STO (service du travail obligatoire)

Little girl from required to compulsory labor, I went back to the places of deportation of my grandfather in Austria, with in memory the little that he had kindly delivered, and with the images and a courier sent during his " stay ". The aim of this work is to try to re-establish a duty of remembrance for all workers deported to Germany as part of the compulsory labor service (STO).
The compulsory labor service was introduced as early as 1942 but especially from 1943 to 1945 to compensate for the shortage of labor in Germany, with French laws passed against the French. There was a call for volunteers, first of all, with promises of interesting wages not kept. Then there was the succession (a worker who left for 2 prisoners of war released) and the 3rd attempt with the STO, established by Vichy.
My grandfather was part of the third wave of deportees. He left behind him, woman and child. He will remain vague over this period throughout his life. I had to search for this silent period of his life in the departmental archives of the Hérault, the archives of the war deportees in Caen and finally the archives of the deportees to compulsory labor in Germany to reconstitute this story, this family secret that I restore In a personal documentary fiction.
This photographic series combines images in color and black and white and only makes sense in a scenographic installation with basically the plans of the camps of Kapfenberg where it remained for almost 2 years.
Today, nothing remains of this past, I photographed in color the present those places that was but who are no longer. And in black and white on washi film, I enlarged and photographed archival images and period photographs.