[tz] end of DST in occupied France October 1944

[Brian Inglis]

On 2019-09-06 05:43, Michael H Deckers via tz wrote:
> On 2019-09-06 09:25, Alois Treindl wrote:
>> Germany under the Nazis considered them de facto as part of Germany since
>> 1940, but the legal status was undefined - they were not mentioned in the
>> contract with France of 1940.
>>
>> I think one is safe to assume that the DST regulation for 1944 was de facto
>> valid for these two provinces, as far as they were still in German hands.
>> In our Astrodienst time zone database, I will modify the date given by Shanks
>> from 3 Oct to 2 Oct, for the occupied areas.
>>
>> The German law does not mention them. It mentions only some eastern areas
>> under German administration.

> Yes, the German military doubtless used the time as specified by that decree
> in their communications. But civil time in the rural regions of Alsatia and
> Lorraine is a different matter.

Civil time in rural regions has normally been set by urban-based authorities,
and it is likely cities like Straßburg, Mülhausen, Metz, Diedenhofen, Kolmar
conformed to the Reich, and the rural areas followed.

> Railroad time and time at city hall was disseminated from Paris. At the time,
> it was not so easy to deviate from that time (even if it was only for
> subtracting one hour) because lots of time tables, deadlines, and office
> hours were involved. And I do not see a reason why the German military would
> even try to enforce such a change.

Reichsland and occupied territory railways, starting with Austria, were
incorporated into Deutsche Reichsbahn, including conversion of thousands of km
of Russian guage to European standard guage, to expedite movement of troops and
materiel: time tables prioritized military and logistical movements.

> Things are different for Strasbourg: most French speaking people had been
> expelled and the city had formally been included into the German Reich, so
> they certainly kept German civil time in 1944 until the liberation in
> November. And there may be other cities near the border (such as Thionville,
> Colmar, Mulhouse,..) which are similar.

Expulsions and emigrations resulted from treaties after each of the wars from
the Napoleonic to WWII.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alsace-Lorraine#World_War_II (see article
references 18-21) says that in 1942 the Alsace and Moselle Reichsland was merged
into Reichsgaue, citizens decreed Germans, conscripted into the Wehrmacht on the
Eastern front, Waffen SS, and SS Panzer, and language policies flipped to
require German be learned, and French forbidden.

-- 
Take care. Thanks, Brian Inglis, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

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