The " Tondues" During The Liberation
#2

You have to see this in the light of the wartime years, not in the light of today.

After 4 years of German occupation, people finally were free again.

In that occupation, some of these women paraded around with the (hated) German while other people literally had to fight for survival.

Some of these women might even had a French PoW rotting away in some prison camp in Germany in the early years of the occupation.

Maybe some of them even betrayed other people to their German "boyfriends".

 

This however does not put what they did with these women in a good light.

Shaving their heads, parading them in their underwear and in some cases even raping them is and remains despicable.

Even if they really were pro-German and committed crimes, they should have been taken care of by proper authorities (which were mostly lacking at that time).

 

But those days right after the occupation (first days of liberation) were pretty disorderly and confusing.

There was no controle, no order and hidden hatred was suddenly released.

In my area, right after the occupation, one could just pick up an abandoned Mauser rifle, put on a "tricolor" brassard and declare yourself a hero of the Resistance.

For some a way to make up for their cowardice during the occupation (or worse!).

You could also easily point at someone and declare him or her a collaborator.

Nobody would tell you otherwise, and mostly this was a good way to (re-start old vendettas).

Some despicable things have happened here as well.

 

But again, you need to look at this with "1944 glasses", not "2007 glasses".

Nothing in war situation is black and white, there are always various shades of grey.

 

Erwin

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Messages In This Thread
The " Tondues" During The Liberation - by verow - 06-15-2007, 02:14 PM
The " Tondues" During The Liberation - by Jeeper704 - 06-15-2007, 04:26 PM

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