In July 1940, the German authorities annexed an area of France which extended from the Somme to the Swiss frontier in order to create “restricted zones” to serve the Nazis. Hundreds of foreign Jews were sent from the Paris region into the Ardennes to work there as farm laborers. Lured by the promise of a better life, these men and women discovered a pitiless world: the groups of foreign workers, so called GTE. Subjugated and oppressed, entire families were worked to exhaustion, laboring in the fields over a number of years, before eventually being deported. Even today, the story of the Jews of the Ardennes remains largely unknown.

A film by Francis Gillery
Image et son : Didier Hill Derive, François Roland Image : Régine Abadia
Edited by Benjamin Géhant
Historical advisor : Michel Laffitte

Producers: France Télévisions, Compagnie des Phares et Balises

With the participation of Histoire and RTBF

And the support of the Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée, the Ministère de la défense – Secrétariat général pour l’administration,  Direction de la mémoire du patrimoine et des archives, the PROCIREP – Société des Producteurs et de l’ANGOA and the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah

ISAN 0000-0004-4F52-0000-I-0000-0000-K

© France Télévisions / Cie des Phares & Balises / 2017