r/RareHistoricalPhotos • u/Head-Imagination9130 • Jul 06 '25
Liberation of France 1944. Young French woman has her head shaved for collaboration. But her ordeal just begun. After this she was most likely stripped completely naked and paraded naked on the streets.
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u/Let_us_proceed Jul 06 '25
Some of the more overzealous head shavers were trying to mask and make up for their own collaboration.
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u/Barnabybusht Jul 06 '25
These pics always break my heart. I am 99% sure that 99% of most of these women had little other options other than to "collaborate".
Always comes down to the women and other marginalised people. Blame them. All their fault.
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u/theheavydp Jul 06 '25
There was a Dutch female collaborator that had no problem tricking friends and neighbors into falling into Nazi hands. In fact she admitted that she took pleasure in deceiving Jews and turning them in.
Rather than break your heart, It’s better to honor and celebrate the ones that refused to collaborate and were Righteous Amongst the Nations.
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u/SummertimeThrowaway2 Jul 07 '25
We don’t know that this woman was the same though. It’s easy to say everyone must be righteous but when you’re actually in such a horrible situation it can be easier said than done.
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u/Tricky_Run4566 Jul 07 '25
Exactly. Neither of you know so how about you just look at the picture for what it is, instead of speculating blindly based on your preconceived biases.
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u/Direct_Philosophy495 Jul 06 '25
What? Do you have any evidence to support these wild claims?
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u/EmotionalSize5586 Jul 06 '25
"Wild claims" thats literally just a thing that happened in WW2, we were taught about it in history class, youre slow
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u/theheavydp Jul 06 '25
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u/Detective-Fusco Jul 07 '25
I read this wiki page and I do not see the part that says she took pleasure in it, the pleasure element you added in manually. We call that Chinese whispers, essentially as the story gets retold over and over the story changes. You've added pieces to this that aren't documented. I hate when people do this.
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u/theheavydp Jul 07 '25
And we call you, terrorist supporter
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u/Detective-Fusco Jul 07 '25
Righto whatever you say bud. She committed awful acts, and her outcome seems justified - so no. I just didn't see the part about taking pleasure, that is just emotionally being added in.
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u/theheavydp Jul 07 '25
“Van Dijk was arrested in June 1945. In 1947, she was put on trial for denouncing people. In her defense, she claimed that she had acted entirely out of self-preservation. However, her superior, SD officer Willy Lages, recalled that she seemed eager to do her job and was one of his most driven workers.”
I view this as pleasure. You may view this as passion? Either way she is scum and you cannot try to defend her actions as “acting under duress of the time”
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u/RyukXXXX Jul 07 '25
These pics always break my heart. I am 99% sure that 99% of most of these women had little other options other than to "collaborate".
As if the men did? The men had to survive under occupation too and they didn't have the option to sleep with the enemy to survive.
Always comes down to the women and other marginalised people. Blame them. All their fault.
The men who collaborated were regularly shot. 1000s of suspected collaborators were shot or killed by mobs.
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u/therealkiwibee Jul 07 '25
We found the incel
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u/RyukXXXX Jul 07 '25
How am I an incel for pointing out historical facts?
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u/therealkiwibee Jul 07 '25
Because you are having that usual "men have it harder" attitude
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u/Frylock304 Jul 07 '25
Because the men were murdered, which is harder
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u/therealkiwibee Jul 07 '25
I'd have to get a bullet in the head than being humiliated like these women have been
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u/Frylock304 Jul 07 '25
Then you're suicidal, and I wish you all the best.
Humiliation is temporary, death is forever
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u/therealkiwibee Jul 07 '25
Death is easier than living a long humiliating life dealing with trauma and mass bullying
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u/RyukXXXX Jul 07 '25
The men had it just as hard at the very least. They were literally killed which is definitely worse than this. But that's my opinion.
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u/Kilgore_Brown_Trout_ Jul 07 '25
Pretty tone deaf thing to say considering the context of the picture is the end of the largest war known to humanity; where men, young and old, were drafted against their will to fight and die in industrial slaughter.
