Wednesday, May 28, 2008
German Suffering in and After World War II
The Germans were also victims of the War. Three million Germans died after the War was over. Fifteen million were brutally driven from their ancestral homes in Eastern Germany and of these some two million died. The Red Army raped thousands of German girls and women from ages 8 to 80. The British and Americans killed half a million Germans in the terror airwar Thousands of German POWs died while in the hands of the Americans. Most of the German dead were women, children and the old. VICTIMS
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3 comments:
For years I have been interested in the suffering and crimes experienced by the Germans in and after World War II. German suffering (the expulsion of l5 million ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe, the British/American (terror) air war which killed half a million civilians, the Soviet
onslaught of murder, mass rape and pillage, and the death of thousands of German POWs in American hands due to lack of shelter and food)are unknown to many.
Because other crimes have been given priority, the Germans have not been able to grief their losses and the allies have failed to come to terms with their actions in World War II. The War was not a 'Good War'
as we are led to believe, but a bad war like any other.
Berlin said...
The brutal and deadly expulsion of the Germans from the Sudetenland was no less a crime than those committed by the Nazis. Hundreds of thousands of German old men, women and children were killed in what the Allies decreed would be a humane transfer. Young women, girls and grandmothers were brutally raped and often killed. Indiscriminate murder, beatings and stealing of property were common occurences. Innocent Germans were mistreated in the same concentration camps that had only recently been liberated. The massacres at Eger and other locations were unprecedented. As the article indicates, the Germans had lived in the Sudetenland since the l300s. Still they were driven from their ancient homes while being killed, beaten and violated often by gangs of roving young Czechs. This is not a page of history which the Czechs can be proud of. They still refuse to repeal the criminal Benes dictates resulting in tense relations with present-day Germany. World War II was not a 'good war' like they would have us believe. It was a 'bad war' like all wars. The Allies committed their share of atrocities and the criminal and
bloody expulsion of the Germans from the Sudetenland was one of the worst.
5 May 2009 7:17 PM
The reason the Germans have not paid restitution to the Poles is because Poland was awarded
over one fourth of prewar Germany at the end of the War. It is hard to comprehend that at that time there existed someone smart enough to decide that one fourth of prewar Germany was
probably enough restitution. Today the value of these areas, now incorporated into Greater Poland, are in the trillions. At least four times the value of Eastern Poland which the Soviet Union decided it deserved. I will name again the major German cities now in Poland: Danzig
Stettin, Breslau and Posen. Besides these cities, there were the churches, museums and cultural properties, the highly developed infrastructure, factories, universities (Brahms composed his well-known 'Academic Overture' for the hundredth anniversary of Breslau University), schools, autobahns and various 'breadbaskets' upon which Germany as a whole depended.
It should be remembered that Poland has signed an international document attesting that it will
not seek further restitution. Like everything, however it could become an open question.
Yes, I am aware of the often quoted three partitions of Poland which took place in the
18th century. I can name the where, when and how it all came about. Probably it is no surprise that the Russians got the bear's share and the Germans came out short by comparison.
If there is anything the Poles are masters of it is claiming that such and such an area
was originally Polish due to the efforts of some Piast prince. Yes, there were a lot of Poles in West Prussia and even in Posen where Hindenburg was born. But I can also point out that before the War, Danzig and Breslau were ethnically and culturally nearly 100% German. The attempts by the Poles to prove beyond a doubt the 'polonicity' of these two cities has been first comical
and then painful. As there were Poles in West Prussia, the repressive Versailles Treaty which ended World War I resulted in a large number of Germans ending up in Poland. It was the
random murder and oppression of these Germans which ignited World War II. The Poles
stubbornly refused to negotiate this issue and the return of the German city of Danzig. Had they been more practical, the War could have well be avoided.
Even in this "good" war, as it is called (There are no good wars!), the little person pays with his life and property instead of the majority of the party 'Bonzen'. The grandmother in East Prussia who was gang raped and nailed to the barn door in East Prussia, the women and children who
suffered a horrible death in the icy waters of the Baltic when the refugee ship with 9,000 aboard was arbitrarily sunk by a Soviet submarine captain, (He later for the Order of Lenin for his heroic action.) and finally the old German farmer who was beaten to death in one of the Polish revived
concentration camps in Silesia all paid the ultimate prices for being seen as Nazis and not Germans
I do recognize what was done to the Poles and others. I abhor and condemn the crimes committed against them no less than those committed against the Germans. But I am drawn to try and point out that the Germans should not be (even after 65 years) painted with the
wide brush of 'NAZI and their sufferings and victimization should not be dismissed with the
erroneous, but unforunately oft repeated statement, 'THEY DESERVED IT.!'
RUDOLPH
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