The whole aspect of life is grim and dark; you see the traces of progressive starvation in every face you come to see. [2008] Eisenhower's (Eisenhower's American historian Ralph Franklin Keeling wrote: While the Germans around them starve, wear rags, and live in hovels, the American aristocrats live in often unaccustomed ease and luxury. died unnecessarily after the official end of hostilities.....Most as a Weapon of War  The U.S. Military Governor report in December 1947 stated that the death rate among German civilians was 12.1 per year per thousand. However, the administrative burden of trying to locate these people and treat them differently from the rest is one which is almost insuperable. [1], Normal adult Germans in the American and British Zones were rationed only 1,550 calories per day. Ehrenburg, actually encouraged the rape and degradation of the German civilian The basis for the priority is the prevention of famine in the US-UK zones of Germany…”[33], Germany was still being operated under the Morgenthau Plan and the Potsdam Agreement. In the largest episode of forced migration in history, millions of German-speaking civilians were sent to Germany from Czechoslovakia (above) and other European countries after World War II … Capt. The Marshall Plan withstood the Soviet challenge. : Institute for Historical Review, 1992, pp. Mr. President, the cynical and savage repudiation of these solemn declarations which has resulted in a major catastrophe, cannot be explained in terms of ignorance or incompetence. [4], The Allies had studied German food production during the war, so they knew what to expect once Germany was defeated. The second issue that is involved is the effect this tragedy in Germany has already had on the other European countries. Millions of German expellees who lost all of their real estate and most of their personal property were never compensated by the Allies. Quoted in Keeling, Ralph Franklin, Gruesome Harvest: The Allies’ Postwar War against the German People, Torrance, Cal. She wrote about the scramble for Red Cross packages at the Wildflecken Camp: It is hard to believe that some shiny little tins of meat paste and sardines could almost start a riot in the camp, that bags of Lipton’s tea and tins of Varrington House coffee and bars of vitaminized chocolate could drive men almost insane with desire. American and British captivity, most infamously in horrid holding camps along 76-77. 110, 210. An estimated 22,000 of the Dutch population died from starvation, but it affected millions. They are not to blame for the war. Architect--Morgenthau. The expellees arriving totaled 6,000,000. Millions of other Germans had their property stolen or destroyed by Allied soldiers. John, who is currently retired, worked most of his career as a CPA. Concentration Camps (Boer Captain Albert Behnke compared German and Dutch starvation: For months in parts of Germany, the ration set by the occupying Allies was 400 calories per day; in much of Germany it was often around 1,000, and officially for more than two years it was never … It was a common sight to see German women up to their elbows in our garbage cans looking for something edible—that is, if they weren’t chased away. Mass Starvation of Germans, The Germans’ inability to remember and mourn in the first decades after World War II disturbed many young Germans born after the war, and in the late ‘60s they began to ask their parents questions about what they did during the Nazi regime. Their clothes hang loose on their bodies, the lower extremities are like the bones of a skeleton, their hands shake as though with palsy, the muscles of the arms are withered, the skin lies in folds, and is without elasticity, the joints spring out as though broken. Miller read the whole work, including the documents, and checked the statistics, which he says “confirms the validity of [Bacque’s] calculations...” Miller states: “These deaths appear to have resulted, directly or indirectly, from the semi-starvation food rations that were all that were available to the majority of the German population during this time period.”[50]. When we tell the Germans their low rations are necessary because food is so short, they naturally either think we are lying to them or regard us as inhuman for taking the lion’s share of the short supplies while they and their children starve.[20]. Michael Walsh, Books It makes all the many hard-working officers of the Office of Military Government, Food and Agricultural Branch, ashamed.[15]. in as many as 13.7 million Germans, had, by 1950, needlessly died as a result.A Review of James Bacque's "Crimes and Mercies: The [44] De Zayas, Alfred-Maurice, Nemesis at Potsdam: The Anglo-Americans and the Expulsion of the Germans, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1977, pp. : Institute for Historical Review, 1992, pp. Children, pregnant women and the elderly suffered the most. Patton stated, “What we are doing is to utterly destroy the only semi-modern state in Europe so that Russia can swallow the whole.”