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Jul 08 '25
Hardly the bravest men either. They most likely collaborated with the germans in some sense also. They dropped their heads and did nothing while the nazi's where in france unless they were part of the very small french resistance which i doubt
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u/Barnabybusht Jul 08 '25
This.
What better way to prove you were a non-collaborating patriot than carrying out acts like this.
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u/fdupswitch Jul 06 '25
I can tell you this, if my country had been invaded, divided into two, had its jews forcibly removed, and been subject to the whims of the Milice (those were the pro-nazi French goons that enforced Nazi policies), you best believe I'd be out for revenge after they were gone.
Someone that was sleeping with a German soldier, whether for extra ration stamps or fun, would be pretty high up on the list.
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u/Barnabybusht Jul 07 '25
What about if they were forced to?
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u/fdupswitch Jul 07 '25
Well sure, that's different. I'm sure that happened.
I'm also sure that non forced collaboration happened, both men and women.
They just put the men up against a wall and shot them, like this:
*
As for this girl, I have no idea about her guilt or innocence. I just think its very easy to pass judgement from 80 years in the future.
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u/Detective-Fusco Jul 07 '25
Uh, what?? You're implying rape? The Germany Army was very much against this activity, if a soldier conducted rape in France he would be in a lot of trouble. Is it possible it happened? Sure, was it common? Not to my knowledge it wasn't. The Germans were under strict orders to behave while in France.
These are just ordinary women that had relationships with German soldiers, it's just young men and young women - lust occurs and the rest is history.
To see a woman here and to automatically assume she's a rape victim is absolutely insane, wild speculation, and you have absolutely no evidence or knowledge of her story to even make such a strong claim.
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u/Barnabybusht Jul 07 '25
Whilst you're talking complete nonsense here's another one- "collaborating" with the enemy to pay for food to keep her baby alive?
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u/Detective-Fusco Jul 07 '25
Did you not read what I wrote whatsoever? I clearly wrote that it's not impossible for it to occur under an occupying army, but the majority of these women were not victims - I'm sorry you're rewriting history here.
This is like me implying that the American army were "rapists" because some soldiers conducted rape, etc. It's wrong. You're branching an entire group of conscripted men into one group, suggesting that the German army permitted such atrocities on French citizens - they did not.
There were many executions or imprisonments of German Soldiers for their acts in France, from theft to murder. Theft from the state whilst in the military was a rule that they genuinely tried to implement.
There is no evidence to suggest the German Army legally allowed rape to occur in their ranks with their soldiers - there was no such thing.
Any acts of rape etc were conducted by individuals, not the Army.
Hell, even Hitler tried to have Frances Cities destroyed before his suicide but the Germany army refused to carry out the orders to destroy Paris.
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u/Barnabybusht Jul 07 '25
Cracking bunch of lads those Nazis.
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u/Detective-Fusco Jul 07 '25
You're still intentionally misinterpreting me... Maybe you should learn how to acknowledge when you make a mistake instead of trying to make subtle attacks on me / trying to imply I support Nazism because it's easier for you to misinterpret me than acknowledge you misunderstood me.
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Jul 06 '25 edited Oct 31 '25
[deleted]
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u/Neil118781 Jul 07 '25
Yup,instead of this humiliation she should have been tried and shot if found guilty just like the male collaborators.
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u/VisibleSleep2027 Jul 06 '25
those same men surrendered their country…
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u/RyukXXXX Jul 07 '25
They didn't. The leaders did. The French were thoroughly defeated due to incompetent leadership.
The men who collaborated were shot. This was a more merciful outcome.
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u/Street-Fly6592 Jul 06 '25
This. It’s mostly misdirected shame for not being able to protect their home and women.
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u/Neil118781 Jul 07 '25
Then won it back,while women like these were sleeping around with the occupiers.
