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James Bacque
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Other Losses: An Investigation into the Mass Deaths of German Prisoners at the Hands of the French and Americans after World War II Paperback – June 28, 2011

by James Bacque (Author)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 181 ratings
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Other Losses caused an international scandal when first published in 1989 by revealing that Allied Supreme Commander Dwight Eisenhower’s policies caused the death of some 1,000,000 German captives in American and French internment camps through disease, starvation and exposure from 1944 to 1949, as a direct result of the policies of the western Allies, who, with the Soviets, ruled as the Military Occupation Government over partitioned Germany from May 1945 until 1949.

An attempted book-length disputation of Other Losses, was published in 1992, featuring essays by British, American and German revisionist historians (Eisenhower and the German POWs: Facts Against Falsehood, edited by Ambrose & Günter). However, that same year Bacque flew to Moscow to examine the newly-opened KGB archives, where he found meticulously and exhaustively documented new proof that almost one million German POWs had indeed died in those Western camps.

One of the historians who supports Bacque’s work is Colonel Ernest F. Fisher, 101st Airborne Division, who in 1945 took part in investigations into allegations of misconduct by U.S. troops in Germany and later became a senior historian with the United States Army. In the foreword to the book he states: “Starting in April 1945, the United States Army and the French Army casually annihilated about one million [German] men, most of them in American camps … Eisenhower’s hatred, passed through the lens of a compliant military bureaucracy, produced the ­horror of death camps unequalled by anything in American military ­history … How did this enormous war crime come to light? The first clues were uncovered in 1986 by the author James Bacque and his ­assistant.”

This updated third edition of Other Losses exists not to accuse, but to remind us that no country can claim an inherent innocence of or exemption from the cruelties of war.

Previous page
  1. Print length
    392 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Talonbooks
  4. Publication date
    June 28, 2011
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.98 x 8.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0889226652
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0889226654
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Other Losses is a fine example of historical investigation, which also serves as a reminder of what sort of country Americans really live in.”
– Journal of Historical Review

About the Author

James Bacque was a novelist, book editor, essayist, and historian whose work has helped raise awareness in human rights issues associated with war crimes, particularly spurring debate on and research into the treatment of German POWs at the end of World War II.

Bacque was the founding partner and president of new press book publishers from 1969–1975. He also worked as a reporter for the Stratford Beacon-Herald; as an assistant editor for Saturday Night magazine and for Canadian Homes magazine; and as an editor for Macmillan of Canada and for Seal Books.

His fiction titles include The Lonely Ones, 1969 (Big Lonely in the paperback edition, 1970); A Man of Talent, 1972; Creation (with Robert Kroetsch and Pierre Gravel), 1972; The Queen Comes to Minnicog, 1979; and Our Fathers’ War, 2006.

His history titles include Crimes and Mercies, which was an immediate bestseller when first released in the U.K. by Little, Brown, and Other Losses, which has been published in Canada, the U.K., the U.S., Germany, Japan, Italy, Turkey, Portugal, Korea, and Hungary.

Bacque was the subject of a one-hour BBC TV documentary in 1990 and has also been featured in four TV documentaries in France, Germany, and Canada. He has appeared on the CBS Evening News; Good Morning America; and CBC TV’s The Journal.

He has given readings and lectures across Canada and Europe, and his articles have been published in many magazines and anthologies, including Saturday Night, Books in Canada and the Globe and Mail.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Talonbooks; 3rd edition (June 28, 2011)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 392 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0889226652
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0889226654
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.12 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.98 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 181 ratings

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James Bacque

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4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
181 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Tom Marking
5.0 out of 5 stars The Greatest War Crime Never Told
Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2014
Verified Purchase
In the waning days of World War II in Europe millions of Wehrmacht soldiers were fleeing westward in order to surrender to the Americans and British whom they assumed would give them better treatment than the vindictive Russians closing in from the east. Little did they know that they were walking into a trap that would seal the fate of many of them. In this excellently documented and reasoned book Canadian historian James Bacque takes a look at those fateful days and the inevitable tragedy that resulted in the needless deaths of upwards of one million German prisoners. He takes us behind the scenes to the planning and policy making occurring in the American high command and demonstrates convincingly that what happened was no fluke, but rather deliberate mass murder. If Bacque is right, and I believe he is, then this is the single greatest war crime committed by American soldiers in American history. And they almost got away with it too. For more than forty years this war crime sat hidden in U.S. Army records obscured by bureaucratic euphemisms such as Other Losses which forms the title of this book. Even today the Pentagon is still covering up the facts by claiming that Other Losses means transfers of prisoners to other commands. And some of the world's most renowned World War II historians such as Stephen Ambrose have participated in this cover-up.