[43], After an unsuccessful Moscow meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers in March 1947, the Western Allies realized the necessity of setting a new course independent of the Soviet Union. Births according to the official German statistical agency, Statistisches Bundesamt, added another 4,176,430 newcomers to Germany. But many innocent people were also imprisoned, often on flimsy charges, and many of them perished. Perhaps eventually a decent government can be established in Germany so that Germany can again take its place in the family of nations. [43] Goodrich, Thomas, Hellstorm: The Death of Nazi Germany, 1944-1947, Sheridan, Colo.: Aberdeen Books, 2010, p. 321. The Soviet Union organized a rival program for recovery in Eastern Europe known as the Molotov Plan. [32] Bacque, James, Crimes and Mercies: The Fate of German Civilians under Allied Occupation, 1944-1950, 2nd edition, Vancouver, British Columbia: Talonbooks, 2007, pp. were killed in the European Theater." His best estimate is that some three million Germans, military and civilians, Deaths officially recorded in the period 1946-50 were 3,235,539, according to the UN Yearbook and the German government. Food and supplies were very short during the allied occupation of Germany, and there were Germans who starved to death because of the lack of food, there is more than enough documentation to support this. Auschwitz. Herbert Hoover told President Truman that “the 1,550 ration is wholly incapable of supporting health.”[2] Hoover estimated that 2,200 calories per day “is a minimum in a nation for healthy human beings.”[3], The destruction of the German infrastructure during the war had made it inevitable that some Germans would starve to death before roads, rails, canals and bridges could be restored. Mass Starvation of Germans, 1945-1950 Bacque details how this 5.7 million death total is calculated: The population of all occupied Germany in October 1946 was 65,000,000, according to the census prepared under the ACC. Germany was stripped of its war gains and lost territories in the east to Poland and the Soviet Union. Fate of German Civilians Under Allied Occupation 1944-1950" These policies made it impossible for Germany to feed her population. A million of these were men who were being held as prisoners of war, most This is as much a part of the destruction of Europe as are those gaunt ruins of Frankfurt. 953, 960-961, 989-990. Food rations had been severly cut and food hard to get during Winter 1944 and the situation steadily deteriorated as the NAZI regime collapsed. The Allied postwar treatment of Germany is surely one of the most brutal, criminal and unreported tragedies in world history. The British and we are going on record as the ones who let the Germans starve. According to Gen. Maurice Pope, who in 1948 was with the Canadian Military Mission in Germany, “conditions improved overnight…[soon] the modest corner grocery store was displaying delicacies of all kinds and at quite reasonable prices.”[47]. [28], Gollancz made a six-week tour of the British Zone in October and November 1946. Why should these facts be withheld from the people of the United States? Even as late as 1949, 268 factories were removed from Germany wholly or in part. 90-91. Nearly three decades years after her death, the truth about the actress's challenged childhood in Holland during World War II has come to light in a new book The deliberate starvation of Leningrad was the most notorious example of the Nazis’ policy of killing by hunger, which in the early 1940s caused the death of four million Soviet citizens in the western parts of the Soviet Union they occupied. ”During the Second World War at least 20 million people died just such a terrible death from starvation, malnutrition and its associated diseases.” Her … In WW1 the British blockade of Germany is estimated to have killed over 460,000 German civilians through starvation and caused mass disaffection. The POWs were often provided, for example, only special "Russian" bread made from sugar beet husks and straw flour. [37] Hockenos, Matthew D., Then They Came for Me: Martin Niemöller, The Pastor Who Defied the Nazis, New York: Basic Books, 2018, p. 204. Since then the Germans’ memory has been restored, and in recent decades it has been working overtime. Fate of German Civilians Under Allied Occupation 1944-1950" [34], The economic disruptions caused by Germany’s zonal partition also hurt the German economy. [27] Congressional Record, Jan. 29, 1946, pp. Nearly three decades years after her death, the truth about the actress's challenged childhood in Holland during World War II has come to light in a new book See: The deliberate starvation of Leningrad was