MovieChat Forums > Head in the Clouds (2004) Discussion > Nazi mistress punishment. SPOILERS

Nazi mistress punishment. SPOILERS

posted 19 years ago by mariawong_99
9 replies | jump to latest

I have observed in many movies and read in many books about the usual punishment for women who fraternized intimately with the Nazi's during the WW2. This always consists of cutting or shaving of hair and in certain cases they even get tar applied to their head. Gilda and the other lady in the movie get their hair cut off. Another ready example can be found in the movie Malena.
This type of punishment seems to have been universal. What is the origin of this punishment? I am sure that it was not decided beforehand to impart this kind of punishment, but a spontaneous action. I guess it must be based on a historical ritual. Can anyone shed light on this?

[–] latrekker2004 19 years ago

That's interesting. Yes, I think it was a common thing almost everywhere in the Western world. I think it has a lot, if not everything, to do with misogyny. Even in Head in the Clouds the ones who suffered this kind of punishment weren't just people who were thought to be cooperating with the Nazis, but they were women, beautiful, considered to be "whores".

[–] bbagnall 18 years ago

Well, now you're just making crap up.

[–] gabisu 18 years ago

I think it's the kind of punishment usually taken on women : humiliating but non life threatening. Some "collabos" had a punishment far more severe

Omae wa mo shinderu

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] Natashashkd 18 years ago

The French Resistance did cut the hair of Nazi mistresses. I know that for a fact.

[–] Hag_Sibylle 17 years ago

It actually goes back much further than that, to the middle ages when women who were accused of heresy/witchcraft were shorn because their torturers were looking for any birthmarks on the skin, which were considered "marks of the devil". In the German language, there is a saying to this day that someone "gets away unshorn", meaning they got away without harm or injury.

Shaving a woman's head off has a deep psychological meaning as well, hair is often seen as the seat of the soul, and of course it's the symbol of a woman's beauty and femininity, also her dignity. It was a symbolic violation, usually the first that was done before torture and death.

[–] bbfrmrp 9 years ago

probably because you could tell the woman with bald heads had slept with the enemy. People probably through rocks and rotten fruit at them. I didn't realize the Nazi's could just make people get up from their table at a restaurant.

[–] TribalFunkster (62) 4 years ago

Oh definitely that does not surprise me at all that they had more pull for special favors than native citizens given the very fact that Paris totally gave in without a fight. What surprised me was how soft the German General could be considering that he heard some of the locals insult his American mistress in clear audible distance and let them get away with it. Malena was another film where they show the (Italian) fascist mistress’ hair cut off by the mob after the war, although I wonder how many of these despised mistresses after the war received as terrible fates as the two did at the end of HITC.