This chapter examines the politically charged meanings and contested readings of repatriation and screening in the French zone, challenging historical presumptions about French insensitivity and ‘pro-Soviet’ policies, supposedly exemplified by the handing over of Baltic and Ukrainian DPs in the autumn of 1945. It demonstrates that French positions changed in Paris (and in the zone) before the adoption of the UN landmark resolution of 12 February 1946, which officially recognized all DPs’ right to asylum. In doing so, it illuminates the vicissitudes of repatriation, repatriation incentives being highly contingent on changing international circumstances, institutional rivalries and local realities. While the chapter recognises the importance of diplomats and national politicians in formulating repatriation policies, it also reveals how repatriation and screening crucially depended on how French administrators re-interpreted and implemented these instructions in the zone.