Allied Plans For Annihilation of The German People 19pg
Allied Plans For Annihilation of The German People 19pg
Long before the outbreak of the Second World War, and certainly long before the
outcome of this European slaughter of brothers was foreseeable, the victors-to-be and
their hangers-on had made plans for the disposition of Germany that contained
fundamental violations of the Law of Nations. In addition to demilitarization and de-
nazification projects there were plans for the destruction or expulsion of Germans from
territories they have had inhabited for many centuries. For example, the expulsion of
three and a half million of the Sudeten Germans was proposed in December 1938 by
later Czechoslovakian president Edvard Beneš, that is, nearly a year before the official
outbreak of the war - and he was not the first to make the proposal. During the Pan
Slavic Congress held in Prague in 1848 the decision was taken that not only Sudeten
Germans, but all ethnic Germans east of the line Triest-Stettin should be driven out. In
summer 1917 Beneš and later president Minister-President KramáÅ™ gave the Allies a
memorandum in which they demanded the dismemberment of Germany and the
incorporation of large territories of the German Empire and Austria-Hungary in the
Czechoslovakia that was to be formed.[1] After the signing of the dictate called the
"Versailles Treaty," nationalistic Czech and pan Slavic statements and demands were
politically prominent; unfortunately there is not space here to discuss that subject in
detail.[2] However, these demands were all more or less fanatically fixed on the
expulsion of the Sudeten Germans.
These projects in violation of the Law of Nations were by no means merely the
extravagant thoughts of chauvinistic, pan Slavic or Communist politicians: they were the
official policy of national governments. The preamble to the Atlantic Charter expressly
granted Czechoslovakia the proviso that, on the signing of the document, the expulsion
of Germans could not be hindered. In September 1942 Beneš, ironically president of the
National-Socialist Party, which after the war renamed itself the "People's Socialist"
Party, received support for his plans from the English government. London
communicated that it had no objection to the deportation of the Sudeten Germans, a
population that has been dwelling in what is now Czechia as long as the Czechs
themselves. In May 1943 Beneš received a similar communication from Roosevelt and in
June 1943 another from a Soviet liaison man in London, Alexander Bogomolov. In fact,
the Czechs, and especially Beneš, had never intended to subject the goal of a de-
Germanized Czechoslovakia to international supervision or even to any criteria of
humane conduct. In July 1944, a notice from high authority was circulated in the Czech
resistance to the effect:[3]
"We consider the possibility of the transfer of our German population. It can not be
definitively stated that three millions of Germans in all can be transferred subject to
some kind of international regulation. [...] It is necessary that in the first days of
liberation we ourselves remove many and that as many as possible guilty Nazis fly
before us out of fear of a civil revolt against them in the first days of the Revolution,
1
and that as many as possible who resist as Nazis and defend themselves be struck
down by the Revolution."
After the military capitulation it was no longer necessary for the Czechs to operate
conspiratorially and they professed their bloody intentions publicly. On 31 May 1945 the
Czech National-Socialist newspaper Slovo národa stated drily:[4]
"It will not be permitted for citizens of German descent to mingle with the Czech
population."
We should add to this remarkable announcement that it has been shown that the Czech
exile government under Beneš worked single-mindedly for ethnic cleansing in what was
to be a newly formed Czech Republic, and that this has been carried out in a manner
disregarding human rights and against the Law of Nations, as will be shown below.
Even in Poland they dreamed of expansionist plunder raids and fantasized about Polish
extension to Stettin and even to Berlin, and this long before September 1, 1939. The
official program of the Polish Westmark Union contained the statement:
A handbill put out by the Preparation Committee for the Grunwald festival in memory of
the battle of Tannenberg in 1410 stated:
"We will take back what the Germans have taken from us on the Elbe, the Oder, and the
Vistula!"
"One must clearly understand that Poland will not know peace until it rests itself on the
Oder."
On August 7, 1939, the SÅ‚owo Pomorskie of Thorn said this about the Germans:
"Therefore today we Poles say quite clearly: go back where you came from. On pushcarts
drawn by dogs you came hither. You brought only a poor bedding. You can go back the
same way."
On July 20, 1939, the weekly Naród w walce proclaimed that Danzig must "remain
Polish" and demanded that Germany surrender the East Prussian territory to Poland.[5]
During the war Poland received from London support similar to that received by
Czechoslovakia. Churchill viewed the occupation of East Prussia by the Poles and the
consequent mass expulsion of Germans with equanimity. At the conference in Tehran he
admitted to Polish imperialism:[6]
2
"We believe that Poland unquestionably should be satisfied at the expense of Germany."
