WEBVTT

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[gentle music]

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Some books debunk the myths of your childhood.

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\"OK, Joe\" is one of them.

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It is set in August 1944

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as the American Army was liberating France

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from German occupation.

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The book reveals a dark side of the liberation

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with its mixture of sex, alcohol, violence, and racism.

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It describes the rapes and murders committed by American GIs

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on French civilians.

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\"OK, Joe\" was written by the author Louis Guilloux.

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Having been hired as an interpreter for the US Army

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for a few weeks,

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he was a firsthand witness to these crimes.

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I spent months traveling all over Brittany,

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comparing his story with the memories

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of the last surviving witnesses

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to these forgotten crimes and punishments,

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the descendants of victims who are speaking out

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after 80 years of silence and repression.

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[gentle music]

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[birds chirping]

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[lively music]
[singing in foreign language]

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[women giggling]

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[interviewer speaking French]

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[François speaking French]

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[François continues speaking French]

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[François mimics tank rumbling]

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[tank rumbling]

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[tank rumbling]

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[Denise speaking French]

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[trucks rumbling]

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[Denise speaking French]

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[bright music]

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These young Yankee soldiers

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burst into the western countryside of Western France,

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a remote area with no running water or electricity,

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as if cut off from the rest of the world.

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In the clash between opulence and archaism,

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encounters were frequently joyful and fraternal,

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but they also led to some serious misunderstandings.

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On August 6th, in his hometown of Saint-Brieuc,

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Louis Guilloux was relieved to witness the arrival

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of the long-awaited liberators.

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[crowd cheering]

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But the moments of joy were lent a hint of unease

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by the widespread violence, score-settling,

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cowardice and humiliation,

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an atmosphere that was bound to affect

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this deeply humanist writer.

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[Gregoire speaking French]

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[Gregoire continues speaking French]

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[people clamoring]

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\"The men made the girl sit down.

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She was 20.

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A short, skinny little maid from the inn.

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One of the young men held her head down

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and started to chop off big clumps of her hair

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with a large pair of scissors.

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Another stood nearby holding a razor.

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One of the young girl\'s legs was shaking violently,

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as if she were peddling a bicycle.

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Around her, people were laughing and joking.

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\'Don\'t worry, two months from now,

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she\'ll be working in the whorehouse.

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Don\'t shake like that.

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You didn\'t shake like that

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when you were sleeping with the boche.\'

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She lets them do it, tilts her head to the right,

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to the left, gently obeys the hand that\'s pushing her.

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Brown locks collect around the chair.

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Her knee is still shaking.\"

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[people chattering]

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[ominous music]

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[Eric speaking French]

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[Eric continues speaking French]

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[car engine rumbling]

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\"The Jeep was there just outside the door

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with a driver at the wheel.

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We got in.

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\'Okay, Joe,\' said Lieutenant Stone.

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[car rumbling]

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He knew very well where he was going,

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as if he were from here.

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So did the lieutenants, but I didn\'t.

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We arrived in a hamlet.

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Lieutenant Stone put his file back into his briefcase.

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\'Something terrible happened here,\' he told me.

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\'Would you ask this woman?

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Ask the witness.\'\"

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[family member speaking French]

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[interviewer speaking French]

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[Jeanne speaking French]

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[Jeanne continues speaking French]

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[family member speaking French]

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[Jeanne speaking French]

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[interviewer speaking French]

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[Jeanne speaking French]

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[gentle music]

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Louis Guilloux was suddenly plunged

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into a series of dramatic scenes

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involving drunken soldiers raping or attempting to rape

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young French women.

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Relatives who tried to intervene

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would often get themselves killed.

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In the summer of 1944,

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the Normandy landings brought with them a wave of rapes,

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several thousand of them, according to estimates.

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For the first few weeks, the US Army let things slide,

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but faced with complaints from the French authorities,

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it decided to crack down.

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Mary Louise Roberts has studied sexual violence,

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trawling through dozens of military court cases.

