Most Helpful Customer Reviews
153 of 166 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it.", September 3, 2002
An extraordinary book. It tells two of the most extraordinary stories of the 20th century simultaneously. Neither has been told before. One is the story of a great hero - Herbert Hoover, not J. Edgar the FBI boss, but a multimillionaire humanitarian whose courage, outspokenness, persistence and dedication saved literally tens of millions of people from starvation after the first world war and then after the second. And it's the story of why we never hear about this. General Eisenhower, war "hero" and later US president, of whom we have all heard, persued a deliberate policy of preventing available food aid into Germany between 1945-49. Laws preventing immigration turned the country into a prison. As Bacque revealed in earlier book OTHER LOSSES, millions of disarmed soldiers died in prison camps; further more, Bacque tells the story of the suffering of civilians, dying from starvation. It is a part of living memory that times were extraordinarily hard, but Bacque's research has enabled an estimate of the scale for the first time: at least 9 million. He has found the documents which trace the decisions leading to this second holocaust, leading back to Eisenhower and his advisors. It is a courageous act for a man aged more than 70 accuse a war hero and president of being commiting atrocities. Bacques thoughts on collective are thought provocing. It's a sign of the times that a book like this is out of print. By it before it becomes a historical document in itself. Read it and tell people. It's relevant to today.
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85 of 91 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Powerful Book, October 13, 2004
In this powerful new book, Canadian historian James Bacque presents detailed evidence, much of it newly uncovered, to show that some nine million Germans died as a result of Allied starvation and expulsion policies in the first five years after the Second World War -- a total far greater than the long-accepted figures. These deaths are still being concealed and denied, writes Bacque, especially by American and British authorities. Crimes and Mercies -- a handsome hardcover work, illustrated and well-referenced -- is a devastating indictment of Allied, and especially American, occupation policy in defeated postwar Germany. Nearly 15 million Germans fled or were brutally expelled in the greatest act of "ethnic cleansing" in history, a human catastrophe in which some two million were killed or otherwise perished. Then, under the notorious "Morgenthau Plan" and its successor policies, the Allies carried out a massive looting of Germany, and even prevented German civilians from growing enough food to feed themselves. Bacque shows, for example, that General Eisenhower, in violation of the Geneva Convention, in May 1945 forbade German civilians to take food to prisoners starving to death in American camps. He threatened the death penalty for anyone feeding prisoners. Bacque also describes the terrors of the postwar camps in Poland where children and other German civilians lost their lives. Written with fervor, compassion and humanity, and making use of never-before cited records in Moscow archives, James Bacque exposes a little-known but important chapter of 20th century history. He builds upon the revelations of his startling 1989 study, Other Losses, which presented evidence to show that hundreds of thousands of German prisoners of war died as a result of cruel and illegal mistreatment by American, British and French authorities. American historian Alfred M. de Zayas, author of Nemesis at Potsdam and The German Expellees, provides a valuable foreword
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177 of 197 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
To Bad Some "Top Reviewers" are Filled With Hate!, December 30, 2003
By A Customer
If historical facts truely cause some "readers to write trash" so be it. I have read my copy of this book and in my opinion should be required reading by everyone. Many Germans civilians were killed and their properties stolen from them because of this war. My family lost our farm that we had for over two hundred and fifty years in East Prussia. But I guess accordingly to "The Top Reviewer" we had it coming to us because our German government, at the time, was evil. I was only a young boy at the time, but we survived. Because we lost our farm in the real eastern Germany, we came to this country. And I grew up and became an Electronic/Electrical Engineer. By the way. One last special note to "Mr. Top Reviewer", and people like him, when you look up at the moon at night, remember this. A young German boy survived your bad wishes and was a proud member of the team that helped design and build all of the first unmaned Spacecrafts that landed the moon. This Spacecrafts series were called the Rangers. And they are still there, all of them that went. Don't forget, never.
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