Gruesome Harvest was written in 1947 by an American who was outraged with the abuses heaped upon the surrendered German people, as well as hotly concerned that these abuses were playing into the hands of the Soviets (the last two chapters of the book specifically address the Soviet question).
Two quotes follow, the first a good summary of the systemic intentional abuses, found at the start of chapter 7, the second, citing evidence that the genocidal starvation was deliberate. First:
(page 71):
It is inconsistent to show solicitude for the welfare of Germany or the German people and at the same time to support the Potsdam agreements, because, as we have seen, the latter were intended not to help Germany recover but rather to prevent her from doing so. Potsdam was based on the Morgenthau Plan and the Morgenthau Plan had stipulated:
"The sole purpose of the military in control of the German economy shall be to facilitate military operations and military occupation. The Allied Military Government shall not assume responsibility for such economic problems as price controls, rationing, unemployment, production, reconstruction, distribution, consumption, housing, or transportation, or take any measures designed to maintain or strengthen the German economy, except those which are essential to military operations. The responsibility for sustaining the German economy and
people rests with the German people with such facilities as may be available under the circumstances. "
"Under the circumstances" must be underscored as meaning an absence of essential facilities. The territorial losses and seizures; the program of overcrowding through expulsions of millions of eastern Germans; the wholesale enslavement of German manpower; the liquidation of German science and managerial, technical, and professional classes through de-nazification; the
settling of the low level of industry decided upon, coupled with the industrial sacking and elimination of all German external resources - all these measures on top of the war devastation cannot be described as anything but a program to throw Germany and her people into a state of collapse.
But these are not the only acts of repression. Taxes have been raised to confiscatory levels which stifle incentives and prevent operation of the free enterprise system. They have helped to socialize German economy and kill the profit motive. They have corrupted public morals for even the poor must contrive to dodge them in order to have enough income to buy shoes.[1] We have refused to establish an exchange value for the German mark in terms of other currencies,
preventing privately handled imports and exports and throwing what little external trade there is into the hands of the military government. And instead of trying to work out some intelligent plan for the resuscitation of the collapsed financial system we have proceeded to make matters far worse by such actions as the printing of vast sums of occupation currency which will almost certainly help create the 1923 inflation disaster and complete the destruction of the German
middle class.[2] Such a result would serve the ends of Soviet Russia, but hardly those of the other powers.
It is difficult to imagine the depth of German depression. When the United States reached the bottom of 1932, industrial production had fallen to 60 per cent of normal. The depression was so severe - the losses so enormous, the unemployment so widespread - that it almost brought a revolution. Industrial production in Germany a year after V-E Day was 10 per cent of what
used to be normal.
Evidence that the German Famine is Deliberate
from page 64:
Senator Homer E. Capehart of Indiana in an address before the United States
Senate February 5, 1946, said in part:
"The fact can no longer be suppressed, namely, the fact that it has been and continues to be, the deliberate policy of a confidential and conspirational clique within the policy-making circes of this government to draw and quarter a nation now reduced to abject misery .
"In this process this clique, like a pack of hyenas struggling over the bloody entrails of a corpse, and inspired by a sadistic and fanatical hatred, are determined to destroy the German nation and the German people, no matter what the consequences.
"At Potsdam the representatives of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics solemnly signed the following declaration of principles and purposes:
"'It is not the intention of the Allies to destroy or enslave the German people.'
"Mr. President, the cynical and savage repudiation of these solemn declarations which has resulted in a major catastrophe, cannot be explained in terms of ignorance or incompetence. This repudiation, not only of the Potsdam Declaration, but also of every law of God and men, has been deliberately engineered with such a malevolent cunning, and with such diabolical skill, that
the American people themselves have been caught in an international death trap.
"For nine months now this administration has been carrying on a deliberate policy of mass starvation without any distinction between the innocent and the helpless and the guilty alike.
"The first issue has been and continues to be purely humanitarian. This vicious clique within this administration that has been responsible for the policies and practices which have made a madhouse of central Europe has not only betrayed our American principles, but they have betrayed the GI's who have suffered and died, and they continue to betray the American GI's who have to continue their dirty work for them.