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[interviewer speaking French]

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I think the stereotype

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of the erotic French woman in particular

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was reinforced during the First World War

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because American soldiers deployed there in 1917,

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came back and told tall stories of, you know, brothels

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and beautiful French women and sexy women

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and that they were easy women.

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And the American Army encouraged this view

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because the average American soldier

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did not really understand why they were fighting in France.

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They understood in some ways the Pacific theater

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because the Americans had been attacked.

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But in France, even though the French were our oldest ally,

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they struggled to find a reason

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to fight and liberate the French people.

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So the American Army,

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through the newspaper which is called Stars and Stripes,

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which is the GI newspaper,

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created and recreated the stereotype,

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and the title would be, \"This is what we\'re fighting for.\"

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They showed cartoons and pictures

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of women embracing GIs and kissing GIs,

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so this gave soldiers about to arrive

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the idea that if they liberated the French

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they would be not only warmly welcomed,

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but welcomed into the beds of French women.

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[gentle music]

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[people chattering]

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[interviewer speaking French]

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[Denise speaking French]

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[interviewer speaking French]

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[Denise speaking French]

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[Denise continues speaking French]

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[interviewer speaking French]

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[Denise speaking French]

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[ominous music]

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[interviewer speaking French]

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[François speaking French]

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[François continues speaking French]

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[cars rumbling]

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[car rumbling]

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[turn signal clicking]

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[car engine turns off]

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[Pierrick speaking French]

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\"\'Ask her.\'

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Yes, the girl had gone to the base.

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\'Ask her what for.\'

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\'To have a look like everybody else,\' the mother answered.

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\'They were supposed to be nice.\'

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\'Did he follow you?\' Lieutenant Stone asked.

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The little girl didn\'t know.

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She hadn\'t been aware of it.

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\'Night was falling.

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We were getting ready for bed

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when we heard someone walking in the courtyard.\'

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The soldier had called out, \'Mademoiselle.\'

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The mother had closed the shutters right away

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while the father locked the door.

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The father yelled at the soldier to go away.

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\'There\'s no mademoiselle for you here.\'

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Lieutenant Stone wanted to know

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whether the father had insulted the soldier.

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For example, had they called him a nigger?

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\'No, we told them to go away.\'

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All she could say was that the soldier got mad

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and started kicking the door.

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They were terrified.

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They thought the door would cave in.

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The father and the mother leaned against the door

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and stayed there for a long time, pushing against it.

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\'How long? I don\'t know.

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He was pounding hard.

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The door was shaking.

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We were still pushing against it.

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And then he stopped.

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We heard him walking and we thought he\'d left.

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And that\'s when he fired at the door.\'

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The father collapsed.

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Half his skull was blown off.

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The mother didn\'t understand right away.

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Only after did she realize that she was covered in blood

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and in her husband\'s brains

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and half her cheek was torn off.

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\'That\'s good, let\'s stop there,\' said Lieutenant Stone.

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It\'s terrible, absolutely terrible.

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[Pierrick speaking French]

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[Pierrick speaking French]

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[Pierrick continues speaking French]

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[gentle music]

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Just 500 meters from the Bignon farm,

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a supplies battalion set up camp.

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Like all logistical military units,

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it was made up mainly of African American soldiers

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who were rarely engaged in combat.

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Being asked to shed blood for their country

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would have afforded access to the full citizenship

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they were still denied in the United States.

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Under pressure from the Southern lobby,

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strict segregation rules were enforced

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as if there were in fact two US armies.

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Black soldiers had their own barracks and canteens

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and were always commanded by white officers.

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These young African American soldiers of 1944

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are now almost all deceased.

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To bear witness to this segregation,

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I found an interview with one of them filmed in 2003.

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The African American army was

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officered by white people,

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usually people from the South

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who had been racist all their lives

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and who hated African people.

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Even non-commissioned officers like sergeants, you know,

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and of course the captains and the majors

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and the lieutenants were all white people,

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usually from the South,

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so that we were like slaves on the plantation.

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That\'s what we felt like, you know?

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Our father told us, \"You belong to God

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and you belong to no man,

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and you fear only God and no man.\"

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So we grew up that way.

