Germans Are Friends...Not Food...Right??

            What is most striking to me about Suite Française, and “Dolce” especially, is Irène Némirovsky’s decision to make the humanity of the German soldiers so pronounced. In fact, when reading the first eight chapters of “Dolce,” one finds that German humanity is indeed a focal point of Némirovsky’s depiction of this French village.

            From the moment the Germans march into Bussy, it becomes clear that the only characteristic that is representative of the Germans being soldiers is their military clothing; the Germans’ personalities and mannerisms are far less like what one would imagine a ‘conqueror’ or ‘animal’ to be (210). Curious about their new surroundings, the young soldiers were carefree, laughed at each other, and smiled at the nature around them (208). At the same time these Germans are depicted as merely curious youth, however, the French are behind them judging them based on preconceived notions of who Nazi Germans really were. While “these soldiers were more informal, friendlier than the others,” a Frenchman whispers that “this lot’s the worst” (208). This almost draws a kind of sympathy with the German youth on the part of the reader, being slightly lured in by such a kind portrayal of these young military men. Némirovsky writes, “Other soldiers played billiards,” and immediately after, as if as a reminder to the readers of these soldiers being components of war, says, “The banisters, window ledges, backs of chairs were hung with belts, pistols, helmets and rounds of ammunition” (215). The men themselves, however, separated from these products of war, are merely men.

            Of course, along with this depiction of the Germans, Némirovsky portrays the French nationalism quite accurately. The French were bitter at their loss and bitter that the German occupation essentially placed the nail on the coffin of French might and power. Némirovsky writes, “every Frenchwoman would scornfully say, ‘At our house, we don’t live by German time.’” (210). This reminds me of a French nationalist radio show slogan I learned about while researching at BHVP—the famous line, “In France we speak French,” was a claim to French nationalism and a poke at German supremacy. Indeed, it is not hard to sympathize with the harsh feelings that the French had towards the soldiers in Némirovsky’s village. To them, the Germans were not people, but rather, the very evil of the war.

            The truth of humanity and portrayal of good in those who might do bad completely draws me in to Némirovsky’s characterization of these Nazi soldiers. I respect Némirovsky for depicting her enemies (or at least, the enemies of her country) in a manner that reminds readers that the ‘others’ can still be representative of sameness among all humans—that invisible, man-made borders do not, in fact, differentiate the humanity among humans of different nationality and different ‘sides.’