1-276-694 - Art Media/Heritage Images

French conscript labour departing for Germany for service in the STO, Paris, 1943-1944. Faced with a decline in the supply of forced labour from occupied Poland and Russia, the Nazis demanded that France send 250,000 labourers to Germany by the end of 1942. As an incentive the Germans agreed to repatriate one French prisoner of warfor every three volunteer labourers. In the event the number of volunteers was insufficient and a form of conscription, the Service du Travail Obligatoire (STO) had to be introduced. By the time France was liberated an estimated 650,000 men and 44,000 women had been sent to work in Germany.