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So to come into an army to fight against

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a racist, murderous society,

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and be segregated in the act of it,

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that was unheard of and unbearable, terrible.

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So this was really

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what made the meeting with the French farmer

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so precious to me,

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because it was so human.

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Everything was so warm.

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His wife was weeping, was crying, he was crying,

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I was crying.

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He dug up the Calvados he had buried

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so that what he called les boches [laughs]

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could not have it, you know?

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And it was just a beautiful moment that I never forgot

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and I think is the source of my love for France to this day.

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[gentle music]
[birds chirping]

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September 1944.

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Guilloux was now wearing an American Army uniform.

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He settled in Morlaix for a few weeks,

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sharing the day-to-day life of the military staff

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at a boys high school requisitioned by the Army.

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The village hall was transformed into a courtroom

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for a series of court martials.

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First up was the case involving

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Pierrick Peroux\'s grandfather.

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The victim\'s wife and daughter were called as witnesses.

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During the confrontation,

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they were unable to recognize the accused.

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He was a Black man and it was pitch dark.

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[interviewer speaking French]

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[Pierrick speaking French]

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[Pierrick continues speaking French]

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[soldier shouting]

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\"The military tribunal

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was set up in the party room.

272
00:24:19.560 --> 00:24:22.680
A little before nine, everyone was in place.

273
00:24:22.680 --> 00:24:24.240
Even the defendant.

274
00:24:24.240 --> 00:24:28.140
A cat, a very young cat, less than 20,

275
00:24:28.140 --> 00:24:31.410
a gracious young cat, surprised, worried,

276
00:24:31.410 --> 00:24:33.330
with big, shiny eyes,

277
00:24:33.330 --> 00:24:35.910
a sad cat standing alone between two guards

278
00:24:35.910 --> 00:24:39.540
from the military police armed with rifles,

279
00:24:39.540 --> 00:24:42.943
a cat who didn\'t even dream of taking a leap.\"

280
00:24:42.943 --> 00:24:45.943
[soldiers marching]

281
00:24:47.040 --> 00:24:50.343
The accused was Private James Hendricks.

282
00:24:51.180 --> 00:24:54.903
The charge was premeditated murder and attempted rape.

283
00:24:57.630 --> 00:25:00.990
The only Black man in an all-white courtroom,

284
00:25:00.990 --> 00:25:03.813
he remained silent throughout the proceedings.

285
00:25:05.790 --> 00:25:08.460
The court was made up of a dozen officers

286
00:25:08.460 --> 00:25:10.983
with limited knowledge of criminal justice.

287
00:25:12.000 --> 00:25:16.023
Hendricks\'s young lawyer had only ever studied business law.

288
00:25:17.376 --> 00:25:20.017
[bell rings]

289
00:25:20.017 --> 00:25:22.830
\"Lieutenant Bradford\'s argument was brief.

290
00:25:22.830 --> 00:25:25.980
He made no attempt to deny the horror of what had happened,

291
00:25:25.980 --> 00:25:28.920
nor to invent mitigating circumstances.

292
00:25:28.920 --> 00:25:31.230
He pled guilty and made it clear to the court

293
00:25:31.230 --> 00:25:33.810
that the murderer deeply regretted his act.

294
00:25:33.810 --> 00:25:34.830
As awful as it was,

295
00:25:34.830 --> 00:25:37.440
the terrible thing of which he was accused

296
00:25:37.440 --> 00:25:38.823
was simply an accident.

297
00:25:40.110 --> 00:25:42.030
He was not an assassin.

298
00:25:42.030 --> 00:25:44.550
He had not premeditated any of it.

299
00:25:44.550 --> 00:25:46.440
Certainly he deserved punishment,

300
00:25:46.440 --> 00:25:48.450
but let this punishment be imprisonment

301
00:25:48.450 --> 00:25:50.100
for as long as they liked.

302
00:25:50.100 --> 00:25:52.140
Spare him the noose.

