German war prisoners

There were approximately 400,000 German war prisoners during the entire war. The conditions of incarceration were generally better than those of French prisoners in Germany as testified to by the reports of inspections undertaken by neutral countries. However, the Armistice convention called for the immediate repatriation of French prisoners without reciprocity.
The German war prisoners were transferred to liberated regions. They were used as labour to clear ruins, demine agricultural lands, and participate in reconstruction.
But according to Clemenceau they also served as “pedagogical instruments”, a sort of human material to define the chart of German responsibility, as well as a means of pressure for obtaining reparations from Germany.
Isolated from the Allies, France finally accepted the repatriation of German prisoners from January to February 1920 over a period of 45 days.