As soon as Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945, the American Military Governor, General Eisenhower, made it a crime punishable by death for German civilians to feed prisoners.
American guards burn the food brought by German civilians. American soldiers took all the food and burned it. Eisenhower himself ordered the food be destroyed, although the prisoners were getting only 800 calories per day.
Prisoner Paul Schmitt was shot at Bretzenheim after coming close to the wire to see his wife and son who were bringing him food. Agnes Spira was shot at Dietersheim for taking food to prisoners. A German woman with her children asked a guard at Bad Kreuznach to give a bottle of wine to her husband, but the guard drank it and killed her husband with five shots.
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Martin Brech, an American guard at Andernach :
In Andernach about 60,000 prisoners were held in an open field surrounded by barbed wire. The women were kept in a separate enclosure. The men had no shelter and no blankets. Many had no coats. They slept in the m&d, wet and cold, with inadequate slit trenches for excrement. It was a cold and wet, their misery from exposure was evident.
I saw prisoners throwing grass and weeds into a tin can containing a thin soup to help ease their hunger pains. Quickly they grew emaciated. Dysentery raged, and soon they were sleeping in their own excrement, too weak to reach the slit trenches. Many were sickening and dying before our eyes. We had ample food and supplies, but did nothing to help them, including no medical assistance.
When I threw food over the barbed wire to the prisoners, and one officer threatened to shoot me. I encountered a captain on a hill above the Rhine shooting at German civilian women. When I asked, "Why?," he mumbled, "Target practice," and fired until his pistol was empty.
These prisoners, I found out, were mostly farmers and workingmen, as simple and ignorant as many of our own troops. As time went on, more of them lapsed into a zombie-like state, while others tried to escape in a demented or suicidal fashion, running through open fields in broad daylight towards the Rhine to quench their thirst. They were mowed down.
One night I was on night shift there was a graveyard close to the enclosure. I saw prisoners crawling under the wires towards the graveyard. We were supposed to shoot escapees so I they were risking their lives to get to the graveyard for something.
I followed and tripped over someone in a prone position, I was relieved I hadn't reflexively fired. The figure sat up andI saw the beautiful but terror-stricken face of a woman with a picnic basket nearby. German civilians were not allowed to feed, nor even come near the prisoners, so I quickly assured her I approved of what she was doing. I have never forgotten her face.
Eventually, the prisoners crawled back to the enclosure. I saw they were dragging food to their comrades, and could only admire their courage and devotion.
I soon witnessed the brutality of the French soldiers when we transferred our prisoners to them for their slave labor camps. Weak and sickly prisoners were marched off by French soldiers to their camp. Whenever a German prisoner staggered or dropped back, he was hit on the head with a club and killed. For many, this quick death might have been preferable to slow starvation in our "killing fields."
When I saw the German women held in a separate enclosure, I spoke to some, and I've never met a more spirited or attractive group of women.
Famine began to spread among the German civilians also. It was a common sight to see German women searching in our garbage cans looking for something edible if they weren't chased away.
Mayors of towns and villages said their supply of food had been taken away by foreigners who had worked in Germany, who packed the food on trucks and drove away. Germans had to rely on the sharing of hidden stores until the next harvest.
Rape was prevalent and often accompanied by violence. I remember an eighteen-year old woman who had the side of her faced smashed with a rifle butt, and was then raped by two G.I.s. Even the French complained that the rapes, looting and drunken destructiveness on the part of our troops was excessive.
In Le Havre, we'd been given booklets warning us that the German soldiers had maintained a high standard of behavior with French civilians who were peaceful, and that we should do the same. In this we failed miserably.
American guards burn the food brought by German civilians. American soldiers took all the food and burned it. Eisenhower himself ordered the food be destroyed, although the prisoners were getting only 800 calories per day.
Prisoner Paul Schmitt was shot at Bretzenheim after coming close to the wire to see his wife and son who were bringing him food. Agnes Spira was shot at Dietersheim for taking food to prisoners. A German woman with her children asked a guard at Bad Kreuznach to give a bottle of wine to her husband, but the guard drank it and killed her husband with five shots.
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Martin Brech, an American guard at Andernach :
In Andernach about 60,000 prisoners were held in an open field surrounded by barbed wire. The women were kept in a separate enclosure. The men had no shelter and no blankets. Many had no coats. They slept in the m&d, wet and cold, with inadequate slit trenches for excrement. It was a cold and wet, their misery from exposure was evident.
I saw prisoners throwing grass and weeds into a tin can containing a thin soup to help ease their hunger pains. Quickly they grew emaciated. Dysentery raged, and soon they were sleeping in their own excrement, too weak to reach the slit trenches. Many were sickening and dying before our eyes. We had ample food and supplies, but did nothing to help them, including no medical assistance.
When I threw food over the barbed wire to the prisoners, and one officer threatened to shoot me. I encountered a captain on a hill above the Rhine shooting at German civilian women. When I asked, "Why?," he mumbled, "Target practice," and fired until his pistol was empty.
These prisoners, I found out, were mostly farmers and workingmen, as simple and ignorant as many of our own troops. As time went on, more of them lapsed into a zombie-like state, while others tried to escape in a demented or suicidal fashion, running through open fields in broad daylight towards the Rhine to quench their thirst. They were mowed down.
One night I was on night shift there was a graveyard close to the enclosure. I saw prisoners crawling under the wires towards the graveyard. We were supposed to shoot escapees so I they were risking their lives to get to the graveyard for something.
I followed and tripped over someone in a prone position, I was relieved I hadn't reflexively fired. The figure sat up andI saw the beautiful but terror-stricken face of a woman with a picnic basket nearby. German civilians were not allowed to feed, nor even come near the prisoners, so I quickly assured her I approved of what she was doing. I have never forgotten her face.
Eventually, the prisoners crawled back to the enclosure. I saw they were dragging food to their comrades, and could only admire their courage and devotion.
I soon witnessed the brutality of the French soldiers when we transferred our prisoners to them for their slave labor camps. Weak and sickly prisoners were marched off by French soldiers to their camp. Whenever a German prisoner staggered or dropped back, he was hit on the head with a club and killed. For many, this quick death might have been preferable to slow starvation in our "killing fields."
When I saw the German women held in a separate enclosure, I spoke to some, and I've never met a more spirited or attractive group of women.
Famine began to spread among the German civilians also. It was a common sight to see German women searching in our garbage cans looking for something edible if they weren't chased away.
Mayors of towns and villages said their supply of food had been taken away by foreigners who had worked in Germany, who packed the food on trucks and drove away. Germans had to rely on the sharing of hidden stores until the next harvest.
Rape was prevalent and often accompanied by violence. I remember an eighteen-year old woman who had the side of her faced smashed with a rifle butt, and was then raped by two G.I.s. Even the French complained that the rapes, looting and drunken destructiveness on the part of our troops was excessive.
In Le Havre, we'd been given booklets warning us that the German soldiers had maintained a high standard of behavior with French civilians who were peaceful, and that we should do the same. In this we failed miserably.
