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The term “voluntary worker” was coined as an administrative category in the aftermath of France’s Liberation to refer to those individuals who voluntarily decided to go to Germany to work during the Second World War. Today, this term is still used by historians. However, this article argues that it carries a series of taken for granted assumptions that can be traced back to the specific political circumstances of its appearance. These assumptions seriously hamper the historical investigation of the hundreds of thousands of men and women who decided to leave France to work in Germany between 1940 and 1945. First, the use of this category imposes a rigid national perspective that tends to constrain the investigation to questions directly related to national loyalty. Second, and for the same reason, it makes invisible the transnational dimension of the experience of the men and women it intends to name. By uncovering the forgotten genesis of this category, this article seeks to challenge unquestioned assumptions and open up new questions about the history of working-class men and women during the period of the Occupation.