Customer Reviews

After the Reich

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Minutes after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, a co-worker from Australia told me that the attacks were directed against "tax-paying citizens" who supported the "murderous" policies of the American government. Any individual who chooses to live and work in the United States is therefore, whether they are conscious of it or not, giving support to any action or policy of the government. They are thus implicitly guilty for any government actions and hence legitimate targets for those who have experienced repression or violence due to these actions.

This is the "collective guilt" hypothesis and has found many adherents throughout history, and as this book outlines in gruesome detail, was manifested in the aftermath of World War II. Confident of victory and bent on revenge, many commanders and soldiers in the Allied forces proceeded to take their frustrations out on whoever was left in Germany, with sex and age not being an impediment. It did not matter whether or not German citizens had consciously supported the Nazi government, or whether they did so out of fear for their lives and the lives of their families. As the author remarks, just the ability to speak German frequently was proof enough of this support. The carnage against Germans in post-war Europe was unrelenting, with rapes, crucifixions, hangings, forced starvation, and forced marches being widespread and taking place with great enthusiasm by Russian, British, and American troops of occupation. Having endured incredible hardships in battle they did not hesitate to take matters in their own hands and direct their anger towards those who "supported" the German government. Women were "responsible" for giving birth to German soldiers, so they must be punished accordingly. Male children could grow up to be German soldiers, so they must be prevented from doing so. Female children could grow up and produce more German soldiers, so they must be prevented from doing so. Nuns represented the Catholic "support" for the Nazi Reich, so they must be raped or beaten up without reservation. Even German Jews were subjected to mistreatment, as if they had not suffered enough: many were prevented from immigrating to Palestine due to British fears that they would join a movement to overthrow British control of Palestine.

This is a book that cannot be read during eating time. This reviewer attempted this and failed. There is too much horror inside its covers to allow any vestige of peace of mind during its perusal. But it is a book that should be read by anyone insisting upon a true picture of history, no matter how it perturbs their emotional or mental equilibrium. The reader will learn that the Soviet Red Army "raped wherever it went"; of fifty thousand citizens of Hamburg who in two days in 1943 were slaughtered by British and American weapons of mass destruction; of the rape of almost three thousand women by French soldiers in Stuttgart; of the Brno death march, wherein over twenty-five thousand Germans were forced by revengeful Czechs to march several miles, beaten, harassed, and starved along the way; of the estimated 240,000 German Bohemian and Moravian deaths by the Czechs; of the beheadings of over a thousand people in Konigsberg by the Russians; and of the famous `Operation Paperclip' that involved the seizure of scientific equipment and kidnapping of German scientists by American occupation forces.

The actions of the Allied soldiers who participated in this carnage were reprehensible, with no moral justification whatsoever, and one could go on forever in condemning these actions. Needless to say these events are not reported in American textbooks used in elementary, middle, and high schools. For the most part they are ignored in college history classes also. It would seem that there is an attempt to forget they happened, which is ironic considering the penalties that one can obtain in some European countries for denying the history of the Holocaust. But like the horror of the Holocaust the carnage of the Allied occupation must reside in historical memory for all time. The alternative is a distorted and therefore useless picture of what actually happened during that time, with the horrific possibility that these actions be emulated in the future.

This grim book is one which should be read. One should not be surprised that it can arouse strong emotions, many of which are on display in some of the other, often lengthy, reviews on these web pages. This reader, a non-historian whose ethnicity and age place him far from the fray which can arouse such emotions, found the book answered his questions--those of a disinterested, but curious amateur. Macdonogh uses a direct journalistic style to lay out a fact-based case that the allied occupation of Germany was a harsh one. This should not come as a surprise, but one rarely hears of any of the details. They should be known, and they are highly unpleasant. They also have resonance in present-day Iraq. Moreover, the case he presents is consistent with a few conversations I have had with American enlisted men of my father's generation, as well as that of a close colleague who grew up hungry in a displaced persons' camp because he was a four-year-old who spoke German, but did not live in Germany.