Some 14 months later, at the conference of Yalta, Churchill confessed that there were
many people in Britain who were troubled by the thought of deportation but stated that
he personally had no qualms about it. In his view, six or seven million Germans had
already been killed, and at least 1 or 1.5 million more would probably be killed before the
end of the war.[7] These ideas for the future were by no means propaganda blather, but
were the actual views of the British Prime Minister. At the 4th session of the Yalta
Conference, on February 7, 1945, Churchill reinforced his anti-humanitarian conception
by declaring "that he was not at all proposing to stop destroying the Germans."[7] A
week later the genocide of Dresden was committed by British and American bombers.
It has perhaps not fallen into oblivion yet that Churchill, who prepared for or led war
against Germany during more than four decades of his life, has been celebrated in the
Federal Republic of Germany as a "great European." In May 1956 in Aachen he was
awarded the Karl Prize, a Federal German award aiming to honor persons who "serviced
the European movement." This award to Churchill can by no means be regarded as a
single aberration. Several decades after Churchill's demise, leading persons in the
government of the Federal Republic of Germany seem not to have learned anything
from history: In 1999, German Federal Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping acquired
doubtful glory, when he, during the NATO attack against Serbia in 1999, proposed to
rename German Army (Bundeswehr) bases named after Wehrmacht generals, such as,
for example, Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, that could possibly be changed to "Winston
Churchill-Barracks."
Factually, a German victory was by no means impossible. The advanced state of German
technology, especially military technology, is shown by the fact that on 15 October 1942
3
the Army Main Command assigned to a cover group behind which operated German
atomic research the task to find a way to use atomic fission and chain reactions to power
rockets.
Germany had a number of "wonder" weapons in the works during the war. For example,
near the end of military operations the Germans made their giant A4 rocket ready for
production. It was 14 meters high, weighed nearly 11 metric tons and had a strike range
of 370 kilometers. It flew 100 kilometers above the surface of the earth and reached a
speed of 5,400 km/h. It had an advanced rocket motor fueled by alcohol and liquid
hydrazine and it could be guided by radar or other means. Because it traveled five times
faster than the speed of sound, it could not be heard and thus could not be located.
Another rocket that was nearly ready toward war's end was the winged A9. It weighed
nearly 13 metric tons, had a strike range of 5,000 kilometers and could attain an
amazing speed of 9,400 km/h. According to Colonel D. L. Putt, member of the US staff
in the occupied territories responsible for examination of the state of German atomic
weapons research, the Germans would have possessed the war-deciding weapon only a
few weeks later with their V2 rockets equipped with atom bombs. In view of the
immense number of inventions and patents, which the Allies searched for and
confiscated in Germany immediately after the cease-fire, the Assistant Commanding
General of US Air Force intelligence confessed to the Society of Aeronautical Engineers,
that the Germans prepared a rocket surprise for the entire world in general and for
Britain in particular, which most likely would have changed the course of the war, if the
invasion would have been delayed for merely half a year.[9]
With respect to the rapid development of the German jet plane Me262 the British secret
service concluded that, had Germany not been defeated by July 1945, the Germans
would have air superiority over Germany and over the armies.[10]
The overwhelming motivation of the Germans to fight for final victory was driven not
least by the constantly repeated threats of the Allies to inflict certain measures on
Germany and the German people when they had achieved victory. On February 23,
1944, in a debate in the House of Commons, British Foreign Minister Anthony Eden
confirmed that Germany could not claim to be treated according to the Atlantic Charter,
i.e. that it could not prevent the victorious powers from making territorial 'corrections'
on Germany's expense. Thus, according to Eden, Germany could not claim rights based
on any part of the Charter which would not be applicable for Germany.[11]
On April 22, 1944, Churchill confirmed the questionable intention that no treaty and no
commitment would bind the Allies once Germany had surrendered. Churchill insisted
that the Atlantic Charter would not be a legal basis for the treatment of Germany and
that territorial changes and corrections of borders could not be excluded. No arguments
would be accepted, so Churchill. According to him, unconditional surrender meant that
the victors had their hands free to act as they please.[12]
"God of the free, we pledge our hearts and lives today to the cause of all free mankind.
Grant us victory over the tyrants who would enslave all free men and nations. Grant us
faith and understanding to cherish all those who fight for freedom as if they were our
brothers. Grant us brotherhood in hope and union, not only for the space of this bitter
war, bur for the days to come which shall and must unite all the children of the earth.
Our earth is but a small star in the great universe. Yet of it we can make, if we choose, a
planet unvexed by war, untroubled by hunger and fear, undivided by senseless
distinctions of race, color, or theory. Grant us that courage and foreseeing to begin this
task today that our children and our children's children may be proud of the name of
man.
