National Content: Belgium
Capitalist bombings
| Source | “Le Journal de Charleroi”, the 9th of September 1943 |
| Event referred to | Cities Bombing during World War II |
| Technological characteristics | Type of file: Image Extension : pdf Characteristics Dimension of the file: 1300 Ko Availability proposed: pdf document with zoom options |
| Description of the source | Kind of source: Daily newspaper Origin of the source: Archives of the National Library of Belgium, Brussels Language: French Copyright issues: reproduction and pedagogical exploitation authorized in the framework of the MHM project |
| Contextualisation of the source | “Le Journal de Charleroi” was a daily newspaper, edited from the 1st of July 1940 till the 31th of August 1944. During the war, this paper was controlled by the Germans. |
| Interpretation of the source | The German propaganda tries to create hostile feelings towards the Allies, with an article title likely to move the left and the working-class, demonstrating the Allies to make a war of capitalists, using typical left expressions, e.g. “ploutocratic powers”. The article makes a comparison between on the one hand the small strategic results and the terrific civil effects of the bombings and on the other hand their “colossal” costs. |
| Original Contents | |
| Original Contents (English Translation) | It never occurred to one to blame the Anglo-Americans for bombing on enemy industrial and military targets. It is the war... But the civilized world at least had the right to expect as much precision as possible in order the houses near the targets to be saved... The across the Atlantic pilots fly at a high altitude dropping their tons of bombs on a “area”... One of our colleagues, the Parisian Marcel Déat, called those bombings “capitalist”, because they are generous with the dropped bombs number, with an entirely superfluous abundance.... It is not war anymore, but a systematically organised carnage. In spite of colossal expenses, the Anglo-American forces aren’t sure to achieve their ends, i.e. to exhaust and discourage the German domestic front. |