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Wars and ConflictsΒ  permalink

Files to be released

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by Grumpyfred (U2228930) on Sunday, 4th July 2010

  I caught something the other day that files that have remained hidden in the Headquarters of the Paris polce naming everybody that collaberated with the Germans during the Second World War are about to be released. That could lead to interesting times. But you have to wonder (1) what good will it do apart from raking up the past, and (2) with the names be checked and the names of people in high places be removed.

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by TimTrack (U1730472) on Monday, 5th July 2010

  "...1) what good will it do apart from raking up the past..."
  
  
  On those grounds, any troubling historical research would be barred.
  
  
  "...(2) with the names be checked and the names of people in high places be removed..."
  
  
  I doubt if many, possibly any, are left still in high places now. It should, however, lead to a re-appraisement of a few characters.
  
  Remember, when we talk of collaborators we are often talking about actively taking part in genocidal activities.
  
  No hiding places, just because you are powerful, for the likes of these.

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• Message 3

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by rhmnney (U14528380) on Monday, 5th July 2010

  GF, I feel the same way with the concentration guards, crap most servicemen at one time or another done that duty wether barracks or any other place. On I.S. Interior Security in India we were required to fire if ordered and kill with one round a person pointed out by an officer during a disturbance. Not to forget the British in modern times constructed concentration camps during the Boer War, causing the deaths of over 42,000 women and children. (We are British, does not count, So there!). Soldiers waiting until many had died from old age before suing the Japanese for work on the railway. That bridge was made of Steel not Wood films again.
  
  Seems pre-war France was 40% communists or leanings, and 40% fascists, a fair balance. Most French did not want another war fought on their soil, Britain and Germany got off light in that regard during WW1. When British entered France in 1939 tales of being spit on by French civilians, having to pay for a cup of water if marching through a village, tales of French train drivers delivering a train load of British troops into German hands. Granted Truth is the first casualty during war. In Rouen (sp.) 1949 the people we met hated the Americans and British said the German occupation troops were real Gentlemen, one may read a lot but experience is a teacher and can't be dismissed, these were not isolated encounters but city wide, we were not unruly just asking for a drink in an average bar.
  
  At the start of the WW2 the British left France after a short stay, (Run out of Town on a Rail) and left a great quantity of material behind in total disorder. The French had very little confidence in the British before and none after the exodus. When the Germans arrived there was very little they could do, not forgetting the French and Germans had been warring for years, in fact old hands at it. Remember films of border towns turning pictures around to suit present occupiers? All old hat. For many the way they were treated by the Germans they responded in kind. The town elders were instructed they could either cooperate of face the consequences, continue in the normal fashion manner. As American troops said of Europe, in France all the French were Resistance fighters and in Germany there were no Nazis. A strange mixture indeed.
  
  Wars are caused by governments generally over trade, the only time common people are in involved is to fight their wars for them, to die and suffer in the glory of their country. Some compensation. For Europe the EU is good for most people trade differences can be solved without war. Now the world is troubled with nutters over religious matters, and all a matter of faith, as nothing can be proven, and modern democracies going along with it to keep the so called Peace.

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• Message 4

  , in reply to message 2.

  Posted by Grumpyfred (U2228930) on Monday, 5th July 2010

  There will be people in power whose families names will be on that list. as is the UK, certian families have always made sure that they were on the right side even if it meant backing both sides at the same time.

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• Message 5

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by dmatt47 (U13073434) on Monday, 5th July 2010

  The files actually are not just about to be released, they are being released from 2014 and have been subject to a 75-year closure in France. There should never be a reason for such historical files to be destroyed and a reasonable time has in my view elapsed.
  
  It is important certainly from a historical aspect to see how many people did collaborate and whether those we think collaborated actually did, they are all likely to be dead, as are the leaders in high places and most would have been arrsted after the end of the Second World War. The situation in Lyon and those close to Jean Moulin is an interesting area which might be clearer.
  
  We should not forget the problems of France is not alone in this problem, the situation in the Channel Islands is well documentated where the authorities seem to be helping the Germans.

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