Bacque takes us into the prison camps themselves using eyewitness testimony by some of the German prisoners who survived their ordeal and also eyewitness testimony by their American camp guards. Germans were herded by the thousands into open pens surrounded by barbed wire and prison towers. Only a few tents were provided. Most prisoners sat on the ground which turned to mud when the rains of spring came to Germany. There was inadequate food, inadequate water, inadequate shelter, and virtually no medical supplies. The prisoners soon started dying of dysentery, pneumonia, malnutrition, and other causes brought on by their exposure to the elements and lack of proper care. And all of this was the result of deliberate policy set forth by none other than General Dwight Eisenhower, the highest ranking American general in the European theater. But this war crime went even above Eisenhower straight to President Roosevelt and his Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau who devised the infamous Morgenthau plan which intended to de-industrialize Germany and thereby kill off several tens of millions of Germans.

Bacque shows us secret orders such as the one issued by Eisenhower on March 10, 1945 which created the new classification of DEF (Disarmed Enemy Forces). Unlike the POW (Prisoner Of War) classification Germans prisoners classified as DEFs would have no protection under the Geneva convention. The German government would be responsible for feeding German prisoners with the DEF classification even though Eisenhower knew full well that after May 8, 1945 there would be no German government. But the orders went even further. German civilians were forbidden to bring food or clothing to the camp inmates on pain of being shot and Bacque provides us the exact public notice which was posted for this.

Not only did Eisenhower and some of his subordinates (Hughes, etc.) carry out this atrocity but they made sure that it stayed secret for more than forty years. By using bland, euphemistic terms such as Other Losses in official Army reports they could cover up their war crimes. Very few people ever challenged them on it. Journalists were for the most part happy to go along with the party line and so the greatest war crime in American history lay undisturbed for James Bacque to find in the 1980's, more than 40 years later.

Reading these accounts is all so horrible. To think that we have been looking up to and honoring people like Eisenhower, Roosevelt, and Marshall all these years who now turn out to be war criminals just turns my stomach. And just like Uncle Joe Stalin, they all got away with these crimes. Not a single one of them was ever punished for what they did. What I cannot understand is why there was not an out-and-out revolt by the lower ranking American officers and enlisted men to protest this mass murder. This is certainly not the greatest generation of Americans, not if they participated in mass murder like this. Bacque's book should puncture any illusion you may have about World War II being the "Good War". All wars are nasty and total wars are even more nasty than usual. Our war "leaders" don't think twice about lying to us and misleading us in order to build up their own egos.

