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German families in the Sudetanland - part of Czechoslovakia annexed by Hitler - wait for a train back to Germany |
Brutal backlash after the war
Looting, rape and bloody revenge – when the Third Reich fell, its population faced the anger of the world it had tried to
conquer, writes Jonathan Fryer
After the Reich: From the Liberation of Vienna to the Berlin Airlift. By Giles MacDonogh, John Murray £25 click here to buy
WHEN the Russians raised the Soviet flag over the ruins of Berlin in 1945, from Leningrad to London there was a collective sigh of relief that Nazism was defeated and Hitler was dead. But for the Germans, both those living within the borders of the Third Reich and their cousins to the east and south, the nightmare of war was far from over.
Officially, the Allies came as liberators, but in reality many were bent on revenge. The Russians in particular displayed an almost medieval appetite for violent punishment, rape and looting. But the Western Allies – the Americans, British and French – at times proved themselves to be just as lawless, and bloodthirsty.
Some of the hatred targeted at the Germans was understandable, given the viciousness of the Nazi occupation of conquered lands and the horrors of concentration camps, in which Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, political ‘undesirables’ and others had perished in droves. Understandable, yes; but forgivable? After reading the catalogue of atrocities in Giles MacDonogh’s magisterial After the Reich, it is hard to answer in the affirmative.
Many of those who took part in the killing, torture, rape and pillage of Germans in the aftermath of the war justified this on the grounds of collective guilt. As an article in the US forces’ newspaper, the Stars and Stripes, put it: “In heart, body and spirit, every German is a Hitler!” Those who had opposed the Führer, even Jews who had managed to survive, were not immune from the fury of retribution. In particular, no woman was safe.
It wasn’t just the invading armies that thrashed and trashed the Germans, both military and civilian. Some of the most harrowing passages in this book portray the sadistic viciousness of Czechs, Poles and other formerly subjugated peoples as they pounced on ethnic Germans, many of whom had previously been living as quietly as their neighbours.
Those fleeing the turmoil of their disrupted lives were systematically stripped of their possessions, as well as their dignity – many stripped even of their clothes. Disease was rampant and countless thousands died of cold or malnutrition in the seismic shift of peoples.
The picture was not entirely bleak. Though Russians in particular carried out rape on a positively industrial scale, they were often kind to children. There were many cases of soldiers and civilians who took pity on the bedraggled refugees, or those left living in holes in the ground, including legions of feral children. Black American GIs often demonstrated compassion towards the defeated, declaring that they too were second-class citizens.
The great strength of MacDonogh’s book is the personal testimony he deploys by people from all walks of life who were caught up in the maelstrom. There is laughter to be found, as well as tears; there are vignettes of human kindness, as well as chilling evidence of unspeakable cruelty.
A resident of Kentish Town – and a wine correspondent for the Financial Times and others – the author has in recent years carved out a niche for himself as a historian of Germany, especially Prussia. He clearly feels that the Prussians were especially hard done by after the defeat of the Nazis.
“Don’t be beastly to the Germans!”, Noel Coward had exhorted during the war, his tongue firmly in his cheek. But no one could read this book without coming to the conclusion that we were.
Some people will maintain that they deserved it, others will cringe with shame. Either way, Giles MacDonogh has given us a book that ranks alongside Antony Beevor’s Stalingrad as an unforgettable documentary of the suffering and tragedy of war and its aftermath.
Writer and broadcaster Jonathan Fryer’s latest book is Fuelling Kuwait’s Development |
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