303
00:25:52.140 --> 00:25:56.133
By sparing his life, give him a chance to redeem himself.\"

304
00:26:00.561 --> 00:26:04.144
[Gregoire speaking French]

305
00:26:25.705 --> 00:26:29.122
[Sylvie speaking French]

306
00:26:55.204 --> 00:26:59.454
[Sylvie continues speaking French]

307
00:27:03.990 --> 00:27:06.300
After trial lasting a day and a half

308
00:27:06.300 --> 00:27:08.790
plus 15 minutes of deliberation,

309
00:27:08.790 --> 00:27:12.077
James Hendricks was sentenced to be hanged.

310
00:27:12.077 --> 00:27:14.660
[gentle music]

311
00:27:17.070 --> 00:27:18.210
That same evening,

312
00:27:18.210 --> 00:27:22.083
Pierrick Peroux\'s mother and grandmother were taken home.

313
00:27:23.790 --> 00:27:26.160
The US Army gave them a few hundred francs

314
00:27:26.160 --> 00:27:28.410
as witness compensation,

315
00:27:28.410 --> 00:27:31.500
plus some canned food, cartons of cigarettes,

316
00:27:31.500 --> 00:27:32.987
and packs of coffee.

317
00:27:39.702 --> 00:27:43.285
[Pierrick speaking French]

318
00:28:02.520 --> 00:28:05.748
[interviewer speaking French]

319
00:28:05.748 --> 00:28:09.331
[Pierrick speaking French]

320
00:28:12.301 --> 00:28:16.384
[family members speaking French]

321
00:28:42.119 --> 00:28:46.952
[family members continue speaking French]

322
00:29:13.858 --> 00:29:17.275
[Jeanne speaking French]

323
00:29:21.233 --> 00:29:23.900
[bells tolling]

324
00:29:25.987 --> 00:29:27.390
\"More days passed.

325
00:29:27.390 --> 00:29:30.510
The military court was in session nearly every morning,

326
00:29:30.510 --> 00:29:33.357
and every time the defendant was a Black man

327
00:29:33.357 --> 00:29:35.373
and the accusation was the same.

328
00:29:36.720 --> 00:29:38.730
There were also times when several defendants

329
00:29:38.730 --> 00:29:41.373
were tried at once and all of them were Black.

330
00:29:42.210 --> 00:29:45.180
One morning, there were four of them.

331
00:29:45.180 --> 00:29:46.353
They didn\'t say a word.

332
00:29:47.880 --> 00:29:49.413
But why only Blacks?

333
00:29:50.250 --> 00:29:53.285
It isn\'t a special tribunal for Blacks.\"

334
00:29:53.285 --> 00:29:55.868
[gentle music]

335
00:29:58.020 --> 00:30:00.600
In the summer of 1944,

336
00:30:00.600 --> 00:30:05.010
the military police brought 152 American soldiers to justice

337
00:30:05.010 --> 00:30:07.383
for rape and sometimes murder.

338
00:30:09.090 --> 00:30:11.125
Of these 152,

339
00:30:11.125 --> 00:30:14.280
139 were African Americans,

340
00:30:14.280 --> 00:30:16.530
although they represented less than 10%

341
00:30:16.530 --> 00:30:18.033
of the military contingent.

342
00:30:20.299 --> 00:30:23.882
[soldiers\' boots thudding]

343
00:30:25.946 --> 00:30:28.020
And what happened there were two things.

344
00:30:28.020 --> 00:30:30.450
First, African American soldiers

345
00:30:30.450 --> 00:30:35.450
had much more contact with civilians than infantry soldiers.

346
00:30:36.510 --> 00:30:39.120
And secondly, if you\'re a white infantryman

347
00:30:39.120 --> 00:30:40.890
and you\'re moving very quickly

348
00:30:40.890 --> 00:30:44.880
through the north of France, moving east,

349
00:30:44.880 --> 00:30:48.360
you could have raped a woman and then left the next morning

350
00:30:48.360 --> 00:30:50.433
and would never have to answer for it.

351
00:30:51.320 --> 00:30:55.020
But if you\'re a African American GI,

352
00:30:55.020 --> 00:30:56.613
you were stationary,

353
00:30:57.780 --> 00:31:01.533
so there\'s no getting away from any accusations.