The spirit of man has awakened and the soul of man has gone forth. Grant us the
wisdom and the vision to comprehend the greatness of man's spirit, that suffers and
endures so hugely for a goal beyond his own brief span. Grant us honor for our dead
who died in the faith, honor for our living who work and strive for the faith, redemption
and security for all captive lands and peoples. Grant us patience with the deluded and
pity for the betrayed. And grant us the skill and valor that shall cleanse the world of
oppression and the old base doctrine that the strong must eat the weak because they are
strong.
Yet most of all grant us brotherhood, not only for this day but for all our years - a
brotherhood, not only of words but of acts and deeds. We are all of us children of earth -
grant us that simple knowledge. If our brothers are oppressed, then we are oppressed. If
they hunger we hunger. If their freedom is taken away our freedom is not secure. Grant
us a common faith that man shall know bread and peace - that he shall know justice and
righteousness, freedom and security, an equal opportunity and an equal chance to do his
best, not only in our own lands, but throughout the world. And in that faith let us march
toward to the clean world our hands can make. Amen."
This cleanness to be striven for, explained Mr. "Goodfellow" Roosevelt after the
conference at Tehran, should be distinguished by the elimination of tyranny, slavery,
oppression and intolerance. In the same sense as the globalists of the decade of the
1990's, he invoked a vision of a "world family of democratic states."
In paragraph 2 of the Atlantic Charter, signed 12 August 1941, it is stated that the signers
did not seek territorial changes "that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of
the peoples concerned."
From November 28 to December 1, 1943, the "Big Three" met at a summit conference in
the embassy of the USSR in Teheran to agree on the policies to be applied to the German
Empire after a victory. The keyword was the dismemberment of Germany, in which the
three Allies agreed with. Especially during the second session on December 1, Churchill
5
promulgated the idea of carving up Germany and pleaded for the smashing of Prussia as
the "root of all evil," as well as for the separation of Bavaria and other provinces from
Germany. Sniffing his opportunity, Stalin made known the demands of the Soviet
Union:[14]
"The Russians have no ice-free ports in the Baltic. That is why the Russians would need
the ice-free ports of Königsberg and Memel and the corresponding part of the territory
of Eastern Prussia."
In 1945 the Soviets put the districts of Königsberg and Gumbinnen (13,200 km2) under
Soviet administrative control and established the district of Kaliningrad there. In 1946
the territories of Memelland were incorporated in the newly organized Soviet republic of
Lithuania.
In the course of a drinking party during this conference, Stalin proposed the following
toast, which was received by Roosevelt with hearty laughter:[15]
"The strength of the German armed forces lies in 50,000 senior officers and scientists. I
raise my glass with the wish that they should be shot, as soon as we snatch them, all
50,000."
Also the Americans were not averse to mass shootings. In Washington in August 1944
General Eisenhower told the British ambassador that all the officers of the Main
Command of the German Armed Forces, as well as all the leadership of the NSDAP
including town officials, and all members of the secret police, should be liquidated.[16]
Just not to be misunderstood here: in this regard we are talking about some defenseless
100,000 human beings.
As the war progressed to the increasing disadvantage of Germany the intentions of the
Allies with respect to the future treatment of the "German problem" became more and
more audacious and specific. They reached a high point at the conference at Yalta. This
summit conference of the "Big Three" took place in the former Tsar's palace Livadia near
Yalta in the Crimea from 4 to 11 February 1945. Here the Allies discussed intensively the
future to be imposed on the German Empire after an unconditional surrender. All three
conference participants were agreed that there should be no other way to end the war. It
was only on lesser details that they were not entirely clear. For example, should they
leave a German administration in office to whom the occupation zones would be
assigned, or should they divide the rump of Germany into two states, north and south,
with Vienna the capital of the latter? Finally they decided on another plan. Churchill
stated that:[17]
"in his opinion, there was no need to inform the Germans of the future policy to be
conducted in respect of their country. The Germans should be told they would have to
await further Allied demands after they surrendered. These further demands would be
made on the Germans by mutual agreement between the Allies."
6
This intention indicates nothing else, but a blank check with respect to the future
treatment of the Germans. In this regard, Churchill declared further[18]
As the soldiers of the Red Army advanced into eastern Germany in the course of
1944/45, they were,[19] "prepared" for the occupation of Germany, above all from an
official political side. In numerous frontline newspapers the rules which were to govern
the behavior of the soldiers of the Red Army were promulgated. Both propagandists and
writers contributed to the effort, such as Alexei Tolstoi, Mikhail Alexandrovich
Sholokhov (The School of Hate), Konstantin Mikhailovich Simonov (Kill him!) and
Surkov (I hate!). Most influential of all, however, were the propaganda briefs of Ilya
Ehrenburg. His book Voina (= The War), published 1943 by the State Publications
Office for Fine Literature (!), Moscow, contains such expressions as:
"Germans are not human. [...] If in the course of one day you have not killed at least
one German, for you it was a lost day. When you have killed one German, kill another
- for us there is nothing more jolly than German bodies."
