Figure 1.--The NAZIs surrendered in May 1945. Conditions in Germany were desperate. The Allies and Soviets brought in food, but just enough to prevent famine. There were shortages if everything, especially food and coal (fuel). Sugarand candy was one of the many items in short supply. The transportation system was destroyed. Millions of men were in POW camps. They would gradually trickle home from the Allied camps. Few would return home from the Soviet camps. That first Christmas was te beginning of adjustment. Dads and brothers were most still in the POW camps. But the nombing and killing had stopped. It was the first non-NAZI Christmas in 12 years. HJ children were not in the streets collecting coins for the Winter Fund. Christmas is Germany's most importnt holiday and primarily a family celebration, but there were many community events. Here GIs throw a party for needy children. we are not sure what has captured the children's attention, but suspect it was Santa. The press caption read, "Berlin Children Learn There Is a Santa: Recognition of Christmas was frowned upon by the Nazi regime , so this is a first time that these German children and children of displaced persons ever enjoyed it. They did soat aarty given by American soliers. Two hundred children were invited and the GI's gave up a week's ration of candyto see that their little guests had a real good time. Above Staff Sergeant Carmen de Guida, of Brooklyn, N.Y. sits among the little guests, whose expressions reveal tht thy enjoyed the party." The photograph was dated January 4. 1946. There is a huge photograohic record of world War II. Note there are no images like this in German occupied countries.

Allied soldiers as a result of losses of friends in the War and then the discovery of the concentration camps harbored much bittrness toward the German sin the early stage of the occupation. These attitudes gradually changed. Here we believe one factor was the German children. American soldiers often made friends with local children. American GIs were famous for their kindness to boys and girls who were sometimes almost 'adopted' as surrogate sons and daughters of lonely young soldiers who missed their own families, especially younger brothers and sisters, in the United States. Here we see a Christmas party thrown by the GIs for the children (figure 1). Similar relationships developed during the Berlin Air Lift. GIs often gave children scarce goodies such as chocolate bars from the base PX--also occasionally valuable commodities like soap and cigarettes which they could take home to their parents. The fact that the German kids looked like the kids back home could not help but affect many GIs, but the same affect occurred in Asia as well. The mothers of such boys often did small tasks for the GIs such as laundering and mending their clothes. The payment for such services was frequently some hard-to-obtain product like a bar of soap or a pack of cigarettes. A flourishing black market had developed in the American sector of Germany, much of what was sold coming from American military bases in the region. American-made silk stockings for women were immensely popular with German women-folk and virtually impossible to obtain from German shops. The photograph on a previous page shows a German boy on the rural outskirts of Darmstadt, Germany, with his new friend, an American GI. It seems to be late autumn (probably November) since the landscape is quite bleak. Note also the soldier's winter-issue cap with wool ear flaps turned up, woolen shirt and trousers of olive drab worn with button-on suspenders. American soldiers only wore this uniform during the fall and winter months. The boy seems to be from a neighboring farm and is about eight or nine years old. He wears a woolen stocking cap with a small pom-pom on top, a winter jacket of what appears to be plaid material (it buttons down the front with large buttons), longish short pants, heavy woolen long stockings (grey apparently), and hightop boots that lace up. This was typical rural dress for boys who lived on farms in the area. Darmstadt was in the American zone during the occupation of Germany in 1948.

Created: 1:19 AM 3/16/2016
Last updated: 1:19 AM 3/16/2016