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Les Bleus, Le Collabo et L’exécution

A message from Stew:  We are one day away from the start of the 2022 World Cup games. At this point, we don’t know which international teams will break out of group play and make it into the knock-out phase. Four years ago, France, or Les Bleus, was crowned champion. Didier Deschamps fields basically the same roster (sans Pogba) and is likely a contender once again. I don’t how well the USMNT will perform but we’re all rooting for them. I thought I’d reprint this blog from 27 May 2017 (with added commentary and images) to give you a brief historical perspective of the first World Cup game and introduce you to one of Le Bleus’s finest French footballers albeit a despicable human being and one of France’s most notorious collaborationists.


We’ve become immune to the stories we hear every day about professional athletes who get into trouble with the law. Their crimes range from acts of violence to murder and everything in-between.

Our story today is about one of these athletes. He was a French footballer: in other words, he played soccer. His saga starts with the first World Cup in 1930 and ends fourteen years later with his execution in front of a firing squad. During the occupation, he was well-known as a member of the Bonny-Lafont gang and developed a reputation as a vicious Nazi collabo (collaborationist).


Did You Know?

France has a very storied history behind its national football team (even though our blog today talks about a rather unscrupulous French footballer). France’s first international match was against Belgium on 1 May 1904 (a 3 to 3 draw). Its first World Cup appearance was in 1930 and the team has had fourteen subsequent appearances since then. Lucien Laurent became the first player to score in a World Cup (1930) however, France became the first team to not score in a World Cup match after losing 1−0 to Argentina in the 1930 World Cup Read More Les Bleus, Le Collabo et L’exécution

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We’ll Meet Again

As part of my research for the blog, Rendezvous with the Gestapo (click here to read the blog), I read a fascinating book called Shot Down. It was written by Steve Snyder whose father, Howard, was a B-17 pilot who parachuted into Belgium after his plane was shot down on 8 February 1944. What made Howard’s story so extraordinary was that unlike most of the surviving downed Allied airmen, Howard did not make it back to London nor was he captured. Capt. Snyder decided to join the French guerilla résistants known as the maquisards, or “maquis.” He fought alongside these French resistance fighters until early September 1944 when Snyder and his maquis unit hooked up with Gen. Patton’s 3rd Army in Trélon, France.

Howard Snyder jumping off a jeep while fighting with the maquis. Photo by anonymous (c. 1944). Courtesy of Steve Snyder. https://stevesnyderauthor.com.
Howard Snyder jumping off a jeep while fighting with the maquis. Photo by anonymous (c. 1944). Courtesy of Steve Snyder. https://stevesnyderauthor.com.

With that background, you will shortly understand why I found the story of Pfc. Weiss so interesting and why I decided to share it with you today.

Click here to watch the video Shot Down: Howard Snyder and the B-17 Susan Roth.


Did You Know?

Did you know that Hitler ordered food rationing in Berlin almost immediately after invading Poland? As you can imagine, a black market quickly developed. Senior Nazi officials including Wilhelm Frick, Walther von Brauchitsch, and Erich Raeder were involved in and profited from the black market. Although the Nazi hierarchy was required to abide by the rules, most of them scorned Hitler’s orders.

Horcher’s Restaurant was a favorite haunt of Hermann Göring, Joseph Goebbels, and other Nazi bigwigs. Ration coupons at this restaurant were non-existent. The Nazi regime protected Horcher’s and its staff (the men were exempt from the draft). There was always enough high-quality food to satisfy the clients. In 1943, the restaurant was threatened with closure but Göring had it re-opened as a Luftwaffe private club. (With Göring’s assistance, Otto Horcher moved his restaurant in 1943 to Madrid, Spain where it is owned and operated today by his granddaughter, Elisabeth Horcher.) Read More We’ll Meet Again