The Soviet soldiers were roused to crimes against the German population and German
soldiers not only from the political and propagandistic side, however. Also from the
military side the message was unambiguous: In his daily orders for the march into East
Prussia, Marshall Tcherniakovski stated:
"There is no mercy - for anyone. [...] It is unnecessary to demand from soldiers of the
Red Army to show mercy. They blaze with hate and desire for revenge."
Other expressions call explicitly for raping German women and girls. German lawyer
Heinz Nawratil refers to Alexander I. Solzhenitsyn, who in his novel Archipelago Gulag
written in the period 1964 through 1968, mentions that
"[...] German girls could be raped and then shot, and it would almost always be
treated as an incident of war."
Nawratil also refers to Lev Kopelev, the writer, civil rights worker and friend of Heinrich
Böll, who described the words of a Communist agitator as follows:
"What should be done to ensure the soldier keeps up his spirit for fighting. First, he
must hate the enemy like the plague, must want to annihilate him root and branch [...]
second [...] when he gets to Germany everything belongs to him - the bits and pieces,
the women, all! Do whatever you wish." Both the soldiers of the German army and the
German civilian population suffered from such behavior on the part of the soldiers of
the Red Army. The outrages were not isolated incidents, but were mass crimes known to
7
the highest authority, and collectively would later qualify as one of the greatest mass
crimes of modern times."
The hate tirades and incitements of Ilya Ehrenburg[20] and his fellow propagandists by
no means represented a exceptional or singular propaganda measure of the Soviet
Union. War reporter Lieutenant Günther Heysing made a collection of quotations taken
from Soviet publications and statements taken in interrogation of Red Army
soldiers.[21] This is from the soldiers' newspaper Boyevaia Trevoga of 20 October 1944:
"Shudder Germany! Shudder cursed Germany! We will crisscross you with fire and
sword and in your heart we will stab the last German who ever trod Russian soil."
In a call to the Soviet Air Force at the beginning of the Soviet attack on East Prussia, we
read:
"The Red Army is on the offensive to fulfill the orders of the great Stalin and to deal the
German beast its deathstroke in its hole. [...] with burning hatred in our hearts we
enter the land of the hated foe. We come as judges and revengers. The foe must be
destroyed without mercy."
On October 25, 1944, the war council and political administration of the 3rd White
Russian Front issued the following summons:
"Forward victors! May the German land, which spawned the fascist refuse, tremble
under our booming tread! May the bloodspeckled hated foe who has inflicted so much
pain and sorrow on us, tremble and drown in the streams of his black blood!"
In a speech given October 1944 on the subject, "What does the Communist Party require
from a member of the Communist Youth Union Front Unit?" it was stated:
"Young fighters! You know what frightful suffering and what pain the Germans have
caused your people, your family, your girlfriends. Avenge them without mercy. For the
life of every Soviet take the lives of ten Germans. [...] Remember that any day in which
you have killed no Germans is a lost day."
A prisoner from the 758th G.R. / 88th G.D. (758th Guards Regiment/88th Guards
Division) stated:
"Before the entry onto German soil we were taught by the officers that we need not
respect the property of the German civilian population and could treat the population as
game to hunt. Women could be raped."
8
"In Poland theft of potatoes was strictly punished. In East Prussia anyone could take any
food. However, the removal of clothing and other property was strictly forbidden even in
East Prussia, since these things were intended to be taken back to the USSR."
"Two weeks ago the column commander told us that soldiers could plunder and pillage
freely on entering German soil."
"Earlier it was forbidden to take booty, but now on German land it is no longer
punishable. Everyone can take as much as he can carry."
9
German officer of the rank of Colonel and above should be brought before a court, that
the German school system should be put in Allied hands and that heavy industry should
be taken from Germany. This pamphlet did not represent an unimportant propaganda
piece of an insignificant German hater: According to the blurb on its wrapper later US
President Harry S. Truman was deeply affected by it recommended that "every
American" should read it.