354
00:31:03.127 --> 00:31:05.377
\"\'But why always Blacks, Bob?\'

355
00:31:07.170 --> 00:31:10.017
\'Ah, that is a hell of a problem.\'

356
00:31:11.010 --> 00:31:13.350
\'I know, Bob, apparently you have to be an American

357
00:31:13.350 --> 00:31:14.397
to understand it.\'

358
00:31:15.840 --> 00:31:17.283
He grew almost indignant.

359
00:31:18.120 --> 00:31:19.290
\'It\'s certainly not our fault

360
00:31:19.290 --> 00:31:20.580
if they can\'t even look at a woman

361
00:31:20.580 --> 00:31:22.070
without trying to rape her.\'\"

362
00:31:24.810 --> 00:31:28.415
The common belief about African Americans was

363
00:31:28.415 --> 00:31:30.897
that they were animals

364
00:31:30.897 --> 00:31:33.600
and also that they were hyper-sexual,

365
00:31:33.600 --> 00:31:35.850
that they needed sex all the time,

366
00:31:35.850 --> 00:31:38.820
that their male organs were exceptionally large.

367
00:31:38.820 --> 00:31:41.970
These are really old American stereotypes.

368
00:31:41.970 --> 00:31:45.060
The American Army circulated stories about us

369
00:31:45.060 --> 00:31:48.183
to the Scottish people,

370
00:31:50.388 --> 00:31:53.340
that we had tails that had been operated on

371
00:31:53.340 --> 00:31:56.040
and taken from us. [laughs]

372
00:31:56.040 --> 00:31:58.290
That we were infected with syphilis

373
00:31:58.290 --> 00:32:01.740
and other venereal diseases.

374
00:32:01.740 --> 00:32:05.535
All these things, this came from our own army.

375
00:32:05.535 --> 00:32:09.035
[Pauline speaking French]

376
00:32:35.121 --> 00:32:39.454
[Pauline continues speaking French]

377
00:32:51.720 --> 00:32:56.430
If you were accused as a Black man,

378
00:32:56.430 --> 00:32:59.790
the military authorities would listen to women

379
00:32:59.790 --> 00:33:01.230
and what they had to say.

380
00:33:01.230 --> 00:33:03.123
ªThey believed them.

381
00:33:04.260 --> 00:33:08.550
If it was a white man who was accused of rape,

382
00:33:08.550 --> 00:33:11.805
the women would be questioned and questioned and questioned.

383
00:33:11.805 --> 00:33:16.805
Because here, race was more important than sexism,

384
00:33:17.640 --> 00:33:22.002
so racism trumped sexism in some ways.

385
00:33:22.002 --> 00:33:24.585
[gentle music]

386
00:33:27.060 --> 00:33:29.430
Black soldiers were systematically tried

387
00:33:29.430 --> 00:33:31.740
and always severely punished.

388
00:33:31.740 --> 00:33:35.583
Not so white soldiers, as Guilloux notes in his accounts.

389
00:33:41.010 --> 00:33:43.500
It all depended on the goodwill of the officers

390
00:33:43.500 --> 00:33:46.200
deciding which cases to prosecute.

391
00:33:46.200 --> 00:33:47.850
Some cases were never recorded

392
00:33:47.850 --> 00:33:50.310
in the US Army statistics,

393
00:33:50.310 --> 00:33:54.243
such as the murder committed by two white GIs near Fougeres.

394
00:33:55.962 --> 00:33:58.113
The scenario is always the same.

395
00:33:59.160 --> 00:34:01.800
Two drunken soldiers chase a young woman,

396
00:34:01.800 --> 00:34:03.810
then start to assault her.

397
00:34:03.810 --> 00:34:05.793
She calls her brother to the rescue.

398
00:34:06.810 --> 00:34:08.610
One of the soldiers fires

399
00:34:08.610 --> 00:34:10.560
and the brother is shot in the stomach.

400
00:34:17.937 --> 00:34:21.604
The day, however, had begun in good spirits.

