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Voices of Loss and Courage: German Women Recount Their Expulsion From East-Central Europe 1944-1950 by Brigitte U. Neary and Holle Schneider-Ricks: Published by Picton Press.
Complimentary artwork in Voices of Loss and Courage
A Book Review by Douglas Brough Bsc (Hons), Dip R/S, Cert Hum, Cert Soc Sci.
"Gasoline was poured over them and they were set on fire while still alive" Testimony of Helga Leubner, Troppau, Sudetenland (p.152)
Voices of Loss and Courage by Brigitte Neary and Holle Schneider-Ricks is indeed a book true to its words; it is the voice of the lost and the voice of the courageous; it is the voice of opposition; it is the voice of survival against a foe of forced expulsion, bitter retaliation and the indiscriminate loss of life.
Voices of Loss and Courage
German women recount Their Expulsion From East-Central Europe 1944-1950
Drawn into the book by a foreword by renowned historian, author, Professor of Law at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and former Senior Lawyer with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Dr Alfred de Zayas, Neary and Schneider-Ricks take the reader on a journey through time to their ancestral lands and the time of their own forced expulsion.
But it is not hi-s-tory that they focus upon but her-story as they promote the story of thirty women, thirty vulnerable victims and their families "robbed of all dignity and self-respect, robbed of their very souls" (p. 23).
Brigitte Neary and Holle Schneider-Ricks travelled extensively throughout East-Central Europe to document the recollections of many women who form part of this little known, less talked about and even less taught element of World War II and its repercussions.
The talent within the pages of this book, and it is a talent, is knowing when to break with grammatical tradition in favour of the more ruggedly termed accounts of the interviewees: To some extent they have been allowed to speak for themselves in the only way they know how: Not only does this offer some credibility to the accounts given but it offers some realism to the stories told.
This is a well-planned strategy and one that is needed upon hearing of the experiences of these women; "their breasts were cut off (p. 5) states one survivor, another, "my daughter grew so weak that she could no longer walk" (p. 153) and another still, "when I close my eyes I see an image of someone being beaten to death from behind"
Author Brigitte U. Neary
Voices does however, challenge existing stereotypes and contemporary allegations relating to World War II and its bitter loathing, if not vengeful aftermath known as victory to many in the West.
One particular challenge portrayed in the pages of voices is the perception that the German people did little if anything to help those incarcerated by the Nazi Regime: In this instance Irmgard Gackowski tells of her horror seeing inmates of Auschwitz Concentration Camp march by and aunt's efforts to help as they all became prisoners in the same conflict as "the coffee was poured in the ditch" but the grain, hidden for the inmates by the expellees, "the grain had been eaten" (p. 9).
Another example is the case of the 'civilian target of Dresden' which was so vicariously bombed by the Allied Air Force: This atrocity is briefly though effectively drawn through the pages of 'Voices....' by the words of one woman who stated that "in Dresden she stood on a bridge and asked herself if she should jump in: It was all very cruel" she continued (p. 148).
Nonetheless, these accounts, so superbly researched and presented, highlight the attitude of hatred faced by the expellees, even from their own people. It encourages further research into the circumstances surrounding the concept of loathing ones own people. There was no mercy from the victors and these vulnerable survivors suggest that the prejudice against the refugees (expellees, survivors etc) made them feel like an outsider
(p. 54) and second-class citizens even within their own culture.
However the story doesn't stop there: 'Voices...' travels through to the present day by considering the legacy of the forced expulsions and its effect on its survivors, even to this present day. Some interviewees still couldn't give their full name because they were still afraid, even after 65 years or so, others took years for their injuries to heal, if at all, some never regained their family unit and others "still wake screaming from nightmares, unable to touch a gun or watch a war movie etc (pp. 23-61).
It is to their credit that they were able to travel the course of memory lane and recall deeply moving yet personal stories that unite their individuality into a little known story of where peace was hell and hell was war.
'Voices of Loss and Courage' is a much needed addition to the little that has learnt about the Expulsion of the East-Central European Germans. Much more needs to be learnt about this shielded era of her-story; much more needs to be learnt from history, the lessons need to and must be learnt. Brigitte Neary and Holle Schneider-Ricks have taken a positive step in this direction - their work must be continued!
The refugees existed in "a place where hell couldn't be worse" (p. 38).
"Nun Ade, du mein lieb Heimatland" (goodbye beloved homeland) The words of Irmgard hertzigkeit (p. 137)
Voices of Loss and Courage: German Women Recount their Expulsion from East-Central Europe, 1944-1950: By Brigitte U. Neary and Holle Schneider-Ricks. Pub' by Picton Books; 2002:
Reviewed 2009: Contact Author Via friends of Germany Coalition Here
The German Flag, hereby signifying text in German
Frauen und Vertreibung: Zeitzeuginnen berichten
Die gebürtige Deutsche, Prof. Dr. Brigitte Neary, lässt in diesem Buch- Frauen und Vertreibung- fünfzehn deutsche Frauen aus Osteuropa, die die Kriegs- und Nachkriegszeit erlebten, in ihren eigenen Worten berichten. Ihre Berichte übermitteln erschütternde Erlebnisse der Flucht, Vertreibung, Verschleppung, Vergewaltigung, und Mord.
Sie halten uns Not, Hunger, Krankheit und grausamste Behandlung vor Augen – obwohl die Frauen zu der Zeit zum Teil noch Kinder waren.
Ihre Worte drängen zu dieser Frage: was ist der Mensch heute, und was hat er aus dieser Vergangenheit gelernt?
Prof. Neary is Soziologin und Menschenrechtlerin. Das Vorwort zu diesem Buch schrieb der weitbekannte Menschen- und Völkerrechtler DDr. Alfred M. de Zayas. Wiederholt weist er auf das allgemein mangelnde Interesse,die Gleichgültigkeit, und das auferlegte Schweigen über diese Verbrechen hin.
Das Buch hat 160 Seiten und wird mit einigen Fotos ergänzt. Vergangenheit und Gegenwart gehen mit diesen Berichten Hand in Hand. In wenigen Jahren sind die Nachkommen, und Geschichtsforscher Träger der Geschichte. Frauen und Vertreibung ist ein Buch, welches gerade in der heutigen Zeit mit seiner unheimlich verzerrten und einseitigen Berichterstattung zum Ausgleich des Geschichtsbildes beiträgt .
Buy Frauen und Vertreibung by Dr. Brigitte Neary Here
Frauen und Vertreibung A Book review by Julius Loisch
Reviewed 2009: Contact Author Via friends of Germany Coalition Here
In her book, Frauen und Vertreibung the German-born American, Prof. Dr. Brigitte Neary permits fifteen German women from Eastern Europe to recall their brutal ordeals, 1944-1950.
This historical time period witnessed the destruction of Eastern-European Germans by the advancing Russian front and the subsequent "liberation" of Germany. The women describe in their own words the trauma they experienced decades ago as young girls or young women, of starvation, rape, beating, murder, plundering and abduction. red Army soldiers, but also Poles, Czechs, and Serbs were the perpetrators.
These gripping accounts of human suffering by the advancing Russian frontering at the hands of other humans demanded the questioning of what kind of human beings we are today and what, if anything, we have learned.
