| French Women Shaved for Collaboration with Nazi Germans in Cherbourg Women who consorted with the Germans during the occupation are driven through the streets of Cherbourg by members of the French resistance. Their head were shaven in order to humiliate them. After Cherbourg was liberated on June 27, 1944, the Maquis commandeered this Nazi German Opel Blitz (“Lightning”) standard military truck and drove it around the city collecting women who were accused of collaboration horizontale (“horizontal colloboration” – sexual relations) with Nazi German soldiers. Often the women were said to have a French husband that was a Prisoner of War of the Nazi Germans, working as a slave laborer, further denigrating their patriotism. The women were shorn of their hair; often their clothes were torn, and they were painted with swastikas, although these women do not appear to have suffered those indignities. Instead, an American Photo Signal Company Detachment took stills and motion pictures of them being jeered, and their hair cut off as the truck drove around Cherbourg. A sign stating Le Char des Collaboratrices (literally “The Collaborators’ Tank”) was displayed over the women’s heads. A drummer sits at left. The crowd cheered as the women were shaved. The Maquis let the women go after shaving their heads; men were often summarily executed for collaboration. After the event, a Maquis tossed the women’s hair into the air in a gesture of triumph. Chairman of the Provisional Government of the French Republic Charles de Gaulle (November 22, 1890 – November 9, 1970) was appalled by such displays of aggression against French women. He hastened to force the Maquis into uniform and the regular French Army to impose discipline on their ranks. He felt such behavior was unseemly and reflected badly on French honor in treating their women. But he couldn’t completely stamp out retribution, as the French people were furious at the Germans for 4 long years of brutal occupation. Hair cutting came in waves through 1946, as documents were made public and accusations continued to be made. A Francs-tireurs et partisans (FTP) newspaper declared in September 1944, “It is never too late to do the right thing” and encouraged head shaving women thought to be collaborators. Not all the women were guilty of collaboration horizontale – schoolteachers were accused for teaching Nazi Germans French; housewives were accused for feeding them; bartenders and waitresses were accused of serving them. In an occupation, it is debatable how much agency they had to refuse demands for service. Often young women without economic or family support were targeted. The spectacle of shaving women was often as important as the veracity of the accusation – to clean out the shame of the 1940 surrender and occupation by routing out those who had collaborated, whether or not they were actually guilty. Those women who did have sex with Nazi German soldiers and either had abortions or bore their children lived with livelong stigmas. Often rejected by their own families, publicly humiliated, suicide rates spiked among this sector of the French population after liberation. | |
| Image Filename | wwii2049.jpg |
| Image Size | 1.51 MB |
| Image Dimensions | 5391 x 4413 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | United States Army Signal Corps |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | July 14, 1944 |
| Location | |
| City | Cherbourg |
| State or Province | Normandy |
| Country | France |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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