Diary of a Nazi aesthete in WWII Paris (war, bomb, Washington)

[Cida]

I was just reading a review and thought some of you would like this.


A German Officer in Occupied Paris: The War Journals, 1941-1945
By Ernst Jünger
Columbia University Press
A German Officer in Occupied Paris | Columbia University Press


Nazi Germany produced two wartime diaries of equal literary and historical significance but written from the most different perspectives conceivable. Victor Klemperer wrote furtively, in daily dread of transport to an extermination camp, a fate he was spared by the firebombing of Dresden. Ernst Jünger, by contrast, had what was once called a “good war.” As a bestselling German author, he drew cushy occupation duty in Paris, where he could hobnob with famous artists and writers, prowl antiquarian bookstores, and forage for the rare beetles he collected.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/enter...e73_story.html

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/a...y-goes-to-war/

[msgsing]

Certainly a real contrast in daily life. Like many cities in many wars Paris was an occupied city far from the war front for most of the conflict. Occupation troops enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle unavailable to combat troops. And there were many Parisians who were willing to collaborate with the enemy in return for their favors.

[banjomike]

Paris wasn't the only city that was comfortable for the occupiers.

Prague was another. It was saved from destruction for other reasons; the Czechs were Europe's best craftsmen, and the Nazis needed their skills, so Prague was spared. Other cities were similarly spared. The Germans had their favorite cities, and they tended to occupy the ones they liked the most first.

Collaboration was what it was. Citizens either collaborated with the Germans because they had no choice, or because they needed something in return, or they did not.

Occupation cut it cleanly either way; if a citizen could not abide the occupation at all, he would resist without regard to the cost of resistance. Others welcomed the occupation for lots of reasons, and most others simply resisted by obstructing where they could, when they could.

When there are a thousands of people living in a city, there will be collaborators, resistance, and those in between. The French were no different than the Czechs, Poles, Belgians, Dutch, Italians, or any of the occupied nations.