Figure 1.-- After seizing a town, the U.S. Army established a military government. The German resistance in the East was in many cases subtantial Organized resistance in the West declined sharply after the Allies crossed the Rhine. This press photograph was taken in the town of Baumholder on March 20, 1945. Baumholder was taken by the 12th Armored Division, 3rd US Army. Civilians are reading the military government notices on a building in the center of town. Note the absence of military age youth and men. Also notice the old Nazi signs on the building that no one has apparently thought to remove yet! Put your cursor on the image for a close up.

Allied armies entering the Reich upon seizing control of an area set up a temporary military government replacing NAZI authorities at every level. They often set up government in the same town halls from which the NAZIs had gioverned. Outside the cities, these buildings were largely bundamaged. The war-time military. at least in the West, was not designed for occupation. A considerable period of adjustment was required. Men who endured great hardship and faced death for months on end were not ideally suited to suddenly become policemen and governing officials. Many had lost friends and seen what the Germans had done and as a result harbored considerable animosity toward the Germans. One historian describes how American policymakers and Army officers had to confront and take control over a virtually lawless U.S. military in the chaos that existed in Germany following the collapse of the NAZI regime. The military was faced with money laundering, black marketeering, theft, racial antagonism between black and white GIs, unregulated sex, and high rates of venereal disease impaired American authority in occupied Germany at the same time America had to face the Soviet challenge as well as unrepentent NAZIs. And if that was not enough, the military faced the problem of overseein a country which had cities that had been turned into piles of rubble and a totally dusrupted transportation system. The ecinomy no longer functiined and there were shortages of everything, especially food ahd fuel. American officials adopted often creative if somewhat disorganized approach to these problems. [Willoughby] We are not sure how the British and French militaries compared to the U.S. Army as a occupation force. We have heard reports that the French were more prone to seek revenge, but do not yet have any actual details.

Sources

Willoughby, John. Remaking the Conquering Heroes: The Postwar American Occupation of Germany (Palgrave Macmillan/Palgrave, 2003).

Created: 2:55 AM 4/28/2012
Last updated: 2:55 AM 4/28/2012