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05/26/2008: "Paris during Nazi occupation was 'one big romp'"

A new book which suggests that the German occupation of France encouraged the sexual liberation of women has shocked a country still struggling to come to terms with its troubled history of collaboration with the Nazis.

"It is a taboo subject, a story nobody wants to hear," said Patrick Buisson, author of 1940-1945 Annees Erotiques ("erotic years"). "It may hurt our national pride, but the reality is that people adapted to occupation."

Many might prefer to forget but, with their husbands in prison camps, numerous women slept not only with German soldiers the young "blond barbarians" were particularly attractive to French women, says Buisson but also conducted affairs with anyone else who could help them through financially difficult times: "They gave way to the advances of the boss, to the tradesman they owed money to, their neighbour. In times of rationing, the body is the only renewable, inexhaustible currency."

[ What can we conclude about the French?]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3998943.ece