Die Elsäßer

« Les alsaciens - ou les deux Mathilde » follows a middle-class family from the start of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 to the end of World War II. It shows the paradoxes of switching countries and the losses suffered by families, not only by death but by splits between those who stayed and those who became refugees in France, or those naturalised Alsatians who suffered enforced repatriation. At the centre were two ladies of different generations (Grandmother and Granddaughter), both called Mathilde who resisted the changes as best they could, suffering the consequences. It gives great insight into a part of history often overlooked and shows why the Alsatians are how they are. That is to say stoically independent and making the most of the hand history has dealt them.