President Roosevelt distributed the booklet to members of his Cabinet, while General
Eisenhower sent out 100,000 copies and made the officers on his staff write comments
on the book. Despite the fact that Nizer's book teemed with tirades against Germany and
everything German, the deadly little hate-piece was taken as bare truth by many
important figures in politics and science, in the military and in the media. The principal
theme in this and in other propaganda pieces was that Germany had played a unique
negative role in world history which was expressed in her philosophy, her politics and
the character of her people. Nazism was just a contemporary expression of the inevitable
German desire to plunder and enslave other peoples. All Germans, not just National
Socialists, were branded as evil incarnate.
So it should be no surprise that in a 1944 pocket calendar for the US Army in Germany
we find such tidbits as the following:[22]
"Since 1933, when Hitler came to power, German youth has been carefully and
thoroughly educated for world conquest, killing, and treachery."
"We fought against the Germans and the Japs because our own freedom was threatened
and because the interests of our own country were tied up with those of the British and
the Russians and the Chinese and the French and all other fighters for freedom."
"It is a matter of History that there is nothing new about German aggression or desire
for conquest. [...] It was only recently, owing to modern inventions and the shrinking
of the distances on the surface of the globe, that the German was able to contemplate
realizing his dream of enslaving the world."
Even Churchill scintillated from time to time with newly minted historical
interpretations and abstruse judgments on the Germans. On November 9, 1940, for
example, he declared in a speech at Mansion House that Austria was one of the
countries for which Britain had drawn the sword, and for whom British victory meant
freedom. On September 21, 1943, he explained that the Germans combined in the most
deadly manner the qualities of the warrior and the slave:[23]
"They do not value freedom themselves and the spectacle of it in others is hateful to
them. Whenever they become strong they seek their prey and they will follow with an
iron discipline anyone who will lead them to it. The core of Germany is Prussia. There is
the source of the recurring pestilence."
10
Naturally, given this manner of historical consciousness, the good people - that is, the
Allies, and especially the Americans - need to take care that the possibility of influencing
world history is taken away from Germans for all time - it
must be neutralized.
This time Germany has forced a TOTAL WAR upon the world.
Concerning the males subject to sterilization the army groups, as organized units, would
be the easiest and quickest to deal with. Taking 20,000 surgeons as an arbitrary number
and on the assumption that each will perform a minimum of 25 operations daily, it
would take no more than one month, at the maximum, to complete their sterilization.
Naturally the more doctors available, and many more than the 20,000 we mention
11
would be available considering all the nations to be drawn upon, the less time would be
required. The balance of the male civilian population of Germany could be treated
within three months. Inasmuch as the sterilization of women needs somewhat more
time, it may be computed that the entire female population of Germany could be
sterilized within a period of three years or less. Complete sterilization of both sexes, and
not only one, is to be considered necessary in view of the present German doctrine that
so much as one drop of true German blood constitutes a German.
Of course, after complete sterilization, there will cease to be a birth rate in Germany. At
the normal death rate of 2% per annum, German life will diminish at the rate of
1,500,000 yearly. Accordingly in the span of two generations that which cost millions of
lives and centuries of useless effort, namely, the elimination of Germanism and its
carriers, will have been an accomplished fact."
"For a period of 20 years or more utilize the bulk of the present German army as
rehabilitation labor units in devastated areas of the Allied Nations and elsewhere."
In a Canadian article the program was described by the formula "No Germany, therefore
no more German wars."[25] The crime novelist Rex Stout produced an article entitled
"We will hate - or we will lose," which appeared in the New York Times. Journalist
William S. Shirer praised the idea of collective guilt and his conclusion was contained in
the title:[26]
As the above examples show, there had been much thought given to the idea of
extinguishing or scientifically neutralizing the German nation among the British and
Americans. Long before the cessation of hostilities there was general agreement that it
was necessary to terminate German scientific research. Methods for terminating
German science included the appropriation of German patents, the abduction and legal
exploitation of German scientists and the prohibition or, at least, the total supervision of
German laboratories and scientific institutions. The Allies put these maleficent methods
both selfishly and pitilessly into practice.
The principal deviser of these exotic and diverse schemes for the destruction or
expropriation of Germany was, however, the Secretary of the Treasury of the United
States of America, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., "one of the leading American Jews."[27] He
was the one who convinced Roosevelt to be "tough" with the Germans. The Handbook
for Military Government in Germany, issued by the Supreme Headquarters, Allied
Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF) in August 1944, which was to be the political guide for
occupation forces in Germany, incurred his disapproval because of its "slack places." For
12
example, Morgenthau thought the daily ration of 2000 calories for German workers was
too high. The U.S. president was pleased with that kind of "suggestions for
improvement." Roosevelt concurred that the Germans should be dealt with roughly:[28]
"We have got to be tough with Germany and I mean the German people, not just the
Nazis. You either have to castrate the German people or you have got to treat them in
such a manner so they can't just go on reproducing people who want to continue the way
they have in the past."