I can quibble with a few elements of style: occasionally, the author displayed the uncomfortable whiff of aristocratic aloofness, for some unknown reason he informed us when American soldiers in his narrative happened to be black, and I occasionally would have preferred to learn how a broader range of historians have treated this era. These are minor points, and should not prevent the interested reader from buying this worthy book.

No book can hope to cover every aspect of an issue, let alone an entire period of history. Faulting this book for lacking a discussion of the Holocaust or German terrorism against the Soviets is like faulting a history of the Holocaust for not having a discussion of the treatment of Soviet POWs. Yet many excellent works about the Holocaust do just that. The author obviously assumes a certain level of knowledge of the context of the historical period. This is perhaps not to the liking of some, but any discussion of the Holocaust, German abuses in the USSR, etc. would necessarily be exceedingly brief and cursory in nature. Would that be any better? I don't think so.
Many historical works digress from their designated theses, but these are examples of poor writing or at least of poor editing. The best works of history stick closely to the particular topic. The notion that McDonogh should write a second volume to "provide context" is absurd. If one wishes to read about the context of the period preceding the human rights abuses, then one can find hundreds of excellent works on nearly every aspect of World War 2, including the Jewish Holocaust, other German murder campaigns against Roma, Soviet POWs, the disabled, homosexuals, communists, etc., the occupation of the USSR, and other issues. There is no need for MacDonogh to write another volume just because you want something neatly packaged.
Finally, re: quotations from David Irving. David Irving WAS, at one time, a more serious (if controversial) scholar, before going off the deep end. Many of his earlier works are acknowledged to be authoritative by a great number of historians. Before faulting all of his work, perhaps one should examine his overall reputation before beginning his career of Holocaust denial. Look online using any search engine for his name for reviews of his work from authorities like the NY Times Review of Books, Hugh Trevor-Roper, The New Yorker, and many others.
This book, with A Terrible Revenge by Alfred-Maurice de Zayas seeks to bring attention to understudied aspects of the post-WW2 era. It's worth reading and I give it 5 stars.

This is a brave and challenging book. Other reviews have done admirable service relating the contents of the book as well as the editing shortcomings. In my review I would like to address my reactions as I read the book and how reading this book has benefitted me.

This book is not for the faint hearted for two reasons: it is full of grusome details, and, more importantly, it may challenge all you have been led to believe.

I read the book in four nights so as not to lose the momentum of the story. At first I was put off by the endless pages of atrocities and wondered why MacDonogh has started out with them. I knew most of it anyway although a few of the stories moved me, such as the man who returned home at last, only to find the skeletons of his family hanging from the trees. But I realize in retrospect that MacDonogh was trying to create the feeling of Chaos, indeed the first part of the book is called such.

As MacDonogh moves on to describe life for the Germans in the individual national zones, a more concrete picture of the degree of insanity he is portraying begins to emerge. Every nation was in confusion and turmoil as reflected by the impossible situations in the camps. There seemed to be no way forward.

MacDonogh moves on to the the years of 1945-46 and the black markets and horrific winters that all, conqueror and conquered, had to endure. His inclusion of the attempt to reestablish arts is a welcome addition to knowledge of this time period, something I did not know.

The covering of the trials was a bit patchy and hard to follow, perhaps written by a different researcher. I enjoyed the ending and thought it brought a lot together. Concluding with the air lift and the establishment of the Cold War was the obvious place to end.

I am glad I bought and read this book along with other books on the subject. It is a story that has needs to be heard more often, lest we forget. It is not about anti-Americanism. And for those looking for context, did you not read the introduction? Indeed, you probably did not even read the book.

Patton was right, America fought the wrong enemy. There is so much more to the story that may never be made public. But this is as good a starting place as any.

