Horizontal Collaboration: How Traitors Were Dealt With Following the Liberation of France
Horizontal Collaboration: How Traitors Were Dealt With Following the Liberation of France When France was liberated in 1944, foreign press agencies were there to document the aftermath. Among the photos taken were of thousands of French women having their heads shaved. Without context, these images appear bizarre, as the majority of those subjected to the experience look on pensively while watched by a crowd of spectators. However, what they depict is a punishment for women accused of horizontal collaboration – collaborating with the German occupiers. There were many ways to collaborate with the enemy, such as providing them with supplies, fighting alongside them or, under the right circumstances, becoming a double agent. The women in the aforementioned images were collaborators of a different kind, as they had relationships with German soldiers throughout France’s occupation. German Occupation of France German artillerymen march down the Champs-Élysées via the Arc de Triomphe in P...