After this general agreement between Roosevelt and Morgenthau, the latter, at a press
conference, criticized the authors of the Handbook publicly for being too soft towards
the Germans and, therefore, "the Handbook was hastily withdrawn."[29]
Morgenthau, whom Roosevelt backed without reservation, was given nearly a free hand
with respect to determining policy on Germany. He wanted to settle the German
question once and for all and his method for doing so was to impose a final solution on
the Germans, a plan which has come to be called the Morgenthau Plan. By the terms of
this plan, Germany should be reduced to a de-industrialized, low population agrarian
country. Morgenthau's plans were described as "measures for the prevention of a third
world war caused by Germany." The Morgenthau Plan's measures included the
demilitarization of Germany, restitution and reparations, education and propaganda,
political decentralization, supervision of the economy by the army, control of the
German economic development, an agrarian program, the punishment of war criminals,
and the breaking-up of the new Germany. On September 30, 1944, the Völkische
Beobachter listed the intended measures in detail:
"The entire steel industry, the chemical works and the plants for the production of
synthetic benzine should be taken from the Germans and transferred to other
countries. [...] The education of children should be put under the control of the United
Nations, and the schools should remain closed until sufficient Jewish teachers could be
found. Also, new schoolbooks should be written forthwith, whose contents should be
agreed upon by Washington, London and Moscow. By the Morgenthau Plan,
university studies would be forbidden to German youth, the buildings of German
technical schools would be closed and their libraries and research facilities would be
divided among America, England and the Soviet Union."
According to Morgenthau's scheme, Germany should be not only totally disarmed, but
its entire industrial base should be dismantled or destroyed. The mines and coal works
should be flooded. With respect to reparations, Morgenthau had detailed plans: they
should be accomplished less through payments and transfer of goods than through
surrender of German mineral and other physical resources, in particular by the
restitution of property, which the Germans had plundered from the occupied territories,
cession of German territory and German private property rights in industries to the
countries she had invaded, by transfer and redistribution of industrial facilities and
equipment, by forced labor of German workers in foreign countries, and by confiscation
of all German landed property of any kind outside of Germany.[30] US President
Roosevelt shared Morgenthau's conception of the German collective guilt for war and
13
his belief that Germany should be handled in the harshest manner following the war. So
it should be no surprise that during the second conference held in Quebec in September
1944, Morgenthau's plans for the devastation of the heart of Europe were recognized by
Roosevelt and Churchill as the official program to be imposed on post-war Germany,[31]
or that Morgenthau could write self-satisfiedly on page xii of his book Germany is our
Problem that the fundamental principles of this program represent the official
viewpoint of the United States.
In the American Senate the idea was clearly expressed that a disarmed, de-industrialized
Germany would free the neighboring countries of Europe from the economic
domination of Germany. The fact that all Europe benefited from Germany's industrial
strength and that the industrial collapse of Germany would consequently have negative
repercussions on the rest of Europe was considered negligible by the American
Department of Treasury. A memo dated September 7, 1944, contained the statement
that the economy of Europe was not dependent on Germany, "because the United
States, Great Britain, France and Belgium could easily provide what Germany supplied
before the war."[32]
14
"a. It should be brought home to the Germans that Germany's ruthless warfare and the
fanatical Nazi resistance have destroyed the German economy and made chaos and
suffering inevitable and that the Germans cannot escape responsibility for what they
have brought upon themselves.
b. Germany will not be occupied for the purpose of liberation but as a defeated enemy
nation. Your aim is not oppression but to occupy Germany for the purpose of realizing
certain important Allied objectives. In the conduct of your occupation and
administration you should be just but firm and aloof. You will strongly discourage
fraternization with the German officials and population.
c. The principal Allied objective is to prevent Germany from ever again becoming a
threat to the peace of the world. Essential steps in the accomplishment of this objective
are the elimination of Nazism and militarism in all their forms, the immediate
apprehension of war criminals for punishment, the industrial disarmament and
demilitarization of Germany, with continuing control over Germany's capacity to make
war, and the preparation for an eventual reconstruction of German political life on a
democratic basis.
d. Other Allied objectives are to enforce the program of reparations and restitution, to
provide relief for the benefit of countries devastated by Nazi aggression, and to ensure
that prisoners of war and displaced persons of the United Nations are cared for and
repatriated."
With respect to economic supervision, the directive made the following clear
statement:[34]
"No action will be taken in execution of the reparations program or otherwise which
would tend to support basic living conditions in Germany or in your zone on a higher
level than that existing in any one of the neighboring United Nations."
