In February 1943, determined to take part in the fight against communism on the Eastern Front, Jean-Marie Croisile signed his enlistment with the Légion des volontaires français contre le bolchevisme. A choice that would later lead him to join the 33rd SS Division Charlemagne, with which he took part in the defence of Berlin. In autumn 1943, his younger brother, Alain Croisile, and then their father, Jean Croisile, in turn signed enlistment papers with the Waffen-SS.
In the light of history, it was an indefensible choice that would lead them, at the end of the war, to face the Haute Cour de Justice in Colmar for having "knowingly carried out acts liable to harm national defence". In the light of the family's history, it is a choice all the more incomprehensible given that the father, Jean Croisile, was a decorated veteran of the 1914–1918 war, wounded five times in combat — three times at Verdun — and also a veteran of the 1940 campaign, during which he once again fought valiantly against the German enemy. "I can state in all conscience that, despite our meagre material means, I always stood firm against the enemy with all my strength, and had there been more "resisters" in France at that moment [May 1940], it is quite certain that events would have taken a very different turn," Jean Croisile declared to the jury charged with judging him in 1945.
Built around the previously unpublished account of Jean-Marie Croisile, and supplemented by various research that allows the tracing of this family's journey from the early 1900s to their trial before the Haute Cour de Justice in Colmar, Sous uniforme allemand reveals for the first time, without romanticism or embellishment, the full path taken by these men who chose to fight on the Eastern Front and the reality of what they experienced.
EXCERPT:
On 11 July, we boarded at Warsaw station. The journey to Greifenberg (Gryfów Śląski) would last three days. Our route took us through Kutno, Posen (Poznań) and Stettin. And so, having left Russia, we were now leaving Poland too. Russia was receding with every turn of the wheels — those wheels that were meant to roll to victory; along the railway line, the great signs proclaiming it could still be seen. Would we ever see it again, that Russia, with its endless plains, the small birch and fir woods, the villages of izbas with their sweep wells, the twilights beneath a vast sky? Bielinitchi, Beresovka, Sokolovitchi, Slavnoje, Michaelkovo, Saborje and little Aniouta — all those people, I loved them, despite the "servitudes and grandeurs of military life". Yes, I loved that country and I know I shall never forget it. And now, whatever may follow, I know that this adventure was worth living. That thought brings something to mind, someone: our Lieutenant Prévost. He stayed behind, in Russian soil, in the small cemetery at Borissov. We were his 9th company, Prévost's band. I never really had the time to appreciate him. I knew him little — far too little.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jean-Marie Croisile is a young French volunteer who chose, in 1943, to enlist in the fight against communism on the Eastern Front.
