Sleeping with the enemy (The real French experience of WWII)

The Daily Mail ^ | 07/16/2008 | Glenys Roberts

[loreldan]

Paris in the month of May was in full aphrodisiac bloom.

The girls were swinging along the boulevards in their short, flowery skirts, their hair flowing loose behind them.

On the radio, the singer Tino Rossi - France's answer to Rudolph Valentino - belted out his latest romantic favourite.

But a few short weeks later, on June, 14, 1940, the German army marched into the capital and occupied it for four years.

France has never forgotten its humiliation - or its bewilderment - in having to adjust to a life of close proximity to the old enemy, with all the resentment, guilt and, worst of all, sneaking

Everyone was surprised the tall, blond invading newcomers did not set about raping the population as the French had expected. Instead, they handed out bread and tarts.

Moreover, they were so handsome and so brave in comparison with the drunken French soldiers who had surrendered the fight.

Soon, every French child was crying out that he wanted to be German, while every young French girl was lusting after the newcomers as though they were allies, not enemies, offering them oranges and standing on tip-toe to look into the plush interior of their limousines.

And French housewives, deprived of companionship while their soldier husbands were held prisoner, were happily sleeping with the enemy.

The French have long sought to draw a veil over these aspects of the occupation, claiming heroic acts of resistance during the period when, in fact, they were little more than collaborators.

[SatinDoll]

Well...this hardly bodes well for French-English national relations.

[null and void]

You are a french woman. You have a golden opportunity to get something other than a french man.

I suppose something could happen.

Theoretically...

[loreldan]

I’m sure some of this happened but I wonder if it was so widespread as is claimed here.

[rlmorel]

I am reading the Winston Churchill volume “Alone” which is his account of that portion of the war when France fell.

Churchill was meeting in France with French officials during the Battle of France, and they discussed what to do if Italy entered the war. Churchill thought they should immediately bomb the industrial centers near Milan to give the Italians a taste of war, which he didn’t think they could stomach.

They wanted to have the bombers take off from airfields in Southern France, and when word got out, scores of French civilians went to the airfield and dragged carts and other things across the field to prevent the missions from being able to take off. They didn’t want to piss off the Germans and risk retaliation.

I didn’t know that.

[Mr. Mojo]

Soon, every French child was crying out that he wanted to be German, while every young French girl was lusting after the newcomers as though they were allies

lol...a wee bit inflammatory.

[TheWasteLand]

I didn't know this was common in France. But in Normay, the children of German fathers and Norwegian mothers (the so-called krigsbarn or lebensborn) has been a big issue. There have been lawsuits claiming discrimination and talk of reparations for abuse.

[Old Sarge]

“Collaborator” used to be the worst word in any european language.

Now, it’s something to be aspired to.

[river rat]

Hell, you can’t blame the women - it was their first chance to sleep with a winner.

[autumnraine]

Danielle Steele wrote a novel about this. An American woman who married a French soldier lived in the countryside of France. Her husband was a POW and her house was taken over by a German officer. She ended up having a child with the German and living as husband and wife so to speak until the war was over. Not that it has anything to do with this.

But I can understand survival, and if you have to use what you have, use it. But still, to party it up with the enemy while your men are being held captive and your Jewish countrymen are sent to die? This tells me don’t trust the French. As if I needed to be reminded of that.

[tbw2]

Or men who would sleep with them, despite lack of bathing and lack of lack of hair?

[C19fan]

Sort on interesting this side of the German occupation of France is now coming out. The Daily Mail had an article awhile ago about a photo exhibit of German occupied Paris showing in Paris and causing quite a stir. The controversy was it was impossible to tell from the photos the city was actually occupied by Nazis. Parisians, the women looked great in their 30s/40s fashions, were going about their business and many looks like enjoying life. One photo had a lone German officer, who appeared only armed with a brief case, descending into the Metro and another photo had Nazis banners flying over a Paris boulevard. The photos went against the story built over in post-war France that life under German occupation was hell.

[John123]

They didn’t want to piss off the Germans and risk retaliation.

That sounds familiar! Didn't the liberals take this position after 9/11?

[John123]

BTW... I have a large pictorial volume of WW2 and one of the pictures showed how the French treated the women who slept with the enemies...

They shaved off their hair, drew swastikas on their faces, ripped off their clothes and made them walk barefooted through the city.

The men who collaborated with the Germans? They got shot.

[K-oneTexas]

"You have a golden opportunity to get something other than a french man. "

Hummmm, let's see. You mean the Frenchman who waives the White Flag and passes out crossionts vs a fighters heritage (from the German tribes, the Visigoths, the Ostrogoths, the Vandals, the Burgundians, the Lombards, and the Franks).

