The Roccos Are Here

The fear and resentment which defeated peoples feel toward armies of occupation was softened in southwest Germany by the exemplary behavior of the First French Army. In the sleepy little towns of the Black Forest, French soldiers participated in local affairs and shone at local balls, and the French commanders were among the most respected of inhabitants. "We prefer them to German soldiers," said a townsman.

But the crisis in North Africa not only led France to pull out of Germany the troops pledged to NATO, but compelled it to send Frenchmen to put out the fire. Recently France pulled out some of her crack First Army regiments, replacing them with the first of some 2,000 Moroccan troops.

The sight of dark Moslem soldiers in their quiet streets last week bitterly reminded Germans of the Moroccans who took part in the 1919-30 occupation of the Rhineland (which Hitler called a plot against the purity of Germany), and of those who raped the Black Forest villages during World War II, finding their food and fun where they could. Some German women believe, whether or not it is true, that in those days one Moroccan raped a fraulein, then killed her by biting through her jugular vein. The French deny that Moroccans committed more rape than any other troops, but they are sole possessors of the statistics, and do not release them. Protested much-respected French Colonel Pierre Charton: "The Moroccan soldier is exceptionally well disciplined . . . But you must always keep a certain distance." The French offered to import enough Moroccan camp followers to keep the Moroccans happy on the base, but this Gallic solution did not satisfy the Germans. County Administrative Officer Robert Lienhart led the outcry: "What kind of sovereignty is this when we have nothing to say, indeed are not even consulted, about foreign troops stationed in our midst?" West German newspapers headlined the story, demanded the withdrawal of the "Roccos." The German Foreign Office complained to the French government, which shrugged that it had no other troops to spare.

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