A01=Sarah Ann Frank
African History
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Author_Sarah Ann Frank
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Battle for France
Bigotry
Captivity
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HBJD
Category=HBWQ
Category=NHD
Category=NHWR7
COP=United States
CPOWs
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
Discrimination
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European History
Free France
French Colony
French Empire
French History
Frontstalags
German History
German Occupiers
History
Imperial France
Language_English
Metropolitan France
Military History
Occupied France
PA=Available
Price_€50 to €100
Prison Camp
PS=Active
Racism
Second World War
Social History
softlaunch
Vichy France
World War Two
WWII
Product details
- ISBN 9781496207777
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 01 Jul 2021
- Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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2022 Heggoy Prize from the French Colonial Historical Society
Royal Historical Society's 2022 Gladstone Book Prize Shortlist
Hostages of Empire combines a social history of colonial prisoner-of-war experiences with a broader analysis of their role in Vichy’s political tensions with the country’s German occupiers. The colonial prisoners of war came from across the French Empire, they fought in the Battle for France in 1940, and they were captured by the German Army. Unlike their French counterparts, who were taken to Germany, the colonial POWs were interned in camps called Frontstalags throughout occupied France. This decision to keep colonial POWs in France defined not only their experience of captivity but also how the French and German authorities reacted to them.
Hostages of Empire examines how the entanglement of French national pride after the 1940 defeat and the need for increased imperial control shaped the experiences of 85,000 soldiers in German captivity. Sarah Ann Frank analyzes the nature of Vichy’s imperial commitments and collaboration with its German occupiers and argues that the Vichy regime actively improved conditions of captivity for colonial prisoners in an attempt to secure their present and future loyalty. This French “magnanimity” toward the colonial prisoners was part of a broader framework of racial difference and hierarchy. As such, the relatively dignified treatment of colonial prisoners must be viewed as a paradox in light of Vichy and Free French racism in the colonies and the Vichy regime’s complicity in the Holocaust. Hostages of Empire seeks to reconcile two previously rather distinct histories: that of metropolitan France and that of the French colonies during World War II.
Royal Historical Society's 2022 Gladstone Book Prize Shortlist
Hostages of Empire combines a social history of colonial prisoner-of-war experiences with a broader analysis of their role in Vichy’s political tensions with the country’s German occupiers. The colonial prisoners of war came from across the French Empire, they fought in the Battle for France in 1940, and they were captured by the German Army. Unlike their French counterparts, who were taken to Germany, the colonial POWs were interned in camps called Frontstalags throughout occupied France. This decision to keep colonial POWs in France defined not only their experience of captivity but also how the French and German authorities reacted to them.
Hostages of Empire examines how the entanglement of French national pride after the 1940 defeat and the need for increased imperial control shaped the experiences of 85,000 soldiers in German captivity. Sarah Ann Frank analyzes the nature of Vichy’s imperial commitments and collaboration with its German occupiers and argues that the Vichy regime actively improved conditions of captivity for colonial prisoners in an attempt to secure their present and future loyalty. This French “magnanimity” toward the colonial prisoners was part of a broader framework of racial difference and hierarchy. As such, the relatively dignified treatment of colonial prisoners must be viewed as a paradox in light of Vichy and Free French racism in the colonies and the Vichy regime’s complicity in the Holocaust. Hostages of Empire seeks to reconcile two previously rather distinct histories: that of metropolitan France and that of the French colonies during World War II.
Sarah Ann Frank is an associate lecturer of modern history at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and an external research fellow at the International Studies Group at the University of the Free State in South Africa.
