Ophüls, Marcel	...	(Director)
André Harris, Marcel Ophüls	...	(Writer)
Georges Bidault	...	Himself
Matthäus Bleibinger	...	Himself
Matthäus Bleibinger	...	Himself - Wehrmacht Soldier in the Auvergne
Charles Braun	...
Maurice Buckmaster	...	Himself - Former Head of the British Underground
Emile Coulaudon	...	Himself - Former Head of the Auvergne Maquis
Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie	...	Himself - Founder of the Liberation Movement
René de Chambrun	...	Himself - International Lawyer
Christian de la Mazière	...	Himself - Aristocratic Former Nazi
Darquier de Pellepoix	...	Himself - Handshake with Heydrich
Jacques Doriot	...	Himself - Head of the French Popular Party, 1942
R. Du Jonchay	...	Himself - Head of the Resistance Movement
Jacques Duclos	...	Himself - Former Secretary of the Clandestine Communist Party
Anthony Eden	...	(also archive footage)
Sgt. Evans	...
Marcel Fouche-Degliame	...	Himself - Director of the Combat Movement
Maurice Chevalier	...
Pierre Mendès France	...	Himself - Former Prime Minister of France
Pierre Mendès-France	...
Marcel Ophüls	...
Henri Rochat	...
Edward Spears	...

Summary: From 1940 to 1944, France's Vichy government collaborated with Nazi Germany. Marcel Ophüls mixes archival footage with 1969 interviews of a German officer and of collaborators and resistance fighters from Clermont-Ferrand. They comment on the nature, details and reasons for the collaboration, from anti-Semitism, xenophobia, and fear of Bolsheviks, to simple caution. Part one, "The Collapse," includes an extended interview with Pierre Mendès-France, jailed for anti-Vichy action and later France's Prime Minister. At the heart of part two, "The Choice," is an interview with Christian de la Mazière, one of 7,000 French youth to fight on the eastern front wearing German uniforms.