Exorcising Hitler (72 page)

44
 See the case of Paul Kistermann in the Aachen district 1946/47 in NA Kew FO 1013/303 Public Safety, Denazification (Farmers and Farm and Agricultural Workers), especially the report by Lt Col. C. H. Gilbert, Commander of North Rhine-Westphalia Regional Food Teams, to Regional Economic Officer, 22 March 1947, which details the lengthy history of this case.

45
 Koop,
Besetzt: Britische Besatzungspolitik in Deutschland
, p. 77.

46
 Biddiscombe,
The Denazification of Germany
, p. 109.

47
 Report by Ian Cobain in the
Guardian
, 17 December 2005: ‘The interrogation camp that turned prisoners into living skeletons’.

48
 Ibid.

49
 Biddiscombe,
The Denazification of Germany
, pp. 100f.

50
This volte-face seems to have been a conservative rather than a radical move by the British officials, who had become increasingly concerned about serious political and economic unrest in the Ruhr. The co-decision-making (
Mitbestimmung
) was in part designed to head off demands for wholesale nationalisation of the iron and steel industry. See Diethelm Prowe, ‘Economic Democracy in Post-World War II Germany: Corporatist Crisis Response, 1945–1948’, in
Journal of Modern History
, vol. 57, no. 3 (September 1985), pp. 451–82.

51
 Biddiscombe,
The Denazification of Germany
,
pp. 103–5.

52
 Annan,
Changing Enemies
, p. 205.

53
 Ibid.

54
 For both quotes see
Hansard
online, HL Deb
12 November 1947 vol. 152 cc587-646. Lord Pakenham (1905–2001) later succeeded to the earldom of Longford. He served in Labour governments 1945–51 and 1964–8, but became especially well known to the general public in Britain for his quixotic campaigns, first against pornography and then for the release from prison of the serial child murderer Myra Hindley.

12 DIVIDE AND RULE

1
 See John Young, ‘The Foreign Office, the French and the Post-War Division of Germany 1945-46’, in
Review of International Studies
, vol. 12, no. 3 (July 1986), p. 224.

2
 Koop,
Besetzt: Französische Besatzungspolitik in Deutschland
, p. 181.

3
 Quotation from ibid., p. 183.

4
 See Kossert,
Kalte Heimat
, pp. 71–86, ‘Deutscher Rassismus gegen deutsche Vertriebene’.

5
 See Overmans, ‘Das Schicksal der deutschen Kriegsgefangenen des Zweiten Weltkrieges’, in Müller, ed.,
Das Deutsche Reich
,
Band 10
,
Zweiter Halbband
, p. 464, for the IRC figures and opinions, and an analysis of the official death figures, which are contradictory. Koop, in
Besetzt: Französische Besatzungspolitik in Deutschland,
takes an uncharacteristically naive view of James Bacque’s work in this regard, describing it as belonging to an ‘independent study’ (whatever that means in this context) and giving credence to the Canadian writer’s sensational figure of between 167,000 and 300,000 – i.e. roughly one-fifth to one-third of all German prisoners of the French.

6
 Koop,
Besetzt: Französische Besatzungspolitik in Deutschland
, p. 81.

7
 Ibid., pp. 120f.

8
 See
Der Spiegel
, 19/1970 4.5.1970, ‘Ist das nicht ein wüster Traum? Spiegel-Report über das Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs 1945’.

9
   Interview with Dr Helmut Schnatz (born 1934), Koblenz, 11 June 2009.

10
 Interview with Helmut Nassen (born 1928), Koblenz, 11 June 2009.

11
 Biddiscombe,
The Denazification of Germany
, p. 160.

12
 See interview with Egon Plönissen.

13
 See NARA College Park RG 260 390/47/15-16/6-3 Military Government of Bavaria Record of the Intelligence Director/Records of the office of Director Intelligence Records 1946 Box 7 Memorandum Major Peter J. Vacca to Brigadier General Walter J. Muller, Director, 19 April 1946. And depositions by Frau Franziska Rösner and Frau Elisabeth Schmidtbaur.