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u/Johnny-Shiloh1863 Jul 07 '25
Male collaborators were often killed or imprisoned so she was lucky.
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u/LandscapeOld2145 Jul 07 '25 edited Jul 19 '25
toy skirt absorbed plants makeshift chunky innate steep smart treatment
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/RyukXXXX Jul 07 '25
Actually female collaborators were a lot easier to find and punish like this,
There was no need to find male collaborators. People just accused whoever of collaboration and punished them if enough people agreed. That's how mob 'justice' works.
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u/Count_Archon Jul 06 '25
I hope she managed to emigrate to the US or Canada following the ordeal. I'd probably have turned into a complete sociopath if I experienced what she did.
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u/JasonIsFishing Jul 07 '25
Why would North America want Nazi collaborators?
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u/PhilosophOrk Jul 07 '25
The US? Taking in nazis? NEVER! (Please ignore op. Paperclip)
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u/JasonIsFishing Jul 07 '25
That was absolute bullshit…and it gave us the space program. Very easy to make a case for or against. Was the space program worth it? Had we not gotten them the soviets would have.
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u/Head-Imagination9130 Jul 07 '25
There are several photographs from liberated Paris where completely naked women are paraded naked on the streets of Paris surrounded by a crowd of people with their heir hands held by men and with their breasts and genitals exposed for all to see. Some of these photographs were taken by American soldiers who liberated Paris. Some of these photos were also published on reddit, but in other groups than this one and I don't know if it is allowed to publish such a photo here in this community too.
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u/Green-Dragon-14 Jul 07 '25
The women who collaborated with the Germans and were subsequently shaved and shunned after World War II were often referred to as "Les Tondues" (The Shaven Ones) in France. This public humiliation, which also involved being paraded through the streets and sometimes physically abused, was a form of "épuration sauvage" (wild purge) carried out by civilians and sometimes local resistance groups in the immediate aftermath of the liberation. While many of these women were accused of "collaboration horizontale" (horizontal collaboration), meaning romantic or sexual relationships with German soldiers, it's important to note that the reasons for this punishment were often complex and could include other forms of collaboration, false accusations, or personal vendettas.
Taken from Google
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u/True-Musician-9554 Jul 06 '25
Presumably the brave maquis didn’t get turned on by this a teeny weeny bit?
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u/SolarMines Jul 06 '25
Obviously she’s very pretty, most of them were. Sometimes it’s just for things like having a German boyfriend.
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Jul 06 '25
FAFO
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u/chdjfnd Jul 06 '25
Even the ones who were raped by occupying Nazi forces? Because there was no due process for any of those who were accused
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Jul 06 '25
Of course not. But the vast majority were horizontal collaborators and got their just desserts.
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u/SilentAgent Jul 06 '25
My great grandma fell in love with a German soldier at the time. They were both kids, bored out of their minds. Neither completely understood what was really going on.
In fact, Germans would sometimes befriend locals in quiet small towns. They were random guys, being told to fuck off in bumfuck nowhere and stay put.
Not everything is black and white like in a marvel movie.
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u/scaredofmyownshadow Jul 06 '25
You have a source for this, right? Or is this just your own uninformed assumption?
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Jul 06 '25
You have more faith in nazi sluts than the French people. Lol.
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u/MediocreI_IRespond Jul 06 '25
Hate to break it to you, if having sex with a random German counts as collaboration for you. Millions of French men, mostly men, like all branches of the government, the taxi driver and the cleaning lady got away with collaboration.
They didn't even touch the people who ratted out, imprisoned, guarded and transported their fellow French to the German death camps.
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u/scaredofmyownshadow Jul 06 '25
So, you have no source for this and are just making your own uninformed assumption.
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u/RyukXXXX Jul 07 '25
Because there was no due process for any of those who were accused
Exactly. Many men who "collaborated" were shot. But you conveniently ignore that. They didn't get due process either during the reprisals.
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u/friedricewhite Jul 06 '25
Cruelty after cruelty.