Occupying Germany 1945 - Western Allied Military Government

[Music] in Germany in the spring of 1945 terrible battles raged through towns and villages as US British Canadian and French forces advanced many towns had already been damaged by Allied air raids allied artillery fire added to the damage followed by street fighting against German troops and Forster Home Guards but once the battles were over the prisoners rounded up and the combat troops had moved on what then the civilians who emerged from their cellars ham from the woods near town faced a crisis property is damaged or even uninhabitable government gone food supplies broken down unexploded ordnance everywhere schools closed and medical care virtually non-existent fortunately the British and Americans had already foreseen these circumstances and special units entered the shattered communities behind the advancing fighting men to re-establish civilization and begin the long process of re-educating them away from Nazism to democracy here's a typical small German town on the Rhine front as the civilians return to the town from sheltering in the countryside US soldiers from garrison units led by a civil affairs officer are waiting to begin reorganizing them calling any remaining local leaders together the Civil Affairs officer will explain that a curfew will be imposed this was standard across all of occupied Germany strict rules were in place to prevent fraternization between occupying troops and local civilians rules have remained in place officially until September 1945 food in particular was the most important commodity Allied troops were well fed by their own armies and were ordered not to touch food stocks reserved for civilians the Civil Affairs personnel created working parties from remaining able-bodied Germans to begin gathering food together and distributing it fairly among the population the Allies were very concerned that their military governments should appear to be different from the previous Nazi administration just open and fair were the watchwords while also being firm and strict with the defeated German people the concern was that if left to their own devices Nazism would flourish once more among a defeated and starving population but in the search for food and the urge to get home the life force is beginning to stir again today our powers of destruction of terrifying but the will to live is still stronger that's why we can't wash our hands of the Germans because we can't afford to let that new life flow in any direction at once food remain the primary focus of the Allied occupation authorities in the early months rations remain low due to the devastation of agriculture and transportation caused by the war in the u.s. sown in spring 1946 the per capita ration was one thousand two hundred and seventy six calories per day per German the British zone also struggled with bread shortages among the worst these problems helped a large black market to flourish in occupied Germany and a crime wave the 70 million German people were in a state of collective shock following the surrender living in the ruins of their country and often searching for missing loved ones in the chaos for - uka freedom in love the born Yano site expand their Canton's annotates under feet see a high school man once some semblance of normal life had been restored to towns and villages the next task of the Allied occupation governments was rebuilding and repairing German infrastructure and communications due to the damage to housing millions of Germans were effectively homeless and they needed to be rehoused people were living in cellars beneath their ruined houses without electric lighting running water or coal for heating her disease epidemic was uppermost in the minds of the Allies disease was always a worry allied military medical units and the Red Cross carefully monitored the health of German civilians and then this data was used to determine ration levels the Allies fed the Germans so they could work in reconstructing their cities and country and alleviating the other problems which were a massive burden on the occupying powers for the British who had occupied a large part of the Ruhr industrial region coal was the most important commodity without coal there would be no power and transport German civilians were not issued coal yet he was to be used to help the liberated countries of Europe to recover like France and Belgium and for transport needs inside Germany but in Germany today for military government officers there is no such thing as a single problem for example the liberated countries won't get this coal and s that is transport to carry it the transport cannot move any distance unless the tracks and the bridges have been repaired they can't be repaired without steel and the steel cannot be made without cold in British occupied Essen the coal control was established in the crib family mention the cut family who were the other German industrialists first back Hitler and then produced the weapons for world domination had been scattered and arrested this family armed Germany in the franco-prussian war they make Big Bertha in the first submarine for the Kaiser in World War one they are just as responsible for killing Allied soldiers as Hitler and Goering and by killing they grew rich this time their war plants have been left a mass of twisted girders look all distribution of coal from the Ruhr was organized by the British Army from Essen 30,000 miners were taken out of German army uniform from the prison camps and put back to work all travel within Germany was restricted civilians required permits an allied military traffic took priority vast numbers of people were moving around searching for relatives returning home or searching for work naturally even under Allied occupation the normal civil problems of crime hadn't gone away Nazi courts had been abolished leaving the Allies with the responsibility of trying civil criminals the Allies ensured that their justice appeared transparent to the Germans trials were public and interpreters were used along with German defence counsels and Allied prosecutors the German civil police force was kept in service but under new masters the Allies tried to ensure that the police became servants of the public rather than instruments of state oppression as they had been during the Third Reich indeed one of the main focuses of the occupying powers was re-educating the Germans the greatest headache is education you will never get Nazi ideas out of the heads of some of the adults particularly those living away from the devastated areas what about the children for them the desolated landscape provides a dream playground the derelict weapons of war might have been specially designed to have games and away from the towns and cities were the prisoner of war camps and enclosures where millions of German men awaited processing and we're special allied units search for the war criminals hiding among them German soldiers were progressively demobilized and sent back into the workplace under allied supervision a process called denazification was enacted German POWs were carefully screened to root out the die-hard Nazis they were all fingerprinted and medically examined for SS blood group tattoos Allied intelligence officers then interviewed each man any suspect or wanted men were turned over to the military police finally new leaders had to be appointed from among the Germans new politicians and judges unsullied by Nazism believing in democracy and the rule of law it was the beginning of West Germany [Music] to establish equal justice under the law for all persons whom decry sight I love for them disaster to harm so help me God so why me about Telfer thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also help support my channel at PayPal and patreon details in the description box [Music]

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 465,930

Rating: 4.933907 out of 5

Keywords: Mark Felton Productions, Occupying Germany 1945, Allied Military Government

Id: elYwfX0CGic

Length: 10min 15sec (615 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 28 2019