︎

Alejandra Arévalo

                                   alejandraarevalo.ph@gmail.com                                +49 15751984120 
Projects︎︎︎         About                         Imprint

Les Lính Thó: l’oubli forcé
( The Lính Thó: the forced oblivion) Ongoing


Between 1939 and 1942 around 20,000 Vietnamese men were forcibly transported from the port of Haiphong to the costs of Marseille to work as unskilled laborers in the French armament industry and rice fields.
By this time, the French government had an Indigenous, North African and Colonial Manpower Service (MOI) attached to the Mi- nistry of Labor, which had the right to recruit colonial labor in crisis situations. Most of the workers spent their first nights in the pri- son of Baumettes in Marseille and were then distribu- ted to different cities. They were considered efficient and rather fast workers, but not as material for the war field; that was the task for the men coming from the African colonies.
In 1945, at the end of the Second World War and with the beginning of the Vietnam War, the fleets desti- ned for the repatriation of Vietnamese workers were all assigned to the French Navy to calm the airs of rebellion in Indochina. Thus, some 15,000 Annamite workers and soldiers were blocked in French territory for nearly 10 years. Some of these workers decided to remain in France since they had formed families and a stable life.
According to the research of journalist Pierre Daum, by 2013, only five or fewer workers were still alive in France. However, it is in recent years that an attempt has been made to rescue the memory of these men through documentary research. This is how the story of these men is unveiled, which are not only accounts of two wars, but testimonies of the French colonial and post-colonial power that has been kept silent. It shows how the French colonial power forced thou- sands of men, not only from Indochina, to work and live in degrading conditions under the pretext of racial superiority.
It is a historical episode that contains the lives of more than 20,000 Vietnamese men and thousands of others from different nations under
The focus lies on the family memory of the descendants of these workers. For many of the sons and daughters, the story of their fathers was
not known to them, since for many it was a traumaIt is an ongoing project that seeks to question the European colonial and post-colonial power and at the same time, it aims to reframe the individual and collective memory.

︎︎︎︎Overview



Salin de Giraud, Arles. The policy of recruiting indigenous people was based on a legislati- ve and administrative system developed between the two wars. The loyalties of the indigenous authorities in charge of recruitment set the obligation for each family to provide a son Rice Museum, Arles. National Archive of Overseas, Aix-en-Provence Claude sitting on a bench near his house. His father arrived in Arles in 1940 in the 73 company coming from the Anam. He was designated as an interpreter as he had a fairly good level of French. Claude and his brothers became aware of the why and how his father came to France at his funeral, where former fellows told them the truth Sourrandings of the Baummettes prison in Marseille Current state of Mazargue, former vietnamese billiting The men originally from the Anam were known as Anamites. Poverty abounded in this area and the governmental presence was practically invisible, Mazargue, Marseille The repatriation of Vietnamese workers does not begin until 1948. List of man waiting to be repatriated from the Lazargue camp, Document extracted from the National Archive of Overseas, Aix-en-Provence Mazargue, Marseille Baummette prison, Marseille National Archive of Overseas, Aix-en-Provence Mazargue, Marseille Claude looking at the billiting where his dad used to work, Arles Powder mill where the vietnamese laborer used to work, surrounding area of Arles Claude was capitan of the navy. His french grandmother used to tell him that if he join the army, they will respect him Claude’s father left a letter. It was written “Dear Dad, how are my brothers Richard, Claude and Fabrice”. They realized they had an older brother in Vietnam. In 2000, they went to Vietnam to meet his dad family. They also found their brother Rose’s father, Ho Hoang, was a vietnamese “unskilled laborer”, as the Ministry of Colonies (MOI) used to call them By the end of the war, the MOI proposes to French private companies to lease the labor of the around 15.000 workers who were trapped in french territory. The MOI received the payments directly, without distributing the corresponding wages to the workers. Rice Museum, Arles Rose’s father wanted to integrate, to learn french and to study. He stayed in France because by the time of his demise in 1954, his first child was born and saw better options and possibilities in France. That is why he never said anything to anyone. Rose’s children After the departure of the Americans in 1975, Ho Hoang started to go back to Vietnam. He was able to build a house in Saigon, Salin de Giraud, Arles Many of these men were between 18 and 30 years old when they were requisited and at the time of their demise they were between 54 and 66 years old



A Cloud above me

Sound of an echo

Guardavecinos

A Cloud above me

Mamabena otra Ariabena

Sound of an echo

Covid Diaries

Guardavecinos

Ongoing

Hijos del Silencio

Les Lính Thó: l’oubli forcé
© Alejandra Arévalo 2023