The German Disaster
Bussell, Bertrand
The German Disaster Should We Starve Children in Revenge for Nazi Crimes? By Bertrand Bussell WHAT has been happening in Germany, and is likely lo happen during the coming winter, should be...
...Many are dead when they reach Berlin...
...What a stranger than-fiction story Radek could have told, or VishinskT could still tell...
...A large proportion of those ejected from their homes are not put into trains, but are left to maker their way westward on foot...
...In these circumstances, inevitably, large numbers, legally or illcgully, escape across the boundary into the British or the American zone...
...We could alio* the free use of motor vehicles for the purpose of trans, port...
...By Bertrand Bussell WHAT has been happening in Germany, and is likely lo happen during the coming winter, should be widely known, since all victors share the responsibility for the just and humane treatment promised'on our behalf to the Germans before they surrendered...
...With (heir families still on a semi-starvation diet, they have little incentive to effort...
...According to a British officer now in Berlin, populations are dying, and BerlinJjo.spitala "male the sights of the concentration camps appear normal...
...And refugees are not entitled to uny rations at all while they stay in Bejrlin...
...During all this time no food is obtainable...
...The historian of the nineteenth century, by contrast, has an abundance of firsthand testimony in the shape of the memoirs of almost all the more important actors on the political stage...
...At a moment's notice, women and chidren are herded into trains, with only one suitcase each, and they are usually robbed on the way of its contents...
...Before the end of the war, it was hoped by the British and American Governments that there would be a central inner-allied authority for all Germany, and that the economic unity of the country would be preserved, but the Russians decided otherwise...
...But we did what we could to stop their crimes by going lo war with them, and few of us thought that victory would lead to similar crimes on quite as large a scale...
...During the time summer months the death rate for children under one year was already VI per thousand...
...When they reach their destination, they are told there is no place for them, and they should have gone elsewhere...
...The Russian zone was the chief food-producing area of Germany, and the Western Powers had sup-posed that there would still be an exchange of food from the Eastern regions for industrial products from the West...
...But until coal production in the Ruhr approaches its former level, not only the German economy, but that of several other European countries, cannot become self-supporting...
...Germans are not allowed coal, but only a totally inadequate supply of wood that is still green...
...between 20 and 50 percent, according to the locality, have been infected with venereal disease...
...What food there is goes largely to the Russian troops, which are not fed from home as are the British or Americans...
...I have no wish whatever to minimize the crimes of the Germans in the days of their power...
...If millions of children are caused to die of hunger and diseases bred of destitution through the action of our allies and many yet unborn are lo be endowed by their fathers with the legacies of venereal infection or hunger, or both, we have our share of responsibility unless we do everything in our power to alter their policy, or, if lhat is impossible, to mitigate its effects by unilateral action...
...By these means, and by a rigerous campaign against waste, the problems of the British zone wmld be mitigated...
...Sign of a Darkening Age 11ISTORIANS are still groping in the debris of ** the Dark Ages that followed the fall of the Roman Empire in an effort to derive a coherent picture from the sparse and ignorant chronicles of the time...
...But the memoir literature of a totalitarian state, for obvious safety-first reasons,'i» « almost complete blank...
...Most of these refugees make their way'first to Berlin...
...At first, the miners were too undernourished to work effectively...
...All Germans in these regions, and the Sudeten "Germans," who are in fact Austrians, have I seen or are linn...
...There is every reason lo think that this is the view of the British Government, but for effective action it needs the support of public opinion, of food for consumption in Germany...
...We could go to the utmost limit, compatible with safety, In releasing of our large reserve stocluj those who so desired could forego part of their rations for purposes of relief...
...the resulting children will presumably be left to die of hunger and cold while the fathers continue to enjoy the generous rations of the American army...
...In the American zone a very large number of hungry women are pregnant by American soldiers...
...it is expected to rise to about 200 during the winter...