The book benefitted me in several ways. To know someone is seeking the true story is always positive. I was interested to know more about Truman's and Churchill's participation and the information on Morganthau was new. This book does not try to avoid anyone's guilt, rather in seeking greater understanding of a fiendish, little understood, catastrophe in human history, it lets us all see a little more of ourselves. Most importantly, it enables us to analyze current events with a clearer knowledge of historical precedents. Thank you, Mr MacDonogh, for your efforts.

And thank you Amazon for allowing us, the average reader, an opportunity to share our thoughts publicly.

World War Two was likely the most devastating conflict humanity has experienced thus far. There were myriad causes, the easy explanation for its aftermath is to say that Germany and Japan started it so they deserved whatever the victors had in store for them. But what must be addressed and is in After the Reich is the toll taken on the civilian population of a defeated country. Civilized nations don't take revenge on civilian populations for the unaccountable actions of their political and military leadership and this book shows how the Allies and their hangers-on sank into barbarism in the fearsome blood-letting that occurred after the war against both disarmed POWs and the civilian population of a destroyed Germany.
Before buying this book, I knew something about the mistreatment of German POWs by both the Western Allies and the Russians after the war. And from other reading I knew about the mistreatment of German civilians being expelled from the east of the country. But not until I read this book did I realize the sheer magnitude of the crimes committed against the innocent and the helpless, more so by the Soviets than by the West, but still in violation of international law, civilized norms and various agreements and protocols.
Most Western readers won't be shocked by the behavior of the Soviet communists given the way they treated their own people, but many will be surprised and disappointed to learn that in many important ways that the British, the French, and the Americans were sometimes just as bad and even more morally culpable than the Russians given the supposed Judeo-Christian moral underpinnings of their societies.
After the Reich looks at the good and bad in the ways each of the individual Allied countries ran their sectors in both Germany proper and in Austria. The reader learns of the incredibly vicious behavior toward German minorities residing in the east(at the sufferance of and possibly on behalf of and at the behest of Moscow) by the Czechs, the Poles, and the Yugoslavs in the immediate post-war years. Rape, wanton slaughter, senseless destruction, inhuman cruelty and ethnic cleansing of an unprecedented scale were the order of the day. And although the Western Allies eventually partially redeemed themselves and set Germany on the path to freedom and prosperity, the Russians never did.
Although Giles MacDonogh has added a very provocative sub-title "The Brutal History of the Allied Occupation" to the dustcover, After the Reich is actually a very well-researched, balanced, and thoughtful book. Lest anyone think that MacDonogh goes easy on the Nazis, he certainly does not. I came away from reading this excellent history with the reinforced opinion that no European nation or ethnic group had a monopoly on suffering during or after the war and none have even the right to claim primacy in victim status. Those who can read this without bias and separate the mass of the German people from the actions of their government may well come to the same conclusion.

_After the Reich: The Brutal History of the Allied Occupation_, published in 2007 by British journalist and historian Giles Macdonogh, is an important and taboo breaking book revealing the atrocities committed by the Allied nations following the downfall of the Third Reich. The unique factor of this book is that it is written by a mainstream historian seeking an objective perspective on the history of post-Nazi Germany. As the author explains in the Preface to this book, "This book is about the history of the Germans in defeat" and as such it will seek to show the horrors inflicted on the German people following the Third Reich. However, to do so it is necessary to make sense of the notion of collective guilt. Many historians have maintained that the Germans "deserved what they got" because of their supposed part in bringing Hitler to power and for the crimes of Hitler and the Nazis. The author on the other hand attempts to show that such notions are specious and that the vast majority of Germans who bore the brunt of Allied terror were largely innocent. In fact, some of the worst offenders were allowed to go free, while countless innocent women and children suffered for the alleged crimes of the German nation. Some of the worst atrocities committed against the German people include the notorious rapes of German women by Soviet soldiers. Further, the ultimate results of the Second World War did not pan out well for the German nation given that a large part of Germany came under the control of the Soviets, arguably worse tyrants than the Nazis had been. While Hitler certainly did not serve the German people well, it is clear that the hands of the Allies are by no means clean in this matter and the subsequent Cold War which resulted was largely a waste. To show such things, the author relies extensively on such sources as German authors, thinkers, and philosophers including such individuals as Ernst Junger, Heinrich Boll, Gunther Grass, Thomas Mann, Karl Jaspers, and Carl Schmitt who personally went through much of the subsequent Allied occupation and recorded the events that took place under it. This book remains important for what it reveals about Allied atrocities and ultimately remains a testament to the horrors of war.

