German Memory - US President Gen Dwight D Eisenhower in the Crisis of Starving German POWs

Canadian author James Bacque in his book "Other Losses" heavily criticized Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower for his involvement in treating the German prisoners of war. James Bacque's comments in "Other Losses" were widely discussed on American and German televisions and received a mixture of excitement and anger.

Historians criticized Bacque, "He completely misunderstands Eisenhower's position and activity in the occupation. He puts full responsibility on Eisenhower for every policy decision, never recognizing that he had superiors from whom he took policy directives and orders - specifically, the Army Chief of Staff, the European Advisory Commission, acting in the name and with the authority of the British, Soviet and American Governments."

The report at the New Orleans conference with the diplomatic background, by Brian Villa of the University of Ottawa, noted that the policy of Eisenhower's superiors was to impress upon the Germans the fact of their defeat, the fact that they had brought it on themselves and in other ways to "treat 'em rough." Denazification was one aspect of that policy. Another was that German prisoners would not be fed at a higher level than German civilians, than the civilians of the liberated nations, or than the displaced persons (DPs).

An assertion that was central to Bacque's accusation was his contention that there was no European food shortage in 1945. He pointed to warehouses in Germany full of food. He stated that the Red Cross had enough food available. One of his pieces of evidence was that a train from Geneva loaded with food parcels sent by the Red Cross to feed German prisoners was forced to turn back.

But historians denied Bacque's accusation and came out with the revelation that the Allied Governments had decided those Red Cross food parcels were to feed displaced persons, of whom there were more than two million in Germany.

They also pointed out the fact denying Bacque's accusation of no food shortage that Eisenhower wrote to the Chief of Staff, Gen. George C. Marshall, in February 1945: "I am very much concerned about the food situation... We now have no reserves on the Continent of supplies for the civil population."

Eisenhower wrote to the Combined Chiefs of Staff on April 25, 1945: "Unless immediate steps are taken to develop to the fullest extent possible the food resources in order to provide the minimum wants of the German population, widespread starvation and disease are inevitable during the coming winter."

Historians pointed out Eisenhower had sent many messages before the surrender of Germany on the expectation of possible inadequacy of food. After the first week of May, all of Eisenhower's calculations as to how many people he would be required to feed in occupied Germany became woefully inadequate. He had badly underestimated, for two reasons. First, the number of German soldiers surrendering to the Western Allies far exceeded what was expected (more than five million, instead of the anticipated three million) because of the onrush of German soldiers across the Elbe River to escape the Russians. So too the German civilians - there were millions fleeing from east to west, about 13 million altogether, and they became Eisenhower's responsibility.

Eisenhower faced shortages even before he learned that there were 17 million more people to feed in Germany than he had expected.

The report of the Military Governor for Germany in July 1945 stated, "The food situation throughout Western Germany is perhaps the most serious problem of the occupation. The average food consumption in the Western Zones is now about one-third below the generally accepted subsistence level."

The September report declared, "Food from indigenous sources was not available to meet the present authorized ration level for the normal consumer of 1,550 calories per day."

Historians criticized Bacque's accusation that the prisoners were receiving 1,550 calories a day and his observation that such a ration meant slow starvation. They pointed out he apparently never looked at what civilians were getting in Germany or in the liberated countries. In Paris in 1945, the calorie level was 1,550 for civilians. It was only slightly higher in Britain, where rationing continued. It was much lower in Russia, where rationing also continued. As noted, the official ration for German civilians was 1,550, but often not met. In Vienna in the summer of 1945 the official ration sometimes fell to 500. Historians noted anyone who was in Europe in the summer of 1945 would be flabbergasted to hear that there was no food shortage.