France and Britain more or less adopted these destructive American policies with
respect to Germany. Soon after JCS 1067 was issued, measures for industrial
deconstruction were formulated, first by the Americans, and after the Potsdam
conference by all the Allies. Three forms of deconstruction were planned: 1st,
reparations "in kind," meaning the disassembly of German factories and machines, 2nd,
the complete demolition of German production capacity and 3rd, an official policy of
"statutory neglect" of German factories and machines. Here again, these plans for the
destruction of the means of existence of the German people are directly traceable to the
Morgenthau Plan.
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(Click to enlarge)
Britain's The Saturday Review, Nov. 11, 1897, p. 279: "Germaniam esse delendam" -
Germany must be destroyed.
(Cf. Steffen Werner, "Hundred Years of War against Germany," The Revisionist 1(4)
(2003), pp. 373-385.
The guidelines for the American occupation policy held close to the Morgenthau Plan.
Eisenhower, in his book with the significant title Crusade in Europe, expressed pride
that the officers of the American military government, because of the sincerity and
intelligence and the soundness of the special training which they displayed in carrying
out their duties with respect to the measures prescribed in directive JCS 1067, had done
a remarkable job.[35] University professor Nicholas Balabkins, not a Germanophile,
conceded that the directives had been the official version of the Morgenthau Plan, albeit
in a somewhat diluted form.[36] On the contrary, some post-war German historians
have stubbornly tried to deny the immense influence of the Morgenthau Plan to Allied
measures. One of them, Rolf Steininger, professor of history at the University of
Innsbruck, wrote - without irony - that the Morgenthau Plan would be granted an
overestimated prominent place in historiography, especially with respect to the subjects
of dismemberment and the future economy of Germany.[37]
In fact, the Morgenthau Plan, "during the war, constituted the high point of the planning
for peace of the Western powers, both in public as well as in official circles."[38] The
Morgenthau Plan was the basis of all further planning with respect to Germany, and
even the Soviet plans on the same subject did not deviate in essentials from JCS 1067.
Both were based on the mutilation and dismemberment of Germany, the (temporary)
starvation of the German people, the deconstruction of German industry and the
economic disablement of Germany in order to neutralize Germany as a political force for
a long time to come and to improve and fortify their own political and economic
positions.
By such theories and projects, which could only have sprung from a diseased mind and
which deviate from any civilized or humane norm, the war-makers of the West did not
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differ essentially from Ilya Ehrenburg and the other fanatic murder inciters of the Soviet
Union. They all sprang from the same source and were commonly responsible for the
horrors inflicted on Germany. The specific choice of words may have varied from
propagandist to propagandist, from war-profiteer to war-profiteer, from pressure group
to pressure group. In their purpose to perish and to erase the heart of Europe, they did
not differ at all.
© www.nordbruch.org
Notes
First published in German in Vierteljahreshefte für freie Geschichtsforschung 5(1) (2001), pp. 55-65; translated by
Peter Lambda.
[1] Cf. Hanns Hertl and others (ed.), Der "Brünner Todesmarsch" 1945. Eine Dokumentation, Stenzel und Bauer,
Schwäbisch Gmünd 1998, pp. 15ff.
[2] For a thorough analysis of the subject please consult Claus Nordbruch, Der deutsche Aderlaß.
Wiedergutmachung für Deutschland und Entschädigung an Deutschen, 2nd edition, Tübingen 2003.
[3] Hanns Hertl and others (ed.), op. cit. (note 1), p. 26.
[5] Cf. Wolfgang Wagner, Die Entstehung der Oder-Neiße-Linie in den diplomatischen Verhandlungen während
des Zweiten Weltkrieges, 2nd, revised and expanded edition, Brentano, Stuttgart 1959, pp. 6.
[6] The Tehran, Yalta & Potsdam Conferences. Documents, Progress Publishers, Moscow 1969, p. 48.
[8] Cited in Herbert Feis, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin. The war they waged and the peace they sought, Princeton
University Press, Princeton New Jersey 1967, p. 109.
[9] Cited in Franz Kurowski, "Von der bedingungslosen Kapitulation bis zur Mondorfer Erklärung vom 6. Juni
1945" in: Gesellschaft für Freie Publizistik (ed.), Jalta und Potsdam überwinden. Kongreß-Protokoll 1985, GfP,
Berg 1985, p. 22.
[10] Cf. Tom Bower, Verschwörung Paperclip. NS-Wissenschaftler im Dienst der Siegermächte, List, Munich
1988, p. 108.