Maybe French woman want something ... more!

[FReepaholic]

...But still, to party it up with the enemy while your men are being held captive and your Jewish countrymen are sent to die? This tells me don’t trust the French.....

It tells me not to trust a woman.

[Old Sarge]

POST OF THE DAY!

[autumnraine]

Well, this might be true too.

[Billthedrill]

Just because every Frenchman and Frenchwoman wasn’t a Resistance member doesn’t mean that no one was. Just because some Frenchmen and Frenchwomen were collaborators doesn’t mean that everyone was. History is both wheat and chaff and only a fool expects otherwise. IMHO.

[paudio]

It may be true... Just watch “Allo.. Allo...” The girls are sleeping with the Jerries...

[loreldan]

agreed

[LibFreeOrDie]

The photos were taken by photographer André Zucca for German propaganda purposes:

Gallery: http://flickr.com/photos/hab3045/sets/72157605961660187/

[misterrob]

Let’s not forget that women have been used in resistance actions to extract information from gullible enemies.

[misterrob]

There was also a baby boom in Germany after the Soviets took over.....

The soldiers raped the women without mercy in retaliation for what Germany did to Russia.

[rmlew]

Where there collaborators and opportunists; yes. There was also a serious resistance.

Is there any book on French-communist collusion with the Nazis?

[Ditto]

I’m sure some of this happened but I wonder if it was so widespread as is claimed here.

Hard to say, but if the French 'Resistance' was as large as the number who claimed to be part AFTER the war, the Nazis would have not had enough troops to contain it.

I know GIs who were in France then, and they said they had had a pretty good time with the local girls.

[swain_forkbeard]

Are you referring to the German victory in 1918 or the one in 1945?

[Libertarianize the GOP]

France, the only Country to lose WWII twice; first to the Germans and the promptly switched sides only to lose to the allies a few years latter.

[river rat]

I guess the first chance would have been WWI, and their second chance was WWII -—— assuming some of the “ladies” were old enough during WWI and young enough during WWII

[Rebelbase]

[PzLdr]

The one in 1940. You know. The one that took six weeks.

[cherry]

"The soldiers raped the women without mercy in retaliation for what Germany did to Russia."

always a "reason."......*sigh*

[Jeff Chandler]

Hell, you can’t blame the women - it was their first chance to sleep with a wiener.

I guess they could have done wurst.

[Jeff Chandler]

despite lack of bathing and lack of lack of hair?

Same as the German women back then.

[Jeff Chandler]

The soldiers raped the women without mercy in retaliation for what Germany did to Russia.

They raped the women without mercy because they were barbarians.

[arthurus]

Sometimes. In some places.

[river rat]

Wiener? Wurst?

You be bad, very bad — but clever and funny!

[Cvengr]

I guess that’s one way to a Weiner Republic.

[Cvengr]

Is this the wurst way to a Weiner Republic?

[Pikachu_Dad]

According to Buisson, nubile young French girls were as likely to succumb to their bosses, their neighbours or even the greengrocer if they owed him money, and became adept at escaping the vigilant eye of their mothers-in-law and any other would-be killjoy in the community in pursuit of their illicit pleasures.

Or perhaps they just liked to {redacted}

[misterrob]

The hatred of the Germans ran deep with the Soviets. The irony here is that Stalin treated his own people no better than the Germans did and yet people felt differently about him.

[misterrob]

There was some serious hatred going on with the Russians. The raping was a form of payback for what the Germans had done to their country. Now, raping women and girls isn't proper revenge but the blood lust ran deep.

And, fighting for Stalin didn't make a person civilized to begin with.

[Ghengis]

Hell, you can’t blame the women - it was their first chance to sleep with a wiener.

I guess they could have done wurst.

They thought, "Don't knock it..."

[Dumb_Ox]

The author sounds like she, too, lusts for Nazis. Very creepy.

[Citizen Blade]

Moreover, they were so handsome and so brave in comparison with the drunken French soldiers who had surrendered the fight.

That's unfair to the French military in WWII. French soldiers fought hard, they just got beat by the Germans, like pretty much everyone else in Europe. If Germany had been located where Canada is, German panzers would probably have been able to capture Washington.

No one was ready to fight the German military in the early part of WWII. The Russians were fortunate that they had hundreds of miles and millions of soldiers to burn in order to learn how to beat the Germans.

[allmendream]

It was after they drove out the Nazi's that the French taste against “collaborators” turned sour and they sought out those who had sinned the most in collaboration; not those of the Vichy government, no; the most insidious collaborators were French prostitutes who didn't turn down German money! THEY had to PAY! They did indeed shave their heads and shame them for not being more selective prostitutes and remaining ‘faithful’ to France.