97 of 115 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Highly Recommended, March 31, 2009
This review is from: After the Reich: The Brutal History of the Allied Occupation (Paperback)
I recommend this book for anyone interested in the real story of the final days and occupation of Germany during and after WWII rather than the glossed over baby boomer version many of us were fed growing up. It isn't pretty. The Red Army systematically raped women aged 14 to over 80, nuns, and even patients in hospital beds by the thousands. Those men who tried to protect them and some women that resisted were shot. Whatever alcohol was available anywhere to drink was confiscated and the raping increased tenfold. Whatever was not nailed down, and indeed much that was, was looted and taken back to Russia. The rest was often burned down in many cases. The French behavior was not much better. Again, rape on a large scale. I have yet to see anything official from either country recognizing these atrocities, much like the Japanese history in China and the Turks in Armenia. Nor have I seen anything regarding the US mismanagement of the german POWs and allowing thousands to starve. If you doubt it, go to Remagen and visit the little museum next to the remains of the bridge.
I have heard ugly Americans and even read some despicable comments by Israeli journalists and book reviewers that "they had it coming to them", because 30 odd percent of the voters in this country voted for Hitler, long before his designs of massive extermination and a scortched earth policy in defeat was widely known. This is akin to Bin Laden's claim that there are no innocent US citizens, because enough people vote and pay taxes. THus 9-11. Then you have atrocities responded with by more atrocities.
The book is smooth reading, and breaks down the final days and the occupation for Germany and Austria under the different occupying powers. Seperate regions also recieve special attention based on the topics. All sources are listed as well.
History should include all stories, whether they are flattering or not. This book is an important gap filler which is being filled by similar books that have come out in the past decade.
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43 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Conquerers Become the Conquered, July 8, 2009
This review is from: After the Reich: The Brutal History of the Allied Occupation (Paperback)
AFTER THE REICH is a good compilation documenting the total collapse of the German government and of a German people at the complete mercy of the victors. The book is complete with many first person narratives of the difficult lean years following the end of the European war. The account makes no judgement as to whether the Germans deserved what they got or whether the Allies were too harsh on a people that they, for better or worse, gained responsibility for once an area was overrun. It really becomes a question as to whether or not you view Germany as liberated or conquered.
Much of this story has been told before and appeared in various books such as THE LAST DAY OF THE WAR, THE LAST 100 DAYS, THE BATTLE OF BERLIN, and so on. I also read a German book, loosely translated, THE OCCUPIERS AND THE OCCUPIED. As such you find many of the same themes: Bombed out cities, forced evacuations, winters with no heat, households with no food, and nasty deeds committed by the Red Army and its clients. What I did find new with this book was more detailed information about the fate of the German territories and population east of the Oder Neisse line, as well as the remaining German population in East Prussia. There was also quite a bit about how the vengeful Czechs were apt pupils of their former masters and took revenge to the extreme.
The book also spends several chapters discussing Austria and how quickly the Austrians disassociated themselves from the Germans and Germany. It is not difficult to imagine the Austrians flying the swastika one day and digging through their closets to display Austrian flags the next.
The book's narrative timeline begins during the last months of war. Only a year prior to the surrender the Third Reich occupied almost half of Europe. By May 1945,though the last vestiges of the German army continued to fight on, "liberated" Germans were already feeling the victors' wrath. As the Allies did not yet have a unified plan for post war Germany the people were generally treated as little more than serfs in their own bombed out country. The eleventh hour French wanted revenge, the British sought to restore some order by pushing for the restoration of limited self government, while the Americans pushed through Germany with little to no plan at all. Meanwhile the Soviets were busy annexing half of East Prussia and making a gift of the remaining German lands east of the Oder to the Poles. The Soviets moved into Germany with a no-holds-barred approach to private property and personal civil rights. Life was certainly cheap for Germans in the eastern territories.
What becomes clear is that as the German forces were pushed back or rapidly withdrew they left a power vacuum in their wake. This was very evident in the east. For those "Germans" left behind in eastern Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia law and order disappeared overnight. The void was rapidly filled by competing armed mobs, bandits claiming to be resistance fighters, and other armed irregulars whose only purpose seemed to be to rob, pillage, torture, and kill. The Czechs in particular took over operation of former Nazi camps and herded in Germans by the thousand. "German" was a broad definition applied to legitimate German nationals, people who spoke German, professionals, and essentially anyone who had something the armed brigands wanted.
In the midst of the crisis the Red Army turned a blind eye to the plight of soldiers and civilians alike. Remember that to the communist Russian way of thinking there was no distinction between German soldier and German civilian. Everyone was considered a potential war criminal. However, even though the Soviets were carting off whole factories and emptying out museums the Red Army did restore some order. In occupied Austria and Berlin they organized local governments, reopened theaters, and prompted the resumption of newspapers and radio. In this the Russians were leagues ahead of the western Allies.
The British, French, and Americans all handled their zones with different political agendas. Over the course of several chapters it is clear that the western Allies moved away from their philosophy that Germany would never rise again once the Cold War kicked into high gear. In essence Germany benefited from the Cold War in that attention was turned toward the evil Communist east and West Germany was finally united as a political unit.
The reason I gave AFTER THE REICH only three stars is that it suprsingly lacks balance when discussing the toils and tribulations of the Germans themselves. Surely there must have been German farmers, family households, and businessmen who did not suffer lost homes, ruined cities, unheated houses, or desperate hunger. Not every village was flattened by bombs or forfeited to Poland. For the most part the book focuses on the German soldiers and civilians who suffered in the worst possible situations. No doubt there were hundreds of thousands, if not millions, who did. As such there had to be an equal number who managed somewhat better and did not lose all of their possessions. I suppose those stories would not make much in the way of intersting reading.
AFTER THE REICH is a book that should be read in conjunction with other references on the subject. In fact a great companion volume for AFTER THE REICH is ENDGAME.
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34 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Story Seldom Told, October 21, 2009
This review is from: After the Reich: The Brutal History of the Allied Occupation (Paperback)
Americans would like to believe that we marched into Germany,routed out all the Nazis and restored peace in a fair and just manner....This book sheds light on the sometimes darker reality of occupation and de-nazification.
The author draws important distinctions between the different occupation zones and what went on under Russian, French, British, and American oversight. In a way, this approach makes the timeline feel a bit dis-jointed, but often the difference between zones was so great, that it would be hard to use any other approach to telling the story.
I was in Munich several years ago when I met an older gentleman who shared his story with me. He was a German P.O.W. in the United States.At the end of the war, they were sent to NC and put on a ship for France. He assumed he would son be released. Imagine his surprise when he discovered the US government turned him over to France and he would stay a P.O.W. for the next 3 years working manual labor. Though lacking first person perspective, this work does tell these important stories that few realize.
If you're interested in the post-war period, this book is a worthy read.
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