Caption reads: "Woman Colaborationist is marched through the streets of Rennes, France after the people took whiters into their own hands by cutting off her hair and pouring a bottle of Iodine over her head." Date: 6 August 1944 III-SC 192500, Credit NARA. Dave
The Iodine would scar (permanently?) the skin, correct? Pretty harsh treatment some of these people received.
I'm pretty sure iodine doesn't permanently stain or scar the skin. My mother used it on me liberally when I was a kid for various scrapes and cuts, and I don't see any remaining stains on me now. As for "harsh treatment", let's face it, if she collaborated, chances are she caused a great deal more pain than just a haircut and iodine being poured on. I'd say she got off rather lightly.
Depends how concentrated the Iodine and how much is used IIRC. Iodine was/is also being used in Chernobyl to help those affected by the radiation. At the same time more concentrated iodine can scar your skin. What kind of collaboration though? Having a romantic relation with a German? Feeding a German?, etc, or collaboration as in giving the Germans names, pointing out activities, etc?
The iodine taken after Chernoby was taken orally to combat the radioactive iodine from the meltdown. Administration of stable iodine to the population around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant You may be right about the concentrated type, but looking at the picture, it doesn't look as though she is suffering like this: http://oehha.ca.gov/public_info/pdf/Iodine Fact Sheet Meth Labs 10'03'.pdf
Agreed with the rest... take into account how much she might have done to Allied soldiers. We don't have exactly enough information to judge the outcome of the town's response.
I doubt she was an evil person or real told the enemy much,probably figured the germans were going to win the war and decided to put her money with the germans, Still a baldy head and a bit of iodine is getting off lightly,all she needed to do was grow some hair and move to another town. Worse things have happaned to people for much less.
I believe in this case 'collaboration' meant sleeping with the Germans/having romantic relations with them. Had she been pointing fingers and giving up names to the Germans, the French would have executed her. Once the Allies liberated places in France, this was a rather common scene (and if I recall, there is a scene in Band of Brothers where they came across a woman and child with her head shaved walking down a road - it does take a while for hair to grow back, and given the fact that the style was to wear it long in that day, it would probably take several months to return to normal). The Iodine probably burned the wounds (like any antiseptic) but probably wouldn't have done any permanent damage.
Things were done and I spit on those who did it. Real Resitants were figthing the Germans for years , unlike the last minutes ones "heroes" who thought they were so brave by shaving women or executing a lonely Gemran that had surrendered to them after they switched sides in 1944 (yes that happened too) . All the Resistants I know depsise the cowards who treated women this way, whehter they have slept with Germans or not is not what matters. The image of the Resistance has suffered because of these events. Anyway thanks for sharing this pic, as the world must know that innocents were shaved as well
She was probably shaven roughly with a minimum of soap. Iodine hurts if you have numerous abrasions; it's adding insult to injury. Women who had romantic relations with Germans, or pried the oldest profession with them, were probably going to enjoy differential treatment and have more rations during the Occupation. It's pure envy...
My thinking is that she was probably one of the local prostitutes who also serviced German troops, and the local "upstanding citizens" (read: hypocrites) now had what they thought was a legitimate reason to do what they did.
Yes, they would have treated her rather roughly, using scissors to cut her hair. Between the hair pulling and the quick, rought cut, her scalp would have been left raw and bleeding, so the Iodine would have prolonged the pain (not to mention the discoloration that would be hard to hide even if she did cover her head.)
Why does a shaved woman in 1944 always have to be a prostitute? The large majority were just girls whose only "wrong" was to fall in love with a German, nationality, race , war or politics had nothing to do with it. please have a look at this moving love story : http://www.ww2f.com/militaria/21994-wwii-romeo-juliette.html after 4 years such things were to be expected. The young Frenchmen were in Germany (and German women also fell in love with them ). These women were mostly not collborators (the real ones were executed or arrested believe me).
I didn't say a shaved woman in 1944 HAD to be a prostitute. My oldest friend's father was a GI in europe in WWII, and saw a lot of this in liberated towns. They did some investigation about found that quite a few were the local prostitutes or women someone had a score to settle with. That actual "collaborators" got roughly handled as well, but there were those that weren't collaborators that got the treatment. Kind of like the Salem Witch Trials. The mere accusation caused punishment.
This link has a story of one tragically extreme case of so called "collaboration", it was not always the girl that suffered the worst. http://www.ww2f.com/north-africa-mediterranean/29750-hard-research-write-good-story.html
