| Abstract: | Between December 1918 and the end of 1921, the French authorities sought to “cleanse” the Moselle region of Germans as part of a programme of francisation. Different commissions, operating without any proper legal basis worked to identify and classify native and German immigrant indésirables respectively; their victims faced undignified, even harrowing train journeys to Germany. Those who remained faced the ever present risks of denunciation or harrassment, prompting them to opt for voluntary repatriation to Germany. Again, the circumstances of their departure were far from ideal. Like the expellees they suffered the sequestration and liquidation of their property, being allowed to take with them a minimum of cash and hand luggage. Nearly 100,000 Germans left the Moselle in this way; only a very few returned once the Versailles Treaty allowed for a limited number of naturalisations. |