the most notorious example of the Nazis’ policy of killing by hunger, which in the early 1940s caused the death of four million Soviet citizens in the western parts of the Soviet Union they occupied. George Kennan was also outraged by the disparity in living conditions between the Germans and Americans in Germany. At the end of the war, there were some eight million foreign displaced persons in Germany; mainly forced laborers and prisoners; including around 400,000 from the concentration camp system, survivors from a much larger … [5], The danger of hunger and starvation was slow to abate throughout Germany. If one word could describe Germany during the immediate aftermath of World War I, it would be "starvation." Leading to a famine in the occupied Netherlands, known as the "Hongerwinter", also meaning Hungry Winter, when a German blockade in 1944 prevented the arrival of any food and fuel shipments, as a punishment to the Dutch for not having aided the Nazis. The growth of Germany’s economy put an end to the starvation of the German people. 172-173. Allied War Crimes US The most immediate problem the Germans and the Allied occupation authorities faced was food. The Last Dirty Secret of World War Two by James Bacque, US Until the misfortunes of those whom Germany oppressed are oblivated (sic), it does not seem right to divert our efforts to Germany itself. : Institute for Historical Review, 1992, pp. Gollancz pointed out that the inmates at Bergen-Belsen toward the end of the war had only 800 calories per day, which was not much less than the British proposal. If one word could describe Germany during the immediate aftermath of World War I, it would be "starvation." (Of the 90,000 Germans who surrendered at World War II: World War II (WWII) started just twenty years after World War I, the first global conflict. Not only have the leaders of this plot permitted the whole world situation to get…out of hand…but their determination to destroy the German people and the German Nation, no matter what the consequences to our own moral principles, to our leadership in world affairs, to our Christian faith, to our allies, or to the whole future peace of the world, has become a world scandal…We have all seen the grim pictures of the piled-up bodies uncovered by the American and British armies, and our hearts have been wrung with pity at the sight of such emaciation—reducing adults and even little children to mere skeletons. It was not until March 1946 that ICRC donations were permitted to reach the American Zone in Germany. Continuing the policies of their predecessors, U.S. President Harry Truman and British Prime Minister Clement Attlee allowed the spirit of Henry Morgenthau and the Yalta Conference to dictate their policies toward Germany. Guard Remembers, New Book Details Mass Killings and Brutal Mistreatment However, the Soviet Union took steps to prevent any of the Eastern European countries from participating in the Marshall Plan. Less than five months after Great Britain, the United States, and France established the Federal Republic of Germany in West Germany, the Democratic Republic of Germany … To this point this clique of conspirators has addressed themselves: “Germany is to be destroyed. 70-71. [38], The physical and emotional toll of hunger, cold and disillusionment made life in Germany intolerable for Niemöller. The point was to show that Gollancz had seen these things with his own eyes and had not merely accepted other people’s reports. Malcolm Muir, publisher of Business Week, stated after a five-week tour of Europe, including Germany: “The Germans are making every effort to help themselves…It is not unusual to see a milch cow hitched to a plow, a woman leading the cow and a small boy guiding the plow.” However, despite the best efforts of German farmers, the food situation became critical and then catastrophic.[14]. I feel ashamed, of myself, of my people, as I eat and watch those children. millions of German girls and woman in the Soviet occupation zones, perhaps the (USA)  © 1996-2021 CODOH.com | All Rights Reserved, translating CODOH is an ongoing effort. -- victims of disease, cold, hunger, suicide, and mass murder. [27], British intellectuals such as Bertrand Russell and Victor Gollancz also worked to publicize the suffering and mass starvation of the German people. Millions of Germans fled or were expelled from eastern Europe. deliberate Allied starvation and expulsion policies after the Second World War, These two programs shared a crucial conceptual flaw: central to both schemes was the paradoxical policy of transforming Germany into an agricultural economy while at the same time depriving Germany of her most valuable agricultural regions and displacing the population of these regions into rump Germany. civilians, died unnecessarily after the official end of hostilities. There was a shortage of 5,710,095 people, according to the official Allied figures (rounded to 5,700,000). Finally, Wherry said, “The truth is that there are thousands upon thousands of tons of military rations in our surplus stock piles that have been spoiling right in the midst of starving populations.”