14
 Biddiscombe,
The Denazification of Germany
, p. 158.

15
 Ibid., p. 164.

16
 Ibid., p. 182.

17
 Ibid., p. 181.

18
 Lutz Niethammer, ‘Schule der Anpassung: Die Entnazifizierung in den vier Besatzungszonen’, in
Spiegel Special
, 4/1995, p. 93.

19
 Biddiscombe,
The Denazification of Germany
, p. 182.

20
 See Niethammer, ‘Schule der Anpassung’.

21
 Naimark,
The Russians in Germany
, p. 376. And for the following.

22
 See
Der Spiegel
, 40/1992, ‘Straflager: Vorhöfe zur Hölle’, pp. 77–9.

23
 Ibid., p. 81.

24
 Naimark,
The Russians in Germany
, p. 383.

25
 Ulrich Frodien,
Um Kopf und Kragen: Eine Nachkriegsjugend
, pp. 173ff.

26
 Interview with Joachim Trenkner.

27
 See Hermann Wentker, ed.,
Volksrichter in der SBZ / DDR 1945 bis 1952: Eine Dokumentation
, Schriftenreihe der Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, Bd 74, 1997, p. 10.

28
 Biddiscombe,
The Denazification of Germany
, p. 137.

29
 Interview with Lothar Löwe.

30
 Ibid., p. 152.

31
 Ibid., p. 143.

32
 See Halder, ‘“Prüfstein . . . für die politische Lauterkeit der Führenden?”’.

13 HOPE

1
 CC5797 Secret ‘Conditions in Germany’, 26 May 1946 From Clay to Chief of Staff, in Smith, ed.,
The Papers of General Lucius D. Clay
, vol. I, pp. 212–17. And for the following.

2
 John Lewis Gaddis,
The Cold War: A New History
, pp. 28f.

3
 See Tony Judt,
Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945
, p. 108.

4
 For Stalin’s speech see Gaddis,
The Cold War: A New History
, p. 94.

5
 Kennan from Moscow, 26 January 1945, quoted in ibid., p. 106.

6
 Text of Kennan’s ‘Long Telegram’, 22 February 1946, available online at
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/documents/
episode-1/kennan.htm
. (Some definite articles added by this author in lieu of cable’s abbreviations.)

7
 For the American response see Judt,
Postwar
, p. 110.

8
 Figures in ibid., pp. 120f.

9
 Ibid., p. 109.

10
 Clay to Echols, 19 July 1946 (letter), in Smith, ed.,
The Papers of General Lucius D. Clay
, vol. I, pp. 236–43.

11
 See Clay to Byrnes (handwritten letter), 19 August 1946, in ibid., p. 255. Clay and his wife had visited the Byrnes on 10–12 July in Paris, where the Secretary was slogging through yet another meeting of foreign ministers (which meant that Clay would have been directly familiar with Molotov’s manoeuvres). In the letter he thanked Byrnes for managing to ‘raise my spirits’ and for lending an ear to his local problems in Germany when the Secretary had the whole world picture to consider.

12
 Ibid., p. 237, n.2.

13
 From Clay personal to Schulgen, ibid., p. 247.

14
 See
Time
magazine, 16 September 1946, ‘Foreign Relations: Journey to Stuttgart’.

15
 James F. Byrnes, speech in Stuttgart, 6 September 1946. Available online at
http://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/ga4-
460906.htm
.

16
 See John Gimbel, ‘Byrnes’ Stuttgarter Rede und die amerikanische Nachkriegspolitik in Deutschland’, in
Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte
, 20. Jahrgang, H. 1 (January 1972), pp. 39–62.

17
 Lucius D. Clay, quoted in Beschloss,
The Conquerors
, p. 227.

18
 From Clay for War Department, 16 September 1946, CC3769, in Smith, ed.,
The Papers of General Lucius D. Clay
, vol. I, p. 263.

EPILOGUE

1
 See article by Lars-Broder Keil in
Die Welt
, 6 August 2007: ‘
Vor 75 Jahren wurde in Deutschland die erste Autobahn eingeweiht. Von Adenauer. Und Hitler hatte nichts damit zu tun
’ (75 Years Ago in Germany the First Autobahn was Inaugurated. By Adenauer. And Hitler Had Nothing to Do With It).