A Cajun in Berlin

A Cajun veteran, reminiscing the close of World War II, once said :

« As I came into Berlin on July 2nd 1945, the city was dead and the giant apartment buildings were guttered by fire and looked like a cemetary of giants. It was raining, it could not have been more deplorable or more depressing. Berlin at that point was a city of zombies. The men were dead or in prisoner of war camps. There were only the aged and the very young males available. They were all females and they were shocked into utter silence. They were starving, that was clear. I saw such things as a horse dropping dead in the street and the women rushing out with pans and knives to butcher it on the spot to get some meat. There was no food. There were no lights, there was no power."
An important aspect of
the American war effort
during WWII has not been told:
that of the role of French-speaking
Cajun soldiers.

This forgotten page of history is shown
in "Mon Cher Camarade",
a documentary made by
award-winning filmmaker Pat Mire.

Visit: http://www.patmire.com

A song by Gerard Dole (http://gerarddole.free.fr)
A video by Christine Dole - Louveau de la Guigneraye (http://phanie.ethno.image.free.fr/index.php/louveau)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Cajun
• Berlin
• Germany
• GI
• Bayou
• Louisiana

[Fersomling]

I'm glad to hear about it, the role of the Cajun soldiers. I wished somebody would tell the story of the Pennsylvania Dutch-speaking soldiers. PD is a lot like German and my guess is that they could make themselves understood to the Germans a lot easier than most Yankee or Southern GIs.

Another thing. The English soldiers was rotated out of Germany after the war and the occupation was mostly by men that never seen action in the war.

Same thing with the Americans?

[BmoreBusker]

Awesome, Gerald!