Enghien-les-Bains Kommandantur. History of Enghien-les-Bains and Surroundings under Occupation (1940–1945)

For the first time in 70 years, under the generic term "Kommandantur", this work presents the events that took place in Enghien-les-Bains and the Montmorency valley from 1940 to 1945 — that is, the territory of the future Val-d'Oise covered by this Kommandantur. Facts, previously unpublished testimonies, troubled destinies, all bound together by the omnipresence of the Germans in every cog of society. Should this history have been kept from public knowledge, left to ignore an unhappy reality? In a sense, we are responding to the call of the authors of the work "Résistance en Val d'Oise", who declared in 1998: "Many archives remain to be examined, many testimonies to be gathered, many obscure points to be clarified. It now falls to the young historians of the future to develop and deepen the research." In order to balance the scales of history, it seemed useful to us to learn the opposing side's version of events. Did the relative mildness of the occupation of this spa town encourage compromises? Some of the most terrible fates of that period were sealed there. Between loyalty to Pétain and a drift into collaboration, some believed they could defend France within an oppressive Reich. Through this chronology we discover the paths of several remarkable figures and the victims of that era — some who distinguished themselves with honour, others through indignity and even treachery.