"The second issue that is involved is the effect this tragedy in Germany has already had on the other European countries. Those who have been responsible for this deliberate destruction of the German state and this criminal mass starvation of the German people have been so zealous in their hatred that all other interests and concerns have been subordinated to this one obsession of revenge. In order to accomplish this it mattered not if the liberated countries in Europe suffered and starved. To this point this clique of conspirators have addressed themselves: 'Germany is to be destroyed. What happens to other countries of Europe in the process is of secondary importance.'"
These remarks were interspersed with a mass of supporting evidence.
Plan? What plan?
1 hour ago
10 comments:
There is a vast amount of historical research out there available to anyone on this subject. Merely bringing it up without being familiar with the background is... lame.
For a long list of reasons, the Allies were not going to starve innocent people to feed the ones who made the mess in the first place.
Rum, thanks for the comment, but I'm not exactly sure you realize what was going on there. Furthermore, I think if you are implying that the German women and children who were the primary victims of the famine were somehow the ones responsible, well, that is just wrong.
1. The Morgenthal Plan was merely a suggestion; it was not adopted.
2. Virtually no harvesting was done in the spring of 1944 in much of central Europe.
3. Vast numbers of people were displaced.
4. Vast numbers of soldiers and civilians had fled to the allied zones.
5. The allies were responsible for feeding most of the countries in Europe immediately after the war.
6. There was an extreme shortage of transport. Rail assets had been systematically bombed for years and the Americans were pulling out their trucking assets because their war in the East did not look to be even half over.
7. In just a few years, the part of Germany under complete, undiluted Allied control was fat and rich. Quite a mystery, that..
Whenever the crimes against the German people are written about, the deniers and justifiers show real quick.
The ones who made the mess were the USA and British governments, both of which were following jewish anti-german genocidal ideology.
To Anony
I shall type this really slowly so that your comprehension can keep up.
In just a few years after the end of WW2 the parts of Germany under the absolute military control of the evil AmericanJewishBrits were well-fed and prosperous. And when German re-unification came into the realm of possibility, no objection was made by this same all-powerful German-hating cabal.
Whatever.
The thing is, I was in Berlin the night of Oct 2-3 1990. Einheit.
I was drunk on my ass beside the Brandenburg gate dodging fireworks and watching them burn Trabants like marsh-mellows.
There are bad guys and good guys but you have got your parties muddled up.
Yes a few years later there was food. But as a German told me who had lived through that as a boy (fortunately too young to be drafted into the German armed forces and likely killed), the starvation was hell on Earth.
People don't have the option to defer their hunger to a few years later when there'll be food.
There was food rationing in Great Britain until the mid 1950s.
In every country East of Nazi Germany at least 20% of their total(civilian and military) populations died during the war and starvation had a lot to do with it.
Rum, according to the books I have read, the Morgenthau Plan WAS implemented, a fact which Gruesome Harvest agrees. It was only implemented for a couple years however, because the threat from the Soviets proved too great.
I am afraid that your second objection is a bit of a non-sequitor. The fact that the Soviets were even MORE evil does not prove the "AmeroJewBrits" were good! haha
But strangely enough, for that short period of time, the Soviets did indeed treat the Germans better, because they made no bones about wanting to incorporate Germany into the Soviet Union. It was precisely that possibility that made them drop the Morgenthau Plan in favor of the Marshall Plan.
Heck even Wikipedia agrees that: "Although dismantling of West German industry ended in 1951..."
Rum, one more point to help clarify. You are blaming lack of food production due to wartime damage for the famine. Basically logical, but here is the problem: Germany relied on imports to meet its food needs. By intentionally dismantling and limiting Germany's industrial economy, the Allies essentially caused the famine, since that is what allowed them to trade for food.
In other words, it wasn't just wartime damage, it was post-war policy that caused the famine.
They were also completely responsible for the damage of the famine because they PREVENTED food aid from reaching the country. When you intentionally dismantle the economy, and prevent humanitarian aid, what else can it be caused but "deliberate genocide"?
And add Operation Keelhaul to the list.
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