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

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

[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...