories.
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If your name was on that list, you had to leave to work in Germany.
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One day I saw my name on one of these lists.
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We were supposed to have a medical check-up in Courbevoie, with a German major.
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I had a hernia, which in reality didn’t bother me.
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But I arrived there as if in pain, saying that my doctor had told me I needed to be operated on immediately.
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The major answered: “Don’t worry. We have very good surgeons in Germany, go ahead.”
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I then got in touch with my superiors.
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It was decided that I would be sent to a ‘maquis’ in Corèse.
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Upon arrival in Brives, I was to contact the comrades.
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When I passed the demarcation line, I was not able to establish contact.
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The ‘maquis’ was under siege, after having derailed a German train filled with deportees.
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