This book begins with a Preface in which the author explains his understanding of the events following the demise of the Third Reich in 1945. The author notes what he means by Germany, including all German-speaking peoples in this category and including Austria among them. The author also discusses ideas concerning the notion of "collective guilt", emphasizing the severe problematic with this notion and with the idea that many innocent people who had not supported (or even operated against) the Nazis would be lumped in with others, including countless children. In the Introduction to this book, the author goes over the demise of National Socialism noting the claims of the Allies to be "liberators" and finding fault with such claims. The author explains the ideas of Robert Vansitartt in attributing collective guilt to the German nation and blaming the Germans for both world wars. The author also explains the Morgenthau Plan of Henry Morgenthau and notes the role of Jewish suffering in the believed need for retaliation. The author also examines the situation as it existed in Austria at this time. The first part of this book is entitled "Chaos" and discusses the period following the fall of the Third Reich. The author begins by considering the fall of Vienna, noting the role of the Red Army. The author then considers liberated central Europe in 1945. The author discusses such things as liberation from the East, liberation from the West, the role of the Werewolfs in resisting the Allies (which was largely limited), and the role of the Allies in plundering the bones and relics of German nobility. The author provides graphic details of the rapes of German women, rampant prostitution, and general social misery. The author next turns to the situation in Berlin, mentioning the role of the Red Army and again providing graphic and shocking detail from the time. In particular, Russian soldiers showed little concern for the general welfare of the German people and would frequently force themselves upon German women. Following this, the author turns to the situation as it existed in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Yugoslavia. The author again provides graphic details from the time period and mentions instances of "concentration camps" in Czechoslovakia where German prisoners were detained which are particularly graphic and gruesome. The author also discusses recovered territories in the Prussian East. The second part of this book is entitled "Allied Zones" and discusses life in Russian, American, British, and French zones as well as Austria's zones and sectors and life in all four zones. The author provides graphic details of the harsh realities of life under the occupation in the different Allied occupied zones. The author also explains the reactions of the Germans to each of the different occupying powers and their relationships with them. The author also describes the role of German women and the ban on "frat" (fraternizing with the Germans) for the Allied soldiers which played an important role during this period. The third part of this book is entitled "Crime and Punishment" and discusses the crimes and punishments of the Nazis convicted of war crimes and other atrocities. First, the author discusses the idea of guilt, the process of de-nazification, and the role of Allied propaganda. The author raises difficult questions that the Germans faced concerning the crimes of Hitler and his cronies. Following this, the author turns to the black market (mentioning the role of an underground economy) and the stealing of artworks and paintings by Allied occupiers (many of which had already been stolen by Nazis). Following this, the author turns to the status of German POWs, noting the role of the Allied camps and their particular brutality. The author also explains the problems faced by German women at the time in a nation in which they were largely deprived of German men. Following this, the author turns to the trials at Nuremberg of the worst Nazi offenders. The author mentions the role of international law in trying and convicting German Nazis of war crimes and other crimes. However, the Allies faced a particular problem in the issue of nulla poena sine lege ("there is no crime without laws") and had to find a way around this in order to convict the Nazi offenders. The author also mentions the role of smaller time Nazi criminals and the attempts to bring them to justice by the Allies (which quite often were farcical in nature). The fourth part of this book is entitled "The Road to Freedom" and deals with the fate of Germany following the defeat of the Third Reich. The author mentions the peacemaking at Potsdam and the Yalta conference, noting the particular stubbornness of Stalin as well as the role of Truman, de Gaulle, and Churchill. The author also mentions the economic situation in Germany as it existed at the time and the particularly harsh winter of 1946-7 ("the great freeze") and the horrendous conditions faced by Germans at the time. The author also mentions the Berlin airlift and attempts to reinvigorate the economy of Germany. The book ends with a Conclusion in which the author sizes up the situation in Germany following the Allied occupation, mentioning the role of the Soviets and Stalin in particular, as well as the coming European Union and the role of Germany in it.

