Carlotta Von Liebenstein

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Notes

Forced labor: German labor camps had similar rules to the American ones but this wasn't compulsory either. German prisoners were put through a lot of physical exercise so they wouldn't fall ill, and they had to have a certain number of days off per week. German women also had to wear dresses rather than slacks or shorts and go back to work again; they couldn't wear shoes at all. These women were considered to be second class in this new class of free citizens called women's conscripts, which is part of the official euphemism for "missing."

Sergeant: German soldiers, in their turn, were called "sergeants." The term "sergeant" only applied to men; the term for "sergeant" wasn't in use until the early 1900s. These soldiers wore "chasseurs blancs" ("white sergeants"). This is a very common stereotype today, but there were older styles of sergeants that were also worn by men in France. Here's a list of these styles:

'sergeants à campaine'
'séguiers à campaine'
'sergeants en masse'
'sergeants chez les cailloux'
and many more
First World War

On September 30, 1914, the first British troops set off for France from Algiers. They were sent by the government in London by railroad as an incursion force to open up the territory they occupied—what is now Algeria—to British colonists. They were welcomed in Algeria by a great many Algerians, including the military, who had come to war with French colonial officials for independence, but this wasn't enough to bridge the gap between the Brits and the locals, so the war continued for a year or so. The British were defeated at the Battle of Biak in January 1915. The French emperor had the area occupied and handed it back to the British. At this point, France's colonial possessions were the names of the colonial territories and the local population.

Early in the war, men from Italian and German colonial territories were sent to Algeria because they said they would be fighting for the French and the Germans.