Alan Judd

If the Nazis had occupied Britain, how many of us would have collaborated?

Ian Buruma describes three individuals who saved themselves in wartime by betraying others. But none was a ‘typical traitor’, or essentially different from the rest of us

Kawashima Yoshiko, the androgynous Manchu princess who collaborated with the Japanese in the 1930s. [Alamy] 
issue 29 April 2023

Those of us who have never endured occupation can find it difficult to judge the behaviour of some who have. The lines between survival, passive cooperation and active collaboration are not always clear. Following the second world war, the myths of resistance, especially in France, were deliberately inflated in order to hide the humiliation and deep wounds occasioned by collaboration, which was far more widespread.

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