This book offers an often gruesome and graphic account of the history of Germany under the Allied occupation following the demise of the Third Reich. While many Germans were indeed guilty of great crimes following the Second World War, there were also many who were innocent (including women and children). Many of these innocents faced horrendous atrocities at the hands of the Allies (in particular women who were frequently raped by Russian soldiers). As such, this book speaks to the true horrors of war and reveals war for the horror that it indeed truly is. This book remains important because it represents the attempt of a mainstream historian to tackle these difficult issues as they concern the role of the Allies in the aftermath of the Third Reich. As such it is to be highly recommended for all those concerned about the horrors of war and the fate of Germany and the world following the Second World War.

I share some of the contextual concerns raised by the Washington Post review, yet I also agree that the author is not obligated to retell facts that are widely known in a book devoted to exposing facts that are not widely known. So I sympathize with the plight of the author, who took on an ambitious topic and has written a highly thought-provoking, sobering look at the costs of war.

But I do think that the book fails to live up to its premise, or to the topic that it hoped to cover. For my money, I will take Gunter Grass' illuminating, brilliantly written account of what it was like to be a German POW in Allied hands after the war, the unforgettable account of the imaginary meals that would be prepared by a German master chef also in Allied captivity, than anything written here.

I find the author's writing style to be so dry, so clinical, sometimes repetitive, that it badly calls out for a decent editor. I cannot follow the chapters, sometimes they appear to be about the same thing, and there are passages that go on forever, calling out for better organization and, to be frank, just better writing.

But I thank him for bringing to light an amazing story and collecting personal testimony that is heart-rendering and that needs to be told. I just wish someone else takes on this topic and does a better job with it.

A lot has been written about World War II, and some has even been written about the aftermath regarding the development of the Cold War. However, there is not a lot of published information giving an overall view of the occupation of Germany and the development of the divided country that lasted for 40 years. After the Reich, by Giles MacDonogh, rectifies that fact. It is heavily sourced, examining individual accounts as well as publications covering certain aspects of the occupation to give a broad overview of the horrors that developed and the neglect and outright savagery that caused the deaths of huge numbers of Germans in the aftermath of the war. MacDonogh gives a vivid yet very depressing picture showing that inhumanity was not limited to the Nazis.

MacDonogh begins the book with the months leading up to the end of the war, as the Soviets were advancing through Poland and eastern Germany, raping and pillaging as much as possible. Revenge was a common motive, vengeance for every inhumane act the Nazis perpetrated on the Soviets during the almost four years of war. Others just gave into their baser instincts. Heavily covered in this book, both at the beginning as well as throughout the text, is how Austria figured into the whole issue. Many on both sides saw the Austrians almost as guilty as the Germans for what happened, yet it was always treated slightly differently.

This makes the beginning of the book quite heavy. While MacDonogh obviously doesn't go into details of individual rapes, the near-constant refrain about the rape and pillaging, both from individual accounts as well as statistical ones, constantly wears on the reader. However, it also gets across just horrible life in Germany and Austria was in the few months after the war ended. He also details the mass starvation that was happening, as the populace lived on the bare minimum (and sometimes less) that allows sustenance. Hundreds of thousands died in this aftermath, and some thought `good riddance" to a population that they blamed for the war. This idea of "collective guilt" for the German populace is also examined by MacDonogh, where he presents figures from both sides of the controversy on whether the German civilians should be treated as a conquered people or as victims of the Nazi horror machine.

