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  • 2 days ago
coco chanel during ww2
Transcript
00:00After France's liberation in World War II, these women had their heads shaved and clothes torn.
00:09Swastikas were drawn on their foreheads with lipstick or ink.
00:12What were they accused of?
00:14Official documents described it as improper relations with enemy forces during the occupation.
00:18Some women had simply served meals or done chores for German soldiers.
00:22Others worked as translators for the occupying army.
00:25In some cases, accusations stemmed from neighborhood dispute.
00:28After the war, France needed symbolic culprit.
00:30Men who had been unable to resist the Germans now emerged, directing their anger toward women.
00:35A nationwide ritual of public shaming began.
00:38Barbers took razors and shaved their heads in front of crowds.
00:41Onlookers gathered, some spitting on them, others throwing stones or tearing their clothes.
00:46In Lyon, a teacher named Suzanne was stripped and paraded through the streets after teaching French to German soldiers.
00:51In Bordeaux, 12 women accused of dancing with Germans had their hair burned and the ashes rubbed on their faces.
00:57French archives wrecked over 20,000 women subjected to these humiliations.
01:02This was not justice but revenge.
01:04Historians later called it frantic purification, not a legal process, but emotional outbursts without trials or evidence.
01:11Those who stayed silent during the war now sought to become heroes afterward.
01:15These women became convenient symbols, a way to wash away shame.
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