A French Prison of War in WW II

choi

Martica Sawin, When the Artist Went to War. Germany used defeated French soldiers for miserable labor. One of them was a famous painter, who wrote down his experience. Wall Street Journal, July 13, 2012
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 02524133784312.html
(book erview on Jean Hélion, They Shall Not Have Me. The capture, forced labor, and escape of a French prisoner in Wold War II. Arcade, 2012)

Note:
(a) As the review states, the book was first published in 1943 by EP Dutton (also based in US), and presently reissued by Arcade, with the addition of a new introduction and an afterword.
(b) Philippe Pétain
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Pétain
(1856-1951; "Chief of State of Vichy France (Chef de l'État Français), from 1940 to 1944. Pétain, who was 84 years old in 1940, ranks as France's oldest head of state")
(c) Vichy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vichy
(the de facto capital of Vichy France during the World War II Nazi German occupation from 1940 to 1944)

(d) Loire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loire
(e) Pomerania
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomerania
(a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland)
(f) Oder River
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oder_River
(g) The review says of prisoners of war, "they were sent on daily work details."

detail (n; French, from Old French detail slice, piece, from detaillier to cut in pieces, from de- + taillier to cut — more at TAILOR):
"3a: selection of a person or group for a particular task (as in military service)
b (1) : the person or group selected (2) : the task to be performed"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/detail

(h) Kommandoführer
* The "kommando" is German noun for command, order.
* The "führer" is German noun for leader, head.
(i) The review mentions "his account of rancid meat and worn-out bodies."
* rancid (adj): "having a rank smell or taste"
* rank (adj): "PUTRID, FESTERING"
* worn-out ((adj): "exhausted or used up by or as if by wear"
(j) Free Zone
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Zone
(Free Zone may refer to: The Zone libre, the part of France during World War II to remain unoccupied by foreign troops under the June 1940 armistice between France and Germany)
(k) For nonobjective art, see abstract art
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_art
("Abstract art, nonfigurative art, nonobjective art, and nonrepresentational art are loosely related terms. They are similar, although perhaps not of identical meaning")