Customer Reviews

Other Losses

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(4)

 

 

I read about half the book, I have a hunch the author is indeed telling the plain truth, nothing more or less. While stationed in the US Army in West Germany in the mid-80's, I learned enough German to talk to (among others) some older men who had been POWs. I was mildly baffled then by their differing accounts: one who surrendered in North Africa was profuse with praise and gratitude for his captors. A couple who were rounded up at the end of the war around the Main river were glad that West Germany had turned out so well under U.S. control, but made no bones about how hard their captivity had been. I thought "must be sour grapes, because we Americans always treat the captured enemy to cream cakes and chocolate" and so on. However, my commanding officer, an avid historian himself, also mentioned he'd heard of a lot of German POW's dying at the end of the war. To make a long story short, there was a sort of whispered "oral tradition" in the US Army in Germany of stories passed from the old timers to the new guys about something pretty bad happening to the POWs in the Rhein-Main (confluence of two rivers) area. My father was the one who recommended the book to me. It is difficult going, because of so much attention to detail, etc., but the main thing is, it unfortunately corroborates with what I have heard from both German and U.S. sources. What to do? I think this episode is like that of slavery in the 19th century. We can't undo what's been done, but we can try to make sure we do better. And mostly we have, not one of the old Germans I talked to would have traded places with those who were captured by the Soviets.

I remember being shocked to see on a town memorial marker that one of my WWII-casualty great-uncles on my German side (my father is Irish, mother from Germany), had actually died in October 1946, a full year and a half after the end of the war. I was then informed this one, Willi Kurz, had starved to death in a camp in France (after surviving years of hellish war), survived by his wife and young daughter.

So to suddenly stumble across this book was incredibly saddening & maddening, and to see that children suffered similarly long after the war was supposedly over was even worse. But it is true, and "the truth will out." And it is almost unknown. And it shatters the myth that only the "other" side's government is capable of mass murder. And now, I dislike Ike.

Other Losses is one of those rare books that make you see life as it really was and is. No matter what the orthodox, official historians tell you, you know there's an official slant & need, for the sake of Truth, to know more. I know the orthodox are making a shameless industry of my peoples suffering and automatically and pervasively revile anyone who speaks of German suffering. Millions of Germans wrongfully suffered at the hands of the allies armies just as we Jews suffered at the hands of others. It's not retribution. It's just murder! Thank You James Bacque for your courage & kindness!

This is an account of the deliberate extermination of over 1 million German military personnel detained in camps in deplorable conditions following World War II.

The question that must be asked and answered is: "Is this account true or fantasy?" A criticism I have is that the author is ponderous in his detail and documentation. Get by this and you find that war crimes and brutality are not limited only to our enemies. Historians have chosen to ignore the sins of our heroes and instead have chosen to demonize our former foes. No one denies that our enemies were guilty of a host of crimes but a true historian must seek the truth and verify facts. Unfortunately, most modern historians seek to promote an agenda instead of reporting historical accuracy. I have been present at several occasions that have been reported as historical and have been appalled at the twisting of the facts by so-called historians. This has made me suspicious of all historical reporting and I have found that a bit of diligent searching can turn up facts omitted or corrupted in the recording of history. A warning however. The purveyors of historical falsehoods guard their work jealously. You will be called a revisionist, or worse. However, I encourage you to dig, and dig hard, for the truth. "Other Losses" is a rare find and view into a shameful episode in American history.

This shocking book shreds the notion of a higher moral authority most Americans take for granted as their legacy of victory in WWII. Mr. Bacque sifts through reams of Army records and exposes the cover-ups, obfuscations, and downright distortions perpetrated by Army high command in the heady days following Allied victory in Europe. He details General Eisenhower's nearly pathological hatred of Germany and the German people and his systematic starvation and neglect of disarmed German soldiers and civilians. The death count is staggering, and the behavior of those in command, criminal. All the more so, because this type of spiteful retribution was unbeknownst and contrary to the will of the American people. The foreword is by Dr. Ernest F. Fisher, Jr. A retired Colonel, and senior historian for the U.S. Army

