Postscript to defeat

Last week’s column about occupation to G.I.s and German women raised questions from readers which prompts me to supply more background. Those were terrible times for millions of Europeans, and especially European women; however, servicemen like me had to find what little humor there was in order to tolerate the misery we observed. Following is information many have forgotten or never knew:

On May 7, 1945, a week after Adolf Hitler killed himself, the battered remains of his once mighty Wehrmacht surrendered “unconditionally.” Surviving German citizens named May 8th “Stunde Null,” hour zero, as the day when their nation’s 12-year nightmare under the Nazi regime ended; but troubles did not end there.

The living sought faith in the future, whatever it might be, reaching out to grasp anything that could help maintain or improve life. Through the first two postwar years, with unusually severe winters of 1945-46 and 1946-47, finding food and shelter was a struggle for day-to-day survival. Unnumbered thousands did not make it.

Germany went into the Nazi wars in 1939 with their nation’s population just over sixty-nine and a half million. Roughly ten and a half percent perished, around 7 million citizens. The most German deaths, near 5 million, were military males chiefly in the 20 to 40 year age bracket, with highest numbers in their 30s.

This left an estimated five or six million, both German and “displaced” widows and potential spinsters, in 1945 to 1948. Hundreds of thousands of others were physically handicapped from war injuries. Scores of German soldiers were held as slave labor in Russia for years after the shooting stopped. France kept many but not as long.

Adding to this badly balanced social fabric were relatively small number, around 150,00, mostly males arrested by the Allies as possible threats to the peace.

Gen. Eisenhower had expressed concern over possible Nazi guerilla activity and ordered massive screening programs for all German and Austrian adults. Many ex-military as well as civilians with strong Nazi records were put on a “control list,” forbidden from influential business positions and elected or appointed positions at all levels of government. These restrictions, coupled to the dominance of females in the population, led to the “trummerfrauen” — “women running the government.”

Processed people were sent to prison or released. A few were hanged for such crimes as killing downed U.S. airmen. A handful of highest ranking Nazis were tried for war crimes at Nurnberg (Nuremberg) shortly after the war. Most were found guilty and imprisoned or hanged. (In 1962, seventeen years after the war, Reuters News Agency reported 1,280,000 German military personnel were still unaccounted for, and figures in 2011 put the number remaining at over 250,000).

Uncountable orphans from pre-school age to middle teens roamed the postwar ruins, miraculously surviving by wits, luck, courage and helping each other. Theft of everything stealable was the major source of all they had. The activity was backed up by scavenging, begging and crude manufacturing, like sandals from old tires. The begging became more productive with the wide deployment of compassionate American troops. There were a few scattered orphanages, understaffed and overwhelmed.

Numbers of surviving babies born during the war were not accurately tabulated, with estimates difficult because of chaos. Tens of thousands of very young and newborn died of malnutrition, neglect and the lack of medical services in those two years after May 1945, until American aid stabilized the situation.

That is just a rough picture of the postwar Germany and neighboring countries, but I hope it gives a clearer picture of what it was like … for us and them.

G. George Ostrom is a national award-winning Hungry Horse News columnist. He lives in Kalispell.