Annexed to Germany after the defeat of 1940, Alsace and Moselle underwent intense Nazification. Between 1942 and 1944, around 130,000 young people from Alsace and Moselle were drafted against their will into the Wehrmacht, the vast majority of whom were sent to the Eastern Front. The fate of these “Malgré-nous" is common knowledge, but what is less well known is the story of the “refractaires”, who refused to serve. It is estimated that 10,000 young people decided to risk their lives, and their families’ safety, by refusing to fight for Germany. It was an impossible choice for a young person of just 17: either to hide in a cellar or the forest and hope for Liberation, or, like the two young men from Forbach that we highlight in this documentary, to flee their home town and join the Allies in England.

Although the decision to flee and fight the occupying forces was similar for both of these young men - childhood friends who lived in the same street and went to the same school - the consequences of their attempts to escape were radically different. Achille Muller, the older of the two, became one of France's most decorated veterans, while Roger Boulanger suffered the horror of the concentration camps. They would meet again at the Liberation, but their experiences - glory for one and deportation for the other - would stand in the way of their reunion.

The two men lost touch for 70 years, each believing the other to be dead. But in 2016, through a lucky coincidence, two amateur historians, reading their respective books, made the connection and reunited them. We follow Achille and Roger as they retrace their pasts in Forbach, Moselle, and the Struthof-Natzwiller camp and deportation centre in the Vosges region of Alsace. Committed to their duty of remembrance, the two men also write books, give lectures and work with younger generations, driven by the incredible urge to live, despite themselves!