Prof. Neary is a sociologist and human rights advocate. The Foreward is by the prominent human rights advocate and scholar, Prof. Dr. Alfred de Zayas. He repeatedly condemns the persistent lack of interest, imposed silence, and violation of human rights surrounding these crimes.
The 160 page long book includes timely and telling photographs: Past and present go hand in hand. In the not so distant future our descendants and historians will be the bearers of history. We must insure there is a record of the collective trauma of millions of Germans. Frauen und Vertreibung significantly contributes to balancing the grossly distorted reporting of history.
This book represents a step towards reconcilling the publicly constructed memory regarding Germans and the personal memories of those who experienced the carnage: The time-witnesses and any others, eager for a balanced account.
Buy Frauen und Vertreibungby Dr. Brigitte Neary Here
Frauen und Vertreibung: Zeitzeuginnen Berichten A book review by Julius Loisch
Picton Press publish genealogical and historical books and CD's and can be reached Here or by mail to Picton Press, PO Box 1347, Rockland, ME, 04841 (Telephone (USA) (207) 596-7766) (Fax (USA) (207) 596-7767.
Their website located at www.pictonpress.com is a clearly defined blend of blue and grey: Having been a publisher for 40 years their website matches the clear-cut quality of their publications.
Picton Press is the official publisher for the Swiss American Historical Society as well as publisher for fine books concerning the German-American population and Germanic issues in Europe.
Picton Press have published books such as "Voices of Loss and Courage: German Women Recount their Expulsion from East-Central Europe, 1944-1950" by Brigitte U. Neary and Holle Schneider-Ricks (Review Here) and "Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau 1939-1945 by Prof. Dr. Alfred M. de Zayas (Review Here). Books such as these reinforce Pictons' committment to the publishing of fine quality, properly researched and informative books and CD's
Their website is easy to use, loads quickly and changes page equaly as fast: Its pale colouring subtly endorses their committment to scholarly publications, some of which are reviewed on this website.
All the links work, the colour is suitable for the layout of the website which adds to the professionalism shown by not only their publications but by the face of Picton Press on the internet.
In being easy to navigate Picton Press present theirselves in a user-friendly manner with an easy menu to the left of the page whilst the main body of the page is presented in a clear easy to read font with a layout to match.
As of October 2009 Picton Press remains the only publisher fully recommended by Friends of Germany Coalition.
Friends of Germany Coalition recommends that you visit their website which is located Here
Picton Press website banner and mailing address
Picton Press A Website Review by Douglas Brough Bsc (Hons), Dip R/S, Cert Soc sci, Cert Hum
Human Rights Education Associates offer various newsletters designed to inform, educate and spread the word about human rights - something that has become a symbol of the late 20th and 21st century.
Their newsletters which can delivered daily or weekly offer a condensed version of the latest news from the United Nations and European Union as
well as from other human rights sources throughout the world. Including the latest appeals for information their newsletters are lacking in the multi-graphic context of the 21st century: In this case this is a good thing as it allows easy to read information that loads quickly and is easy to understand. A newsletter i wouldn't do without: If you are interested in human rights you shouldn't do without it either.
October 6th 2009: Dr. Tomislav Sunic interviewed Mr Eberhard Fuhr, a spokesman for German-American civilians who were interned in prison camps on American soil during World War II.
Mr Eberhard Fuhr was interned alonside thousands of other German-Americans, Italian-Americans and Japanese-Americans during World War II for no other reason than their ethnicity. Most of them were American citizens but had their citizenship revoked as they registered under the Alien Registration Act.
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The plight of the German-American internees remains to be acknowledged by the United States government, despite its recognition of the plight of the Japanese-America internees.
Eberhard Fuhr, prisoner number 4056849, speaks candidly about his experience as a prisoner of the United States government.
Eberhard Fuhr explains the animosity towards anything German and how it was taken, somewhat on purpose as Nazi-loving. All it took for one to find themselves a prisoner was a careless comment, a picture on the wall or just blind lies from someone who didn't like the internee.
Mr Fuhr points out that The Holocaust wasn't generally known about at the time, suggesting that this couldn't have been the reason for the mass internment of american citizens: Indeed he points out that the SS St Louis, full of Jewish-German refugees, was turned away from the United States of America - a land that some would, and indeed have, called the 'land of the free'.
Mr Fuhr, prisoner number 406849, was interned at Crystal City, Texas, a new camp built to ease the U.S government's "internee problem." He candidly points out the contradictory attitudes that society has had with the German people and how the eye for an eye principle was very much applied.
He states how companies who had factories in Germany, such as those belonging to Henry Ford, were victimized, drawing heavy criticism from those around: He states how those who were interned were denyed due process (legal representation, witnesses) in contradiction to the United States Constitution; How they were constantly harrassed by the authorities and guards, some of whom considered them as Nazi's and threatened them with violence, death and other unwanted fate's.
It is worth noting Mr Fuhr arrived in the U. S. A. with his parents in 1928 and was only 17 young years old when he was interned - hardly a born and bred Nazi nevertheless. But because of the mass hysterior and internment he, alongside his brother Julius, were forced to fend for themselves, unable to pay the mortgage on their parents home, or the utility bills: Even though he was 17 at the time, it is a matter of historical fact that many younger children were also left to fend for themselves in similar circumstances.
Mr Fuhr suggests that every effort was made by the United States government to avoid neutrality and go to war on the Allied side. This supports what Mr Fuhr and others have told this reviewer, that the United States of America, Land of the Free, was vehemently anti-German - an attitude that survived the war years and indeed the 20th century upon the knowledge that the Japanese, interned alongside the Germans recieved $20,000 each, not a dime to the German-Americans.
Crystal City Internment Camp
Mr Fuhr also considers the situation at the end of World War II and in the years afterwards where he considers how a great amount of patents, ideas and inventions were stolen from Germany and used by the Americans in their shield against Communism during the Cold War years.
Mr Fuhr and Tom Sunic both identify the amount of German technology that benefited the American people and subsequently the Western world: Alongside space and military technology there was the rubber industry and even the computer which you are using to browse this site, has its origins within the Nazi Regime (See Here).
Quite ironically, Mr Fuhr recalls his eighteenth birthday behind wire and how he was forced to register for the military draft - even though they were deemed enemy aliens they still had to register for military service.
He also briefly mentions the case of Art Jacobs who was interned alongside him at Crystal City who was expelled to Germany: Art Jacobs, after intense pleading, managed to convince the authorities in Germany that he was in fact an American. He was subsequently allowed to return and joined the United States Airforce: He retired as a United States Airforce Major.
Excluded from society like second-class citizens, they have constantly had to fight against the Hollywood stigma of Nazism which still prevails today: Therefore it is worth noting that it is a matter of historical fact that not all Germans were Nazi's.
An informative presentation that only falls short due to time constrictions: It is something we must learn more about: Something which i feel sure that Tom Sunic will help us do in the months to come.
Both Eberhard Fuhr and Art Jacobs were interviwed by the BBC for a documentary some years ago.
Eberhard Fuhr's passport: For more information and to see the souce of this image please visit the Traces website Here
Perhaps Mr Fuhr's internment can be characterized by the following statement from his interview with Tom Sunic.......
When he asked if he could visit his parents looted home he was told that,
"he could go as long as he took three guards with him, paid all of their expenses and returned within the parole period"
So much for Land of the Free: The United States treated their own people as criminals charged with nothing - nothing except being who they were: Who were they? American citizens or Americans seeking full citizenship; children who knew little of the country they were suposed to be associated with and adults who had taken their family to the United States of America to give them a better life: If seeking a better life for our family is a crime whilst obeying the laws of one's adopted country then we are all guilty!!!
