Soviet captivity, 2.6 Germans (Austrians), as well as 0.2 million servicemen of the Axis countries (the first large groups of prisoners during the Stalingrad battle, up to the first 10 thousand people) fall among them. From them, until 1948, the beginning of mass repatriation, while feeding the same as for the average Soviet citizen with a ration, 380,000 people die (13% mortality).
Anglo-American troops capture about 4 million, who are trying to surrender to them, the German military. Of them (the data are quite contradictory), according to the materials of the book of the English publicist James Bak, at least 0.8 million (20% mortality) died of starvation and bullying. The bulk of the prisoners were released by the middle of 1947.
The percentage of deaths in the German captivity of the British and, or Americans, is 3.2%.
A separate line can be taken out of the victims of the German civilian population when he was evicted from Poland, and the annexed regions, after the war. Actually, the deportation began in 1949, ended in 1950; up to 5 million people were held in concentration camps, or were used in forced labor, subjected to innumerable humiliations and torture. All property of ethnic Germans requisitioned. Almost all women are raped. The regime of the Poles was only softened after serious remarks from the Soviet military. Estimates of the number of deaths vary: from 400—800 thousand to 2.2, and even 3 million people. In total, 14 million Germans were resettled in Europe, but in Yugoslavia, Romania and Hungary, such open and brutal violence against them was not carried out.
Evacuated by the Germans and from East Prussia, which became the enclave of the USSR, the Kaliningrad region, about 800 thousand people, but, without any serious excesses.
…Actually, having adopted the act of surrendering the German armed forces, the USSR was still formally at war. The decree on ending the war between the Soviet Union and Germany was finally adopted on January 25, 1955 by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. The document has a double meaning – the war ceases as it were only with the German Democratic Republic (GDR), while «taking into account the interests of the population of both East and West Germany.» As a result of everything – the first point: «The state of war between the USSR and Germany ceases, and peaceful relations are established between them.»
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1. The stamp of the Allied Military Command. Had a circulation until 1948 in the territories of Germany, occupied by the USSR, Britain, the United States, France, together with the Reichsmark. Course: ruble – two marks, dollar – 10 marks, pound – 40 marks.
In 1948 the American occupation command introduces a dojmark. The streams of Reichsmarks that are already unnecessary there suddenly fall on the territory of the future GDR, where they are still legal tender. To separate their «own» Reichsmarks from «American», the Soviet administration, in an emergency order, labels them.
…I was able to read the memoirs of a Soviet officer who, after the war, had at his disposal entire mountains of Reichsmarks. A group of Soviet commanders went to a German restaurant. At the end of the feast, the officer slipped a handful of bills to the waiter. He chose only one or two of them. But, everything was given to him.
The memoirist boasted for a long time that, like this, he enjoyed the German waiter, showed generosity. I wanted to ask: why did not you find out the purchasing power of the notes in advance? You also before reconnaissance before the fight? And, further, I wanted to shout «Caps»: why the money, which you had so excessively many, at least a part, you did not give to the undernourished for many years their soldiers – so that they too celebrated in luxury?!
2. One hundred «German marks» of the post-war GDR, 1975. The brand was introduced in 1948, after the Federal Republic of Germany acquired its own means of payment. Consists of a hundred pfennings. The brands of the GDR lasted until 1990.
3. Ten dojchmarok FRG, 1948 year. In 1945, Germany was a pile of ruins, in which demoralized people swarmed. The basis of economic relations was barter. America provided loans for its own, and only goods, food (in debt), but it also ensured that the FRG had the opportunity to return all this with a vengeance. German economist Erhard Clay carried out very successful reforms. He did not change anything, he simply took the majority (90%) of administrative regulations – giving the economy the necessary sip of freedom. Yes, the German mark, the British pound and the majority of other European currencies, in the Euro, according to the Marshall plan, are still freely exchanged for the dollar, outside of its gold content, but somehow friends, it all goes to ordinary Germans only for good.
In addition, it should be mentioned that all possessions of the British Empire, according to the Charter, signed by Roosevelt and Churchill in 1941, are declared a free trade zone (primarily for the United States). Colonies become unprofitable for the mother country, and it loses them; but, due to increased productivity in the most foggy Albion, the wealth of the British is dramatically increasing.
…Catalogs are published not mandatory, but «relevant» prices; the state retains reasonable control over what is happening. Banks are shareholders of enterprises, actively manage them (and, of course, do not allow bankruptcy). It is not some abstract liberal «market» that is being built, but a scheme for improving the well-being of the population. Each received by the line of the Marshall Plan a credit dollar brings 10 – 20 dollars of return. Small and medium-sized businesses are becoming the national property, accounting for 70% of all jobs and 57% of GDP. The silence of the ruins gives way to the noise of construction sites. Twelve years after the total collapse of everything, the economy of the FRG is entering the world’s leaders in terms of the pace of development.
Germany was divided into those consisting of antagonistic blocs, the GDR and the FRG. Thus, she very cleverly avoided paying the indemnity. Allies got intellectual property – patents, films, as well as a lot of unnecessary submarines, ships and military factories. Some equipment that survived after the bombings was dismantled and, so-so, moved. However, the idea of reparations – to receive finished products of established enterprises of the country, or its best-selling currency – was not realized.
Some activity was shown by Israel, more precisely, formed as a private initiative «Conference of Jewish organizations on presentation of material claims to Germany». Since 1952, 108 billion marks have been allocated to compensate persons of Jewish nationality who survived the fascist regime in the Axis countries now living in Israel or other non-communist countries in order to provide them with adequate rest, decent old age, etc. Of these, in fact, about 70 billion DM (not devalued) are directed to the Promised Land.
In the mid-1990s, the participants in the Leningrad blockade were equated with the victims of the Holocaust: they received a one-time allowance in 2658 doychmarks.
The guilt of fascism in modern Germany exists. But, washed by the blood of the USSR, and then by his successor, Russia, they do not want to represent the victim (which they really are) and claim the due right (at least to the military families who died in German captivity). Therefore, the flow of uncalled pity and blessings pours out to millions of refugees from Libya (bombed with the participation of the Bundeswehr Air Force), Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. In fact, the historical accounts of Germany before the republics of the Soviet Union (with the exception of the Baltic and Galicia, which have become almost voluntarily
