France Campaign Photo Album 1940

[maximus71]

Hi All,
I picked up this photo album awhile ago, it has 161 photo's mostly from 1940 france campaign, I picked out some of the best ones to share with you, surrendering french troops, a destroyed bomber, maginot line bunkers etc etc, I am not sure which man the album belonged to but it is very interesting, most do have captions on the back as shown, any comments are welcome! thanks for looking!

[Wagriff]

Interesting album! I especially like images of the Black African French troops- I wonder how they fared in captivity (or even how many of these men made it Into captivity?) They were definitely hated by the German people after they were brought in by the French to occupy the German territories after WWI. The famous medal maker Karl Goetz even produced an extremely insulting and bitter medal about them."The Watch on the Rhein-The Black Shame". These troops were accused of heinous crimes such as wholesale rape,murder,mutilation, etc. It was Especially atrocious to the German people to see the blonde Nordic German women being violated by what they considered subhuman black savages. Whether these charges were valid or not is still a matter for arguments today, but it is known that Some German women did, indeed, have relations with the African troops and had children with them. Specifically referred to by Hitler in Mein Kampf, the mixed race children of these unions were arrested and sterilized as adults when the Nuremberg race laws were introduced in 1935.

[maximus71]

Wow thank you for that info william, always so much to learn.