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Secret Intelligence Service
L’épuration sauvage
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In one of the writings by the British author Somerset Maugham, ‘Unconquered’ (1944), the main character kills his child, born of a German soldier. This was not a fictional state of affairs, such cases were also characteristic of the time, but are not confined to this time. Why?
As Intelligence Officers, we are interested in what people do and the reasons why. What are the reasons why? What transpires when social protocols are lifted? Is there something embedded deep within the psyche that seeks outlet via any vehicle it can find, an instinct, as Freud asserted in ‘Civilization and its Discontents (1930)? We are of the opinion that this is the case, not confined to era or geography, and examples are manifestly obvious. Here we can be only very brief in our summation, though we do investigate this phenomena in depth in works that appear as ‘restricted’ on this website.
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It was on July 14, 1944 in Normandy on Bastille Day, bald Frenchwomen were paraded on the streets. These were the women who collaborated with the Nazis. But it was only one episode in the European hysteria, after the victory over fascism.
After the liberation of German occupied territories of the European states, thousands of women who had been in relationships with German soldiers and officers were exposed to humiliating and cruel executions at the hands of their fellow citizens.
The most active pursuers of their compatriots were the French. Anger from destruction, long years of occupation, the country’s division, – newly liberated, France vented retribution on these girls. During the campaign to identify and inflict reprisals against collaborators, dubbed ‘L’épuration sauvage’, about 30,000 women suspected of having links with the Germans, were subjected to public humiliation.
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Many tried to save themselves by having diverted attention through cooperation with the occupation authorities.
Eyewitnesses to the events: ‘they passed by us, accompanied by curses and threats, while being driven slowly in an open truck. In the back were about a dozen women, all with shaven heads hung low in shame.’
Often on the head shaving was not enough, a swastika was painted on the face, burned or branded on the forehead. There were also cases of lynching when girls were just shot, many wishing not to bear the shame committed suicide.
They were recognized as national unworthy and many were subject from six months to one year in prison, followed by a decrease in rights for another year. By the people, this last year was called ‘the year of national shame.’ Note that similar happened in other European countries that were liberated.
There is a further aspect made shamefully silent for decades – children born of German soldiers. They were rejected twice – born out of wedlock, the fruit due to the enemy.
According to various estimates, as French born more than 200,000 so-called ‘occupation children’, but oddly enough, the same French treated these children the most loyal, restricting only the ban on German names and learning German language. Though there have been cases of attacks by children and adults, many mothers refused them, and they were brought up in orphanages.
The founder of the French-German association of children of the occupation ‘Heart Without Borders’, now numbering about 300 members, a Frenchman, son of a German soldier: ‘We founded this association as a society to assert our rights. The reason – we were the Franco-German children, conceived during World War II. We united to jointly search for our parents to help each other and to work to preserve the historical memory. Why now? Previously, it was impossible to do, the subject remained taboo.‘
By the way, in today’s German Democratic Republic, there is a legal provision under which the children of German soldiers, born to French mothers are entitled to full German citizenship and without any restrictions whatsoever attached.
In Norway, these girls were about 15 thousand and five thousand, who gave birth from the Germans, were sentenced to one and a half years of forced labor, and nearly all children with the filing of the government declared as being ‘mentally disabled’ and sent to a home for the mentally ill, where they were held until into their sixtieth years. Norwegian Union war children later stated that, quote; “Nazi spawn” and “morons”, – so called these children were used to test medicines. Only in 2005 the Norwegian parliament brought a formal apology to these innocent victims and approved compensation for the experiences of three thousand euros. This amount could be increased if the victim can provide documentary evidence that they faced hatred, experienced fear and saw mistrust in others because of their origin.
(C-III)
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