The Sorrow and the Pity (1969)

Christian de la Mazière: self, an aristocratic ex-fascist and Veteran of the French division of the Waffen SS

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Quotes 

• Self - Aristocratic Former Nazi : Germany was triumphant and there wasn't a single front from which it failed to come home victorious. There's no denying that the German army made quite an impression on the youth in France. Seeing that army of young men, stripped to the waist. After all, I'm the son of a soldier and I was a soldier myself. A sense of responsibility, hierarchy and discipline mean a lot. A well-disciplined army was important to people like us. This was the first time we had seen such an ideal army. The French army was nothing compared to this army who could put the fear of the Lord into an entire people. It sounds awful to say, but it's the truth of the matter.

• Self - Aristocratic Former Nazi : Pétain, in a series of speeches, drew conclusions from this defeat. And he did so with skill. He could woo his audience. If one was to read the texts now, I haven't read them in years, but I bet if you read them now, you would be quite surprised.

  Interviewer : Yes, the texts relied heavily on the people's collective unconscious.

  Self - Aristocratic Former Nazi : Absolutely right.

  Interviewer : He blamed the parliament.

  Self - Aristocratic Former Nazi : Yes, the parliamentary system. To a certain extent, the employers were suspect, foreign...

  Interviewer : Cosmopolitan.

  Self - Aristocratic Former Nazi : Cosmopolitan, not to mention dark-skinned. And of course, he blamed the Communist Party. The Communist Party was the cause of all evils.

• Interviewer : What was Paris like back then?

  Self - Aristocratic Former Nazi : There were two sides of Paris. There were those struggling to survive, and there was high society. All we were missing was Régine. There's no doubt about it. Everyone's ashamed to say it today, but for some, life in Paris was great. Maxim's and Le Boeuf sur le Toit did a booming business. French cinema was in top form.

• Self - Aristocratic Former Nazi : Paris was a fun and crazy place. Let me assure you that there were some wild and crazy times back then.

• Self - Aristocratic Former Nazi : It is hard for me to speak on behalf of the 7,000 young men, for there were 7,000 young men from different walks of life, who fought on the Eastern front in the Charlemagne Division. They say that only 300 survived.

• Self - Aristocratic Former Nazi : The first images we saw of Nuremberg were like a new religion to us. We were astounded. I can honestly say that it was like a mass to us.

• Self - Aristocratic Former Nazi : As we were going to face the Russians, we met the exodus of refugees. It was worse than in 1940. All of Eastern Prussia and part of Pomerania were trying to take refuge in central Germany.

  Interviewer : What would they say to you?

  Self - Aristocratic Former Nazi : What would they say to us? They offered us their daughters. They preferred to give them to us, than see them raped by the Russians.

• Interviewer : Did you get along with the Germans? What did you call them?

  Self - Aristocratic Former Nazi : Boches. I don't know one single Frenchman from the Charlemagne Division who didn't call them Boches.

  Interviewer : So relations were hostile?

  Self - Aristocratic Former Nazi : Yes most of us called Hitler 'Big Julius'. That was typical of the French. They called him 'Big Julius'.

• Interviewer : When did you realize the reality of the German military?

  Self - Aristocratic Former Nazi : For me, reality lay in the officer schools of the Waffen S.S. It was brand new, and very unique. There was a mythology to it. It made us smile and, at the same time, we admired them. We, with our Latin background, discovered German mythology, oaths taken between chains, definitions like, 'My honor is called fidelity', and other things which fascinated us. Once a Frenchman, always a Frenchman, even when faced with such firm convictions. When the Germans realized this, they wouldn't take us seriously.