German soldiers in Place du Tertre, Paris • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS To know what the German soldiers who occupied France during the Second World War thought, we would need first-hand testimonies, without filters, dating from the time of the events… By an extraordinary chance, we have such testimonies. At the end of the XX th century, as the period of the war receded, historians young enough not to have experienced the facts opened a Pandora's box by collecting letters sent by Wehrmacht soldiers to their families. Accompanied by photographs and diaries, they are archived by two institutions:in Berlin, the Museumsstiftung Post und Telekommunikation of the German Post, and in the small town of Emmendingen, in Baden-Württemberg, the Deutsches Tagebucharchiv. Of course, the 28 billion letters and postcards sent by the Feldpost, the postal service of the Wehrmacht, have not been found. Some German families were also not inclined to reveal the past of their ancestors. But more than a hundred thousand missives have been transferred to these two archives, and several hundred are put into perspective in the book written by Aurélie Luneau, Jeanne Guérout and Stefan Martens, Comme un Allemand en France (editions of The Iconoclast). A land of plenty Censorship was exercised only imperfectly on this correspondence given the mass of documents that passed through the military post. Nevertheless, soldiers instinctively censor themselves on sensitive topics. We find among them the whole range of political sensitivities and social conditions, from the intellectual to the peasant, passing through the pastor, the employee or the worker. Some letters are very poetic, others pure propaganda products. Arnold Binder, a cultured 36-year-old pastor, was happy in 1940 to have washed away the affront of the 1918 defeat:“The German helmet has returned to honor, and we wear it with pride. » But what dominates at the beginning of the period of occupation is the feeling of sightseeing in a land of plenty. Kurt Marlow, a 26-year-old paramedic, says, "A war like this is fine with me, it's like a KDF trip [Kraft durch Freude, 'strength through joy', is part of the which replaced the trade unions and to which all German workers belong. It organizes sports and cultural entertainment, editor's note], we walk quietly in the region. The food is second to none. A nurse stationed in Troyes sees on the ground the correctness of her convictions. For her, German superiority is undeniable:“Compared to Germany, everything is dirty. Traders are for some insolent and cheeky. We're far too decent for this scum. The population as a whole makes a bad impression, very dirty and ragged. » So near and so far However, the tone of the letters will gradually change. Everyone began to worry from 1941, as the French became less and less cordial and soldiers from the Eastern front arrived in Paris on leave. The attack in Nantes against Lieutenant-Colonel Karl Hotz, which claimed the lives of 48 hostages, including the young Guy Môquet, was mentioned on November 4, 1941 by Hans-Peter E., stationed in Brittany:"Lately, there there have been incidents in France that call for caution – since it was in the papers, it's not a military secret. » Some Germans end up wondering why this war started:“I also believe that there are many more things that unite us to the French than we imagine. It is surprising to see how close the population of the countryside of central France is to ours,” writes a veteran of the 14-18 war who finally died in Russia in February 1944. Felix Hartlaub, who will then assigned as a historian to the high command of the Wehrmacht, is sorry:“How am I going to continue to hold on here, it is troubling in my eyes. The French are looking at you so meanly. The time is no longer for banter with the Parisiennes who both fascinate and worry the soldiers with their so French lightness and elegance. The word "resisters" is never used, it is always "terrorists". The end of the fun The more time passes, the more the Germans fear the explosions and the attacks which multiply. Cases of suicide are not uncommon. Helmut Richter, a 36-year-old dentist, comments:"It's bad for the whole company when you learn that someone has committed suicide. In June 1944, Hilde Kerer, female auxiliary of the Wehrmacht in Poitiers, finds herself under a bombardment in which two of her comrades die. “A rustle, a crash, a blow to the head and everything around me vanished! Two months later, she fled and returned alone to her hometown in the Tyrol to return to her original profession, tailoring. Finally, Erick Kuby, who will soon be taken prisoner, dares to make a comparison on August 5, 1944:"These French no longer have anything in common with the refugees on the roads of 1940, who were dejected, desperate and who grumbled against their government which had betrayed. » Find out more Like a German in France. Unpublished letters and notebooks, 1940-1944, A. Luneau, J. Guérout and S. Martens, The Iconoclast, 2016. Victor's Law Even if looting is officially forbidden, the Germans apply to defeated civilian populations the harsh law of war by carrying out endless confiscations. Herbert F., a 38-year-old farmer, writes:“At the end of the month, a large requisition of horses is expected. […] But sometimes there are terrible scenes of hard fights with the peasants. I listen to the complaints of peasants without emotion. Despite the poverty of rural families, who are struggling to feed all their children, the soldiers come to take their due:"We feel very embarrassed when we stand up in their room and come to ask for butter and eggs for the umpteenth time…” Moreover, the artificially advantageous Deutsche Mark exchange rate is pushing the Germans to rob shops in French cities. They are particularly fond of “articles from Paris” that cannot be found in Germany. Pastor Heinz Rahe tells his wife about his tour of the Champs-Élysées:"On the way, I bought myself two more sports shirts and two cheap nightgowns, then we took a side street and, even before we to realize this, the tourist trip had become a shopping tour. I hope you will soon see what I bought. There's also a nice little thing for you. » Heinrich Böll, a poet in uniform Among the soldiers, some will be called to an exceptional destiny. Born in 1917 in Cologne, Heinrich Böll had already started writing when the war broke out. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1972 for his poems. For now, he is writing letters to his wife Annemarie in which he draws a poetic portrait of the French women he comes across. About the ageless peasant women of Vexin:“The old women with their white hair, they look like old goddesses, not devoid of all femininity as one might think; their eyes are sometimes so young and so dazzling that one could envy them this expressiveness. Their image contrasts with that of young women whose husbands are prisoners in Germany:"They are often infinitely sad, pleasant but tired, sometimes icy cold, often also they don't let go, because they are happy. to meet a stranger who can talk with them; […] yes, you can meet a thousand different people in a short afternoon. More and more disillusioned about the outcome of the conflict, Böll noted on January 29, 1943 the formidable psychological weapon used by the resistance fighters:"They simply wrote the date 1918 on the wall, this combination of numbers without any comment, a depressing number …”
