Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 8 September 1944 — Page 2

French Laughed at Orders And Hid ‘Wealth’ |

From

By HELEN KIRKPATRICK y Times Foreign Correspondent PARIS, Sept, 8~When Ameri cans and exiled French people ar-| rived in liberated Paris they were equally astonished by the elegance displayed in women’s clothes and in the shops as well as by the qual- {|

BY PARISIANS

AFFLED

enemy.

ity of food served in such high-| priced restaurants as were:

hy 7.95

Enough Hat to

Make You Prettier

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By ERSKIN] NEA Stat _ HORLYWOOD,

Jooked like Ernie . lke Ernie Pyle.

weight and build “was Albert Ker “Just call me | He had 8 plane ote Bn make-up chair.

|. at a photograph b¢ and then looked

“Hmmmmm,"” _ “There isn’t muc He broadened

vv, Hitle with liquis

lighted his che fluffed up his he “That's it,” We

. 5 je en 3 bt Producer Lester open. : : Se : : - ; “The coat—the It was templing ’ ' 1 : i Sexi : 5 er : " . fe said. to rush to the Fa x palm ; : eg Somebody han conclusion that : : <~" be ha Paris, like the : i Sia : roy og \ : BE EE richer farming : ; ro . ; ee ; : £ : : 4 I fou oA \ ‘ ; Th : : ° House last winte mandy and Brit- | : : : Boe st rms tany, had not : : - : . ; * | Cowan ever sinc Kirkpatrick suffered by the . oy : : : ; : | wan A German occupation, It was con-| ; va . : ; ; Do Dun oes fusing to find large numbers of : Lr : placed Ts role. Parisians nonchalantly handing out | . Li aiming thousands of francs for a meal] : : : 4a ed Sa | : which would have cost them 15 : + 2 ; wal ’ francs before the war. : . a | : : The Pk Rose a Where did all- the money come LG Toa . hr on from? How did the big couturiers) : : : : Ale Keune of Paris get superb materials? Why : : flew a trom i i were the women so well dressed on ) Cs ‘ i our arrival? Were reports that the A —————— Germans had cleaned out the French shops incorrect? Never Conquered _ The answers to these questions show clearly why the Germans, although they defeated the French | army and occupied the country, were never able to conquer the French people. 1 talked with French of all classes. Their answers form a pat-| tern and permit the reconstruction of four years under the German heel. The first winter was the worst for the French. The victorious, Germans gorged themselves in Paris and ran riot in the shops. French were beaten down, humiliated! made uncertain, Industries did not know what their fate would be and the French were as yet inexperi-| enced in the art of smuggling goods | and people across the demarcation line into ‘the forbiddén northern | zone. : During that winter, however,

paris took the measure of the mas-| : qt 3 . : | ~~ Weléome Fall in Van Raalte’s ter race. Parisians discovered that : x . ain “

the master race had a most unmas- - a terful awe for French culture,

French cooking and French dress designs. They found that the Ger-| \ : ax mans were lacking in subtlety and : i humor and understood neither. rw Above all, they realized by the, spring of 1941 that Britain was not going to be defedted and that the |} * war would continue. Charles De Gaulle, by his stand at the time, restored somewhat the | / self-respect of the French.. Then i they went to work on the Germans. | % pi - : : lt The first thing the Germans had | : EON demanded was a wholesale shifting ¥ = 3 on nt NR of the fashion center from Paris to EEE : : Berlin. TE \ y ‘ ; . . Wy With great tact, Lelong, president | 3 . of the Grands Couturiers, resisted, the demand and the subsequent at- | tempt to close down one of Paris’ biggest industries. This involved for most of the designers, furnish- | ing clothes for German women but | at enormous prices which made the | Parisians roar with laughter. But! by keeping open, thousands uf workers were withheld from the German war industry. Women who had always saved money by going to small, unknown dressmakers, began patronizing the big coutouriers and with special cards were able to get all the clothes they wanted. | Those without money or coupons acquired materials from time to time on the black market. They: put away at least one smart outfit for liberation day. wd The French continued to manu- |}. facture luxury items everywhere! : : they could. get away with it. The H ee 1 S 4.95 pr. Germans tried to limit the amounts | to those wanted by themselves but the French always managed to| make more and hide some, wat k At one point, 18 months ago, the | Germans decided that Paris shops had an unwarlike luxyrious air and | gave the order that no luxury items; were to be displayed in the windows, The next day every shopwindow in Paris was empty. When the Germans complained they were told that those were the only items there were, so the order was rescinded. Paris laughed. {

Defiant Laughter

« Where did the money come from? The workers were pald very highly by the Germans so all wages rose- : except those of the white-collar class, civil servants, police, lawyers, Shoes, Second Floor and professional people. So the workers had more money than ever. ! The black market was encouraged by the allies and was one certain source of. food for the French. All = * hat the French could divert from German requisitioning and get away with, they did. Hence those with money ate well. And they| laughed. For Paris, laughter was a form | of defiafice. Vichy and the Ger-! mans forbade dancing, so Paris danced—behind closed doors. Thell - Germans and Petain frowned on! frivolity, so the Parisans blossomed | forth in the world’s most frivolous | thats. | ; American men, sometimes @bashed at the hats American. [women choose, are speechless when ithey view the fantastic creations worn in Paris. And while Parisians! laughed, they" also ignored the! Germans. They might not have! been here. There were collaborators! ~=all too many, but the percentage of the entire population which ase! sociated with the Germans was! small. :

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