[11] Herbert Marzian, Zeittafel und Dokumente zur Oder-Neiße-Linie 1939-1952/53, Holzner, Kitzingen 1953, p.
18.
[13] Cited in Caspar von Schrenck-Notzing, Charakterwäsche. Die Politik der amerikanischen Umerziehung,
Kristall bei Langen-Müller, Munich 1981, p. 68.
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[14] Cited in The Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam Conferences. Documents, op. cit., (note 6), p. 50.
[15] That this was no idle joke, as some current historians have suggested, is shown by, for example, the document
published in 1961 by the United States State Department, Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic
Papers: The Conference at Cairo and Tehran 1943, which states on page 553: "At least 50,000, perhaps
100,000 of German Commanding Staff must be physically liquidated." See also Michael Balfour and John
Mair, Four-Power Control in Germany and Austria 1945-1946. Oxford University Press, London 1956, p. 35,
Hanns D. Ahrens, Demontage, Universitas, Munich 1982, p. 19, and Heinz Nawratil, Vertreibungsverbrechen
an Deutschen. Tatbestand, Motive, Bewältigung, Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main/Berlin 1987, p. 124. Even the
official Guidebook on the Exhibition on German and Soviet Prisoners of War of the House of History of the
Federal Republic of Germany acknowledges the figure of 50,000 as valid. (cf. p. 77).
[16] Cf. James Bacque, Other Losses. An Investigation into the Mass Deaths of German Prisoners at the Hands of
the French and Americans after World War II, Stoddart, Toronto 1989, p. 23.
[17] Cited in The Tehran, Yalta & Potsdam Conferences, op. cit. (note 6), p. 70.
[19] Claus Nordbruch, Über die Pflicht. Eine Analyse des Werkes von Siegfried Lenz. Versuch über ein deutsches
Phänomen, Olms, Hildesheim 1996, pp. 159. There are lengthy quotation from, and reproductions of, the hate
tirades of Ilya Ehrenburg in Joachim Hoffmann, Stalin's War of Extermination 1941-1945, Theses &
Dissertations Press, Capshaw, AL, 2001.
[20] In 1991 many West German journalists and politicians took the questionable opportunity to honor Ilya
Ehrenburg on the occasion of his 100th birthday anniversary - whether from ignorance, malevolence or
deliberate intent to misinform we will not examine now. When an exhibition appeared in Berlin-Schöneberg on
"The Russians in Schöneberg" the CDU faction in the district representative assembly there made a motion to
praise Ehrenburg's "work" and to foster the memory of this "journalist and writer." Leading journals of opinion
were not to be outdone in this outpouring of praise and, for example, noted Ehrenburg's "effervescent joy in
writing," glorified him as a "master of satire," and admired his "grandiose panoramic descriptions."
[22] Pocket Guide to Germany, U.S. Government Printing Office 1944, pp. 7, 15, 28.
[23] Cited in Michael Balfour and John Mair, Four-Power Control in Germany and Austria 1945-1946, Oxford
University Press, London 1956, p. 34.
[24] Theodore Kaufman, Germany must persish!, Argyle Press, Newark, pp. 1, 3, 94f.
[25] Caspar von Schrenck-Notzing, Charakterwäsche. Die Politik der amerikanischen Umerziehung, Kristall bei
Langen-Müller, Munich 1981, p. 62
[27] Rolf Steininger: Deutsche Geschichte 1945-1961. vol. 1, Fischer, Frankfurt/M. 1983, p. 34.
[28] Henry Morgenthau in his diary entry on 19 August 1944, cited in David Irving, Der Morgenthau-Plan 1944/45.
Amerikanische Deutschlandpolitik: Sühneleistungen, "re-education," Auflösung der deutschen Wirtschaft,
Soyka, Bremen 1986, p. 23.
[29] Cf. Michael Balfour and John Mair, op. cit. (note 23), p. 19.
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[30] Cf. Helmuth K.G. Rönnefarth and Heinrich Euler (ed.), Konferenzen und Verträge, 2nd ed., v. 4: "Neueste Zeit
1914-1959," Ploetz, Würzburg 1959, pp. 231.
[31] Cf. Nicholas Balabkins, Germany under direct controls. Economic aspects of industrial disarmament 1945-
1948, Rutgers, New Brunswick 1964, p. 10.
[33] Hajo Holborn, American Military Government. Its Organization and Policies, Infantry Journal Press,
Washington 1947, p. 159.
[35] Cf. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, Doubleday, New York 1948, p. 434.
[38] Wilhelm Treue, Die Demontagepolitik der Westmächte nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg, Niedersächsische
Landeszentrale für Politische Bildung, Hannover 1967, p. 22.
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