S.T.O. Les oublies de la victoire

In 1945, some 650,000 Frenchmen, forced to work for two years for the Nazi war machine, returned home. They were known as the S.T.O. (Service du Travail Obligatoire), three letters they carried with them for the rest of their lives. Mistaken at best for cowards, at worst for collaborators, they have disappeared from national history. After decades of silence, the last witnesses and their descendants are making their voices heard. These men, torn from their families in the prime of life, sacrificed their youth. But when they returned home, their suffering did not carry much weight with public opinion. Unlike prisoners of war, they had not fought. Unlike the Resistance, they did not stand up to the enemy, and unlike the deportees, they suffered less. They are the forgotten victims of victory.