I highly recommend this book. This is a MUST READ for anyone interested in World War II.
66 people found this helpful
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ALBERTO NAVARRO
5.0 out of 5 stars UNA HISTORIA QUE DEBE CONOCERSE.
Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2024
Verified Purchase
RECOMIENDO AMPLIAMENTE ESTE LIBRO, FUE
ESCRITO POR EL HISTORIADOR CANADIENSE JAMES BACQUE QUIEN DESMISTIFICA LA HISTORIA ROSA DE LA SEGUNDA GUERRA MUNDIAL DE " LOS BUENOS" CONTRA "LOS
MALOS" LA CUAL HA SIDO PROPAGADA POR
HOLLYWOOD.
DESPUÉS DE LA RENDICIÓN DE ALEMANIA EN
MAYO DE 1945 UN MILLÓN DE ALEMANES PERECIERON EN CAMPOS DE CONCENTRACIÓN
NORTEAMERICANOS POR HAMBRE Y ENFERMEDADES PROVOCADOS POR LA FALTA
DE COMIDA, MEDICINAS Y AGUA POTABLE,
EL RESPONSABLE DE ESTAS POLÍTICAS FUE
EL GENERAL DWIGHT EISENHOWER. OTROS
FUERON TRANSFERIDOS A FRANCIA PARA
REALIZAR TRABAJOS DE ESCLAVO, TODO
ESTO FUE DELIBERADAMENTE PLANEADO
EN 1944 POR EISENHOWER SIGUIENDO LOS
LINEAMIENTOS DEL INFAME PLAN MORGHENTAU
QUE CONSISTIA EN DESTRUIR LA BASE INDUSTRIAL DE ALEMANIA Y REDUCIRLA A
UN ESTADO PASTORAL.
SON BIEN CONOCIDAS LAS TERRIBLES ATROCIDADES QUE COMETIERON LOS NAZIS Y
LOS COMUNISTAS, ES HORA DE QUE SE SEPAN
LAS QUE HAN COMETIDO LAS DEMOCRACIAS
OCCIDENTALES ESPECIALMENTE CONTRA
LOS ALEMANES, EN UNA FORMA VENGATIVA
Y DELIBERADA DESPUÉS DE QUE SE ACABÓ
LA GUERRA.
EL LIBRO SE LO RECOMIENDO A MUCHOS
HISPANOAMERICANOS QUE TODAVÍA HOY
DIA CLAMAN POR INTERVENCIONES MILITARES,
YO ME PREGUNTO, QUÉ PARTE NO HAN ENTENDIDO?
2 people found this helpful
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E. Rodin MD
5.0 out of 5 stars Valuable addition to WWII history
Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2001
Verified Purchase
Mr. Bacque is to be congratulated for publishing this book which describes the fate German soldiers who had surrendered to General Eisenhower's forces at the end of WWII. They had expected to be treated according to the Geneva convention governing the conduct of armies in regard to captured enemy personnel. This was not to be the case. As Mr. Bacque points out an entire new category of "Disarmed Enemy Forces", DEF, was created. Its only purpose was to avoid having to feed and house these millions of ex-soldiers and thereby bypass the Geneva convention to which America was a signatory. One may argue about the precise numbers of ex-soldiers who died in these "temporary enclosures" but the fact that inhuman treatment did exist cannot be denied. Neither can the fact that a considerable percentage of them was subsequently given to the French for what is called today "slave labor," albeit this term refers nowadays only to non-German nationals. Readers who may feel negatively about Bacque's revelations should be aware that this treatment of former members of the German army was not just happenstance but the execution of the Morgenthau plan to render Germany harmless forever. The plan was not directed against the German leadership or Nazis, but the German people at large. Mr. Baque makes frequent reference to this unfortunate document but readers, who cannot conceive that U.S. personnel may also carry out atrocities should look at the Document section of Warren F. Kimball's "Swords or Ploughshares? The Morgenthau plan for Defeated Nazi Germany."The book clearly shows that Roosevelt had endorsed a policy of "being hard on Germany" and Eisenhower was in full accord. That you cannot be "hard" on a country but only on its people and that this policy is bound to involve cruelties was not a consideration. The conditions changed only after Eisenhower's return to the U.S. and the appointment of Lucius D. Clay as High Commissioner. He clearly saw that the existing situation, even for the civilian population, made neither military nor political sense. It would merely turn the population to communism because even the Russians fed the people in their zone better than the Americans did. It is also to President Truman's credit that he quietly dropped the Morgenthau plan soon after the Potsdam meeting. As a former member of the Wehrmacht I had become aware of the Morgenthau plan in the winter of 1944-1945 but had regarded it as Nazi propaganda. I had always had high admiration for the principles America stood for and the Morgenthau plan seemed to be in total contradiction to those ideals. As mentioned in my book War and Mayhem I had intended to surrender to the U.S. forces towards the end of the war, but changed my mind on VE day and through the grace of God managed to avoid American as well as Soviet captivity. Having read Mr. Bacque's book I am even more grateful for the good fortune which kept me out of DEF status and instead allowed me to go to medical school within about six weeks after Germany's capitulation. I had no idea about the conditions German ex-soldiers were exposed to in those days, just as I had no idea about what really went on in the Nazi concentration camps until after the war. There are things people just didn't talk about. To "let it all hang out" became popular only in the late sixties and thereafter. But for the sake of historical accuracy both sides need to be heard and Mr. Bacque has done us this service for which he deserves our gratitude.
187 people found this helpful
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Tom C.
5.0 out of 5 stars Eisenhower’s war crime!
Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2023
Verified Purchase
An expose of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s death camp at Remagen! 1.2 million German Soldiers were starved to death! They had surrendered but were put into a barbed wire enclosure without food or water and no shelter in the harsh elements!
This should be more well known and the author is courageous in telling the truth about this war crime!
5 people found this helpful
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Dr.-Ing. C. Ruhl
5.0 out of 5 stars Ein Muss...
Reviewed in Germany on December 4, 2022
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...für alle die mehr wissen wollen. Wird ein Geschenk für einen Geschichtslehrer. Da dies nicht in unseren Geschichtsbüchern steht.
One person found this helpful
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Arjuna
5.0 out of 5 stars Imprescindible si te interesa la verdad.
Reviewed in Spain on March 3, 2020
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Un libro que debes tener si te interesa la verdad en la historia europea.
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Max Bork
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent read and research book
Reviewed in Canada on October 4, 2016
Verified Purchase
An excellent read and research book. I applaud the author for his tireless research, and for overcoming the many obstacles he encountered to bring this part of our history to light, and the denial of this event in our history he encountered afterwards by so called historians. An historical apology took place at 2:00 pm on Monday October 31, 2011 in the Congressional and Monument Rooms of The Courtyard US Capitol Marriott Hotel, in Washington DC. US Major Merrit Drucker of the US armed forces officially apologized to the German soldiers and their relatives for the terrible treatment German prisoners of war had to go through in the so-called "Rheinwiesenlager". Between 750,000 and 1 million German prisoners of war perished after the war had ended. The apology was accepted by Oberstleutnant der Bundeswehr a.D. Max Klaar, who is the President of " Verband Deutscher Soldaten". The event has been made possible through the efforts of Mr. James Bacque, author of the book "Other Losses" which documents what happened in those camps, and US Major Merrit Drucker.
4 people found this helpful
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Cassandra
5.0 out of 5 stars We do not always recognise how often we are sold a bill of goods...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 30, 2014
Verified Purchase
Here is clear confirmation that the lies, spin and propaganda were (and are) by no means confined to Joseph Goebbels and those nasty Nazis. It was generally believed by most of the public amongst the ultimately "victorious" Allied forces that the Third Reich, Hitler and the Nazis had the monopoly on evil. They were the Black Hats - the Allies were the White Hats, and that, to this day, is the most widely believed narrative. The Allied propaganda sold well, in that respect, to its own supporters. It was therefore very easy for the various Allied sectors that received surrendering German military and civilians to the camps in Berlin at the end of WWII to mete out to them if they chose, treatment certainly not in accordance with the Geneva Convention, behaviour they had roundly condemned in the Germans during the war. And the Americans, under Dwight D Eisenhower, were the worst. Allied propaganda had evidently been so effective, not only amongst the Allies themselves, but believed also, greatly to their detriment by the surrendering Germans at the time, that as many as could manage it chose to surrender to the Americans, confident that they would at least be decently fed, clothed and housed, and receive the best available treatment from them, compared to the Russians, the British or the French.

