In June 1940, the Battle of France ends with the "Strange Defeat" : more than a million soldiers are captured by German forces and sent to camps in Germany (Stalags for soldiers and non-commissioned officers, Oflags for officers, Kommandos).

At the request of the French state, to inform the families of the fate of their captive parent, the Reich authorities transmit information enabling them to publish official lists of prisoners. There will be 100 published between August 1940 and June 1941. Although several hundreds of thousands of soldiers are released from mid-1941, most French prisoners remain captive until late 1944 / early 1945 : it's the advance of the Russian armies to the east and Anglo-American to the west which allows their liberation.

These lists are the only source of information on the million French prisoners. National memory treasure, they allow French families to reconstitute a piece of their personal history.

• Official lists of prisoners of war published by the National Information Center on Prisoners of War

Digitized and indexed lists of more than 1 million French soldiers and officers prisoners of war in 1940-1941