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Crimes and Mercies: The Fate of German Civilians under Allied Occupation, 1944-1950 | 
 enlarge | Author: James Bacque
Publisher: Talonbooks
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $15.53
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Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 64780
Media: Paperback
Edition: Revised
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0889225672
Dewey Decimal Number: 943.0874
EAN: 9780889225671
ASIN: 0889225672
Publication Date: August 1, 2007
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Shipping: International shipping available
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Product Description
More than nine million Germans died as a result of deliberate Allied starvation and expulsion policies after the Second World War - one quarter of the country was annexed, and about fifteen million people expelled in the largest act of ethnic cleansing the world has ever known. Western governments continue to conceal and deny these deaths. At the same time, Herbert Hoover and Canadian Prime Minister MacKenzie King created the largest charity in history, a food-aid program that saved an estimated 800 million lives during three years of global struggle against post-Second World War famine - a program the German people were initially excluded from as a matter of official Allied policy. Revised and updated for this new edition, "Crimes and Mercies" was first published by Little, Brown in the UK in 1997, becoming an immediate best seller.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 Both sadness and anger March 31, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Reading this thorough account of what happened in Germany to civilians (mostly women and children) after the official end of hostilities made me both sad for the victims and angry at the perpetrators.
A question that some reviewers have noted or alluded to is "Why don't we hear about this atrocity against German POWs and German civilians?" Very important question. As one reviewer noted, all we hear about when WWII comes up is the Holocaust. I have never accepted the exclusivity or specialness of any one particular group's suffering. The fact is that many groups suffered terribly in the war. Millions of Russian peasants, and millions of Chinese peasants and city dwellers died. Hundreds of thousands of German and Japanese non-combatant civilians perished in the fire bombings. But, we never hear about the outrageous atrocities that Mr. Bacque covers in this book. Why?
The answer appears to me to be 2 fold. First, these crimes were committed against the Germans, who, thanks to Allied propaganda, were considered totally evil and therefore not deserving of humane treatment. So it was no big deal to starve them for five years. Secondly, these crimes were committed after the end of the war and were committed by the victorious and "morally superior" Allies. Now, we cannot have evidence of such large scale misdeeds committed by the Allies, after the war had ended, being widely disseminated. Common folks may just ask unpleasant questions of their government.
There are larger issues here that are relevant to today. We see that lies and the suppression of inconvenient truths in war time and afterwards are nothing new for the US military and government to traffic in. Yet, in a democracy, is not the government accountable to the people? Currently, I fear the USA is tipping too far towards militarism in its egocentric quest to run the world. We, all citizens of the world, American or not, need to be vigilant now. Unending wars and civilian deaths are not the answer to the world's problems.
A final thought: The book indicates that Franklin Roosevelt was intent on the destruction of Germany after the war at least as early as 1943. Why was Roosevelt so obsessed with Germany's total destruction?
Enlightening February 27, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
A very well researched book that reveals the acts of revenge and horrors that were committed upon innocent German civilians and soldiers by the allies even for years after Germanys surrender. A must read for anyone who wants to know about this deliberately hidden chapter of our history.
F M Australia
 Hmm November 11, 2004
14 out of 37 found this review helpful
After reading the first couple of chapters, I thought I was going to give this book 5 stars. Clearly, German civilians did suffer in the post-war years, and much of that suffering appears to have been unnecessary. And I'm not one who would dismiss that suffering because "they brought it on themselves". It was also nice to learn about Herbert Hoover's humanitarian work, something of which I had been previously unaware.
By the end of the book, however, my opinion of it had diminished considerably. Bacque tosses a lot of numbers around, but if he's employing some sort of systematic methodology, I wasn't able to detect what it was. Comparing population figure A from source B with population figure C from source D and drawing extreme conclusions from the discrepancy between A and C without taking into account basic notions like random variation and limited precision or the different techniques B and D used to arrive at their figures is not, in my opinion, the way to make a convincing argument.