James Bacque came across this topic while writing a biography of a wounderful Frenchman, Raoul Laporterie, who had saved 1600 Jews during WW II. Discovering that Raoul had also saved two German POWs from slave labor, he got into this topic and, with the assistance of a U.S. Army Col./historian, researched this book. It examines the treatment of POWs and the employment of slave labor by the western Allies. Recently he has published "Crimes and Mercies"; using newly available sources and expanding the topic to the massacres of German civilians in the East and what he believes was a process of deliberate starvation of German civilians for two years after the war. The tolls he computes: 1.1M POWs killed; 2M forced laborers employed in the west; of 900K forced laborers held by the French (mostly POWs but also civilians), 300K dead; 2.1 to 6 M civilians massacred in the East, and "excess" deaths of 5.7 M civilians from 1945 to 1950. Is this possible? (This is important, these books have been attacked as fantasy or worse.) I believe that it is. A principal corroberative source I have is the experiences of relatives and family friends. My cousin Siegfried was captured at the end of the war. The day the war ended the treatment of the POWs went from correct to brutal. He was then sent to France as a forced laborer, and only survived because the major commanding his last camp told the men that he had been a POW for 5 years and had been treated correctly, and what was being done to them was a terrible crime, and that he would do everything to see that they survived. A family friend, formerly a Ford (US) executive and then with VW, was kidnapped out of his office and sent to France as a slave; his family had no idea what happened to him. He luckily got out a year later. Other relatives died in the camps. Secondly, both these books are carefully documented, with hundreds of precise footnotes covering every assertion and dozens of pages of appendices, bibliographies, etc., the vast majority Allies documents and sources. I have never seen a critic call Bacque on his sources, attributions, etc. There seems to be two schools of denial. One, the name-calling school, calls Bacque a "revisionist", although he does not write about either the topic or the period of the Holocaust, and seems to have a conventional view of the Holocaust. Supposedly such a label, used without a single factual assertion or rebuttal, automatically negates years of research. The second I call the "Where's the beef!" school, who states no bodies, no crime. In fact many mass graves have been found ig Germany, and the government literally and figuratively covers them up, and, if necessary, the police threaten investigators. In summary, this is a very important area of history that has been covered up too long. Bacque's two books (and "Just Raoul" about Mr. Laporterie) deserve reading and contemplation.

It is unfortunate, but not surprising, that this book did not inspire more research into the subject of the maltreatment of German POWs (or perhaps it did, in which case I am simply not aware of it). I tend to think, however, that academia and the media--the two institutions which could have launched any number of investigations--preferred to let sleeping dogs lie rather than take a chance on the accuracy of Bacque's work. After all, what if Ike really had a pathological hatred of Germans? What if tens of thousands of German POWs died--in peace time--as a result of systematic deprivation and neglect? "Other Losses" is a carefully researched book which marshals the facts and reaches its conclusions by an inexorable process of elimination. I notice that WizardManO offers nothing in his review to refute Bacque's veracity. He merely calls him a revisionist (as if that resolves the issue) and expresses his regret that the book was allowed to be published. Watch out for book burners, by whatever name they call themselves!

Baqcue has discovered some shocking evidence against the western allies, the attempt to categorize this book as revisionist is unforgivable. Is it revisionism to speak the truth about a subject which has been a tabu over fifty years now?

My grandfather, an American-Jewish officer with the U.S. Army, says Mr. Bacques book is so true that it upsets many people who both know it is true and don't want to see it written about or even brought up for discussion. He says Hatred is like that no matter what our nationalities or religions. I know what he means.
Hatred wasn't just limited to German political fanatics; it infected Americans,too, just like it has infected some of us Jews. G-d knows the Truth. Thomas Jefferson wrote many prophetic and true statements about our American homeland, but this one is relavent to this passage in our history: "I tremble for my country when I remember that G-d is just."
I see lots of material out there telling non-Jews to be tolerant and not hateful, and that's fine. But we really need to see that any of us can be hateful and try to justify murder in the name of our countries. But it's still murder.
Isn't there enough injustices in our world that we can't control?
Do we have to knowingly inflict more injustices on other people
in the name of our country? I don't think we have to, I think that often we just choose to do so. We are capable of better behavior, and we know it! So does G-d.

"Contrary to popular belief, truth is NOT established by popular belief."

This topic will surely remain contentious for decades to come, unless further research bears more evidence for or against. Certainly, an allegation is not proof, individual pieces of evidence are hardly sufficient proof for a larger claim, and Bacque must be considered to remain on the defensive to stake a claim of credibility for his thesis. Certainly the accused remain innocent until proven guilty beyond doubt. Any refutations are highly relevent and welcome. Where are they?

However, beware of hyperbole and obfuscations from such characters as our friend Graham Broad, who blatantly states the insupportable by referring to Noam Chomsky. See what Chomsky really says.

Also, see what Bacque himself answers to critiques Ambrose, Keegan, etc... :

If argumentation such as Broad's were to prevail, think how easy it would be to assert revisionist holocaust denial! Or is it the other way around...? You decide.