In his book La Vision des vaincus (published in English as The Vision of the Vanquished], the historian and anthropologist Nathan Wachtel examines how the inhabitants of Peru underwent the invasion of their land by the Spaniards. That is, he reverses the usual Eurocentric standpoint; describing the Conquest as it was seen not by the victors but by the vanquished, he asks how the Native Americans “experienced their defeat,” how they “interpreted it,” and how they “remembered it in their collective memory” (22). Such a reversal seems unproblematic when the vanquished have come to be perceived as representing a worthy cause, as have Native Americans, who fought to preserve their land and their culture. Taking a leftist perspective, the same thing could be said of other noble vanquished, such as the members of the Paris Commune and the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, who lost to reactionary forces while defending the values of social change and democracy. By contrast, offering the viewpoint of the losing side raises several difficulties when that side is also regarded as the wrong side – as the side that endorsed untenable positions. Such is the case with the volunteers, whose memoirs present the outlook of a group that might be called the unlikable vanquished. Indeed, whether they belonged to the LVF, the Brigade Frankreich, or the Division Charlemagne, the volunteers remain associated in public opinion with the Nazi regime.