Hellstorm Page #8

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Instead of allowing even a trickle of this

bounty to reach the compounds, the starvation

diet was further reduced. Within full view

of some camps, Americans would sadistically

burn food that they could not eat themselves.

Civilians from nearby villages and towns,

themselves starving, were prevented at gunpoint

from passing their own meager fare

through the fence to prisoners.

Horrified by the silent, secret massacre,

the International Red Cross, which had over

100,000 tons of food stored in Switzerland,

tried to intercede. When two trains filled

with supplies reached the camps, however,

they were turned back by American officers.

Many people found no justification whatsoever

in the massacre of helpless prisoners, especially

since the German government had lived up to

the Geneva Convention, as one American put it,

"to a tee."

The Red Cross reported that ninety-nine

percent of American prisoners

of war in Germany have survived and were on

their way home. Nevertheless, Eisenhowers

murderous program continued apace. Some upright

generals, such as General George Patton, opposed

these murderous measures, but

Eisenhower quickly overruled them.

While continuing to deny the Red Cross and

other relief agencies access to the camps,

Eisenhower stressed among his camp commanders

the need for secrecy. To prevent the gruesome

details from reaching the outside world,

and sidetrack those that did, counter-rumors

were circulated stating that, far from mistreating

and murdering prisoners, camp commanders were

actually turning back released Germans who

tried to slip back in for food and shelter.

Unlike their capitalist counterparts, the

Soviet communists made little effort to hide

their crimes. Hundreds of thousands of Germans

toiled in the forests and mines of Siberia.

The captives were slaves pure and simple

and no attempt was made to disguise the fact.

For the enslaved Germans, male and female,

the odds of surviving the Soviet gulags were

even worse than escaping the American death

camps. A trip to Siberia was tantamount to

a death sentence. What little food the slaves

received was intended merely to maintain their

strength until they were worked to death.

Much the same might be said of the 600,000

German slaves held by the French.

Ultimately, no fewer than 800,000 German prisoners

died in the American and French death camps.

Indeed, Recent estimates place the death toll

at upwards of 1.5 million. And thus, in "peace,"

did Eisenhower murder at least ten times the

number of German soldiers than were killed

on the whole Western Front

during the whole of the war.

With the once mighty Wehrmacht now disarmed

and enslaved, and with their leaders either

dead or awaiting trial for war crimes, the

old men, women and children who remained in

the dismembered Reich now found themselves

utterly at the mercy of the victors. Unfortunately,

never in the history of the

world was mercy in shorter supply.

THE PURGE:

Soon after their victory in Europe, the

Allied purge of Nazi Party members commenced.

In theory, "de-Nazification" was a simple

transplanting of Party officials with those

of democratic, socialist

or communist underpinnings.

In practice, the purge became little more

than a cloak for rape, torture and death.

All adult Germans were compelled to register

at the nearest Allied headquarters and complete

a lengthy questionnaire on past activities.

While many nervous citizens were detained

then and there, most returned home, convinced

that the terrible ordeal was over. For millions,

however, the trial had just begun. Few German

adults, Nazi or not, escaped the dreaded knock

on the door.

Many people were arrested multiple times,

including Leni Riefenstahl, a talented young

woman who was perhaps the worlds most artistic

film-maker. Because her epic documentaries -

Triumph of the Will and Olympia

- seemed to glorify not only Germany, but National Socialism,

and because of her close relationship with

an admiring Adolf Hitler, Leni was of great

interest to the Allies.

Leni Riefenstahl: Neither my husband nor

my mother nor any of my three assistants had

ever joined the Nazi Party, nor had any of

us been politically active. No charges had

ever been filed against us, yet we were

at the mercy of the Allies and had no legal

protection of any kind.

As Leni and others quickly discovered,

the "softening up" process began soon after

arrival at an Allied prison. Brutally beaten, raped

repeatedly, crammed into dark, overheated cells,

victims nervously awaited

their "interrogations".

A German man:
The purpose of these interrogations

is not to worm out of the people what they

knew, which would be uninteresting anyway,

but to extort from them special statements.

The methods resorted to are extremely primitive;

people are beaten up until they confess to

having been members of the Nazi Party. The

authorities simply assume that, basically,

everybody has belonged to the Party. Many

people die during and after these interrogations,

while others, who admit at once their party

membership, are treated more leniently.

Generally, after enduring blackened eyes,

broken bones, rape, electric shock to breasts,

or, in the case of men, smashed testicles, only

those who took their own lives or died during

torture failed to sign confessions.

Since most intelligence officers accompanying

US and British forces were Jewish refugees

who had fled Germany in the 1930s, their knowledge

of the language and culture was superb. With

old scores to settle, the presence of these

men insured that there would be no mercy shown

to Nazis

- or any German, for that matter.

A young German woman: Both officers who

took our testimony were former German Jews.

One kicked me in the back and the other hit

me. The terrible thing was, the German men

had to watch. That was a horrible, horrible

experience. That must have been terrible

for them. When I went outside, several of

them stood there with tears running down their

cheeks. What could they have

done? They could do nothing.

During the Nazi war crimes trial at

Nuremburg, almost any method that would

obtain a "confession" was employed. Understandably,

after several such sessions even the strongest

submitted and signed papers incriminating

themselves and others. In addition to testimony

given under torture, those who might have

spoken in defense of the accused were threatened

with torture and death themselves. Moreover,

hired "witnesses" were paid by the Americans

to parrot the prosecutions charges.

Horrific as de-Nazification was in the British,

French and, especially, the American Zones,

it was nothing compared to what took place

in Poland, behind Soviet lines. In hundreds

of concentration camps sponsored by something

called the "Office of State Security,"

thousands of Germans - male and female, old and

young, high and low, Nazi and nonNazi - were

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