401
00:34:22.543 --> 00:34:26.043
[Auguste speaking French]

402
00:34:52.125 --> 00:34:56.458
[Auguste continues speaking French]

403
00:35:10.025 --> 00:35:13.274
[people chattering]

404
00:35:13.274 --> 00:35:15.607
[gun fires]

405
00:35:19.117 --> 00:35:22.617
[Auguste speaking French]

406
00:35:49.168 --> 00:35:53.501
[Auguste continues speaking French]

407
00:36:02.211 --> 00:36:03.831
[interviewer speaking French]

408
00:36:03.831 --> 00:36:07.331
[Auguste speaking French]

409
00:36:17.081 --> 00:36:18.937
[gentle music]

410
00:36:18.937 --> 00:36:20.370
\"But that didn\'t help me understand,

411
00:36:20.370 --> 00:36:21.360
I told him.

412
00:36:21.360 --> 00:36:23.730
Why only Black men were being tried here?

413
00:36:23.730 --> 00:36:26.430
And why another one was to be tried next morning?

414
00:36:26.430 --> 00:36:29.070
And why without a doubt he would be sentenced to hang?

415
00:36:29.070 --> 00:36:32.910
Incidentally, where were the hang and who was the hangman?

416
00:36:32.910 --> 00:36:34.740
It probably took place at dawn,

417
00:36:34.740 --> 00:36:37.170
as everywhere in the world where people were hanged,

418
00:36:37.170 --> 00:36:40.167
where people were executed, where heads were cut off.\"

419
00:36:41.100 --> 00:36:42.750
Guilloux left the US Army

420
00:36:42.750 --> 00:36:45.813
before any of the condemned soldiers had been executed.

421
00:36:47.490 --> 00:36:51.660
In his novel, he imagines discreet early morning hangings,

422
00:36:51.660 --> 00:36:53.440
but the reality was crueler.

423
00:36:54.531 --> 00:36:57.198
[bells tolling]

424
00:37:03.422 --> 00:37:07.255
[interviewer speaking French]

425
00:37:08.655 --> 00:37:12.238
[François speaking French]

426
00:37:38.667 --> 00:37:42.084
[Denise speaking French]

427
00:38:04.327 --> 00:38:07.910
[François speaking French]

428
00:38:34.202 --> 00:38:38.619
[François continues speaking French]

429
00:38:45.731 --> 00:38:48.314
[wind blowing]

430
00:38:55.409 --> 00:38:58.992
[François speaking French]

431
00:39:25.049 --> 00:39:29.466
[François continues speaking French]

432
00:39:51.120 --> 00:39:54.703
[François speaking French]

433
00:39:58.235 --> 00:40:01.556
[rain pattering]

434
00:40:01.556 --> 00:40:05.389
[interviewer speaking French]

435
00:40:07.436 --> 00:40:10.853
[Denise speaking French]

436
00:40:42.012 --> 00:40:44.595
[gentle music]

437
00:40:46.979 --> 00:40:49.830
In 1944, during the war,

438
00:40:49.830 --> 00:40:53.100
dozens of public hangings of Black soldiers took place

439
00:40:53.100 --> 00:40:56.130
in villages all over western France,

440
00:40:56.130 --> 00:40:58.290
usually near the scene of the crime

441
00:40:58.290 --> 00:41:00.570
or in the center of the village,

442
00:41:00.570 --> 00:41:02.550
like here in Montours,

443
00:41:02.550 --> 00:41:05.607
or here in front of the Chateau de Plumaudan.

444
00:41:09.005 --> 00:41:13.140
The mobile gallows went from village to village.

445
00:41:13.140 --> 00:41:14.760
In the land of the guillotine,

446
00:41:14.760 --> 00:41:18.063
the US Army had to bring in a hangman from Texas.

447
00:41:19.500 --> 00:41:23.340
Using these public displays, these public executions

448
00:41:23.340 --> 00:41:24.960
in order to prove to the French

449
00:41:24.960 --> 00:41:28.650
that United States has everything under control.