To visit Tom Sunic's spot on the web go to the Voice of Reason Broadcast Network Here
Dr. Tomislav Sunic Interviews Mr. Eberhard Fuhr October 6th 2009
A Radio presentation review by Douglas Brough Bsc (Hons), Dip R/S, Cert Soc sci, Cert Hum
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 has probably become more well known because of the recent global ecomonic meltdown, which had its origins in Wall Street.
But it is easy to blame the bankers and money-men who trade to the value of millions each and every day; it is easy to complain at their slightest mistake because of its global implications.
This documentary, broadcast by the British Broadcasting Corporation, attempts to analyze not only Wall Street, but the whole culture of money, bonds, stocks and securities.
In exploring the causes of the 1929 Wall Street Crash, surviving eye-witnesses describe the biggest financial catastrophe in history: Karen Blumenthal of the Wall Street Journal and author of 'Six Days in October' helps explain how history has indeed repeated itself in that "human folly and greed are much stronger forces in financial affairs than reason and restraint - a concept brought home by the recent financial catastrophe.
Using first-hand testimony and the testimony of relations this programme attempts to offer a personal view of the crash - both the shoeshine boy and various bankers have their say.
However, in offering some personalization to a global incident the programme lost its effect: The Wall Street Crash affected almost every country in the world, including Germany who had been saddled with debt to the Americans ever since the dictated peace of World War I.
In devoting little over three minutes to the effect of the Wall Street Crash on other countries, it still managed to squeeze Great Britain into those minutes alongside Germany. There is so much more that should have been said about the world-wide impact of the Wall Street Crash that its absence almost makes this documentary a total failure.
1929: The Great Crash A Documentary Review by Douglas Brough Bsc (Hons), Dip R/S, Cert Soc sci, Cert Hum
“German civilians were supporting the Nazi war effort: That made it total war and justified the bombing of civilian targets”
Paraphrased comments of a RAF Bomber Command Pilot
What this pilot states is that collective guilt is acceptable: In other words that the Allied Air Forces had the right to kill civilians because of the governmental hierarchy in place at that time.
The subject of this documentary review by Douglas Brough is the delicate subject of the area or carpet bombing of mainly civilian targets in Germany by the Allied air forces during World War II; A subject that has sustained continued controversy ever since the end of hostilities in 1945.
Portrayed through a blend of archive footage, colour reconstructions and documents laying in what I assume is the shell of a bombed building, this effective photography seeks, from the outset, justification for what is in effect a war crime right from the outset with archive footage of a Luftwaffe bombing raid on London, UK: It must be noted however, that in accepting the Luftwaffe did indeed bomb London, two wrongs do not ever make a right.
The first half of this documentary reasons one excuse after another in the rationale of why whole areas where bombed instead of specific targets: Pilot error, technical errors and even the weather were reasons cited concerning why the RAF and subsequently the US Air Force carpet bombed Germany
Dresden, Germany after the Carpet Bombing of Civilian Targets
instead on hitting specific targets.
Whereas there is some deviance from the sense of inconceivable justification in subsequent parts of “Bombing Germany”, it still remains a fairly biased view of a military action felt by some military commanders that couldn’t win the war but nevertheless an action they were going to continue with at all costs, no matter what the cost in civilian casualties.
In 1944 for example, over 60% of the overall bomb tonnage was dropped on German towns and cities: In other words over 60% of Allied bombs were dropped on civilian targets despite some British military commanders confirming that it was a breach in international law.
British wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill was intent on proving to Russian leader Joseph Stalin the might and power of the British and American air superiority and destructive power. ‘Bombing Germany’ briefly considers the case of the firestorm of Dresden, though nowhere near enough time was spent on this war crime. It does however identify the targeting priorities of the Allied air forces; in the case of some towns their military worth was not important whereas how they would burn was – their destructibility invited their destruction.
‘Bombing Germany’ did identify some of the smaller towns and villages which were not considered as priority one targets but nevertheless were destroyed. The area that has become the new town of Vogtsburg was identified as a target as were other towns such as Effingham that had no priority one targets and only one priority two target, a power switching station but as the American pilots were briefed to bomb the communications and transportation infrastructure it was heavily bombed, destroying 80% of the town because it had a second class road going through it and that was considered a legitimate transportation target.
But what brings this documentary up to date are the comments regarding the bombing of German towns and cities. These actions were not expected to end the war but had a generational deterrent for future generations: In other words the bombing of German civilians was accepted because it would deter future generations of Germans from doing anything opposed to Allied supremacy.
So much for international democracy! But it has highlighted an attitude that still persists to this day, that all of the German people were, are and remain responsible for the crimes of the Nazi Regime, highlighted by the words of past British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who opposed German unification in the 80’s fearing that they would repeat history. What became evident throughout this documentary is the depths the Allies were prepared to lower themselves to in order to crush the German people.
They were prepared to commit the crimes, crimes that were subordinately considered by Max Hastings, author of Bomber Command, as a moral blemish on the conduct of the Allied powers.
A blemish he stated. I would suggest it was more to do with the genocide of the German people.
Bombing Germany!Broadcast: Military History Channel, Monday 21st September 2009 (UK) A BBC-History Channel Co-Production A Documentary Review By Douglas Brough Bsc (Hons), Dip R/S, Cert Soc Sci, Cert Hum
A Website Review by Douglas Brough Bsc (Hons), Dip R/S, Cert Soc sci, Cert Hum
"I will do anything for food and shelter-with a little love thrown in and no beatings"
`Evelyne as a young child during WWII'.
From time immemorial society has given men weapons and the knowledge of how to use them. Sent to kill, maim and win the war they were greeted as heroes upon their return, having killed indiscriminately in the name of victory, having sold their souls to the devil. But the true heroes, the true survivors are those without weapons, those without knowledge of war and those without the benefits of age who survive the fiercest of battles based on their wits alone, their compassion stretched to the limit, their tolerance in mankind stretched beyond recognition, solely because of their naïve childhood innocence.
To speak of a war hero, natural thought suggests those who win wars, those who kill in the name of freedom. The "laughing faces of young boy pilots" zooming in on their innocent victims where hero's faces in their native Russia during those dark days. Yet Evelyne Tannehill, the face of one of the true hero's of World War II, lies, neglected, in the midst of historical memorial as the forgotten one; forgotten of all recognition as a flesh and bone human being; forgotten because she was guilty of a crime, guilty of the crime of being German, despite her American citizenship. It was Evelyne, the war-orphan of the family who emerged as the true victim, the true hero of this very conveniently forgotten story of survival, survival against the fiercest of odds.
A tale that begins on her ninth birthday, the youngest of five children, on her parents farm by the Baltic Sea in the then East Prussia in Germany. Her family worked the land surrounded by the political legacy of World War I and its Treaty of Versailles which, it is claimed, led the already devastated Germany into its second war in twenty years; a war that was to see all collectively considered as guilty for the actions of the few.
The nearby Russian Front had relatively untouched their tranquil lifestyle but It wasn't to be long before the closing and subsequent months of the war were to unleash a surging flood of devastation upon the German people unmatched in 20th century history; a surging flood that was to see "a wave of humanity" fleeing the advancing Russians, complicated by counter-propaganda alleging that the "set-backs were only temporary" and forbidding the civilian populous to flee without prior written authorisation.
