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Interesting book. Americans certainly aren't going to be taught this in school.

How three million Germans died after VE Day - Telegraph

Scrat;1419227 wrote: Interesting book. Americans certainly aren't going to be taught this in school.

How three million Germans died after VE Day - Telegraph


You surprise me, reading the review I'd have thought it would have been a must read for all American students during the Cold War.

Not at all surprising.

I actually knew this. My father told me a story about bombing a small German town the day ofter VE day. He said he had no idea why that order was issued and he felt really bad about it.

You surprise me, reading the review I'd have thought it would have been a must read for all American students during the Cold War.


Certain parts were, especially the part of the mass rapes done by the evil godless communist oppressors. The fact that millions of German POWs and citizens died from neglect and unnecessary deprivation were never mentioned to my knowledge in our mass media at that time. Nor were the rapes or other atrocities.

It is justified to note that the Russians were at times brutal to say the least. Rape at first and coercion for sexual favors later was wide spread. You rarely hear of the incident in Prague where a citizen observed a Russian soldier attempting to rape a woman on the street and how an officer who saw it shot him in the head on the spot as standing orders demanded. The Soviet high command did try to stop this but it was all but impossible for individuals capable of enforcing the orders to be everywhere at once. The same on the allied side.

What is appalling about the allies was that if they had simply not confined the soldiers and restricted movement people could have found the means to survive.

Scrat;1419353 wrote:

What is appalling about the allies was that if they had simply not confined the soldiers and restricted movement people could have found the means to survive.


It was another time and another mindset. "The Germans started a World War, therefore they deserved to die." This was a time when men used nuclear weapons against populated cities and firebombed other cities to ashes. I'm sure that the discovery of the Death Camps sealed the fate of any chance at the Allies rebuilding their country or being merciful to their populations.

(Having talked to many Holocaust survivors myself, I'm not entirely inclined to disagree with that thinking...)

Don't forget that the lessons of world war one were learned as well and the post war reconstruction of germany rather than the vindictive reparations after the first war played a big part in building a peaceful europe. On the other hand the screwing of the British government for every penny that could be got during the war and the insistence that all debts were paid was a bit sore.