1. captured by French forces        237.000 men
2. in North Africa                          63.000 men
3. transfer from British custody     25.000 men
4. transfer from U.S. custody       740.000 men

As can be seen was the largest part from U.S. custody. To guarantee enough prisoners as laborer, the French signed at December, 23, 1944, a treaty with the Allies. France claimed 1.750.000 men and obliged to keeping of the Geneva Convention. But the French knew as good as the Americans, that France was not in a position to feed that huge number of people. The Americans were pleased in first instance when got rid of "their" prisoners. In September 1945 the Americans had changed their mind and stopped further transfers. Due to the horrific situation of feeding they claimed the return of the prisoners who were unable to work. In October 1945, the French answered to this, that the Americans did not keep the treaty. [Document] France got instead of healthy laborer a large scale of wounded and ill people, kids and old men. Beside that were the underfed and bad clothed prisoners in such a condition before France took over the responsibility for them. It would be wrong to claim, that the bad supply to the prisoners was only caused due to revenge, hate or prejudices. We must consider, that large parts of France were destroyed and the Frenchmen had to suffer under a lack of all sorts of things also. The French government was busy to solve the problems of their own people in first instance. Unfortunately that attitude is human nature and caused often inhuman conditions.

Accommodation:
Prisoners of war could be found in barracks, wood-, stone- or corrugated-iron shelter, air-raid shelter, wine-cellars, cottages, underground shelter, schools, former monasteries, hangars, sheds, tents, storehouses and stables.

Clothing:
Jackets, trousers and coats had to be signed with PG (Prisonnier de Guerre). Clothes, which were worn-out , were hardly ever replaced and often the prisoners had to wear the same underwear for month. In the beginning they not even had shoes and had to go on their bare feet's to work. Very usual were wooden shoes.

Food:
Not until 1947 the ICRC considered the situation in France as normal. In the two years before the prisoners had to fight against starvation. In October 1945 the Americans put food and trucks at disposal of the ICRC. The ICRC asked a fee of 1 French Franc for each kilogram they delivered and the prisoners held a collection for it. From Christmas 1945 it was allowed to send parcels from Germany into the camps. But the Germans couldn't send anything - they starved on their own.

Health care:.
There was not much first-aid supplies and medicine available and that caused heavy troubles. Often the doctors classified a person fit for labor without any medical examination. The most common illnesses were loss of strength, malnutrition, boil, pneumonia, eczemas and diarrhea.

Leisure time:
The largest part of the prisoners were held in labor caps instead of the dépôts. Therefore a common organization of one's leisure time like in Great Britain or the United States could not arise.

Disciplinary:
Cases of escapes were particularly high in France. According to official numbers tried 171.029 prisoners of war to escape and from those were 89.522 recaptured. In Spain were build refugee camps to transfer the prisoners to Germany. Prisoners which were grab in Suisse or the French occupied zone of Germany were send back to France. In France they had to serve a sentence of 30 days detention and a shaven head. Beside that it was held court about the case with the result, that very often the prisoner got no money anymore. From time to time maltreatments occured or they were scratched from the repatriation list.

Repatriation:
The repatriation depended to the needs of the French economy and available means of transport.

1945      25.172 prisoner of war
1946    149.945          "
1947    199.215          "
1948    254.056          "