"France owes me a debt": at 102, a STO deportee demands compensation from the State

"I left Ludwigshafen with suffering that I will never forget. The war has been over for 80 years and I still have the bombings in my mind," sighed Albert Corrieri as he left the administrative court in Marseille on Tuesday morning. Alongside his many supporters, the centenarian maintains that he will go all the way to make the State recognize that his deportation is indeed a crime against humanity .

This Marseillais was only 21 years old in 1943 when he was arrested by French sentries and forcibly sent to Nazi Germany to join one of its forced labor camps as part of the Service du travail obligatoire (STO) implemented under the occupation and the Vichy regime. He would spend twenty-five months of his life there, enduring many "moments of horror" and almost losing his arm in a bombing that still haunts his mind. "The guy next to me was killed instantly by a shrapnel that hit him right in the heart. I saw the blood flow, it's unimaginable and despicable," he recalls with pain.

Facts that were never truly compensated by the French authorities upon his return to France in 1945, the damage not being recognized as a crime against humanity and therefore imprescriptible. "There is indeed a crime against humanity because there was deportation and Albert Corrieri was enslaved. There must be financial compensation," agrees Michel Ficetola, historian who accompanied the former deportee in his claim to the ONaCVG (National Office of Combatants and Victims of War) and the Ministry of the Armed Forces.

The case was finally brought before the courts in the face of the lack of response from the State services. The centenarian and his counsel, ^Mr Michel Pautot, are demanding compensation of 43,200 euros, the equivalent of 10 euros per hour worked for free on behalf of the German war effort. "Albert Corrieri has come to seek compensation from the French Republic. He is asking to settle the memorial toll of this tragic period," the lawyer argued before the court on Tuesday, adding that his client was above all leading this fight "for the memory and history" of the victims of the STO, numbering 400,000 in total.

"He is one of the last survivors of this period, there are only four left in France. We must go all the way and assert the rights of these victims of the STO. They cannot remain forgotten by history for life," added ^Mr. Pautot at the end of the hearing. This common thread was swept aside by the public prosecutor, who rejected Albert Corrieri's request, explaining that the "current mechanisms" did not allow him to be compensated. The decision was put under advisement and will be known on March 18.

In reality, the State's fear is to set a precedent for all STO people. This crime against humanity must be recognized.

Michel Ficetola, historian

At the beginning of the year, a former STO worker who had worked for fourteen months in Germany had also requested compensation from the State before the administrative court of Nice . Here again, the public prosecutor concluded that the centenarian's request should be rejected, considering that the limitation period had expired. The man was ultimately dismissed by the courts. "If we lose, we will appeal to the administrative court of appeal. We must go all the way and assert the rights of these victims of the STO," insists Michel Pautot.

"In reality, the State's fear is to set a precedent for all the people in the STO. This crime against humanity must be recognized. If we don't admit this today, France will no longer be the country of human rights," Michel Ficetola fumes. An energy shared by Albert Corrieri himself, who celebrated his 102nd birthday and even carried the Olympic flame in Marseille last year. "France is indebted to me. I have suffered so much that I cannot abandon what I have undertaken," he says.