Page "French Resistance" Paragraph 113

Immediately following the liberation, France was swept by a wave of executions, public humiliations, assaults and detentions of suspected collaborators, known as the épuration sauvage ( wild purge ).

This period succeeded the German occupational administration but preceded the authority of the French Provisional Government, and therefore lacked a form of institutional justice.

Approximately 9, 000 were executed, mostly without trial.

Head shaving was a common feature of the purges, and between 10, 000 and 30, 000 women accused of having collaborated with the Germans were subjected to the practice, becoming known as les tondues ( the shorn ).