"How could God allow this?" were words frequently on the young Evelyne's lips as her family were drawn apart by the demands of war and survival; as father and son, mother and daughter, brother and sister were separated by the cruel aura of war, death and survival.
Evelyne was to see her brother Douglas taken by the Russians looking for German deserters; she was to participate in the family evacuation; she was to be taken by the Russians to herd the cattle and was to endure constant threats of abuse and death for the smallest of reasons, and all this was before the war ended in May 1945.
Perhaps now the war was over mankind would rekindle some of its humanity but this was not to be so. Her `education' was to take new meaning in the months after the war as she saw her mother raped and then die a painful death brought about by typhoid. It wasn't to be long before Evelyne found herself alone, separated from her family-her brother Henry she only saw occasionally- leaving the young naïve and impressionable girl to fend for herself in a world of ignorance, bitterness and slavish attitude instigated by the now dominant Polish population. Never in one place for long, she gained few friends but many enemies among the Russian and then Polish inhabitants as she was finally split from her remaining family member, having been moved from pillar to post; the bane of those who took her in.
Despite being treated in a manner more reminiscent of the 1800's and suffering repetitive sexual abuse and violent outburst from those around her, Evelyne manages to write without bitterness, without anger and without blame for her childhood years where she was moved from one house of servitude to another, her youthful years of no consequence to the labour she was forced to undertake in return for her keep or for the bare morsels that did little to sustain her young, innocent life.
Abandoned And Forgotten
An Orphan Girl's Tale Of Survival During World War II
Through one of these friends she was soon to find herself among the mass exodus and on one of the last trains destined for Germany. Being re-united with her brother at the train station was a poignant moment; perhaps the beginning of the rest of her life as Evelyne and
Henry soon found themselves in an orphanage in Bautzen where friendships and compassion began to grow; where she was given clothes and where her schooling was to continue; where she was to finally find someone who cared.
Two aunties, Elsbeth and Gertrude had gone to great pains to find their niece; their hard work reaped reward and a letter duly arrived at the orphanage informing them that her uncle Eduard was to shortly collect them.
It was a moment of great joy as they fought through the crowds to get to their aunties in Klosterburg. Subsequent years were still tough: Evelyne was schooled at the nearby Gymnasium where she worked hard to master the English language in preparation for her new life in America. She felt loved, but still troubled by the traumas of the past.
Aunt Gertrude took her to the ship which was to take her to America and then slipped away quietly in the crowds, perhaps as Evelyne suggests, to avoid the pain of goodbye. "Sailing to America with a small trunk filled with books, a single suitcase of clothes and an unrestrained optimism that only the young are capable of". Upon arrival there was to be no family welcome-her brothers were fighting for the Americans in Korea-where she stayed with her sister-in-law.
Despite being in America the ghosts of the past still haunted her; her first marriage suffered and it brought family discontent; her children both suffered and taught their mother, a lot but it wasn't until her second relationship that the ghosts of the past were to be finally put to rest.
When the Iron Curtain was raised she was able to travel back to the land of her childhood; some people had long forgotten, yet others still remembered this small impressionable girl; one offered to slaughter a chicken before they went but had to make to with a gift of apples.
Past memories where overwhelming as Evelyne went to where she thought her mothers grave was, sending her unspoken thoughts in her mothers direction "I want to tell you about my life" she began "I loved you more than I knew. Not until you were gone did I learn how much. And I will always love the memory of you".
One spends a lifetime waiting for `the book' and then along comes a story so full of personal emotion and courageous honesty that it becomes a privilege to read. This, is that book.
It took courage to address her past and open her life to public scrutiny and write of her life as an orphan of the Second World War. I offer a debt of gratitude for the privilege of reviewing her story; a story that I hope goes some way towards reconciliation between former enemies; a story so full of emotion that as she finally left her childhood roots after her visit, she decided was a chapter in her life that needed closing.
And then, Evelyne wrote the book, and the rest as they say is
history…………………
Abandoned & Forgotten: An Orphan Girl's Tale of Survival during World War II. By Evelyne Tannehill. Pub' by Wheatmark.
“If I can eat maggot soup, why not second-hand candy?”
Gunter Nitsche on his experiences of being a German expellee.
The German easternmost province of East Prussia had a population of somewhere in the region of two and a half million people; all typically stubborn and inconceivably willing to work at whatever labour called their way: It was a population far in excess of today’s state-funded lifestyles where the respect generated by work and family principles took precedence over more liberal types of lifestyle. There is no denying that it was harsh and to some extent primitive existence but they took respect and in turn they gave it to those deserving.
However, at the end of World War II this community of men, women and children was wiped from the face of the map by the so-called victorious Allies’ ability to write the history books in such a manner, that the barbaric effects of the 1945 Potsdam Conference and the consequential war crimes committed by Soviet-Russian soldiers were seen as acceptable to the ‘Allied’ populations under an “eye for an eye” principle of collective retribution.
The southern two-thirds of East Prussia was awarded to Poland and the remaining third to Soviet Russia – their population forced to accept no
demographic consultation, treated as an expendable commodity, and awarded as the prize for Allied victory during the preceding war.
This World War II ‘never happened’ story and all its brutal horrors has been shielded from public scrutiny for more years than is morally acceptable: That is, until Gunter Nitsch joined the small group of people who felt that history should be told ‘as is’, and wrote his shocking story as a child during the final and subsequent years of World War II: It is a story that deserves to be read by all those who believe in the truth; a story that deserves to be remembered for its bitter legacy.
Gunter’s story opens when he was little more than six years old as he struggled to understand his families’ fear of the advancing ‘Russian front’. Whereas he should have been starting his school career or playing with the small toys his parents could afford, he was instead packing in rapid preparation to flee the near encirclement.
Highlighting Nazi propaganda and the bitter suppression of their own people, Gunter identifies Nazi cowardice as the Nazi Mayor flees and it becomes “every man for himself” as they flee in horse and cart taking only what they could carry, leaving their home, their life and, having released them, their animals.
Joining other refugees not knowing what lie in front of them, nor indeed what was behind them, they headed en masse, into the unknown “secure in the belief that Opa [Gunter’s grandfather] had worked things out with God”.
At first heading for the ferry at Pillau, they had a lucky escape after discovering that two ships, the Wilhem Gustloff and the General Steuben, had been torpedoed by the Russians only a matter of weeks beforehand.
Despite managing to get a roof over their head with various families or in a ruined building on route, they were constantly fearful of the advancing Russian army which had by now encircled them, fearing the by now legendary brutal treatment by intoxicated Russian soldiers
Mindful of the difference between the likes of German army Master Sergeant Hanson, holder of the Iron Cross and a host of other medals, who offered Gunter and his family goulash soup, offered them some work and saved Gunter when he fell through the frozen ice; and Nazi SS officials who told Gunter and his family “civilian swine like you have no business being on a paved road – Get off, or I’ll shoot you”, they were soon over-run by Russian soldiers who soon put them to work painting crosses, attending graves, or in Opa’s case, digging out the Jewish corpses from their mass graves, while all the time enduring vicious mass raping, personal degeneration on a horrific scale, malnutrition and the risk of summary execution because they had stole a potato – to eat – to live:
Many members of Gunter’s family died from expulsion-induced illness and disease; death was a common occurrence, illness even more frequent – the sight of corpses littered the roadside, the stench of rotting human flesh filled the air, the misery of their existence, and indeed some would say that they barely managed that, filled their hearts with sorrowful horror – a horror that should be endured by no-one; no-one at all!
