Abstract
Anyone interested in the Occupation of France, 1940–44, and especially in what might be termed the marginalia of that period, cannot but be fascinated by this elegant book generously illustrated with dozens of photographs and facsimiles. During this period several hundred thousand Germans were stationed in France and for the large majority the sole means of communication with family and friends was by post. Reproduced here is a mere handful of the letters, photographs, diaries and sketches selected from those that have been amassed since the 1990s by German historians. Very few are from women, even though they were increasingly employed as the Occupation continued, but we do have a cross-section of German society with documents from civil servants, teachers, peasants, workers, priests and, in the case of Heinrich Böll, a future winner of the Nobel Prize for literature. But these letters and diary extracts are almost exclusively from rank-and-file soldiers; there are none from major senior officers and very few during the final months from hardline Nazis. Not unreasonably the editors wonder whether, given the potential stigma of these, many have been destroyed or retained in private collections. The general theme which develops from this selection is perhaps hardly surprising. The volume is divided into five yearly sections with brief introductions and an epilogue. While early correspondence in the first two, 1941 and 1942, is marked by the exhilaration at an easy victory and optimism for the future, it is not long before there are signs of a growing uncertainty, especially in Section 3 (1943), with accounts of heavy bombing in Germany and of the defeats on the Eastern Front. In September a diarist notes that the situation is ‘merdique – pas désespérée … en tout cas sérieuse’ and within months in 1944 we find hints that some are beginning to feel that Hitler may have been wrong, that the latest Nazi recruits are no more than ‘jeunes voyous’, and as violence increases on both sides there is a grudging acknowledgement and even fear of an Allied victory. All the same such reactions reflect largely personal even intimate feelings. While there are occasional references to the activities of resistance groups (referred to as ‘terroristes’, of course), there is, for example, virtually no mention of De Gaulle, of the invasion of the Southern Zone in November 1942, of the Vichy government’s role, of the persecution of Jews or of Nazi atrocities. Much more telling are the reactions to France and the French seen by most of these German soldiers for the first time. Criticism of the French army’s inadequate defence and sympathy for an abandoned population is clear but there is also astonishment at the state of the country compared to ‘la propreté prussienne’ (‘crasseux’ is an adjective repeatedly used) and at what is considered its depravity (especially in Paris) and lack of respect for the church: Sunday is described by one 21-year-old as ‘un jour de vice’, while for another France is ‘un immense bordel’. At the same time there are frequent examples of the sheer almost tourist-like pleasure in being in France: the delight of being able to purchase goods to be sent home, the self-gratification on the discovery of an abandoned cellar or the generous welcome extended by a family of peasants that is possibly genuine but also provides for the hosts a source of much needed income. Evidence of this kind continues and we find as well traces of the numerous and frequently genuine amorous encounters for which some women would be so brutally punished at the Liberation and from which, as the editors remind us, around 100,000 children were born. In addition to the information buried in these pages, we also find real literary talent, not just in Böll’s idyllic account of deep rural France (pp. 153–4) or in the bitter pages of Ernst Jünger’s diary (pp. 138–40, 147–51), for example, but in the acute observation of passengers on the Paris metro (pp. 91–4), or of the sea seen for the first time (p. 98). And if less common the artistic skills of several are illustrated by the beautifully reproduced examples of sketches and water colours. Comme un Allemand is not going to change the accounts and interpretations of the Occupation years at a macro-level, but it seriously invites reflection about the popular responses of the French people, and not for the first time calls into question De Gaulle’s claim of resistance having been nationwide.