In spite of us

The term In spite of us defines the Alsaciens and Mosellans which was enlisted of force in the German regular army (the Wehrmacht) or in the military branches of the S (the Waffen-SS), during the Second world war.

Even if the term is not used to indicate them, the situation of the conscripts of the Belgian cantons of the East and the Grand-Duché of Luxembourg, also annexed by the Nazi Germany in 1940, concerns the same problems.

Origin of the term

The term of " In spite of us " already in 1920 appears after the First World War, where associations of Alsatian war veterans and natives of the Moselle region of the Great War created this word to propose the fact that they had had to fight, in spite of them, in the German army against France, Alsace and the Moselle were at that time attached to Germany following the demolished of 1871.

History

When was signed the Armistice of June 22nd, 1940 the case of the Alsace-Lorraine was not evoked. This territory thus remained juridically French, although it belonged to the zone militarily occupied by Germany. The Nazi regime annexed it in fact without making the official proclamation of it and, as the Vichy government was limited to secret protests each time a new violation of the right was made, the noise was spread that a secret clause had delivered Alsace-Lorraine to Germany.

Until 1942 however, if one multiplied the paramilitary organizations where population, the young people especially, were more or less obliged to be registered, one abstained from the ultimate legal transgression, the obligatory mobilization in the German army. Better still, it was proclaimed that one did not need Alsatian-Lorraine to gain the war which one hoped for finished soon and victorious. One did not make of it less one propaganda activates to incite them to engage, but without the least result. Alfred Wahl, professor of modern history at the University of Metz, writing: Only the wire of the German civils servant present seem to have answered the call: they were less than one thousand for the two departments

The Gauleiter Robert Wagner, which was in load of Alsace, was persuaded that the brothers of lately reconquered race would quickly hear the call of their blood and would feel quickly German; noting the negligible number of volunteers, he concludes that the young people hesitated to enter the German army by fear of their family and that they would be happy to be seen there forced. In spring 1942, with Winnitza, it persuaded Adolf Hitler, at the extremely reticent beginning, to introduce the obligatory Military service in Alsace-Lorraine, which was officially made the August 25th 1942.

It felt well the illegality of such a decision since the September 23rd it said cynically: We live in a time of great revolution: with him also crumble the legal concepts which were valid in the past . And the June 21st of the following year: It is not my intention to justify this measurement juridically if incisor in the life of Alsace. There is no reason to do that. Each decision that the " Third Reich" Large-Reich-German takes on this subject is supported by the formal and real right and is unattackable.

The military service in time of war is equivalent being enlisted and taking part in the engagements. With final, 100000 Alsatian and 30000 natives of the Moselle region will find themselves mainly on the face of the East, to fight the army of Joseph Stalin. The majority will be affected in the Wehrmacht. But of many classes will be versed of authority in the Waffen-SS.

The decision to incorporate of force of the Alsatian-Natives of the Moselle region, but also of the Luxembourgers, Belgian etc is explained by the fact why divisions S, troops of elites, counted a strong proportion of losses at the time of the engagements. Among the 130000 men who underwent this administrative measure 30% were killed or reported missing, 30000 wounded and 10000 invalids.

Imprisonment

Number of them will be made prisoners by the Soviet army during the German rout. And they will know, like the soldiers of the Axe, the Soviet camps of detention. Most known is the camp of Tambov which gathered most of the French prisoners.

Others decided to desert Wehrmacht to go to the Red Army and thus, as French, to join the Général De Gaulle and the free France. Soviet did not have, in their great majority, not knowledge of the drama of these Alsatian and Natives of the Moselle region. Many was thus regarded as Déserteur S or spies, and thus shot, victims of a double mistake. The others were off-set with the camp of Tambov after a passage in the coal mines of Karaganda. In a report of the conference of Hamburg on the return of the prisoners of war after 1945: The Alsatian ones in German uniform were concentrated in the camp of Tambov and underwent the fate of all the prisoners of Wehrmacht, with living conditions very hard, a high death rate and rehabilitation antifascist campaigns. Released as a large majority during the autumn 1945, part of “in spite of us” however spends several additional years in captivity. Shown war crimes by the Soviets, they feel betrayed by Free France, and used like currency of exchange in the diplomatic negotiations. Some will go as far as evoking the intervention of French Communist leaders in order to delay their return, so much the testimony of their experiment would tarnish the image of the Union soviétique.

On a page published by the Academy of Strasbourg, one can read: In Tambov, the detention conditions are appalling. The prisoners survive it in one frightening promiscuity and a deplorable hygiene, safe from huts dug with very the ground for better resisting the terrible Russian winter where the temperature goes down in lower part from -30 °C. A little clear soup and approximately 600 grams of black bread, almost inedible, constitute the ration day laborer estimated at 1340 calories (in comparison, in 1944, the prisoners of Auschwitz received 2000 calories per day). It is estimated that approximately a man on two died in Tambov after one intermediate duration of internment lower than four months. 10000 French thus finished their days with the camp of Tambov.

The last In spite of us with being officially released were it in 1955.

Return in France

Once the finished war, them in spite of us were regarded as traitors. Much of them was purified, like the Collaborateur S, and the Horizontales having had relations with the German occupant.

They were strongly attacked by the militants of the French Communist party for their denunciations of the situation in the Soviet camps of internment.

Human account

Occupied Alsace and the Moselle provided 1% of the total quota of the German armed forces, that is to say 130000 men (100000 Alsatian and 30000 Natives of the Moselle region).

It is particularly difficult to determine how much In spite of us died in the face and how much died following their captivity in the Russian camps. The historian Régis Baty advances the following figures however: 24000 died with the face and: 16000 in the Russian camps of gathering of the prisoners, as follows: 40000 did not return at the conclusion of the war.

Behavior

Some in spite of us deserted to join the Résistance or the Suisse. But their families were off-set in camps of work or concentration. This threat which planed above their family them obliged, for the majority, to remain in the German army.

The division of Waffen-SS “Das Reich”, person in charge of the destruction of the village and the massacre of the inhabitants of Oradour-on-Glane, minoritairement made up of a dozen of in spite of us (built-in of force), all was minoritairement obliged, except for a volunteer, to be useful under the German orders, under penalty of reprisals.

Claims

Legal actions are today in hand to make recognize the statute of war veterans to these veterans of the German army and obtain the associated pensions|date= February 24th, 2007

Reference

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