The Americans may well have topped the list for ill treatment of prisoners, but there were also breaches of the Geneva Convention and ill-treatment of prisoners by the British and the French - even the Russians, who were not noted for compassionate treatment, were occasionally moved to marvel at the starvation rations the American prisoners received, when it was very clear that this was not due to food shortage. The American forces were the best fed of all the Allied troops and the stockpile of foodstuffs they held were far more than required to feed their troops. Their prisoners, military and civilian, were often confined within a grassy area defined by a wire fence and offering no shelter from the elements and no toilet facilities other than the earth on which they stood. The weather was appalling, it deluged with rain, and it was not long before the prisoners were suffering from infections, chest problems, pneumonia, TB, all made far worse by their lack of shelter. Some burrowed into the sodden ground in an effort to find some respite from the elements, only to perish from disease often arising from lack of provision of toilet facilities. But the factor that made the diseases so much worse and their contraction almost inevitable was the lack of proper nutrition. Some of the young American GIs who were helping to guard the prisoners were so appalled by the below-subsistence rations they risked bringing the matter to the attention of their senior officers, pointing out that there were FAR more food supplies available than were needed by US Army personnel, only to be firmly rebuked and told it was none of their business. One or two were actually given official warnings and reprimands for daring to question the policy.

No less a figure than General George Patton objected loudly to the treating of surrendered German troops in so cavalier a manner. He made it very clear that when he returned to the US, in a week or so's time, he would be ensuring that the American public were told of the shameful and cruel manner their government was treating a defeated and surrendered enemy. Are we to suppose it was "pure coincidence" that Patton met with an accident only a day or so before he was due to fly back to the US? that he spent his final days in a German hospital where he remained until he died, not long after it appeared that he was recovered from what seemed to be comparatively minor injuries?....another dodgy narrative, I would suggest. His removal was, at any rate, singularly convenient for those in the US Government whose policies had led to such ill treatment of German people, and there is no doubt that whilst there was little love lost between the US authorities and Patton by that time, he was a very popular figure amongst the American public, and he would certainly have been listened to with great interest had he been available to organise the public speaking tour he had had in mind on his return to the US.

Bacque is a Canadian historian, who at the time he wrote this book, held a position at one of Canada's universities. So great was the fear of the Establishments in all the former Allied nations that he was vilified and criticised for having written it, found it initially difficult to get a publisher who would take it, and was eventually hounded out of his job at the university, on the grounds that he was a thoroughly discredited historian. It's what's always done, when the powers that be need to dispense with someone exposing the truth about their agenda. Either make the critic both unemployed and unemployable henceforth, or call him all the names under the sun, because mud sticks, and some of the names will be forever associated with that person. Or both. James Bacque did a great deal of research documenting the facts, many of which he gives in this book. Most of us don't bother much, when the attack isn't directed at us - but it's a tried and tested method, so perhaps we all ought to mind rather more than we do - these tactics can be used on anyone at all who departs from the "official" line, and it's a great way to ensure complete loss of anything that could be called free speech, if we continue to ignore it when it's turned on others. Cassandra
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apis
4.0 out of 5 stars unknown truth
Reviewed in Italy on April 13, 2013
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the book shows the unknown truth of german prisoners left in open air, without sufficient food, without shelter and medical assistance. this is an unknown side of the history which everybody should know. lagers are the same everywhere and under all flags, human lives deserve the same respect even if they are our enemies. a soldier who surrender is no more an enemy is simply a man.
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