ARTICLE: 'BLACK HORROR' ON THE RHINE

So this was a rabbit hole that came from going through French WW1 General Charles Mangin’s photo albums, and I thought it deserved an article of its own because its just bonkers. It also wouldn’t be quite so depressing if we weren’t seeing similar happening right now in 2024 out there in the world.

(BnF via www.gallica.com)

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Last week I included photos of a memorial to the General in Paris and explained that you can’t visit it anymore because for this, and many other reasons, Hitler was a dick. When the Nazi’s entered Paris in 1940, two monuments found themselves in his crosshairs. For all he pontificated about his troops not destroying memorials and war cemeteries as they ploughed across northwestern Europe, he wanted Edith Cavell’s monument destroyed, and the one dedicated to Charles Mangin. His troops diligently dynamited it, and eventually melted down the bronze too. But why?

(BnF via www.gallica.com)

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The reasons had to do with Mangin being a leading military figure in the occupation of the Rhineland in the aftermath of Germany’s defeat in 1918. However, then I got led off in pursuit of the insanity that is the Black Horror on the Rhine. This is right up there with Haitians supposedly eating people’s pets…