Normandy - Malgré-Nous

1944 - 2014
LADE PRESSE
LA MANCHE
Special edition
1944
OF THE LANDINGS
70th ANNIVERSARY
2014
Normandy the beating heart of History
Normandy
the beating
heart
of History
The Manche
under occupation
Normandy
in the front line
I remember
DE LA MANCHE
LA PRESSE
The fortunes of History
The war in images
A new start
History, Memory,
and the Future
SPECIAL EDITION - 10 €
9
782954 202174
Normandy
the beating
heart
of History
LA PRESSE
DE LA MANCHE
Publisher
La Presse de la Manche
Société Cherbourgeoise d’Editions
SA au capital de 400.000 euros
9, rue Gambetta, BP 408, 50104 Cherbourg
Tél. 02 33 97 16 16 - Fax : 02 33 97 16 18
Internet : http://www.lapressedelamanche.fr
N° Com. paritaire : 0610 C86667 - ISSN 0299 - 030X
Main shareholders :
SIPA : 10, rue du Breil, 35000 Rennes
SERMAS : 21, rue Faubourg-St-Antoine, 75550 Paris
SEBN : 17, rue du Commodore-Hallot, 14053 Caen cedex 4
Managing editor : Marcel Clairet
Deputy manager : Albert Bodin
Technical manager : Hervé Pannier
Head of supplements and special issues, writer : Frédéric Patard
Production manager : Jean-Noël Dujardin
Layout : Marie Planque
Picture editor : Roger Galvan
Proofreader : Annick Pontais
Sales manager : Romaric Boucard
Printing : Société Cherbourgeoise d’Editions
Cover printing : Le Révérend, Valognes
Forwarding : Sarl Normandie Façonnage, St-Samson-de-Bonfossé
Published : March 2014 - 10.000 copies
Legal deposit : A Parution
ISBN : 9-782954-202174
Summer 1944
Normandy
in the front line
A Sherman tank of the Sherbrooke Fusiliers enters Caen by La Maladrerie,
coming from Franqueville, on 10th July 1944.
Archives Nationales du Canada.
17
Destiny
“Malgré-Nous (In spite of ourselves)”
in Normandy
Forced to wear a German uniform, several thousand of young people from the Alsace
and Moselle found themselves in the heart of the battle of Normandy.
Jean Hugel.
Marguerite Zimmerlin.
Henri Hilbert.
Albertine Keller.
Raymond Dussort.
Charles Jund.
Mathilde Walter.
Auguste Lohner.
Robert Werlen.
Marie-Germaine Hanser.
Oscar Backscheider.
Marie-Rosalie Spiegel.
The SNIFAM (Solidarité
Normande aux Incorporés
de Force Alsace/Moselle) is
an organisation with an
interest in the “MalgréNous” stories in Normandy.
Anyone wishing to find out
more about this or willing to
give information or documentation may contact the
secretary, Jean Bézard at the
following address:
6, boulevard Maritime
14750 Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer
Téléphone : 02.31.96.33.03
e-mail : [email protected]
Wanted
84
In the region of SainteMère-Eglise, Eugene Beck,
one of the Malgré-Nous from
the Alsace, asked a farmer to
help him desert. Dubious,
the farmer at first refused.
When hearing from his officer
that all horses would be
commandeered,
Eugene
Beck went back to the
farmer to warn him. The
farmer then took his horses
away and gave his civilian
clothes to Emile who
successfully deserted on the
night of 5th to 6th of June
1944. This episode remained
engraved in his memory and
many years later, watching
the film The Longest Day and
the episode where John
Steele jumps on the church
tower, Emile Beck shouted
“I saw it”. Emile Beck’s
daughter is looking for family
members related to the
farmer who helped her father.
Please contact the SNIFAM.
On the 4th of July 1940, Alsace, Moselle, Luxembourg and
several Belgian districts were annexed to the German Reich with
the intention of re-establishing the borders as they were before
the treaty of Versailles in 1919. New German provinces were
germanised straight away: it was forbidden to speak French, the
Nazi salute was compulsory, teaching was in German and a
German administration was put into place... and to oversee it all,
young men (and women) called “Malgré-Nous” (“Malgré-Elles”
for the women) were forced to join the German ranks, a constraint
from which it was impossible to escape for fear of imprisonment,
reprisals against their families or execution. In total, there were
130 000 people from Alsace and Lorraine who were forced to join
the German army during the Second World War.
