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Original Essays | June 11, 2013
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More copies of this ISBNAfter the Reich: The Brutal History of the Allied Occupationby Giles Macdonogh
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:When Hitler’s government collapsed in 1945, Germany was immediately divided up under the control of the Allied Powers and the Soviets. A nation in tatters, in many places literally flattened by bombs, was suddenly subjected to brutal occupation by vengeful victors. According to recent estimates, as many as two million German women were raped by Soviet occupiers. General Eisenhower denied the Germans access to any foreign aid, meaning that German civilians were forced to subsist on about 1,200 calories a day. (American officials privately acknowledged at the time that the death rate amongst adults had risen to four times the pre-war levels; child mortality had increased tenfold). With the authorization of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, over four million Germans were impressed into forced labor. General George S. Patton was so disgusted by American policy in post-war Germany that he commented in his diary, “It is amusing to recall that we fought the revolution in defense of the rights of man and the civil war to abolish slavery and have now gone back on both principles" Although an astonishing 2.5 million ordinary Germans were killed in the post-Reich era, few know of this traumatic history. There has been an unspoken understanding amongst historians that the Germans effectively got what they deserved as perpetrators of the Holocaust. First ashamed of their national humiliation at the hands of the Allies and Soviets, and later ashamed of the horrors of the Holocaust, Germans too have remained largely silent – a silence W.G. Sebald movingly described in his controversial book On the Natural History of Destruction. In After the Reich, Giles MacDonogh has written a comprehensive history of Germany and Austria in the postwar period, drawing on a vast array of contemporary first-person accounts of the period. In doing so, he has finally given a voice the millions of who, lucky to survive the war, found themselves struggling to survive a hellish “peace.” A startling account of a massive and brutal military occupation, After the Reich is a major work of history of history with obvious relevance today. Synopsis:From an expert in German history-a masterful exploration of the horrific aftermath of World War II for the citizens of a ruined nation
Synopsis:When Hitlers government collapsed in 1945, Germany was immediately subjected to brutal occupation by vengeful victors. General Eisenhower denied the Germans access to foreign aid, forcing Germans to subsist on about 1,200 calories a day. Over a million German POWs died in Allied captivity, as many as 2 million women were raped by Soviet occupiers, and hundreds of thousands of Germans died in the course of brutal deportations. In After the Reich, Giles MacDonogh has drawn from a vast array of first-person accounts to give a voice to the millions of German civilians who, having lost a brutal war, found themselves struggling to survive a hellish “peace.” About the AuthorGiles MacDonogh is the author of 1938: Hitler’s Gamble, The Last Kaiser: A Life of Wilhelm II, and Frederick the Great. MacDonogh was born in London in 1955 and studied history at Oxford University. He has a regular column in the Financial Times and has written for the Times (London), Guardian, and Evening Standard. He lives in London. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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History and Social Science » Europe » Germany » Modern Germany
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