Their youth had been disrupted by a long list of tragic events. The great French army- that they all believed to be invincible- had been shattered in a few weeks, France was to be occupied by an implacable and fearsome enemy for four years, and many of the moral values they were brought up in were to be questioned and weakened.

One day they became soldiers.

At the end of the year 1946, they received an order to go and defend “the integrity and the civilizing mission of the French colonial empire” at the other end of the world. This episode has tragically remained unknown by the people who are not of the same age. In 1946 our country sent them to protect what was universally recognized as right. Thus echoing Albert Sarrault “we should stay where we are, it is not only our interest, it is what humanity awaits of us, the order of civilisation.”, the entire press supported them and trusted their courage. Le Monde, the daily newspaper, notably upheld that opinion in many of its leaders. Here are a few extracts: “General de Gaulle has claimed that, like Strasbourg or Clermont-Ferrand, Indochina, which was occupied by the Japanese until their recent defeat, be brought back in the French empire.” Anti-imperialists were compared to Doriot, and Rémy Douce, a leader writer who was in tune with public opinion at the time condemned in advance “those who would give overseas territories our fathers bequeathed us over to anarchy and let our fathers’ civilizing missions be destroyed. Order and authority must absolutely be quickly re-established, so that our pacification duty can continue for the good of all the French Union.”

So the French government asked them to go and defend France, its empire and its civilising mission. They left light-heartedly, feeling strong because they knew they were in the right, convinced they would protect, and with an unquestionable moral ideal.

A few months later, these brave young men who had been encouraged to sacrifice themselves were but a group of lost soldiers waging a dirty war, a shameful war.

So shameful was this war that a part of the French people, who had previously decided to send them to war, rejected them scornfully, bullied the wounded lying in their shafts, sabotaged their weapons and contributed to arming their adversaries.

It is also in this respect that the fate of these young men was a special one. No people in history ever acted in such a way towards their own soldiers when they were doing what they had been ordered to do.

Yet the workings of democracy made it possible to oppose the leaders whose views were not shared without threatening the lives of soldiers who were, logically, expected to obey.

Then they had to face their prisoners’ fate again a very special one. This was a horrible detention; there were no bars because the jungle or the colour of their skins were impassable barriers. They were starved, they were not given treatment when they were ill, they were overworked and/or cruelly punished. All of this was intentional to drive them to exhaustion. But what was even worse was that the enemy deliberately deconstructed their minds; they were made to be ashamed of themselves and accuse themselves of crimes they had not committed; they had to be a part of an appalling and dismal game so as to save their lives.

The outcome is known: 60% died in those death camps, most of them in horrible circumstances. Such a proportion has never been reached among war prisoners in contemporary history.

In this respect once more their fate was special. And when they returned to France and were hidden in covered trucks once they got off the boat, they met yet again with a special fate. They had to wait for 45 years, and fight fiercely for their sacrifice to be recognized together with the after-effects they still suffer from.