...The absence of candid memoirs is a fair sign of an eclipse of civilization, a darkening age...
...In the Russian zone practically every woman between 15 and 50 has been raped...
...no one can pretend that German children under five are morally responsible for what the Nazis did...
...now they are given food at the pits and not allowed to take any away...
...And this absence of memoirs is especially noticeable under the two principal dictatorships of our time...
...The Government could sanction a voluntary scheme by which Apart from negotiations to stop further expulsions until after the winter, there are certain thing...
...Meanwhile Russia has annexed East Prussia, and Poland has annexed the rest of what was Germany east of the Oder and the Neissc...
...We could increase the output of tbi Ruhr miners by giving adequate rations to the mineri and their children, and by allowing Germany to keep a percentage of the coal produced...
...A member of the Friends' Ambulance Unit describes the Berlin station at which these trains arrive as "Belsen over again —carts taking the dead from the platform, etc...
...Moreover revenge does not fall only where (if anywhere) it is due...
...I have no information as to conditions in the British zone in this respect...
...To get a train they have to stand in a queue for several days and nights...
...With the approach of winter, the problem of fuel is almost as important as that of food...
...In the available houses there is practically no furniture, as a result of Russian looting while the Russians were in sole occupation...
...The journey to Berlin takes many days, during which no food is provided...
...There is no coal for civilians, and very little food...
...Under international agreements, the coal production in the Ruhr is exported...
...but in practice the nominal rations ure not met...
...It was agreed at Potsdam that these expulsions should lake place "in a humane und orderly manner," but this provision has been llouted...
...It must be admitted that the ruthless behavior of the Russians, Poles, and Czechs is intelligible in view of what they have suffered at the hands of the Germans...
...There is consequently not nearly enough food left in Eastern Germany to feed even ihe normal population...
...they were then given extra rations, which they shared with their familes...
...When they get a train, it is so full that no one can sit down...
...The number that cross daily from ihe Russian lo the British zone is variously estimated at from 10,000 to 20,000...
...Ref UGEES arriving in Berlin are sent on as quickly as possible to the most westerly parts of the Russian zone...
...that could be done...
...For llit- Hi il isli, Wtinse cone is largely industrial and was not formely self-supporting in the matter of food, the problem of presiding food for the greaty increased population is appallingly difficult...
...Imports of food need dollars, which at present are difficult to obtain...
...The Russians, however, seized almost all livestock and stores of food and agricultural machinery, and transported all able-bodied men to forced labor in Russia or Poland...
...Retaurant meals could be rationed, for it is still possible for those who eat regularly in restaurants to be overfed if they have the money...
...But in Berlin 80 percent uf the houses have been destroyed, and of those lhat are intact a large proportion have been requisitioned by the Mlies...
...What a contribution to history It would be if Stalin or Molotov would write uninhibited life recollections...
...Ernest lb v in « estimate is 9,0(J(),-000...
...expelled into Austria or the Russian zone of what remains Germany...
...It is expected that all children under one year old will die in Berlin before the end of the winter...
...children who die on the way are thrown out of the windctw...
...The armies of occupation cause additional problems...
...The total number of Germans already expelled from the newly annexed parts of Poland, in violation of the Potsdam agreement, is estimated nt over 4,000,000, and a further 4,000,000 are expected during the winter...
...Denmark has 100,000 head of cattle available for export, but UNRRA has hitherto refused to grant money for their purchase...
...Ihe best ration (to which few are entitled) is 1,200 calories, which is less than half the number considered adequate for a sedentary office worker normally clothed and housed...
...Exact statistics of the numbers thus expelled are not available, since only the Russians could provide them...
...The general death rate for Berlin is at present 61 per thousand...
...But no adequate, .solution is possible except by international agreement...
...The United States could solve the prohem, which is partly financial, but what America baa hitherto shown «"llinsrness to do ia far from adequate...
Vol. 28 • December 1945 • No. 49
