Claire Duchen – Crime and Punishment in Liberated France: The Case of Les femmes tondues
The case of Les femmes tondues is a debate that is somewhat difficult for historians to have. Les femmes tondues was the act committed by the French after the end of the second world war to punish those who were deemed to be un-French after collaboration or involvement with the Germans. This article sets out to examine what exactly happened to the women who were punished and given the punishment of shorn (head shaving) publicly. There were 2 waves of the Les femmes tondues, first in 1944 before the allied landings with a peak in June and July which continued slowly into the autumn of that year. A second wave followed this after the return of those who were liberated from concentration camps, these punishments took place in towns villages, anywhere that was public viewing and were carried out for mainly sexual reasons with the number of cases being recorded varying in different cities across France. The head shavings however were not the only punishment carried out against women in France, usually along with the head shaving women were made to strip publicly, had swastikas painted on their bodies had things thrown at them and made to walk naked through town as a sign of them being now viewed as no longer have the right to be called French. These punishments have been argued by feminists to be a symbolic act of rape, as the victim’s suffering is portrayed in such a way to show a man’s power with rape being crucial in war, this was argued by sociologist Ruth Seifert as women are seen to represent the nation, so when women are degraded in such a way by men it also destroys the community and the nation which is the aim in war. This article argues that it is a very hard event to argue without taking one side over the other, it is clear to see both sides of the reasoning behind the head shaving as France wanted to rebuild its government after the war and seen this as an acceptable way of showing everyone the steps that they were willing to take to ensure a fresh start for France, however, it is also clear to see why it was hard for those women who were punished as they were not only stripped of their privacy for something that may have been out of their control at the time such as sexual assault from German officers but they were also stripped of their right to call themselves French as they were in a sense outcasts from society.
Ivtván Deák – Purging Hitler’s Europe
The Nuremberg Trials in 1945-1946 are seen as a great triumph for European history after the German atrocities during the Second World War. These trials were set to put the leaders of sovereign states not only individually but also collectively to make them responsible for the actions made during the war, however, this article explains how this didn’t happen to the extent it was meant to. The first reason for this is that the Nuremberg Trials tended to minimise other crimes committed throughout Europe by political, administrative and judicial purges ranging from Norway to Greece and from France to the Soviet Union. The Nuremberg Trials put 23 defendants up on the stand for the war crimes they had committed however even when these 23 defendants were combined with the dozen or so follow-up trials this only affected an estimated 200 people. These trials only dealt with the high-up important German leaders without however the main culprits such as Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler and Joseph Goebbels who were all dead by the time of the trials. With the importance of this well-awaited trial, there were many non-German war criminals who were brought to trial and executed outside of Germany for crimes such as treason, collaboration with the enemy and crimes against humanity. The Bulgarian government held the record for executions of war criminals, as on February 2 1945 the communists ruling executed the former Prime Minister as well as 24 cabinet members and 68 parliamentary deputies for treason and crimes against the people. The list of non-German Europeans who were executed for War Crimes included thousands of generals, police chiefs, city mayors, politicians and journalists. The Nuremberg Trials have been known for being the trial that took down the criminals who had committed the worst atrocities and bringing those who had been affected some justice, however, this article shows that because of the nature of the trial and the reasoning behind it, it did in fact overshadow other trials that had taken place across Europe for other war crimes such as treason etc but these were not given the same amount of publicity due to the nature of the Holocaust and the thousands of people who wanted justice for what had been allowed to happen to innocent people.
Thanks, Leah, for these extensive summaries of two of today’s readings. I think that together they show that not only do we see ‘formal’ justice at the end of WWII, but also a wave of ‘informal’ or popular justice. I wonder if we see the trials and the headshaving as comparable in any way? Or are they entirely separate processes?
Both are examples of retribution but they can be understood in different terms. Whilst the Nuremburg trials were quite literally formal & public justice, the act of head-shaving as illustrated in Robert Capa’s photos seemed to symbolize France’s return to Republican order, no matter how inhumane this process appeared. I think it is also worth noting the potential class dimension to the head-shaving process given the targeted women were often from a less affluent background and therefore may have had no other choice than to collaborate with the Germans for economic reasons.
Great blog post Leah! I found the Claire Duchen reading really interesting as it is shocking to find out to the extent how women were treated through these punishments and humiliations. I wasn’t surprised to read that it is widely discussed among historians and feminists that France were showing the actions they were willing to take to rebuild there country and show what happens to anyone who collaborates or gets involved with Germans whilst also these women could have been through no fault of their own assaulted or forced to be with these German soldiers and they were the ones punished.
Both of these blog posts are really great! I found the Claire Duchen reading particularly interesting in the context of informal justice with the head shaving and humiliation of women who were accused of horizontal collaboration. I think this is compatible to other incidents that went on after the war as both show an attempt at the restoration of power after 1945, which in France was done by demonstrating power over women who were considered to have consorted with the enemy.
Interesting blog posts! From what I understand based on the readings, the head shaving was done as a form of humiliation and degradation in order to shame these people, whereas the aim of the trials were to bring justice to war criminals. Therefore, I would say that they show different methods in order to reach a similar goal which is to restore power. Like Callum said as well, I think class is an important element to take into account with the head shavings. I found it interesting that in both the Duchen and Gebhard readings that the purpose of these acts against women, not only in France, were committed as an assertion of power.
When regarding women getting their heads shaved after the war for collaboration Duchen suggests a class aspect of head shaving as she refers that it was often the young, single and poorer classes of society who were subject to this. This may be because they saw them as an easy target to aim their frustration towards and because the French population may have found it easy to blame women who were belittled in society.
I think there is much to be said regarding the punishments after WW2. Even though the Nuremberg trials would have been humiliating in their own right, it would have been tame compared to what young women in France would have had to go through with the head shaving and stripping. There’s almost a degree of scapegoating going on, with the French putting a lot of public blame on women, particularly poorer, lower class women to re-establish their power in society that was thought to be lost during the war.
I found the reading by Claire Duchen to be really interesting and informative, until this module and particularly this reading I wasn’t aware these events took place. The act of head shaving that was faced by many young French women would have been extremely humiliating and possibly would have led to social alienation as these women were now seen as traitors against the country almost.
I think that the public shaming of the young, poorer class women, was a way of the French Government to deflect from their failings during the War. Humiliating and blaming people who where seen, at the time, a the weak and gentle part of society was the easy way out and would have caused the least uproar. Some of these poor members of society were targeted by the Nazis as easy to manipulate and threaten with horrendous outcomes if they did not do as they were told. But, as they were seen as the easy way out, this theory was probably forgotten and ignored.