Gunter speaks with some disgust about his father who had abandoned them in favour of another woman; war affects people in the strangest of ways but Gunter felt at first horrified and abandoned at his fathers lack of care and support, especially when he needed books for school: It was a Russian run school that preached the virtues of Russia and Communism but it did give Gunter the shove he needed, the shove to survive the Allied victory
Albeit through some miracle they found opportunity and chance to cross to the ‘West’ where they found treatment somewhat less stringent yet still on the harsh side of compassion. Gunter speaks, however, with some joy about the time he and his mother spent at the Ammo Camp, a place were prisoners used to be housed and where standards, somewhat predictably, were none too humane, but yet where, as a young boy he sought adventure and excitement in the surrounding woods looking for ammunition, weapons and artefacts that could be exploded, thrown or generally deviated with by young boys subjected to the horror of war.
They had assumed their lives into “God’s hands” and this blind obedience was soon proved when religion knew no barrier and large food parcels began to arrive from America in the form of “CARE” packages from a Mennonite Christian family in Pennsylvania . Full of encouragement and material sustenance from America , Gunter’s standard of living slowly improved, as did the relationship with his father who he met in Cologne in 1950 – the year the German Expellee Statement was issued renouncing retaliation or retribution for their horrific experiences in the previous years.
Gunter’s story warms to the heart, yet turns the pit of your stomach; it will shock yet please; make you smile yet let you cry. However, if there is ever a aphorism to Gunter’s story, let it be this, “With heartfelt gratitude to the late Daniel J. and Naomi Peachey whose CARE packages sustained Gunter and his mother in a West German refugee camp and who, years later, made Gunter and his wife unofficial members of their family in Pennsylvania”.
As Gunter offered the above dedication to the Peachey family, I, in turn offer this review in dedication to their wholly unselfish, compassionate offering to those they didn’t know, yet were in their time of need, regardless of any dividing factors: I offer my prayers to those who acted with similar compassion, and also to those who didn’t act so that they read Gunter’s story; it should be a lesson to us all.
It is a ceaseless regret to note the disparity within the human race, be it in times of war or in times of peace, as Gunter’s story of courage and faith shows, but it does incite me to make one final comment to those who still think he deserved it……
“And you think you had it tough”.
Weeds Like Us By Gunter Nitsch Published By AuthorHouse
Accompanies a major six-part BBC series; "World War II: Behind Closed Doors"-Available Now on DVD Here.
"Soldiers of the Red Army, German Women are Yours"
Soviet Propaganda during the latter years of World War II
On behalf of the British government, their Ambassador in Berlin had handed a note to the Nazi Regime stating that unless it withdrew its armed forces from Poland a state of war would exist between Germany and England: France followed suit and by the end of 3rd September 1939 a state of war existed between England and France, and Nazi Germany.
However, within two weeks, on 17th September 1939, Soviet Russia invaded Poland as well....and nothing was said by the now warring nations: There was no attempt at the appeasement that had been shown towards Czen and Roosevelt's attitude towards victory choslovakia and austria in previous months; and there was no political and/or military outcry.
This, the manipulation of the polish nation and its people for subsequent political gain, is the main thread running throughout Laurence Rees' book "Behind Closed Doors; Stalin, The Nazi's and the West. The war was soon to become run along the lines of not on what the Nazi Regime did or didn't do, but on the amount of damage that could be done to the German people, and moreover how it would succeed and at what cost - The Polish people and the Polish nation were soon to be seen as the expendable cost of Allied supremacy.
A spectacular claim but Rees' book in his examination of Stalinist, Churchillian and Roosevelt's attitude towards victory over Nazi Germany at any and all cost, gives a refreshing new look to World War II and the concept of vistor's justice. This devastating picture of Soviet leader Josef Stalin has only emerged since the recent opening of the archives in the East: Rees' book is thus the partial result of such research.
However, despite offering a close examination of Stalinist policy, he also puts these policies into their proper context by discussing Stalin's relationship with British and American war-time leaders, Winston Churchill and Franklin D Roosevelt (Truman upon FDR's death), and the German and subsequent Soviet invation of Poland; perhaps an alliance in all but name that brought nothing more than a rhetorical response from the Allied Command.
Ree's considers the British population's bemusement at the two invasions of Poland: To paraphrase Ree's, "since the British treaty with Poland had resulted in war with Germany, then why did it not also result in war with the Soviet Union?" Ree's makes no secret of the double-standards imposed by the Allied powers in recognizing a statement made in the House of Commons which reveals that the Poles had "understood" that the agreement should only cover the case of aggression by Germany (p.37)
But then he swiftly moves on and doesn't hold back in his analysis of the subject of Allied collective war crimes. Bear in mind that international legislation already prohibited many so-called war crimes, including those involving prisoners of war and the forced deportation and internment in time of war. (Click her to learn more about forced expulsion and internment).
Subsequently Ree's considers the deportations of the Polish people as early as February 1940 and the 20,000 + murdered Poles at Katyn (Learn more about the Katyn Massacre Here) while suggesting that the British government knew of the atroceties being committed in Poland by the occupying Soviet forces but who refused to condemn the actions whilst doing so against the Nazi regime for similar crimes (p.65).
Demonstrating how pure brutality was at the core of Stalinist policy, complicity, maybe even fear, was at the core of American and British policy. Ree's considers the various meetings of the three leaders where Stalin quite brazenly revealed his brutality to the other leaders which inevitably resulted in bickering and backstabbing between them.
There was however, one unified purpose to these meetings which Rees makes no secret of - the destruction of Germany and the German people. To again paraphrase Rees, he quotes Stalin as saying that "it was not only German industry that should be bombed but the populstion as well" - a war crime - and Churchill as saying that "with regards to the civilian population of Germany, its morale was looked upon as a genuine military target". Churchill continued that "we [Britain & America] sought no mercy, would show no mercy and hoped to shatter almost every dwelling in almost every German city" (p.156): What is now known as a 'war crime.'
But while the Poles fought with a passion unrivalled by many, Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin were to deceive the Polish people and government: They were to deny and coerce the Poles - mass Polish graves had been found at Smolensk in 1943, Churchill refused to speak about Katyn, Roosevelt remained in denial for many years and Stalin continued the ethnic-cleansing of both his own people and other nationals practically un-opposed when in May 1944 the expulsion of the Crimean Tartars began - yet more Allied War Crimes.
Laurence Rees identifies the deceit of, in particular, the British government when he tells of Churchill's words just after the Battle of Monte Cassino, "Britain would never abandon Poland" he emphasized; but movements were in progress to leave Poland, the Poland England went to war to defend, under the Soviet sphere of influence: Poland was to be given a future under sheer Soviet terror.
Disguised Soviet Soldiers began to fight under the Polish flag, no doubt to lessen the effects of the Katyn Massacre and to bring Polish society in line with Soviet Russian ideology, enhanced by a direct order from Stalin who ordered a whole regiment to dress, speak and write Polish - he wanted the Polish army to be subversient to the Soviet Russian ideology.
