Crime and Mercies

Crimes and Mercies James Bacque Little, Brown and Company (Canada) Limited, 1997 At least 9.3 million Germans died needlessly soon after (World War II], great majority because of conditions imposed by four major victors, according to historian James Basque in a sequel to his earlier book Other Losses. The figure may go as high as 13.7 million. Does anyone care? The myths that survive in Western public opinion and within prevailing intellectual culture seem impenetrable. Basque's is latest of several learned books, including those by Alfred-Maurice de Zayas and Victor Gollancz, that have appeared in recent decades about atrocities committed against German civilians and prisoners of war in 1945 and for five years thereafter. A reason for yet another book is that Basque has had benefit; as those who preceded him have not, of KGB archives in Moscow. The opening of Soviet archives has been a source of illimitable information for those seeking to understand twentieth century. Another reason, of course, is that world has largely ignored earlier books. Serious scholars will need to repeat again and again many facts that are required to give perspective and balance to understanding of history. Otherwise, myth and prejudiced selectivity will remain as permanent historiography of our age. The title Crimes and Mercies reflects Basque's desire to remind us that, along with atrocities, some wonderfully humane things were done (hence, mercies). There was potential famine in many parts of world at end of war, precipitating a concerted effort especially by United States, Canada, Australia and Argentina. It is an amazing figure, but former U.S. president Herbert Hoover, who spent much of his adult life in food relief, estimated that as many as 800 million lives were saved. The post-war atrocities committed against Germans took a grisly toll on three categories of people: residents of occupied Germany, of whom 5.7 million are said to have died; 15 million who were expelled from eastern lands and forced west toward what later became West Germany, of whom anywhere from 2.1 to 6.0 million died (it was Konrad Adenauer who put figure at 6 million); and prisoners of war, of whom from 1.5 to 2.0 million died. The residents of occupied Germany. For a considerable period after end of war in May 1945, German people were subjected to conditions despite an abundance of available food. Germans speak of 1947 as Hungerjahr. Red Cross food trains were sent back to Switzerland; all foreign governments were denied permission to send food; fertilizer production was sharply reduced; such food as there was was even confiscated, especially in French zone; and fishing fleet was kept in port. In 1945, Mennonites were forbidden to send food to their co-religionists in Germany. The taking of eastern Prussia to make it a part of Poland deprived Germany of 25 percent of its arable land. What finally assured prolonged of Germans was enforced reduction of BacQue says. The Morgenthau Plan to reduce Germany to an industrial wasteland was said to have been cancelled, but it wasn't. By autumn 1945, industrial production was deliberately reduced to around 25-30 percent of pre-war levels, even though war itself, with all its bombing, had hardly affected German industry, which at end of war still had 80-85 percent of its plant intact. The dismantlement of German industry was still continuing, indeed rising, in 1949, which saw removal of all or part of 268 factories. In January 1947 allotted daily ration per person in French zone was 450 calories, whereas health experts say that from 2 to 3 thousand calories are needed for good health. Influential American senators such as Taft, LaFollette and Wherry protested the deliberate and wholesale mass starvation in American, British and French canes of occupation. …

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