[25]. The Allies also used false accounting to not credit the value of some German exports to the German account, making it impossible for Germans to earn foreign currency to buy food. The Allies had decided to take huge reparations amounting to at least $20 billion ($279 billion in 2018 dollars). 2, Summer 1990, p. 165. The Western Allies feared that if Germany remained Europe’s slum, social unrest would force it into the Communist camp and the rest of Europe would follow. Nazi Germany drew up a “Hunger Plan” during World War II that, had it been implemented, could have resulted in the starvation of some 20 million people or more in territory controlled by the Soviet Union. Starvation involved five sequential phases: Phase I (March 27–May 2) supported the Okinawa invasion by … This famine was camouflaged as much as possible by the Allied armies and governments. The conning tower of U-20 which torpedoed the liner Lusitania. The German economy was plainly reviving within months; within a year it was expanding faster than any other economy in Europe; and within a decade Germany was close to the richest country in Europe. Use this menu to find more documents that are part of this periodical. I admit that there are, of course, many innocent people in Germany who had little to do with the Nazi terror. An official of the Food Branch of the American Military Government made the following report concerning the conditions in Germany: The greatest famine catastrophe of recent centuries is upon us in central Europe. 157-158. The Last Dirty Secret of World War Two by James Bacque. A group of German doctors reported in 1947 that the actual daily calorie ration issued for three months in the Ruhr section of the British Zone averaged only 800 per person. the War Department, 18 October 1945, [2000] HOW ALLIES TREATED GERMAN POWs by Even the German Army was affected. German women who had been repeatedly raped by Allied soldiers had to bear the physical and psychological scars for the rest of their lives. The first issue has been and continues to be purely humanitarian. In order to accomplish this it mattered not if the liberated countries in Europe suffered and starved. John graduated with a degree in accounting from Southern Methodist University in May 1974 and passed the CPA exam later that year. 253, 363. The Germans were well fed during the War by seizing food from the occupied countries. One commentator described the effect of the Marshall Plan on West Germany: The effects had been prodigious, equaled in no other European country, although Germany got only a relatively small portion of Marshall Plan aid. Only $1.389 billion went to West Germany, of which Germany later repaid approximately $1 billion. [46], The effect of the Marshall Plan in Germany was almost magical. The Nazi Hunger Plan of early 1941, which envisaged the expulsion and starvation of 30 million people out of grain surplus areas, never materialised, but brutal requisitioning in Nazi-occupied areas resulted in about 4 million de… The falsity of these reports is shown by comparing the 1947 report, which was a year of extreme starvation and misery remembered by Germans as the Hunger Year, to other peacetime years in Germany. maintains, as a result of Allied policy. That was 70 years ago. The return of ICRC donations was made even for Irish and Swiss contributions that had been specifically raised to benefit Germany. Germany’s defeat in May 1945, and the end of World War II in Europe, did not bring an end to death and suffering for the vanquished German people. The Starving of Germany in 1919 2 Agosto 2017 di Angelo Paratico I first read about the starvation of Germans at the end of WWI in a book written by British historian Clive Ponting, he reported that close to 900.000 Germans died of starvation in 1918 and 1919. Allied Occupation 1944-1950 by James Bacque  Women pregnant during the period gave birth to babies who were affected by health problems throughout their lives. now packed with German captives, many of whom perished miserably. Some informed political leaders spoke out against the Allied policy of mass starvation of the German people. Germans also starved in the east because the Russians confiscated so much food and virtually all of the factories. Six years of war, indescribable destruction, and the lunatic policies which have added to the disintegration inherited from the collapse of the Nazi regime have done their work. [41], The threat of a Communist takeover in Europe had long been recognized by Allied leaders. [11] Brech, Martin, “In ‘Eisenhower’s Death Camps’: A U.S. Prison Guard’s Story,” The