Rather late. Rain early, but fine at 9. There was a threshing set in the yard behind
the house at Moore
There were lots of bombers and
‘Bolts going out after lunch, and at a quarter to 2 there was an alarm for 10
minutes, but nothing happened. At lunch,
reading “Picture Post”, which prints loathsome photos of the personal effects
of a German soldier, found on his corpse in France, with typical “Picture
Post” captions jeering at his pathetic souvenirs, the photo of his mother and
his fiancée, a photo of Hitler, a photo of a nude girl. Recently I saw in “Picture Post” photos of
French Jews ill treating women who had married Germans, a proceeding viewed by
the “Post” with great delight.
At 5 went down to see Duncan
Had tea at home and then to
Boxted early, to try to get some sleep.
Radio news tonight implies that the ‘diver’ attacks really are at
an end, but I’m not sure. Dozed for an
hour then set off for the Post for the 1.00am watch.
4 comments:
Hello Catherine
I found the sentence about the French Jews exacting revenge on French women who had married German soldiers really intriguing. These kinds of cowardly and often hypocritical attacks (involving the beating, head-shaving and occasional cold-blooded executions of women who sometimes had simply been nothing more than “friendly” with members of the occupying army) were commonplace in liberated France and there is plenty of archived cinematic evidence to prove this. However, until now, I had never heard that members of the French Jewish population were involved in such attacks. It is nonetheless true that a disproportionate (in relation to the general French population) number of Jewish men and women were involved in the French resistance and I am guessing that some of those “résistants” could have been involved in such revenge attacks – even though one would have thought that they would have had concerns which went far beyond punishing defenceless women. So I remain somewhat dubious about the veracity of such reports and such photos.
But, without analysing Eric’s obvious moral disgust at such attacks, there is the wider issue of what exactly we British knew by the summer of 1944 about the fate of the Jewish population in occupied Europe. Certainly I am not aware that the general public knew very much about the holocaust and Hitler’s “Final Solution” before 1945. So, as I seem to remember a previous commenter saying, it would (will?) be interesting to find out if Eric tempers his anti-war stance when information about concentration camps and other Nazi atrocities really begin to filter through in early 1945. Then again, hindsight is a wonderful thing……
Kind regards,
Chris (in France)
To comment on Chris' comment, the plans of the Nazis to murder all Jews (the 'Final Solution') were known of in 1942 and discussed in the British House of Commons at the time. At the time there were newspaper reports of extent of the Nazis plans as well.
I too used to understand nothing was known until the liberation of the camps in 1945, as a mature student at Essex University in the 1990s I did a philosophy degree which included a course Post Holocaust Philosophy. As part of my research for an essay I discovered about what was known earlier in the war (I have posted the an amended version of the essay online at http://www.wickhams.fslife.co.uk/SHOAH.pdf)
Catherine
Sorry, that last comment was mine!
Mike Dennis
Hi Chris and Mike,
Many thanks for your very interesting comments and also for the link to your research Mike - very glad to have this. Sorry for this late reply to your comments, I have been away, but I am grateful for your helpful insights on these issues.
Best wishes, Catherine
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