Much More Limited Reprisals In The Aftermath Of WW2?

De Gaule was highly instrumental in stopping post war reprisals in France post WW2 eventually and indeed nobody knows how many traitors/collaborators and those alleged to have beeen were killed, I have seen a minimum figure of 10,000, almost all of whom would have been men and possibly over 200,000. I think he ultimately took the view that when the war is over, it's over!
A good friend of mine from Belguim, whoose father was 17 at the end of the war told him that the most digusting thing he witnessed were the reprisals after the war. in general it was very often just a land grab by in many cases AHs who had nothing to do with the resistance there! Many people suffered because they had dealt with the Nazis casually at a time when they had absolutely no choice!
That said if The Nazis ever came to my country, Ireland there would be any amount of collaborators there to prop them up and I would have no issues with those particular Sleeveens ( an Irish language word meaning a sly you know what ) being severely dealt with, hell if I had been around I would have participated in dealing with them and depending on the severity of their crimes in an ultimate fashion!
 

Geon

Donor
Reprisals Could Have Been Worse

Collaborationists in World War II fell into three categories, from what I can see. First there was a group of individuals whom gladly served their Nazi masters and occupiers-people like Vikdun Quisling in Norway and Laval in France fall into this category. Then you had people who were simply obeying orders and doing what their German masters told them to. Finally, you had women in these countries whom had commited no more serious crime then fall in love with a German soldier. The last category I feel the most sorry for. They weren't being traitors, they were simply having relationships with the wrong people.

However, even though various countries acted in brutal ways to their collaborationists I suspect it was mild compared to what it could have been. One thing I like about alternate history is it makes us realize how bad things could have been if the right conditions existed.

I am specifically speaking of Calbear's masterful timeline The Anglo-American/Nazi War. If you look at the last few chapters you realize that reprisals in one form or another occurred to the present day. The Germans and those who worked with them still are suffering for what they did in this TL. France suffered a virtual civil war which fragmented it for years to the point where many of the coastal regions decided to become part of the British Commonwealth! Read the TL above it will give you an idea of just how bad things could have been for the vanquished and for those unlucky enough to work for or have anything to do with the Nazis.

Geon
 
To add to what Geon said above, you have to bear in mind that most of the reprisals were carried out by mobs who had no direction and were just settling scores. As we saw in Iraq the collapse of authority during an invasion creates a highly dangerous situation in which the lynch mob rulesand it is very difficult to regain control. I do have sympathy for those women who got too close to German soldiers but its difficult to convey here just how much hatred and bitterness Nazi occupation created. I certainly don't condone any of the reprisals, those suspected of collaboration should have faced trial and received their dues.
 
Regarding France there are three ways to ensure that reprisals will be more limited post war and more "organised" in the sense that they would be backed up by the power of law.

The first and obvious one is to reduce the lenght of the German occupation, if you have less Germans around and for a shorter period of time, the scope for collaboration is reduced. This will especially be the case of indirect collaboration like offering services to German soldiers, or local girls having relationships with the occupier.

The second one would be a more organised and better led resistance during the war. Most of the groups were fragmented and until the FFI were properly organised by Moulin, there was no overreaching authority for the resistance. In my TL for example I have an Armée de l'Intérieur roughly similar to the Polish AK being formed as early as summer 1940. With a more organisd resistance, the scope for over zealous action by "25th hour resistants" as they were called, will be reduced and said actions will likely be frowned upon, especially if an underground justice apparatus still exist in some form, ready to take back the country after the liberation.

A harsher German occupation is another one, albeit a doubled edged one. A lot of collaborators had the naive hope that France could become Germany's "right arm" in the post war New European Order. If France is treated a bit more like Poland, the number of collaborators will be lower, especially as there would not be a Pétain government in this case.
 
There is a suggestion doing the rounds that a disproportionate amount of women and children were attacked as collaborators in the aftermath of WW2 in France because there were easier targets and could be dealt with less harshly rather than causing a virtual civil war by targetting to many of the big bucks! In both France and Italy post WW2 it fitted the national narrrative to assume virtually everyone was in the resistance in the interests of national unity and hence in the Republique a figure like Charlie De Gaul becomes prominent over all, he was very instrumental in stopping reprisals!
 
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