Other losses : the shocking truth behind the mass deaths of disarmed German soldiers and civilians under General Eisenhower's command

325 Pages·1991·9.248 MB·English

by  Bacque, James

OTHER
LOSSES
Publisher's Note
We caution the reader not to be so lost in the politics of
horrors as to equate the brutal revenge described in this book
with the much greater evil of a state-instigated campaign
of hatred and systematic murder that was the singular legacy
of Nazi Germany. There are those who would cynically use
this work to fan hatreds in their attempt to flatten the
differences in atrocities by equating, and thus nullifying, them.
We have lived in the shadow of World War IT for so long
that we've grown accustomed to seeing oniy the inhumanity
of the enemy. Thus, we were able to live with the comforting
idea that because our cause was noble, our actions, too, were
largely beyond reproach.
There is still no doubt in the mind of any but a tiny group
of historical revisionists that the fight against Nazi Germany
was, as Studs Terkel calls it, "the Good War." However, in
this dark, brooding, and painstakingly well-researched book,
you will discover that at the end of World War IT, when
Germany was conclusively defeated, a policy of hatred
deliberately and indifferently caused the death by disease,
exposure, and starvation of massive numbers of disarmed'
German soldiers and some civilians.
Certainly, few books in recent memory have instigated as
much controversy among scholars and other interested
readers. And yet, James Bacque keeps ferreting out more
information that makes his arguments more convincing all
the time. (This edition contains a new epilogue and a new
appendix not previously published in the original Canadian
edition of this book.) Furthermore, even Eisenhower
apologists cannot deny the graphic descriptions of both
American and German eyewitnesses, as well as the newly
discovered document quoting Konrad Adenauer.
In a free society, the truth must be exposed, regardless
of the consequences-especially if we don't like to hear it.
The Shocking Truth
Behind the Mass Deaths
01 Disarmed German Soldiers
and Civilians Under
General Eisenhower's Command
JAMES BleQUE
Prima Publishing
The worst sin
towards our fellow creatures
is not to hate them
but to be indifferent to them;
that's the essence of inhumanity.
George Bernard Shaw, The Devil's Disciple
To
L'A bbe Franz Stock
and
Victor Gollancz
ZONES OF GERMANY 1945
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The U.S. had about 200 camps in Germany. At least five were taken
over by the French army when the French zone was set up in the
summer of 1945.
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The French had more than 1,600 camps scattered across France and
their zone of Germany. Many had been taken over from the U.S.
Army after the war.
Contents
Principal Events Relating to This Book xi
Acronyms and Short Forms xv
Foreword by Dr. Ernest F. Fisher Jr. xix
Introduction 1
1 Deciding Germany's Fate 5
2 Without Shelter 15
3 No Public Declaration 27
4 The Cruelty of the Victor 37
5 Summer of Starvation 50
6 Keeping Help Away 69
7 The Slow Death Camps 87
8 Liming the Corpse 98
9 Inside the Greenhouse 113
10 The British and Canadians 133
11* Myth, Lies and History 143
12 By Winks and Nods 162
13 Epilogue* 174
Appendices Introduction 196
Appendix 1 Other Losses in the American Camps 198
Appendix 2 The ETO Medical History 211
Appendix 3 The Provost Marshal Reports 218
Appendix 4 The SHAEF-USFET Papers 220
Appendix 5 The June 2 Discrepancy: SHAEF G3 and
Generals Lee and Littlejohn 221
Appendix 6 Discrepancy in Number of Captives, June 2
and September 8, 1945 222
Appendix 7 The Midnight Shift 223
Appendix 8 The Prisoners in the Bremen Enclave
(SCOFOR Forces) 225
Appendix 9 The British Discrepancy 226
Appendix 10 Escapees from French Camps 228
Appendix 11* Other Glosses: How Some Critics Have
Interpreted the Evidence 230
Notes 245
Archives Visited with Their Short Forms 283
Selected Bibliography 284
Acknowledgments 287
Index 289
* Important: New material for the U.S. edition-not previously published in the UK
or Canada.

Principal Events Relating to This Book
1939
September 1: Germany attacks Poland.
September 3: Britain and France declare war on Germany
September 10: Canada declares war on Germany
September 17: Russia invades Poland
Winter 1939-1940
Massacre of Polish army officers by Russians at I<atyn.
1940
June 21: Defeat, surrender and partition of France. About 1,500,000 French
soldiers held as POws in Germany.
1941
June: Germany attacks Russia.
December: Japan attacks USA. Hitler declares war on USA.
1942
August: Dieppe raid by Canadians. Canadians accuse Germans of chaining
prisoners taken at Dieppe; Germans accuse Canadians of similar atrocity.
November: Allies land in North Africa.
1943
January: Churchill and Roosevelt meet at Casablanca and call for the uncon
ditional surrender of Germany.
May: Axis forces surrender at Tunis. Biggest prisoner round-up of war to date.
Eisenhower complains to Marshall, "It's a pity we could not have killed
more."
November-December: Teheran Conference, Stalin and Roosevelt toast to the
deaths of 50,000 German officers to be shot after the war; Elliott Roosevelt
toasts to many more being shot, and says the U.S. Army will support this.
Churchill storms out of the room.
1944
February: Eisenhower appoints General Everett S. Hughes as his special
assistant.
June 6, D-Day: Americans, British and Canadians invade Normandy.
September: Quebec Conference; the Morgenthau Plan to destroy German
industry is initialed by both Roosevelt and Churchill. The Allies reach the
Rhineland. A newspaper furor breaks out over the Morgenthau Plan.
October: Stalin agrees to the Morgenthau Plan with Churchill in Moscow.
November 4: Hughes advises Eisenhower to keep secret all orders dealing
with prisoner rations.
xi