Passing Misery

The Journal of a Forced Laborer in the Third Reich

Jean Louis Mary Pasquiers, Rebecca L. Thompson (Herausgeber)

Buch | Hardcover

262 Seiten

2025
Berghahn Books (Verlag)
978-1-80539-935-3 (ISBN)

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The Service du Travail Obligatoire (STO), or the Compulsory Work Service, program remains one of the most unsettling features of France’s history in World War II. Established by the Vichy government in 1943, this initiative saw young men provide forced labor, primarily within France or Germany, in support of the Third Reich’s war effort. In this illuminating translation of the journal of Jean Louis Mary Pasquiers, a former teacher and forced laborer from Paris, Passing Misery documents Pasquiers’ life within war-torn Europe, in unwilling service to the Nazi regime. By exploring Pasquiers' personal story, this book offers an unrivalled insight into the complexities of war-time collaboration, resistance, and moral culpability, shedding light on one of the darkest chapters in European history.

Jean Louis Mary Pasquiers was born in 1920 and grew up in northeastern France. He was just beginning his career as a secondary school teacher when World War II broke out. In 1943, Pasquiers was requisitioned to go work in Germany with the Service du Travail Obligatoire. After evading capture for several months, Pasquiers turned himself in at a labor office and was deported to Berlin, where he worked a clerical job for the Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG). Pasquiers was repatriated to France in the summer of 1945, where he took up teaching again, dedicating his educational career to facilitating French-German student exchanges. Pasquiers died in 2013 in southwestern France.

List of Figures

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Thomas Pavel

Introduction: The Compulsory Work Service

Part I: Reims, Pouillon, and Paris, 1920-1943

Chapter 1. Wooden Crosses

Chapter 2. Meissen

Chapter 3. Destiny

Chapter 4. 1940

Chapter 5. Paris in Feldgrau

Chapter 6. Hitler and I

Part II: Berlin, 1943-1944

Chapter 7. The Journey

Chapter 8. Wohnlager Seestrasse

Chapter 9. Bombshells

Chapter 10. Ich bin ein Berliner

Chapter 11. A Brandenburg Summer

Part III: Bensen, 1944-1945

Chapter 12. The Land of Women

Chapter 13. Another Winter

Chapter 14. Living History

Chapter 15. Gigi

Chapter 16. Collapse

Part IV: Homecoming, 1945

Chapter 17. Libération

Chapter 18. Prague

Chapter 19. A Slow Return

Conclusion: After 1945

Index

Erscheint lt. Verlag	1.4.2025
Verlagsort	Oxford
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Themenwelt	Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik
	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918)
	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► 1918 bis 1945
ISBN-10	1-80539-935-7 / 1805399357
ISBN-13	978-1-80539-935-3 / 9781805399353
Zustand	Neuware