450
00:41:28.650 --> 00:41:33.650
And the disproportion in numbers that I\'ve tried to explain

451
00:41:34.950 --> 00:41:38.310
led American military leaders to decide

452
00:41:38.310 --> 00:41:40.980
that we\'re gonna make this a negro problem.

453
00:41:40.980 --> 00:41:44.100
We\'re not gonna make this an American problem.

454
00:41:44.100 --> 00:41:47.190
We\'re gonna make it a negro problem.

455
00:41:47.190 --> 00:41:50.220
And scapegoating African Americans

456
00:41:50.220 --> 00:41:54.180
for the kind of bad behavior, the quote American boy

457
00:41:54.180 --> 00:41:57.880
has carried out in this country.

458
00:41:59.404 --> 00:42:02.154
[rain pattering]

459
00:42:03.197 --> 00:42:06.018
[interviewer speaking French]

460
00:42:06.018 --> 00:42:09.268
[Jean speaking French]

461
00:42:12.854 --> 00:42:16.271
[Joelle speaking French]

462
00:42:21.859 --> 00:42:25.109
[Jean speaking French]

463
00:42:31.395 --> 00:42:34.812
[Joelle speaking French]

464
00:42:41.265 --> 00:42:44.515
[Jean speaking French]

465
00:42:54.307 --> 00:42:57.807
[Pauline speaking French]

466
00:43:26.587 --> 00:43:29.904
[birds chirping]

467
00:43:29.904 --> 00:43:31.270
In 1945,

468
00:43:31.270 --> 00:43:34.890
Louis Guilloux handed back his American Army uniform

469
00:43:34.890 --> 00:43:36.570
and went back to writing,

470
00:43:36.570 --> 00:43:39.090
dividing his time between Saint-Brieuc

471
00:43:39.090 --> 00:43:42.048
and the literary district of Paris around Saint-Germain.

472
00:43:42.048 --> 00:43:45.060
[lively music]

473
00:43:45.060 --> 00:43:48.270
Little by little, Europe forgot the war.

474
00:43:48.270 --> 00:43:51.060
American culture began making a massive incursion

475
00:43:51.060 --> 00:43:52.830
into the old continent.

476
00:43:52.830 --> 00:43:55.650
Cinema, music, literature,

477
00:43:55.650 --> 00:43:57.480
even amateur French filmmakers

478
00:43:57.480 --> 00:44:00.543
were reworking the old Wild West cliches.

479
00:44:03.060 --> 00:44:06.360
Rural France was rebuilding and modernizing,

480
00:44:06.360 --> 00:44:08.343
eager to start a new chapter.

481
00:44:14.040 --> 00:44:16.830
Victims of crimes during the liberation meanwhile

482
00:44:16.830 --> 00:44:19.080
tended to keep quiet about their ordeal

483
00:44:19.080 --> 00:44:22.297
to avoid appearing ungrateful or being singled out.

484
00:44:23.231 --> 00:44:27.148
[Marie-Annick speaking French]

485
00:44:53.167 --> 00:44:58.000
[Marie-Annick continues speaking French]

486
00:45:00.655 --> 00:45:04.238
[Michelle speaking French]

487
00:45:11.932 --> 00:45:15.765
[Jean-Pierre speaking French]

488
00:45:25.194 --> 00:45:28.777
[Michelle speaking French]

489
00:45:32.441 --> 00:45:34.779
[interviewer speaking French]

490
00:45:34.779 --> 00:45:38.696
[Marie-Annick speaking French]

491
00:45:40.471 --> 00:45:44.388
[Marie-Annick speaking French]

492
00:45:55.423 --> 00:45:57.810
Louis Guilloux took 30 years

493
00:45:57.810 --> 00:45:59.430
to write \"OK, Joe.\"

494
00:45:59.430 --> 00:46:01.980
He hesitated to turn it into a novel.

495
00:46:01.980 --> 00:46:03.810
The narrator was first Francis,

496
00:46:03.810 --> 00:46:05.880
then François, then Bernard,

497
00:46:05.880 --> 00:46:07.950
and finally, Louis.

