Aftermath (WWII) – Old Magazine Articles

Dr. Jung on Germany’s Hangover
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung (1875 – 1961) had much to say as to how the German people could come to terms with all the dreadful acts that were committed in their name during the previous 12 years.

“[The German] will try frantically to rehabilitate himself in the face of the world’s accusations and hate – but that is not the right way. The only right way is his unconditional acknowledgement of guilt… German penitence must come from within.”

Click here to read Jung’s thoughts on Hitler.

”German Labor as Reparation”
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

“War and the Working Class, Moscow publication, asserts that German labor must be used to restore the destruction wrought by the German Army in Europe…In an article entitled Labor Reparations, it contends that Using German labor for this purpose will achieve effective military and economic disarmament of Germany.”

Do the Germans Know They’re Licked?
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

“The German Army has been defeated, but the German murderers are still murderers, the Junkers are still Junkers and they are still Nazis – and all of them are looking ahead to the next war….Here is what the Germans, whose commanders begged for mercy at the signing of the surrender, did in the 24 hours just before and after the formal deadline for capitulation…”

Doenitz’ Aid Warns of Hardships
(Philadelphia Record, 1945)

“No one must be under any illusions about the severity of the terms to be imposed upon the German people by our enemies.”

The American Leviathan
(Liberty Magazine, 1945)

Between the years 1941 and 1945 the United States achieved a level of power that the tyrants of yore only dreamed about:

“Clearly here was a phenomenon to make anyone sit up and take notice – a new kind of military machine, a new kind of global power that apparently could be delivered anywhere in the world, at any time… By building 75,000 to 100,000 planes yearly and by improving planes and motors, we have emerged suddenly as an air power…No other nation has made a comparable investment in carrier aviation. No other nation would dare to put an expeditionary force to sea against a nation strong in carriers and land -based aircraft…With the object of defending ourselves, we have solved one problem after another until we have stumbled on a formula for conquering most of the world.”

A similar article appeared twenty years earlier…

Has Germany Forgotten Anne Frank?
(Coronet Magazine, 1960)

In this article the proud father of Anne Frank, Otto Frank (1889 – 1980), explains that by the late Fifties it seemed more and more teenagers were contacting him to say that very few parents or teachers seemed willing to discuss the Nazi years in Germany. These inquiries were too often dismissed as bothersome or simply brushed away with hasty answers like, The Nazis built the Autobahns.

Otto Frank points out that this was not always the case, and goes on to recall that there existed a more sympathetic and regretful Germany for at least a decade after the war. Yet, in 1960 he sensed that there existed a subtle movement to whitewash Hitler; a battle was being waged for the mind of this teenage generation.

From Amazon: A German Generation

Click here to read about the inmate rebellions that took place at Auschwitz, Sobibor and Triblinka.

News from Nuremberg
(Maptalk, 1946)

A collection of assorted thoughts that were pulled from various letters written by the German people to the offices of the War Crimes Tribunal. A few letters are from weirdos but most are from sincere anti-Nazis wishing that the court would deliver some measure of justice to this German or that German who they feared might be overlooked.

The Trials at Nuremberg
(Newsweek Magazine, 1945)

As for the defendant’s guilt: the British Attorney general named seven individually as ‘murderers, robbers, black-mailers and gangsters’ who led Germany into war…

Click here if you would like to read what the German people thought about the trials…

The First Winter of the Peace
(Newsweek Magazine, 1945)

The coming winter will be an extremely trying one for our occupation troops. If present conditions continue, there is certain to be starvation in Germany.

Fear in Post-War Berlin
(Collier’s Magazine, 1948)

Barely existing on brief rations of food and other necessities, the three million-odd Germans in 1948 Berlin are cold and afraid. In their battle for survival they spy on one another, steal coffins from the dead for firewood and raid garbage cans to eat.

Just how accurate was the Allied bombing campaign of Germany? Click here and find out.

