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Alsace - 1940's

In September 1939 Germany invaded Poland and started off the Second World War and initiated their plans for global domination. The people of Alsace were about to become the very first occupation of the Third Reich's move to control France.

For Alsace this was not the first time that they were about to be taken under German rule. From 1871 the province of Alsace was disputed between France and Germany. When Germany won the Franco-German War in 1871 they claimed the area as a German state. It wasn't until Germany's defeat after World War One that the province returned back to French rule. Twenty years on and the people of Alsace were about to become a German state again.

As soon as news came through that Germany invaded Poland the evacuation process begun. Over 120,000 residents of Strasbourg (Strasbourgeois) fled to the regions of Dordogne and Indre. Residents also went from the towns of Colmar and Mulhouse. It was the Nazi's intention to Germanize Alsace and that meant breaching the 'Maginot Line' and on July 1940 that's exactly what they did. The Maginot Line was a defence wall built to defend the region against possible attack. This was not built to keep out foreign hordes centuries ago but was completed 2 years earlier in 1938. It took 8 years to build and is in some way a very good piece of forward thinking by the government. The idea, although visionary, when put into practice did not do it's job. The Germans saw it as a major stronghold and it proved to be a strategic position for the Allies when they fought across Europe in 1944.

As soon as Alsace came under occupation, the Germans put into place a number of measures to keep the people under their rule. The local dialect of Alsatian was banned and High German was to be spoken from now on. The wearing of the beret was also banned. Hard to believe but the Germans felt it to an insult to their race and felt by removing the beret it removed national identity. Over 200,000 Jewish residents were exiled to the concentration camps Struthof and Schirmeck, many never to return home.

In October of 1940 France was completely under German occupation. This meant that many Strasbourgeois returned home. Some refused to go back and these were called the 'Malgre-nous' (against our will). The Germans decided that to boost their army they were to recruit(?)Alsatian residents, of course the Germans never saw them as Alsatian residents. August 1942 saw 100,000 Alsatians on the front line. Part of the Germanization campaign included the forming of the 'Elasassicher Hilfsienst'. This was the basis of a future Nazi party and was founded by prominent politician Robert Wagner. To counter act this Germanziation an underground resistance movement was formed and in September 1940 the '7th Colonne of Alsace' was created. They had two goals, liberation and to prevent problems occurring when liberation was achieved. Yet again more forward thinking.

As the war continued the people of Alsace became frustrated, especially with the French government who they believed backed down very easily to the German forces and did not offer any resistance. Their children were being forced to leave church schools at 14 so they could work for the Germans in the ore fields and prosperous vineyards and were being encouraged to become members of the Hitler Youth movement.
It was also believed that many of the people were German collaborators and that they were passing on vital information about the resistance. This still ranckles many families to this day for some names have never been cleared of these accusations.
Hope was on the horizon when on June 1944 the Allied forces breached German beach defences in Northern France. Liberation was not far away. The Allies battled their way across Western Europe but Alsace, and especially the Maginot Line, was proving more difficult than expected.

A region known as the 'Colmar Pocket' was what some considered the key to liberation. And so it proved, but at a cost. It took 4 divisions of the 1st French Army and a whole US Army corps to break German resistance and many of these men lost their lives. After ten days of intense fighting German forces surrendered and the Colmar Pocket was won. Months later the rest of Alsace would be liberated.
The city of Strasbourg was highly debated in the Allies' war rooms. The British and American high command felt that immediate liberation of the city was not a priority, as they felt that once the line will be secured then Strasbourg will fall at once. The French generals disagreed and on November 22nd 1945 the French liberated Strasbourg.

Once the war was over and Alsace tried to pick up the pieces of a brutal occupation, it was decreed that Strasbourg would be chosen as the 'Council of Europe'.
It would take a long time for this region to heal, to remove the infleunce of German rule, to trust one's neighbour again, to be proud Alsatians again.