Bacque's case is not helped by a rambling 5-page appendix in which he presents his suspicions that he's being spied on, nor by his allying himself with figures like Ramsey Clark. (I'll gladly agree that Bacque's case is as strong as Clark's, but that's about as faint as praise gets.)
A Powerful Book October 13, 2004
38 out of 39 found this review helpful
In this powerful new book, Canadian historian James Bacque presents detailed evidence, much of it newly uncovered, to show that some nine million Germans died as a result of Allied starvation and expulsion policies in the first five years after the Second World War -- a total far greater than the long-accepted figures. These deaths are still being concealed and denied, writes Bacque, especially by American and British authorities. Crimes and Mercies -- a handsome hardcover work, illustrated and well-referenced -- is a devastating indictment of Allied, and especially American, occupation policy in defeated postwar Germany. Nearly 15 million Germans fled or were brutally expelled in the greatest act of "ethnic cleansing" in history, a human catastrophe in which some two million were killed or otherwise perished. Then, under the notorious "Morgenthau Plan" and its successor policies, the Allies carried out a massive looting of Germany, and even prevented German civilians from growing enough food to feed themselves. Bacque shows, for example, that General Eisenhower, in violation of the Geneva Convention, in May 1945 forbade German civilians to take food to prisoners starving to death in American camps. He threatened the death penalty for anyone feeding prisoners. Bacque also describes the terrors of the postwar camps in Poland where children and other German civilians lost their lives. Written with fervor, compassion and humanity, and making use of never-before cited records in Moscow archives, James Bacque exposes a little-known but important chapter of 20th century history. He builds upon the revelations of his startling 1989 study, Other Losses, which presented evidence to show that hundreds of thousands of German prisoners of war died as a result of cruel and illegal mistreatment by American, British and French authorities. American historian Alfred M. de Zayas, author of Nemesis at Potsdam and The German Expellees, provides a valuable foreword
No one, single group has a monopoly on Evil or Madness September 19, 2004
62 out of 70 found this review helpful
Excellent book. Extremely well researched. I have always been interested in East Prussia from having read a lot on the Teutonic Knights. Suddenly in 1945 a 700-year-old German land ceased to exist -- what happened to all of it's people? And what happened to the vanquished men and women that Hitler so cruelly led down the dark path of death and destruction? Bacque sheds some very important light in this work and provides a good starting point to find out more.
I must say, Seth's statements below in his review are very disturbing, almost as disturbing as many of Hitler's statements in "Mein Kampf". People like Seth would do well to imagine this scenario, no matter how unlikely: The war in Iraq has a reversal of fortune and the Americans are driven out...an Iraqi paratroop battalion lands in Tuscon and goes to his home, they seize his family and prepare to kill them, calling it "justice" and "due revenge"...what does he do? Does he say, "go ahead and kill them,they should get what they deserve"? NO. He says something like "hey I didn't vote for the current President and even if I did that doesn't mean I agree with the war in Iraq, my leaders didn't ask me personally, so don't take revenge on me and my family." There were many Germans that despised the Nazi government, but fear of retribution in a police state like that kept them from acting. The famous close-call bomb plot to kill Hitler was planned and carried out by, guess who?...a German, and lots of other Germans along with him. When that smoke cleared Hitler had put to death about 1000 Germans (soldiers and citizens alike) he believed to be involved.
Make no mistake, the Holocaust was the most heinous collective act ever carried out against a civilian population and heads a long list that includes the Crusades, the Hundred Years War, and the "Trail of Tears". We should NEVER forget, but not to the exclusion of remembering so many countless others that were victims of the evil men do to men.
Read a book on the Holocaust and shed a tear for little 9-year-old Lena Weitzman who died in a gas chamber..then read this book and shed a tear for little 9-year-old Anna Richter who was shot in the head by a vengeful Soviet soldier. If you can shed a tear for one but not the other, then the humanity you were born with has deserted you -- and has left you an empty, bitter, waste of a life. Hate destroys from the inside out as well.
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