Journal of Historical Review, Vol. This document is part of a periodical (Inconvenient History). Wherry stated:       “Terrifying reports are filtering through the British, French and American occupied zones, and even more gruesome reports from the Russian occupied zone, revealing a horrifying picture of deliberate and wholesale starvation.” Wherry criticized the Truman administration for doing nothing despite the pleas for intercession to prevent a major tragedy. based Concentration Camps for Germans, [2012 June] The But they don’t know how people really think and react who are hungry, who are on the way to starving. by Giles MacDonogh The WW2 German blockade of Britain [mainly by submarine] cost Britain 11,000,000 tons of shipping but did not produce mass starvation or drive it out of the war. There cannot possibly be any valid reason for secrecy. French Marshal Alphonse Juin stated to Gen. George Patton at a dinner in Paris in August 1945: “It is indeed unfortunate that the English and Americans have destroyed the only sound country in Europe--and I do not mean France--therefore the road is now open for the advent of Russian communism.”[42], Patton himself had warned of the danger of Russian communism resulting from the destruction of Germany. Niemöller wrote to Pastor Ewart Turner: The winter is over, but you feel it everywhere—in the cold which is still harboring in the rooms, especially in this old castle with its thick stone walls. the Rhine river, with no shelter and very little food. [42] Bacque, James, Other Losses: An Investigation into the Mass Deaths of German Prisoners at the Hands of the French and Americans after World War II, 1944-1950, 3rd edition, Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2011, pp. But the census of 1950 done by the German government under Allied supervision found only 68,230,796. [44], The European Recovery Program, better known as the Marshall Plan, was originally envisaged by U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall to promote the economic recovery of Europe on both sides of the iron curtain. This repudiation, not only of the Potsdam Declaration, but also of every law of God and men, has been deliberately engineered with such a malevolent cunning, and with such diabolical skill, that the American people themselves have been caught in an international death trap. the British, French, Soviets, and Americans), at least 9.3 million and possibly revisionism, Quotes And yet, while some 900,000 German men, women and children were starving to death, the American and British public knew nothing about the reason for this holocaust, deliberately caused by the continuation of a wartime British naval blockade. The US Treasury Secretary, Henry Morgenthau, favoured turning Germany into a gigantic farm, and there were genocidal Nazi-like schemes afoot … Post-war scramble. Instead the Allies created a horrible new era of destruction, looting, starvation, rape, ethnic cleansing and mass killing - that Time magazine called "history's most terrifying peace." The truth is that the nations of central, southern, and eastern Europe are adrift on a flood of anarchy and chaos.[23]. George F. Kennan observed, “It was plain that the Soviet leaders had a political interest in seeing the economies of the Western European peoples fail under anything other than communist leadership.” With total economic disintegration in Europe imminent, a new plan was needed to shore up the ailing European economies. of Germans, A Review of James Bacque's "Crimes and Mercies: The Churchill, [2013] Rhine meadow camps in summer 1945 (part 1). But this is so. Niemöller said to an American audience when he toured the United States from December 1946 to April 1947: The offices of our [American] military government are very nicely and cozily heated and our military government people live a good life as far as nourishment and everything else, even housing, is concerned. American aviation hero Charles Lindbergh wrote: German children look in through the window. The result was that millions of Germans were doomed to slow death by starvation. Review of Lizzie Collingham, The Taste of War: World War II and the Battle for Food (The Penguin Press, 2012), xxii + 634 pgs.. It is difficult to look at them. The end of WWII and Germany's defeat in May 1945, just did not bring an end to death and suffering for the German people. Though the Hunger Plan proved impossible, it provided the moral premises for the Wehrmacht's treatment of civilians and prisoners of war after the invasion of June 1941. [40], What finally led the Western Allies to a revision of their occupation policy in Germany was the fear of a Communist takeover of Europe. The German Central Administration of Health reported the deadly effects of malnutrition: The people hunger…They are emaciated to the bone.
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