Amongst German forces in Normandy, many “Malgré-Nous”
were included with 900 incorporated into the SS divisions and
even more in the Wehrmacht units. We know that 104 of these
men died in the fighting and that about 150 deserted. A lot of
those who succeeded in escaping from the German clutches,
later enlisted in the Leclerc 2nd Armored Division or the French
1st army (which landed in Provence in the middle of August 1944).
Many of these desertions were made possible with the help of
civilians from Normandy.
In the case of Armand Durlewanger and Joseph Meyer they had
an incredible story. They were in the fighting at Mont-Castre, near
La Haye-du-Puits, both were part of a “Malgré-Nous” group
willing to surrender to the Americans. Seven of them decided to
wait for the Americans waving a white flag, whereas Durlewanger
and Meyer preferred to pull out. It was a good decision since their
seven comrades were found dead, killed by the Americans.
They successfully deserted but Durlewanger and Meyer were
recaptured by the Germans and sentenced to death. As they were
about to be shot, an allied fighter bomber created panic amongst
the Germans and the young men took the opportunity to escape.
They reached Agon-Coutainville, where Father Bailleul took them
under his wing before leaving them in the care of Dr Guillard the
then director of the Hospital in Coutances. Their German uniforms
and papers were destroyed and the young men were provided
with a surgical collar and covered with plaster to simulate
multiple fractures. They thought that they had escaped when
the Gestapo rushed into the hospital. Guillard was not flustered
and told the German that should they walk in the room where
the two men were lying, they would be exposed to typhus.
The Gestapo left without further ado…
Their story did not end there as the Americans eventually
reached Agon-Coutainville at the end of July and wanted to
imprison the two men from Alsace. An officer from the Intelligence
Service arrived and with a very strong Alsace accent asked them
several questions : “where did they live? Did they know so and
so from such and such a village? What was the name of the
mayor?” After a tough interrogation and very precise answers,
the officer from the Intelligence Service convinced by their story
hugged them, realising that they came from the same village
of Bischwiller in the Alsace...
Photos collection privée
The Malgré-Lui
from
Saint-Joseph
Maurice Pesnel remembers
it as if it had happened yesterday. “Amongst the Germans
stationed at Saint-Joseph
was a Malgré-Lui member
from the Alsace enlisted
with the Wehrmacht. His
name was Michel Klein and
he had informed us of his
situation. On the morning
of 6th of June, when all the
Michel Klein wearing an
Germans
were
hastily
British army uniform
getting ready to leave for the
Collection Pesnel.
landing area, he came to see
my mother and asked her for
civilian clothing. My mother gave him one of my father’s
suits and he left. We then learnt that he took
refuge at Vaudrimesnil before he surrendered to
the Americans at Saint-Ovin, next to Avranches.
The Americans took him to Cherbourg where a
committee acknowledged that he had not willingly
served the German army. He was then sent to England
to work in a uniform store for the British Army.
It was then that he made contact with us sending a
letter in which he was asking that, as soon as the
Alsace was liberated, would we let his wife know that he
was still alive. Of course we did it and two years later
he came back to Saint-Joseph with his wife and his
two daughters. His wife had never seen the sea so we
took them to Quinéville for a dip. Later on, when I was
doing national service in Germany I always went to his
place when I was on leave”.
Destiny
Hélène,
her father’s daughter
Hélène lives in Saint-Lô and will celebrate her 70th birthday in next May. She is “a child
of the war”. She tells her story, without any drama but leaves a lot of unanswered
questions.
The children of the war, this
is the nice term used to talk
about children born of “forbidden” love during the war.
In other words, those conceived by a French woman and
a German soldier during the
Occupation. There were also
those conceived by French
prisoners of war and German
women. Or even, those who
were born from after war
encounters between Allied
occupation
troops
and
German women. Before, when
“politically correctness” and
subtlety were not priorities,
they were called the “krauts'
children”. More than just
words, people used to verbally
lash them with this nasty
expression.
How many of these children
were born in France? It’s
difficult to tell. Historians talk
about 200 000 births, some
say that this figure should be
higher, others talk about fewer.
In reality, it is a figure surrounded by mystery and which
raises many questions as the
subject has been taboo for
such a long time.
However for the last few
years, thanks to many books,
other accounts and the documentary Enfants de Boches
(Krauts'
children)
from
Christophe Webert (broadcast
on FR3 in 2003), the destiny
of the children of the war has
been mentioned several times
and the subject, even if it
remains a delicate one, is no
longer taboo.
