In Band of Brothers, Dutch women who slept with German soldiers are publicly humilated when the Americans liberate the town, how common was this after Axis powers had been removed from a country and was it done differently in different countries?

by Documental38

Just curious, watching Band of Brothers and it looks pretty brutal.

blackjacksandhookers

These humiliations happened very often after areas of Europe were liberated. They took place in several French towns and cities, and were often photographed. 1, 2, 3, 4 (NSFW) (this 4th photo was apparently taken in Corsica). The brutality of the punishments could vary (as you can see the 4th case I linked was even worse because the woman was totally stripped). But they tended to happen in public, and shaving was the most common physical reprisal. Sometimes the women had swastikas drawn on them, as seen in this photo in liberated Paris. You will notice that people of both sexes participated in the punishments: both men and women had suffered in various ways during Nazi rule and they were ready to punish those who allegedly slept their way into "the good life". In Netherlands, Belgium, and Norway there were similar actions. Norwegian women who had children by German soldiers were especially ostracised. After the war some were temporarily interned in camps. Many fled the country, one of them being the mother of ABBA singer Anni-Frid Lyngstad

Source:

D-Day by Antony Beevor

Savage Continent by Keith Lowe

requinball

I know about the French case more (there these women were called femmes tondues). One of the most famous depictions of this phenomenon after the war was in Resnais' Hiroshima Mon Amour, but these happened throughout France, and most historians have stressed the sexual anxiety created by the Nazi Occupation (for example, Hanna Diamond and Mary Louise Roberts) and how women's sexual activity was judged as part of a public "cleansing" after liberation. Similar to the vigilante gangs that punished men who collaborated with the occupiers, groups would band together to judge women by parading them in the public square. Roberts' recent work suggests that there were similar attitudes concerning sexual relations with the American liberators but there was not the same public response once those soldiers left.

Sources: Hanna Diamond, Women and the Second World War in France, 1939-48 Mary Louise Roberts, What Soldiers Do

Kanashimu

In Denmark they were not only puplicly humiliated(stripped naked and run through the streets) many of them also had to go under trial for being "Feltmadrasser" (litteraly field madresses), the official reason was that they might still be danger for Denmark. Many of them also had their hair forcefully cut as part of their humiliation. It later turned out that many of the women being on trial were innocent.

Source: BundgÄr Christensen. C. Danmark Besat, Krig og hverdag 1940-45. Page 720. 1'st edition. 2009. Informations Forlag.

Searocksandtrees
Halofit

Could you clarify the question? Are you asking about the reprisals against woman who slept with the Axis soliders or about the repraisals agains all collaborators?

fyreNL

As a dutch person myself these stories of these women are very common, even mentioned in my old history textbooks from middle school.

These women were known as 'moffenmeiden'. 'Mof' is a swearing word used to describe a german person, which was used a lot during, and after the occupation of The Netherlands. 'Meiden' is a plural for 'meid' which means girl.

If a woman was known to have slept and/or have had a relationship with a German soldier, they were publicly humiliated by having their heads shaved.

Not only these women were publicly shamed, ex-members of the NSB (Nationaal Socialistische Beweging (National Socialist Movement)), the national-socialistic party in The Netherlands and people who volunteered for the Wehrmacht were also publicly shamed, imprisoned and the party leader, Anton Mussert, was even trialed and then executed.

Other party members, but also ex-wehrmacht soldiers and other collaboraters were imprisoned and severely abused and subjected to harsh forced labour. Many of them died under 'suspicious circumstances' , were beaten to death or were withheld medicine/medical treatment and died during their imprisonment. Disease, maltreatement and undernourishment claimed many lives. It was only halfway during 1946 the government intervened and put an end to it. Recently, close to one of these imprisonment camps, Westerbork, (which ironically was an old camp that the Germans used to deport Jews from) a mass-grave was discovered, with the suspected cause of death being gunned to death.

For those who weren't imprisoned or only served a lighter sentence, life was hard for these ex-party members. If they were revealed to be ex-party members it was common for them to be robbed, their possesions plundered or assaulted, most of them happening right after the liberation. Due to all the chaos and public bitterment there was little being done to stop it. As such, many ex-party members moved to a different place to escape the abuse. Many of them also left the country and mostly settled in the 'new world'. Party members who had come under the posession of real estate or other valuables were forced to turn in their goods to the government.

Negative social stigma to these NSB'ers has remained for a long time in The Netherlands, all the way up to the 1990's. Calling someone as an ' NSB'er ' is still a common swearing word used to describe a 'snitch'.