498
00:46:07.950 --> 00:46:10.890
In the story, Guilloux makes plain his unease

499
00:46:10.890 --> 00:46:12.300
and his sense of guilt,

500
00:46:12.300 --> 00:46:15.150
acknowledging the part he played as a small cog

501
00:46:15.150 --> 00:46:17.403
in an expedient justice system.

502
00:46:21.060 --> 00:46:24.090
His story is not an anti-American pamphlet.

503
00:46:24.090 --> 00:46:26.880
For him, human nature is too complex

504
00:46:26.880 --> 00:46:30.333
to cast simplistic roles of hero or villain.

505
00:46:33.030 --> 00:46:35.910
When the book was published in 1976,

506
00:46:35.910 --> 00:46:37.680
four years before his death,

507
00:46:37.680 --> 00:46:40.050
it went completely unnoticed.

508
00:46:40.050 --> 00:46:41.760
The France of Giscard d\'Estaing

509
00:46:41.760 --> 00:46:45.472
was not yet ready to tarnish the image of the liberator.

510
00:46:45.472 --> 00:46:47.704
[TV worker speaking French]

511
00:46:47.704 --> 00:46:50.121
[hands clap]

512
00:46:51.924 --> 00:46:56.924
[interviewer and interviewee speaking French]

513
00:47:21.259 --> 00:47:25.092
[interviewee speaking French]

514
00:47:51.189 --> 00:47:55.939
[interviewee continues speaking French]

515
00:48:04.096 --> 00:48:07.320
Louis Guilloux died over 40 years ago.

516
00:48:07.320 --> 00:48:10.350
Today, \"OK, Joe\" finds new resonance

517
00:48:10.350 --> 00:48:13.620
in a society that questions racial discrimination

518
00:48:13.620 --> 00:48:15.243
and sexual violence.

519
00:48:17.370 --> 00:48:21.270
In 2022, the book was republished.

520
00:48:21.270 --> 00:48:24.000
This literary work is now recognized

521
00:48:24.000 --> 00:48:26.763
as a valuable testimony by historians.

522
00:48:29.040 --> 00:48:30.990
The US Army, for its part,

523
00:48:30.990 --> 00:48:33.180
still struggles to challenge the myth

524
00:48:33.180 --> 00:48:35.583
of the pure unblemished liberator.

525
00:48:36.690 --> 00:48:40.470
The Communications Department at the Oise Military Cemetery

526
00:48:40.470 --> 00:48:44.313
refused to let me film the graves of the hanged soldiers.

527
00:48:47.040 --> 00:48:48.390
They are grouped together

528
00:48:48.390 --> 00:48:51.660
in a small area marked \"Died without honor\"

529
00:48:51.660 --> 00:48:55.020
relegated to a space away from the hero\'s graves

530
00:48:55.020 --> 00:48:59.047
behind a service entrance inaccessible to the public.

531
00:48:59.047 --> 00:49:02.547
[Pauline speaking French]

532
00:49:31.615 --> 00:49:34.198
[gentle music]

533
00:49:36.985 --> 00:49:40.402
[gentle music fades out]

534
00:49:42.136 --> 00:49:44.886
[birds chirping]

535
00:49:54.136 --> 00:49:57.136
[people chattering]

536
00:49:59.189 --> 00:50:03.022
[Jean-Pierre speaking French]

537
00:50:29.052 --> 00:50:33.719
[Jean-Pierre continues speaking French]

538
00:50:59.103 --> 00:51:03.770
[Jean-Pierre continues speaking French]

539
00:51:10.987 --> 00:51:13.440
\"I don\'t know how I found my room.

540
00:51:13.440 --> 00:51:15.870
It was as black as outdoors.

541
00:51:15.870 --> 00:51:17.403
Or how I found my bed.

542
00:51:19.140 --> 00:51:22.923
I fell asleep right away, wrapped in my three blankets.

543
00:51:24.660 --> 00:51:28.320
Yes, it\'s true that a man who falls asleep

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closes his eyes to a lot of things.\"

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[gentle music]

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[gentle music continues]

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[gentle music fades out]