The Franco-German (which
is significant) non profit
making organisation Cœurs
sans
frontières,
works
relentlessly to provide information and also help those
who experienced this, with
their inquiries, researches and
concerns.
Contact: www.coeurssansfrontieres.com. The representative of the region of Normandy
is Michel Blanc (he is also the
national president of the
organisation) : 02 35 41 26 58.
French women with their German boyfriends during the Occupation. The subject of the “children of the war” had been taboo for a long time.
Collection Normandie Mémoire.
Hélène was born on the 18th May 1944 at Carentan. Her mother
was Louise, her father, Friedrich. It is understood that her mother
was French and her father was German. To make matters worse
Louise was married to a French man, she lived in Carentan
and her husband worked at Cherbourg naval dockyard and
commuted by train every day between Carentan and Cherbourg.
These are the known facts. As for the rest, Hélène has tried
to work it out, supposing, questioning and cross checking information: “I believe that my mother and Friedrich met through
my aunt, my mother’s sister. I assume that they fell in love.
Their relationship lasted a few months. They were probably
similar ages. She never had a child with her husband
and given her age she had lost hope. When she discovered
that she was pregnant, it was good news as far as she was
concerned.”
The reaction of the deceived husband was violent towards
his wife. But he accepted the child and even better “he was an
extraordinary adoptive father” recalls Hélène. “He protected
me from gossip and he did not want me to be aware of what
had happened: he made my mother and my aunt swear not to
say anything. I was not to know that he was not my father
and that my real father was German”.
The doubt, then the truth
The agreement to silence was kept even if Hélène wondered
about certain attitudes, looks or remarks. “I was never called
“the daughter of a Kraut”. One day, a neighbour said: “well this
one has the looks of her father”. That night, I told this story
at home and there was silence. I know that my father went to see
the neighbour and asked her never to bother me again.
Whenever I travelled, because of my blue eyes and blond hair,
I was automatically put with the Germans. When coming home,
I used to tell this as an anecdote: “I was mistaken for a German
again. I could see that this did not go down very well with my
parents or my aunt so I was puzzled”.
One day, her aunt told Hélène everything. “I was 23 years old
and it had been a while since I had doubts: therefore what
I was told by my aunt did not come as a big surprise” explains
Hélène. “I questioned my mother who gave me some
information about Friedrich: in 1944 he was married to a
German woman, had a son and worked for the German
police. That is just about all I managed to get from her.
She did not want to say more, it was her story. I never told
my adoptive father that I knew the truth as I did not want to
hurt him.”
And if?
Time went by. Hélène tried to find out more about her German
father who disappeared after D-Day. Was he killed, injured
or made prisoner? No one knows. The research is difficult as there
is very little information, no photograph or physical description
and further more the names Friedrich and John are very common
in Germany and there are many avenues which make things
“I would like to know a bit more about him.
Even if I ask myself a lot of questions”.
Photo F. Patard/La Presse de la Manche.
complicated. The results are therefore few. “I was on track but
with no proof or certainty so I stopped looking. Also I was not
without a father, unlike a lot of others, since I had one who
looked after me fondly my childhood and as a teenager: so
I was not in need of affection. I may resume my research one
day. I would like to know a bit more about him and find out
who he really was.”
Some doubts still restrain Hélène. “What about if I learned
that my father, Friedrich, was rotten? Before the war, he was
a policeman in Hambourg and I know that his then superior
was later in the Gestapo in Caen. Had he followed his boss? 9
Had he been part of the Gestapo?” That type of question would 1
make you feel apprehensive “It also restrained me. I am a little
frightened of what I may find if I keep looking.”
The Sword and the Pen
Celebrities and the anonymous have all acknowledged D-Day and the Normandy Battle in their own way by
attaching a word, an expression, a sentence or more. In little bits, each, with his own words, describes his/her
worries, fear or hope at the time, foretells, boasts, tells, remembers, belches, laughs or cries of grief when
writing about the summer of 1944 in Normandy. Chosen extracts.
“If there had not
been thousands of
permanent barrage
balloons in the sky
above Britain to hold
it up, the island
would have sunk a
long time ago.”
That was a joke going
round Britain in the first
months of 1944 to underline
the importance of the
materiel and troops stationed
there (mainly in the South),
waiting for D-Day.