In Romania ethnic-Germans were being deported yet Churchill was indifferent to their plight when informed of their plight; of this 'Allied' war crime, instead much preferring his idealism of fighting to secure the so-called proper respect for the British people. Rees highlights the resultant expulsion of over 11 million ethnic-Germans from the Eastern countries of Europe (Friends of Germany Coalition disputes this figure and suggests the correct figure to be at least in excess of 13 million - click here to learn more) who found themselves within the Soviet Sphere of terror, set against the backdrop of the Nuremburg Tribunals which were designed by American prosecutors to prosecute those accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity during World War II. It is most noticable that the only defendents were Germans as there were no prosecutions of British, American, Soviet-Russian and Jewish defendants; the latter of which worked for the Gestapo in rounding up Jews in Berlin and other cities for the Final Solution.
However, as Rees indicates, this amounted to little more than "victors justice" as few if any non-Germans were prosecuted at this or indeed at any other war crimes trial or similar event. Rees further suggests that the Soviet attempt to frame Germany for the Katyn Massacre was advised against by the American Chief Prosecutor: A Soviet lawyer who had reservations and wanted to return to Moscow to discuss it with his superiors was mysteriously found dead the next morning - perhaps a warning to the other Soviet lawyers to toe the line and not deviate from what ammounted to Stalin's orders, be they right or wrong.
In highlighting the Potsdam and Yalta Conferences, in showing British complicity in the execution of war crimes, crimes against humanity and the ignorance of several international treaty's, in stressing the murder of some of those involved in the Warsaw uprising and the Poles at Katyn by the Soviets, Rees shows that the British so-called hero of the Second World War did indeed make an alliance with the devil to achieve his aims of the total destruction of Germany and the German people.
Rees' in-depth analysis of Stalin and his relationship with Churchill, Roosevelt and subsequently Truman upon FDR's death, during the war amounts to a scathing attack on the culture of war, the moralistic good and evil alleged divisions and an indication that no side is good, morally right or innocent during warfare.
Laurence Rees has indeed touched upon a subject that deserves more study and more information to be released in order for it to be understood in its proper context. Behind Closed Doors: Stalin, The Nazi's and the West may indeed re-open old wounds but ignorance of the past will allow those injuries to mutate into a culture of pain and suffering. It is necessary to learn from the past in order to prevent similar occurances in the future; lessons for our childrens future which are our responsibility and lessons which judging by the second half of the 20th century have yet to be learnt.
Edmund Burke once said that "all that is necessary for the rise of evil is for good men to do nothing"! Good men (and women) should read this book; it is no complete account, no book can be, but it encourages further investigation and knowledge, it offers the lessons to be learnt, lessons that need to be learnt if not for our sake then for our children's.
A scathing attack on the mentality of warfare.
"They did not take pity on one single child"
"An elderly person was carried out on a stretcher to the truck.....she was so weak that she didn't utter a single word. She didn't even move. She was very old. It was obvious that this sick old lady could not have collaborated with the Germans"
Observation of a forcibly expelled Crimean Tatar.
World War II: Behind Closed Doors; Stalin; The Nazi's and the West. By Laurence Rees. Published by BBC Books.
Bread on My Mothers Table; A Danube Swabian Remembers:
By Ingrid Andor. Pub' IUniverse, 2008
This book has not been reviewed in the traditional sense but is included in this review section based upon the recommendation of other readers.
Can the world accept ethnic Germans as victims of World War II? Are there similarities in the Holocausts that the Jews and the ethnic-Germans suffered? Will Germans always be percieved as stereotypical villains, even those who are innocent victims? Can this book help heal the wounds of those forced to be unpopular, unacknowledged victims because of their ethnic heritage?
Bread on My Mothers Table; A Danube Swabian Remembers:
Bread on My Mothers Table: A Danube Swabian Remembers, examines the effects of the hidden genocide that occured at the end of World War II in which a family of ethnic-Germans in Yugoslavia was condemned to be victims of expulsion, ethnic cleansing and forced labour in Concentration Camps at the hands of Russian and Partisan soldiers.
In a tapestry of episodes and family portraits which comprise this literary memoir, the author weaves a tale which illuminates, compares, exposes, and shares a family’s history and their journey from feast to famine, from farmers to prisoners, from refugees to immigrants, and from American citizens to land owners once again.
This is the story of one family’s quiet struggle and victory over adversity told by a first generation progeny who takes the reader on a parallel journey of rediscovery and acceptance of her cultural identity.
The end of the war signalled a return to the principle of peace and tolerance, or at least this was what the Czech peoples, which included many ethnic-German and Hungarians, where led to believe when Edvard Benes returned to Prague and governmental office in 1945 at the end of World War II.
Using personal testimony and research from a variety of resources including those from behind the Iron Curtain, Sidonia Dedina takes us on a journey of discovery as she tells the story of Czech President Edvard Benes, his uncontrollable hatred of the German people and his blind embrace of Communism and the legalized genocide of the ethnic-German people in what is now the Czech and Slovak Republic's: A concept not that dis-similar to that of the Third Reich.
Edvard Benes, The Liquidator... explains how the Sudeten Germans were cleansed of their heritage, forcibly evicting them 'en-masse' from their homes and land of their ancestors who it must be noted were invited to settle there by the Hungarian rulers: They did not invade as many people would believe but moreover where there to protect the borders of the Hungarian kingdom.
She also demonstrates how this action was shielded from the world by the political censorship of the truth and the concept of collective guilt, performed under the authority of the Czech government and most notably, with the full knowledge and consent of the Allied powers.
Two wrongs never make a right!
Through her account of Edvard Benes, Sidonia tells of his involvement in the assassination of Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich which was hoped would instigate further hatred between the Czechs and Germans; the leasing of a northern Bohemian city, cleansed of its inhabitants by the regular Czech army in a bitter and henious manner, to a Hollywood director to be destroyed during the filming of "A Bridge Too Far" (Review Here), and the Czech Presidents' deplorable role in paving the way for the Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia which encouraged the Czech people to expell the ethnic-Germans with the utmost brutality.
In giving Dedina the highest respect for ignoring the current trend of 'political correctness' in the interests of historical truth and the opening of our minds to the true cost of warfare, she reminds us that injustices can not be covered up and that subsequently efforts to ignore, forget or hinder them are certain to fail.
The Liquidator:
Edvard Benes, Fiend of the German Purge in Czechoslovakia
By Sidonia Dedina, Translated by Dr Rudolf Pueschel
The Liquidator: Edvard Benes, Fiend of the German Purge in Czechoslovakia was refused by 70 + German, Austrian & swiss publishers before being published by a group of German expellees and continues to grow in its appeal as more and more shocking secrets of the war become freely available.
It deserves to be read by all those who value humanity, truth and the concept of learning from the mistakes of our forefathers and is essential reading for those who believe that the truth must be heard, regardless of the consequences.
Shocing in its content and truthful in its account;
It deserves to be on every bookshelf as a reminder of the barbaric level that humanity will sink to, time and time again.
A must for every reader of 20th century history.
The Liquidator: Edvard Benes, Fiend of the German Purge in Czechoslovakia
By Sidonia Dedina, Translated by Dr Rudolf Pueschel: Published By RFP Publications
The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau 1939-1945 is a pillar of scholarly intellect rising above the murky waters of World War II history: It accepts yet doesn't blame; it recognizes but doesn't justify and it educates but doesn't patronise.