This is where After the Reich really becomes interesting, as MacDonogh details the political machinations of both sides (American/British/French against the Soviets) as they jockey for position. Stalin wanted a united Germany that acted as a buffer between the West and Poland/Czechoslovakia (where he was busy installing Communist rule), while the other Allies desperately resisted this idea, for various reasons. The French did not want a united Germany on their doorstep again, while the British and Americans did not want a prospective Soviet ally that close to France. All of this information is clearly presented by MacDonogh in a very interesting fashion.

MacDonogh ends After the Reich with the Berlin crisis and the massive airlift to keep the Soviets from taking over the entire city. Much like Germany itself, Berlin was divided into four occupation zones, but the Soviets tried to force the other Allies out in 1948 by blockading the land route from the Western zones to the city itself. This chapter is actually rather brief, but it's brimming with information. While a more detailed account can probably be found in a book on the Airlift itself, MacDonogh does an excellent job of covering the story well enough for the reader to know why it happened and how it was resolved.

After the Reich is a very important book in a number of ways. It shows us the horrors of trying to rebuild a country that's been devastated by war and its own government's evil, as well as demonstrating that all sides in war are capable of atrocities. We also see how human many of these people who commit these atrocities are. One of the most interesting chapters is on the Nuremburg trials and how the big guys (Goering, Hess, and others) treated the trials. Goering is shown scoffing at everything, Hess pretends to have lost his memory, and they all seem very human. Because of this, they seem even more evil. After the Reich is a riveting overview of the immediate postwar history of Germany, and it's valuable for that..

David Roy

I am not a particularly well-read history buff, so I am not familiar with other books about this subject and cannot make any kind of informed comparison. But I can say that MacDonogh's book offers a gripping, fact-based, and unflinching account of what happened to and worse, what was actively done to German POWs and civilians at the end of WW2 and in its immediate aftermath. Using a variety of official and eyewitness accounts - diaries and reporting by American observers, including John Dos Passos - he describes the starvation, looting, raping, torture, abuse, and general degradation of millions of people, many of them quite innocent, that took place at the hands of the victors. He is no apologist for Nazi crimes; he simply reports on what the Russian, American, British, and French armies actually did, much of it not widely reported, as they pushed into Germany and took over. He also describes the vicious abuses perpetrated by lawless civilians in places like Czechoslovakia and Poland. It is not a pretty picture - indeed, it is difficult to read, in places, because of the sheer level of atrocity that took place: women killing themselves and their children; British troops reluctanty rounding up thousands of people and turning them over to the Russians, who clearly intend to kill them all; people stripped of their clothes and freezing to death in freight cars as they're transported from the East back to Germany; women raped (sadly, by American and French troops as well as by Russians).
The book also reviews the long series of Nuremberg trials, describing how many Nazi bigwigs were only half-heartedly prosecuted - or managed to kill themselves before facing trial.
MacDonogh has done a great deal of research for this book, all of it documented, and because he is fluent in German and familiar with its history and culture, he is able to tell a compelling and therefore quite disturbing story.

Very fascinating and well-written book.

Much of the criticism directed against this book is unwarranted and absurd. The book does present brutalities inflicted upon the Germans in a context. However, its focus is not on the Holocaust or brutalities inflicted upon Russians.

Whether one thinks these brutalities were justified or excusable is irrelevant. They still need to be discussed and evaluated by histoirians and the public at large.

However,I am hesitant to elevate these unjust acts to the equivalency of genocide or "ethnic cleansing". But an objective historian would gather all the evidence before reaching that conclusion. And the public has heard relatively little about the bloodbath inflicted upon Germans in Czechoslovakia and the like.

Any objective factual account of events should be viewed as a conbtribution. Whether acts were justified or not, they still transpired.