“If you t hink t hat t hey will
ar rive on a nice day using t he
sho r test route and t hat t hey
will war n you in advance, you
are m istaken…
The Allies wi ll land in
awfu l weat her choos in g t he
lon gest route… t he landin gs
wi ll take p lace here, in
No rm andy, and it wi ll be
t he longest day.”
Rommel in April 1944, on an
inspection tour of the Atlantic Wall.
“Our landin gs in t he Cherbourg-Le Havre
region did not succeed in establishin g a
suffi
fficcient beachhead and I had to wit hdraw
our troops. My decision to attack t here and at
t hat moment was bas ed on t he most accurate
info rm at ion I had at m y dis p osal. The Arm y,
t he Navy, t he Air Fo rce did everyt hing t hat
t heir bravery and devot ion to duty wou ld
allow. If any fau lt has been comm itted, I am
t he on ly one to bear t he res p onsibility.”
Communiqué written by Eisenhower at dawn on the 5th of
June 1944, after he had given his go ahead for D-Day.
If the landings had failed, this communiqué would have been
released in the newspapers and on the radio.
“We will only accept total victory. Good luck! And let us implore the blessing of our almighty God for this
grand and noble enterprise.”
The photograph was taken at the very same time as Eisenhower was delivering these words to the Americans paratroopers on the evening of
the 5th June 1944, on Greenham Commons British airfield, before taking-off for Normandy. Photo National Archives USA.
“The s ea was rough and it was dark. Chaps from t he Navy adm itted t hat
t hey were hap p y, at t his precis e m om ent, to be sai lo rs. I was totally
convinced t hat t hey were right. They waved, m ak in g a V s ign (V fo r
Victo ry) help ing us to climb down onto t he landing craft. As far as I was
concer ned, victo ry was anyt hing but evident. Sur vival? Perhaps.”
Bruce Bradley, an American private, in the night of 5th to 6th of June, when climbing down onto
the landing craft taking him to the beach.
“It wi ll give confidence to t he bo y s.”
American General Theodore Roosevelt Jr, convincing his superior to entrust him with command
of the 8th Infantry Regiment, the first unit to land on Utah-Beach on the morning of 6th of June 1944.
108
“I jumped into a good
metre of water. Never in my
life did I want to run so
badly, but I could only
advance very slowly,
floundering. There was about
100 metres left to reach the
beach and it took me two
minutes to get out of the
sea. Those two minutes felt
like an eternity.”
Captain George Mayberry landing,
on Utah-Beach at H-hour on D-Day,
with the 8th Infantry regiment.
Cherbourg, harbour of the free world !
What a superb photograph of the bomber
Northrop P-61 (nicknamed Black Widow)
flying over Cherbourg at the end of August
1944. But it is not so much the plane in
the foreground that is of interest, but rather
what is going on in the background. In
the natural harbour of Cherbourg, we can
observe an impressive flotilla of ships.
After they restored, in no time, the harbour
destroyed by the Germans, the Americans
exploited the local potential as it had
never been done before. The Cherbourg
harbour became a war machine that never
stopped.
Getty Images, collection Royal Air Force Museum.
Not only was the harbour a major asset in
the victory of the Allied army, Cherbourg
also played an important role in the
repatriation of the wounded and the troops
once the fighting was over in Europe. More
than 300,000 men passed through
Cherbourg within a few months, on their
way back home. On this picture, the
Hospital-ship Acacia.
Photo National Archives USA/Normandie Mémoire.
119
25th July 1944, Saint-Gilles (Central
Manche): it was the day and the place
chosen by the Allied HQ to start a massive
bombardment of the German lines to the
west of Saint-Lô (operation Cobra). Bad
luck, the Allied planes bombed their own
lines, injuring and killing several hundreds
of American infantry soldiers who were
about to attack. This soldier was lucky, he
had just been buried by the blast of the
bombs and he was about to be rescued.
Photo Conseil général de la Manche,
archives départementales 13 Num 4348.
A few days after operation Cobra, the
whole of the American army started to
go South-Manche, upsetting the Germans
and eating up the miles. Unfortunately
the war was always there: in Coutances,
near the Croix-Quillard crossroads, a
jeep has just been blown up on a mine and
the two passengers are paying a high
price for this instant of bad luck. In the
foreground, a first aid team is promptly
dealing with a wounded soldier. In the
background, they are covering, with
a blanket, what seems to be, a dead
body…
Photo National Archives USA/Normandie Mémoire.
127