As the result of decades of research Prof. De Zayas has produced a document of outstanding value to both the scholarly community and general readers alike: Both the German and English versions have received praise: "An academic job well done" was the praise from the Netherlands International Law Review
Prof. de Zayas is an American lawyer, graduate of Harvard Law School, he holds a history PhD from the University of Gottingen and is a former senior human rights lawyer with the United Nations Office for Human Rights: His other works include A Nemesis at Potsdam; The Expulsion of the Germans from the East, and A Terrible Revenge as well as many other articles, documents and presentations.
Therefore Prof. de Zayas can be considered as an expert in his field: An expert in the field of what is right and what is wrong, he writes with a clarity rarely matched and not often exceeded about a division of the German Army. This legal office - The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau - operated independently of other more popular branches of the Nazi war machine. Researched, cross-matched and verified, Prof. de Zayas has managed to offer an unbiased view of the crimes of World War II.
Prof. de Zayas has divided this work into two parts: Part one deals with the history, methods and uses of the war crimes bureau.
Part two deals with some of the specific cases of which the war crimes bureau was involved in: These include Poland, The Western Theatre of War, Crete, Captured Germans in the Soviet Union, Feodosia, Grischino, Soviet crimes against non-Germans, Lvov, Katyn, Vinnitsa, Shipwrecked survivors and Hospital ships.
This expertly researched piece of history includes an epilogue and many notes relating to the sources Prof. de Zayas used in compiling the Wehrmacht War crimes Bureau.
Some of the issues that Prof. de Zayas raises in his book you may have seen on the mainstream news or other documentary type presentations but this is rarely witnessed: the Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau 1939-1945 helps correct the absence of true unbiased history.
Where there were crimes committed on the German side Prof. de Zayas indicates it in the same fair manner that he does with Allied crimes: An issue of collective guilt that is against international law; international law that has been Prof. de Zayas' career for over twenty years.
It is easy to suggest that this book is nothing more than the glorification of, and the defence of alleged German war crimes: However, he does acknowledge the fact that there are no winners in war - that neither the Axis nor the Allied powers won World War II: Where there is death, torture, bitter retaliation and callous revenge society finds itself lowered to the level of survival of the fittest, or the survival of those holding the biggest military might.
Within the pages of the Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau 1939-1945 Prof. Alfred M de Zayas offers the reader a fair and balanced account of a branch of the German army that sought to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the so-called invention of the twentieth century, the ideology of war crimes and crimes against humanity as created, at least in part, by the Nuremburg War Crimes Trials. Although these trials were subsequent to the years of operation of the Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau they indicate a clarification of the ideals the bureau sought to advance.
The Histories by Herodotus, Gibbons, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx, whatever one's view, are considered as classics: The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau by Prof. Alfred M de Zayas should join this list for it is truly a "Classic".
A "Classic" book full of scholarly intellect, A "Classic" account of wartime law and a lesson for us all on how to look at our recent history that tells of the horrors of war yet retains the humanity of unbiased and independent research enhanced by many years of service to the internationally oppressed and forcibly expelled peoples of the world through his dedication and service with the United Nations Office for Human Rights.
Prof. Alfred M. de Zayas is not a novice at publishing books of this standard and quality: Look out for "A Terrible Revenge" and "A Nemesis at Potsdam" as well as many other articles and presentations in a wide variety of publications throughout the world: His website which lists further publications is www.alfreddezayas. com, and is worth visiting.
Prof. de Zayas is an author that should be in the list of top ten authors: The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau 1939-1945 should likewise be in the top ten list of books; buy it, read it and put it there. The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau 1939-1945 is nothing less than quality as per the dictionary definition - Don't believe me! You'll have to read it to see it!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!
The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau 1939-1945 By Alfred M. de Zayas; Published by Picton Press
Within only a few pages of first reading ;Stalin’s Wars; by Geoffrey Roberts I found myself developing a somewhat reluctant loathing, not particularly towards the author but towards the sympathetic non-stereotypical view in which he portrayed Joseph Stalin, the man who, prior to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, had killed some 20 million innocent civilians. Upon reading this book there is a necessity to read with an unbiased mind and avoid drawing foregone conclusions.
However, Roberts doesn’t deviate from the fact that Stalin was a mass murderer but in doing so portrays him as the sole, successful leader of the Russian war effort. Nonetheless, in using newly available material from the Russian archives, he paints a picture of Stalin that is none too familiar to the general history reader, while finding a generous amount of admiration in his leadership
Perhaps not surprisingly is that the majority of Roberts writing is circumstantial to the events of the Second World War where he presents it not as ‘the war which was won by Stalin but as the war which was lost by Hitler’.
Commencing with the Nazi-Soviet Pact of August 1939 we are led through the Russian war with Finland, the Nazi invasion of Russia, the consequential battles around cities such as Leningrad and Moscow and the Nazi’s sequential repelling by Russian armed forces.
Portraying a substantial grasp of military planning, Roberts not only portrays Stalin as the Supreme military leader but as a leader of compassion that murders his military officers for cowardice upon retreat. We learn how Stalin thought he total ruler as having had the majority of his ‘military brains’ murdered in 1937; he impressed upon his people that offensive and not defensive action was the only option available to the Red Army.
In parallel with his portrayal of Stalin’s military leadership, Roberts portrays him as a great politician whose diplomatic wrangling was admired not only by Winston Churchill, but by Franklin D. Roosevelt and subsequently Harry Truman and discusses with some clarity the party diplomacy and duality of not only Stalin’s but other Allied and Axis governments.
We learn of the diplomacy involved at, amongst others, the Yalta and Potsdam agreements and get a hint of the thread of political self-interest with which Stalin approached these meetings as well as his reaction to Churchill’s infamous ‘Iron Curtain’ speech at Fulton, Missouri in 1946.
Stalin linked this speech to the growth of anti-Soviet forces in the West and the threat of a new war though it didn’t have any direct affect as such. Stalin was fearful of Western penetration and so while creating a culture of
‘political normalization’ and elections he took his country through a period of rooting out the spies, regardless of their nationality, ethnic background or religious beliefs which resulted in executions throughout the communist block.
Leading on from the war we are led into Stalin’s influence upon post-war culture.
After considering the effects of the Berlin blockade, perhaps not so well known are the revelations Roberts makes concerning Stalin’s influence over the communist countries of Eastern Europe and the Yugoslav’ split from Communism.
Although there is, in its early pages some distinctions made concerning the concept of collective guilt of those of German heritage, these are soon dismissed by the unsympathetic interpretation of Stalin seemingly personifying all Germans as warmongers and making excuses of acceptability for the war crimes of the Red Army as they purged across parts of Europe, sustained Partisan uprisings and were involved in the slaughter and internment of many innocent civilians in the years of peace that followed World War 2.
Subsequently to Roberts in-depth analysis of Stalin’s influence with-in the European Theatre he discusses, all be it briefly, Stalin’s involvement in the war with Japan, the Sino-Soviet treaty with China and of his material support of the war in Korea; a war that he considered the Americans couldn’t win because of their lack of manpower but nevertheless a war he didn’t dare to become directly involved.
Culmination in the ‘Destalinization’ of the Russian people while he was still alive and Stalin’s eventual death in March 1953 at the age of 73, this ‘kindly…..sincerely modest man’ left a legacy of ‘many faces’ for the world to judge.
Roberts’s final words are “as jurors it is our duty to review all the evidence……history can make us wiser, if we allow it.” This wise old man thinks it is a shame that in an otherwise in depth portrayal of Joseph Stalin, Roberts seemingly withholds evidence of mass murder, rape and pillage in Eastern Europe, thus preventing us from ruling on the actions of Generalissimo Joseph Stalin.
Stalin's Wars: from World War to Cold War 1939-1953
By Geoffrey Roberts Published By Yale University Press
To think of war one could be forgiven from thinking Nazi: To think of Poland one could be forgiven from thinking Jewish Holocaust which is generally indicative of the general trend of thought concerning the war; that its main cause and effect was of the unprecedented murder of innocent ethnic people.
T. David Curp takes a huge step towards the recognition that war is never a clear cut ideal; that World War 2 started in 1939 and ended in 1945, full stop. Being one of the first books in English on this subject, in his impressively researched book, ‘A Clean Sweep? The Politics Of Ethnic Cleansing in Western Poland, 1945-1960,’ he shows that there was more to it than meets the eye and that vengeance or retaliation, as the powerful tool that it is, does little more than lower the oppressed to the barbaric level of the oppressor.
It is only in recent years that the concept of ethnic cleansing as a historical ideal of most European nations has been recognised, yet the vengeful cleansing of those of German nationality or heritage still receives little or no attention in the majority or English speaking nations.
T. David Curp rose to the challenge in avoiding the accepted by many allegations that ‘they deserved it’ in using the western Polish provinces of Poznan and Zielona Gora as his analysis of the long term effect of ethnic cleansing upon post-1945 Poland.
Despite his intention to consider events from 1945 onwards he provides a useful historical introduction stretching back as far as the 1870’s which he considers was the beginning of Germanys struggle for the Polish-German borderlands where within a few pages he mentions French anti-German propaganda and raises questions about how significant collectivisation is to Polish ethnic cleansing and unintended though consequential forced migration.
He aligns with other literature which considers that Polish nobility historically invited the Germans to the country to help settle and develop its economic and urban life; the same happened in Slovakia yet both countries were to subject their ethnic guests to forced and more often than not violent migration as a result of the World War 2; a concept that has become known as ethnic cleansing.
Poland was ethnically cleansed not only by efforts of the state but by the Polish people as well where he speaks of the catholic church’s involvement under the control of Poland’s new master – Communism. The Poles of Poznan played an integral part in the national revolution which instigated and further encouraged the expulsion of the ethnic-Germans, some of whom had lived in Poland for many years and had fought alongside the Allies against Nazi tyranny.
T. David Curp doesn’t stop in the years directly subsequent to the war but continues in to the 1960’s in his scholarly account of the national uprising at Poznan, the site of the first major uprising in Poland, which reshaped Communist policy from a militantly Communist domination into a nationalistic socialist regime Despite his references to the horrors of vengeance and to the wrongs of collective guilt he portrays Polish thought as accepting that the political and cultural turmoil was a necessary part of post war culture. He implies that had Poland not been under communist rule that maybe things might have been different but in the spirit of fact based research he concentrates on the Stalinisation of Poland using newly released sources which includes the newly released Secret Police archives.
The ethnic cleansing left a powerful political and social legacy which T. David Curp analyses in the latter chapters of his book. It is an important part of European if not world history that has received very little unbiased attention yet needs to be studied if we are to learn from the past to ensure our future.
For all its scholarly qualities it is a hard book to read. If you want a quick read or a rapid influx of information this is not the book for you but if you want scholarly knowledge that has originated from one of America’s finer universities this is definitely the book for you. I feel a certain sense of pride in being able to review such a factual, unbiased piece of scholarly research.
Stalin's Wars: from World War to Cold War 1939-1953
By Geoffrey Roberts Published By Yale University Press
In his book, Philippe Burin, one of the leading historians on Nazi Germany, takes us from late 19th century racism to the Holocaust and beyond in one of the few books available today that actually touches on the truth of what went on during those dark days.
The main thread of this book is that it discusses the exact nature of the link between anti-Semitism and genocide – whether it was a direct relation of cause and effect or just a vague kind of solidarity, claiming that at first sight it was a hatred of exceptional intensity that stemmed from a deep heritage of prejudice.
He makes a surprising correlation that at the beginning of the 20th century circumstances in Germany and surprisingly France were not dis-similar and that there was an unofficial alternative religion to that of Catholicism, in the guise of Freemasonry; a concept that Adolf Hitler tried unsuccessfully tried to impersonate with little success. Philippe claims that tradition and Christian culture reformulated the technology that was to make the destruction of the Jews in Europe possible and in doing so discusses the religious background to anti-Semitism.
In underlining the crucial point of racism in Nazi ideology and the logic of violence that reinforced the grip of anti-Semitism he dismisses the assumption that the Nazi identity was synonymous with the German national identity. In not condemning the entire German population as being inherently Jewish he portrays the little known thought that anti-Semitism was never exclusively German and analyzes how and why such terror befell the Jewish people and why it happened in Germany when hostility towards the Jews was widespread across much of Europe, though he does successfully repute the idea of collective guilt.
The multiple strands of Nazi anti-Semitism that he discusses are portrayed as both apocalyptic and racial and as a weapon used in the struggle for a Nazi identity, containing not only negative views of the Jews but also positive views of the Germans and suggesting why so many Germans either accepted Hitler’s fantasy of the struggle between Germany and the Jews or displayed passivity and indifference toward the fate of the Jewish people.
From many years before the outbreak of World War I, he brings a historical perspective to how anti-Semitic thought embraced a country whose thirst for power cultivated its memory while encouraging its own aspirations for power and in doing so claims that Germany was a victim of circumstance, bravely claiming that “in 1930’s Germany, an abrogation of emancipation would already have been on the cards, given an authoritarian restructuring of the political regime, even without Adolf Hitler’s accession to power” (Pg 29).
He portrays Nazism as a virus sweeping through all parts of German life from the home, the farm and the church to the large industrial companies that went some way in supporting his cause.
Philippe makes the surprising claim that war was needed to produce the nucleus of a genocidal community from within the then apartheid society that existed in Germany at this time in correlating the move between the policy of excluding the Jews and their forced expulsion to the policy of extermination of all Jewry in Europe while making the distinction that the ‘Final Solution’ was little more than a part-solution as it only had the viability to work within the lands that the Nazi Party and later the Nazi War Machine controlled. He further asks why Nazism settled on a policy of extermination when other alternatives such as enforced emigration were not only considered but in part, adopted, questioning how this led to genocide.
He does, with some clarity make the point that it wasn’t only the fate of the Jews that lie in the hands of Adolf Hitler’s unconceivable policies but also the Gypsies, Russians, the Disabled, Homosexuals and some Germans who also suffered similar circumstantial fates.
Even though it has its faults and is a slightly difficult book to read, this shouldn’t deter the books success as one of the few books that strikes a blow against the historical censorship of politicians and governments alike that has traditionally blurred the history books and insulted the memory of those that perished….on both sides.
Nazi Anti-Semitism: From Prejudice to The Holocaust
Copyright © 2009 Friends of Germany Coalition, Douglas Brough and/or respective authors: All Rights reserved 