The people of France suffered years of abuse, deprivation, humiliation, and terror under the Nazi occupation in the 1940s. When France was finally liberated, the citizens not only felt relief, but extreme anger over what had been done to them. After Allied armies defeated the Axis powers, years of pent-up anger was directed at those suspected of collaboration, especially women accused of "collaboration horizontale," meaning romantic or sexual relationships with the occupying Germans. In other words, sleeping with the enemy.
While a few were genuinely collaborating, many of these women cooperated with German soldiers to survive and feed their children. Some were prostitutes continuing their trade. Some were raped, or were otherwise under threat of their lives or their family's lives. And some didn't do anything at all, but were accused as a scapegoat or distraction from other war crimes. Some 20,000 of these accused women had their heads shaved and were paraded through the streets of France by angry mobs to humiliate them. Read about the women accused of collaboration horizontale at Amusing Planet.
(Image credit: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration)