Other Losses: An Investigation into the Mass Deaths of German Prisoners at the Hands of the French and Americans after World War II [Paperback]
James Bacque (Author)
Bacque concluded that Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, as head of the American occupation of Germany in 1945, deliberately starved to death German prisoners of war in staggering numbers. Mr. Bacque charges that "the victims undoubtedly number over 800,000, almost certainly over 800,000 and quite likely over a million. Their deaths were knowingly caused by army officers who had sufficient resources to keep the prisoners alive."
Eisenhower's method, according to Mr. Bacque, was simple: he changed the designation of the prisoners from "Prisoners of War" (P.O.W.), required by the Geneva Convention to be fed the same rations as American G.I.'s, to "Disarmed Enemy Forces" (D.E.F.), which allowed him to cut their rations to starvation level. Mr. Bacque says the D.E.F. were also denied medical supplies and shelter. They died by the hundreds of thousands. Their deaths were covered up on Army records by listing them as "other looses" on charts showing weekly totals of prisoners on hand, numbers discharged and so forth.
As I thought. I read the book, and studied his claims a bit. Book has been completely discredited, Did you know before this historical "work" was written, Bacque was a fiction writer? Not really up there with historical researchers, I would say, and from what I understand, his novels werent all that great either. Possibly why the change in his area of writing.
WRT to starving prisoners, all of Europe was starving, not just prisoners. The calorie intake of prisoners was on par with many civilians as well and displaced persons. Also, food was distributed to civilian populations first and then prisoners, or most likely, a fairly even distribution, but ensuring that the massive civilian and DP population did get some food. Not really a tough call in my books: Starving children or starving adult men. Pretty easy choice for me. In fact, brits in the UK were on rations, and many of them most likely ate just as poorly as those on continental Europe.
If you just scratch the surface a little, you will find the Bacque's work is, as his earlier writings, pure fiction.
Did Americans treat German prisoners poorly? Yes, many did. Was it policy? No.
Did German prisoners, die from neglect, starvation, abuse? Yes. So did civilians in their own homes. Post war Europe was in bad shape at that time. But to claim that a million German prisoners died at the hands of the western allies post war, is false. That number could arguably be attributed to the Russians but not the Americans.
I would suggest that before you make broad and sweeping accusations, you do a bit more reading and less copying and pasting of snippets and blurbs from a publisher's marketing campaign that was designed to sell books.
