Sleeping with the enemy: Collaborator girls of the German-occupied Europe, 1940-1944

It is 1942 and the Germans occupy and dominate the vast majority of Europe. They were there, on the scene, and the local men were either not there (dead, in prison camps, hiding) or very little in position.

As in every army of history, the Germans started looking for women as soon as they were comfortable. And, as always in times of military occupation, there were willing women to find.

And, of course, the German soldiers found them. It's not clear exactly what the big deal was about exchanging clothes with your French girlfriend, but as shown in several photos here, it seemed to be the point. And it seemed normal enough like it was 'evidence' for, well, you know.

Everyone in the Wehrmacht knew that Paris was the place. Official German promotional outlets also advertised their attractions. Inevitably, and it's no exaggeration, Paris became almost synonymous with the "giant cathouse" in the Wehrmacht. To some extent, that reputation has persisted in some quarters to this day.

Some women just fell in love and married their German boyfriend. Who could have imagined that the world would change so quickly? Once in that state, it became impossible to stay at home - time to follow the husband wherever he is going, even if it was a prison camp. And sometimes you just need to let go of your whims – love is love, for better or for worse.

Conquering soldiers have a lot to offer a girl, especially a soldier who has rank and who can offer all kinds of temptations. Clearly, these women had no difficulty taking advantage of all those lonely men and giving them some consolation, and the soldiers found it easy to take advantage of naive girls who had no idea what they were doing. Huh.

Around 200,000+ children were born to German fathers during the French occupation. There was nothing special about French women: 900 such children were registered in one of the Channel Islands. In Norway, 8–12,000 children (including Anne-Frid Lingstad of Abba fame) resulted. Such marriages were also encouraged in Denmark and Holland.

There are hundreds of thousands of joyful images of the liberation of France in 1944. But among the exhilarating images, there are also shocking pictures. These reflect the fate of women in charge of the "cooperation horizontal". It is impossible to forget Robert Capa's fallen Madonna image of a shaved-headed young woman who bears her child, indirectly the result of a relationship with a German soldier.