During the Second World War, Germany annexed several neighbouring territories without international agreements, before imposing compulsory military service. At least 500,000 foreigners (Poles, Belgians, Luxembourgers, French, Yugoslavs), considered as Volksdeutsche, were thus forced to bear arms in the service of the Third Reich. But what was the social reality of this group during the conflict and the post-war period? What were their opinions and behaviour towards the Wehrpflicht? How were they perceived and treated by Germany, their respective states and societies, and by the Allies? What memory of events did they construct once they returned home? All these questions, largely taboo east of the “Iron Curtain” and sidestepped by a victimary and patriotic discourse in the West, have been the subject of new scientific studies since the 1990s. This work, bringing together international researchers, is part of this historiographical renewal by proposing a first comparison at the European scale of these “forcibly conscripted.” The globalising post-war discourses, whether victimary or accusatory, are here deconstructed to make way for a dispassionate and nuanced history. Behind the legal unity of this group — all conscripted in defiance of international law — there emerges a variety of paths and opinions, depending on the regions, but also on individuals, based notably on local or family backgrounds and on each person’s interests or constraints.