Starvation
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1945)

Intelligence officers of the U.S. Army, just returned from Germany, brought appalling stories of the conditions under the policy of divided control established at Potsdam last August. Berlin, they reported confidentially, had a pre-war population of four million and an average daily death of toll of 175. Berlin today, although harboring over a million refugees from what was Eastern Germany, has a population of just over three million; deaths, 4,000 a day.

Judgment in Oslo
(Newsweek Magazine, 1945)

Norwegian traitor Vidkun Quisling (1887 – 1945) insisted on his innocence throughout his trial and all the way up to the day of his firing squad. To counter his claims in the courtroom prosecutors produced the diary of Hitler’s foreign minister, Alfred Rosenberg, that clearly stated that Quisling was complicit from the very beginning in the invasion of his homeland. A pride of Norwegian military officers recalled the day of the Nazi attack when Quisling refused to give the mobilization order.

Click here to read an article about another European traitor: Pierre Laval.

The Need For A New Word
(Collier’s Magazine, 1951)

Occupied Berlin and the Summer of ’45
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

An eye-witness account of life in post-war Berlin: the rubble, the black-market, the politics, the night clubs, the newspapers, the natives and the four occupying armies.sumo men. These sumo wrestlers weigh about 300 pounds and are very agile…

You might also like to read articles about post-war Japan.

A Hidden Nazi Army?
(Quick Magazine, 1954)

In the chaos and confusion of 1945 Berlin the whereabouts of Gestapo General Heinrich Müller was lost; many believe he had been killed or committed suicide. Another report had it that Müller had been captured with the Africa Korps by the British and subsequently made good his escape into Syria. In an issue of the Soviet newspaper Izvestia that appeared on newsstands at the end of July, 1950, it was reported that while residing in the Middle East he had converted to Islam, changed his name to Hanak Hassim Bey and was amassing an army of German veterans in order to march on Israel. The attached notice seems to be based on the Izvestia article.

Distrusting Germans was a common pastime for many people in the Twentieth Century; some thirty years earlier a similar article was published about this distrust.
Here is another article about escaped Nazis.

When a Nazi converted to Islam it was undoubtedly the work of Haj Amin Al-Husseini. Click here to read about him.

The Rebellious Souls in Post-War Germany
(Collier’s Magazine, 1947)

This Collier’s Magazine article from 1947 was penned by the German-speaking Sigrid Schultz (1893 – 1980) who’s report told on those discontented Germans who enjoyed tweaking the collective noses of the armies that lorded over them – oddly believing that a war between the Western Powers and the Soviet Union was the best answer to their hopes. Elements of the populace spoke openly about the good old days under Hitler and sang the old Nazi anthem, The Horst Wessel Song:

In Munich, the signs on the square named for ‘The Victims of Fascism’ were replaced by signs reading ‘The Victims of Democracy’. The police only acted after a Munich paper front-paged the story.

Read about American censorship in Occupied-Japan…

The End of the War in Berlin
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

YANK correspondent Mack Morris wandered through the fallen Nazi capital of Berlin two days after it’s collapse and recorded his observations:

There were Russians in the the square, dancing and a band played. In Unter den Linden were the bodies of dead civilians, the dust of their famous street like grease paint on their faces.

Click here to read about the German surrender proceedings that took place in the French city of Reims on May 6, 1945.

Click here to read about the inmate rebellions that took place at Auschwitz, Sobibor and Triblinka.

What Did the Germans Think of Their Occupiers?
(Prevent W.W. III Magazine, 1947)

By the time this article appeared on paper, the defeated Germans had been living among the soldiers of four different military powers for two years: the British, the French, the Russians and the Americans – each army had their own distinct personality and the Teutonic natives knew them well. With that in mind, an American reporter decided to put the question to them as to what they thought of these squatters – what did they like most about them and what did the detest most about them?

The Germans did not truly believe that the Americans were there friends until they proved themselves during the Berlin Blockade; click here to read about that…