The soldiers Vietminh prisoners who were from Eastern European countries, mainly legionaries, were "repatriated" to their country via China and the USSR They were often condemned in their own country for having fought a "sister country in a colonialist army.

Some survived. Their history is unknown. That is why we wanted to pay tribute to these men who fought for France and freedom by quoting from the story of Legionnaire RAZVAN so well told by Colonel H. CARRARD who was military attaché at the French Embassy in Bucharest (1):
"The old RAZVAN was tired. He traveled as he had seen both countries, he had suffered so much. He had lost so much hope, but he was hooked, he had fought against others and against himself and it was released each time. That night in the train which led brinquebalant from Tulcea to Bucharest, he was a little anxious.

Was his first time back in the capital for so long, since the very beginning of his house arrest, there were almost thirty years, when he had to deal with administrative issues interminables, when needed permits to travel, where to report to the Party Secretary of the village, the commissioner of police, I do not know yet. Yesterday evening he had left his village without saying anything to anyone. While he had discussed with Oana, his beloved wife, his companion of bad days, but it remained in the family, there was no need for anyone's permission. The dictatorship was on the ground for nearly six months, returning as before the war, when he was twenty years in his native Transylvania. "Anxious, but determined. He was still anxious because he did not recognize Bucharest, and then where was the Embassy of France in this great city? But finally he had seen others do not, and he is doing well to find this little corner of France, but his trip and hope to ... what to do? Why was he in the embassy in which he had never set foot? What do it? He knew too do anything, but finally it was a French soldier for five years, and even if there were twenty-seven months in detention camps viêt. So maybe that France could do a little something for him, an old servant who had to beat her, and not in any unit in the Foreign Legion, the 3rd REI., 10th company Lieutenant Bonfils. All this and turned his head back in the rhythm of the broken rails and switches that shook his bench 3rd class stoned.

Wanted by the Soviet police. He remembered his departure to the war in 1941, the mobilization, the bunch of students ranking it came out the sergeant of the Romanian royal army, and the passage of the Prut River on the order of General Antonescu to regain the Soviet Moldova who had invaded a year earlier. In Dniestr, it had continued, we fought like devils against the Russians as both feared and hated, but here we were with the great German army, the young RAZVAN was gone from my heart, especially against the followers disrupt communications, so much so that the KGB had put his head price. Also, when the fate of the weapons was reversed, that the Romanian army was extended to her, that King Michael turned his army against the Nazis and made an alliance with the West and therefore with the enemy yesterday, a certain number of Romanian soldiers, including RAZVAN, who had a little too pointed out by their fighting spirit, found themselves pursued by the Soviet police.

He managed nevertheless to slip through the cracks, refit the war against the Germans and found himself in Vienna, where it became increasingly difficult to avoid detection of the Soviet police. What to do? Back home while the Red Army occupied and established a Communist hard and without mercy? RAZVAN he had no desire. So after two and a half years of wandering, rushed there without hesitation in an office of engagement of the French Foreign Legion that he had spotted some time ago. His final appointment was dated 28 February 1948, he remembered well, he just turned twenty-eight years and was already an old soldier.
Involved in the Legion for Indochina. He remembered his classes in Algeria, Sidi Bel Abbes, his friends, many of whom later disappeared in Indochina, on board the Pasteur Mers El-Kebir in early September 1948.

All this was very far, he was young and went for adventure, for the East. It would simply restore order in an exotic country. He would never have thought that it would suffer a thousand times more than he had lived on the Russian front.

And the arrival in Saigon, followed by landing at Pointe Pagode, was September 25, he remembered clearly the next day because he had been assigned to the 12th Co. of the 3rd REI, it was a very precise. He would remain there until the third battalion was sent to Cao Bang in 1950. Cao Bang, horrible memory! Not the city, but his escape which he ought never to participate. Indeed, in early September 1950, he had requested an extension of stay of six months when he was repatriated and was boarding the Pastor in the first days of October. He had taken this decision as one day to stay with friends.

Cao Bang, there was well, the fortress seemed solid, and then one day, suddenly, without warning, forward towards Lang Son and the transition relief we were friends of the third, in Dong Khé siege. What memories, walking through the jungle with this incredible column of supporters, women and children who had disappeared gradually and the fighting against a tide of Vietnam. After a week of running and fighting in a field where he had terrible had friends wounded bear, barely time to cover the dead, out of ammunition, exhausted, he was taken prisoner with the remnants of Company Lieutenant Bonfils.

Prisoner for twenty-seven months, then released to his country of origin. Twenty-seven months, he remained a prisoner in Viet Minh camps; twenty-seven months to walk, twenty-seven months of humiliation, separate officers and NCOs, but it had held in spite of the illness and deprivation . Finally, in early 1953, he was released with other fellow communist countries, for their misfortune not to France, but each to his country of origin. RAZVAN was left with his companions in misfortune to China through various means of transport, molotov truck, train, on foot of course, to a first stage in Beijing. There, he had tried to contact the Ambassador of Romania, which at first had listened, then, after receiving instructions, had encouraged him to return home.

Siberia, Russia and Romania finally, remember how terrible that arrived in his native country in his homeland. Immediately he had been interned, and then tried for treason to the great cause of socialism, was in 1954. The verdict was final, ten years in prison. The style of the French administration was something fantastic and funny. It could be read on their length of service RAZVAN: "Prisoner, repatriated by democratic means, was not presented to the French authorities during his repatriation to his country of origin!

Put in prison, and then isolated in a cell. He found himself in the worst prison in Pitesti, the prison experiences of rehabilitation. Luckily the great period of torture was passed, but still it was not easy. One day, exceeded by a guard, he had put his fist in the figure, the result of two years of cell without seeing anyone, not even the guards. It is a small bird that had helped him survive. He came every day at a time when we used to lean his reclusive pittance. He gave a few crumbs. This conversation a few minutes daily through the soupirail this little sparrow with her renewed hope.

Placed under house arrest, married and father of a child. In 1964 or 1965, when the amnesty, he was released and placed under house arrest somewhere near the Danube Delta, yet for ten years. But there he had found Oana which also had troubles. She had lost her husband in the labor camp channel Danube-Black Sea. They joined their misery, had married and had a son. Gradually, they bought a few tools, working their plot of land, feed their hunger, improved their shed into a real little home and rebuild their lives after so many sufferings.

And we came together in 1989 and the revolution that had killed the tyrant and his dictatorship. Thus RAZVAN figured in the train to Bucharest. His thoughts and turned back. Getting to the Embassy of France? How to enter? Who to contact? The militia posted at the door suggest they go?

Received at the French Embassy. In fact everything went well, he appeared before an intercom and asked to see the military attaché. The idea came to him last time. The Colonel came quite quickly. He told his story. It was long enough because he had forgotten his English, but he came back slowly. He was good in this office, Colonel listened with attention and even he seemed shocked and admiration. He felt any feet. His heart was warmed to review and, more than forty years later, a French officer who received with such warmth and this officer was a colonel. He did not recall talking to a colonel, even in the French army. After a while, maybe two hours, the colonel had him drive to the consulate where a French official noted all possible elements of identity and asked him to return in two months ... "
He had served in France with honor and loyalty and France gave him this honor by the pensioner and presenting him with the Cross of volunteer fighter he wore proudly.

(1) We thank Colonel Carrard, Amédée Thévenet and publishing empire that France allowed us to reproduce here the text which can also be found in the work of Amédée Thévenet "the war in Indochina, told by those who ' have lived ", Editions France Empire