Hello people,
I just received a copy of a book entitled "Other Losses" by a certain James Bacque.
Published in 1989 in Canada, it makes some pretty incredible claims about postwar mass-starvation/extermination of German soldiers in Allied hands; namely those of the Americans and French.
Has anyone here read this? Is it tripe, or is it a serious work? Upon superficial examination, its bibliography seems impressive, headlined by none other than Stephen Ambrose. Of course, after a short 'net surf, it seems Mr. Ambrose, while initially taken with this work, subsequently became rather disenchanted by it.
As I wish to sidestep any potential pollution of my brain, I would appreciate your reviews/input/knowledge immensely.
Peter

Hello there,

I happen to be German and live near Munich, however was born after the war. And I happen to have that book and have quickly gone over it. What I can tell you is the following:

My mother and father, who have been in the war as teenagers, and others here from that time, all tell that food was available in sufficient quantities during the war, and that starvation began with the end of the war. - I'd guess because the old system was broken and a new one was not installed yet.

There recently was a TV documentation here showing pictures and scenes about the German POWs at the river Rhein side. There must have been many, many thousands. The scenes showed them crowded on fields without tents, nothing to shelter them from rain and weather, hedged in with fences, guarded by machine gunners. The docu said that many died because of malnutrition.

Alltogether I am afraid that really thousands of POWs have died after the liberation. My personal opinion only is, that it must not necessarily have been intentious, as James Bacque implies, but that to provide food and shelter was very difficult and could not be organized and managed.

Greetings,

Roland Schoeffel

Howdy:
Seems like I’m pne of the few guys who read that book, too. There’s a strange story behind how I got a hold of my copy.

A couple of years ago I was at Frankfurt airport waiting for my folks to pick up when an elder gentleman came walking thru the customs. I had no doubt that he belonged to the war generation. When he noticed me he changed direction and walked straight toward me. He got out a paperback, passed it to me while he excitedly said, “You gotta read that… You guys don’t know what happened… I know, I went thru all that… Please, read that…” I could feel that the book had touched his raw nerve. He then turned off and went away.

Back home I was curious enough to start reading… At about the same time the German DER SPIEGEL magazine – which is the counterpart of the US TIME magazine – published a review on the book and the author which I agree upon: James Bacque’s book is definitely no easy stuff to read for he gives a very one-sided portrayal of what happened in ’45 – and after. However, it remains to be an amazing fact that he has the guts to portray “the far side” of the winner. The reader may be even more astounded noticing that this was done by a non-German author which somehow seems to increase the reliability of his claims.

So far history has been written by the winners, the memories of our fathers remained unheard for 50 post-war years – the winner takes it all. What we learned in school was that story of the good and the ugly. We were raised to learn what part was our fathers’ but the stories we heard at home sounded different somehow. For instance there is my father-in-law, age 86, who still can’t get over what he went thru in the POW camp in the “River Rhine Valley”. There is my dad who still recalls those promises of release from the camp if he did sign a certain paper. Some of his buddies did and subsequently found themselves again in some remote French coal mines. Maybe James Bacque wrote that chapter in the nick of time when history started turning the pages.

James Bacque doesn’t hold the full truth maybe he refers to one widely unknown part of it. Actually the author didn’t do anything new. He follows the tracks of the “Ugly American” as we know from literature. The Gulf War somehow seems to prove that image. I’m far off from reversing WWII history and I don’t deny any atrocities committed by Germany. But the truth is indivisible and we got the right and it’s our duty to face the facts.

There’s one simple reason why those sad happenings never got really focused on: The US and Germany soon became “friends” – in that sense that we were needed in the days of the cold war. There’s no need to explain that this was for the benefit of either side. For both sides there was no more reason to watch the bridges after burning.
I’m afraid Bacque’s account has come too late anyway. Almost 60 years after that shame the wartime generation has passed away. Who cares anymore ?

That’s my 2 cents worth.

Regards,
dire