The Heretics' Hour: Devastated Germany, 1946-52

Dr. Andreas Wesserle, a Carpathian German expellee, remembers the struggle to survive in a devastated post-war Germany. Topics include:

• School took place without teachers, textbooks or electricity;
• Food rations miniscule —pickled mutton, anyone?
• Cramped barracks housing with no toilets or running water lasted for years;
• Substitution of Deutschmark for Reichsmark wiped-out average Germans;
• Nation’s manufacturing equipment carted off by Brits, French, Russians;
• Millions died, mainly of starvation and exposure.

Photo caption (above right): Frankfurt, Germany: As a truckload of decayed food enters the main garbage disposal area in Frankfurt, destitute Germans clamber over it, trying to find some edibles to supplement their meager diet. Much of the waste comes from the U.S. Army cold storage plant in the city. Since these people have no valuables or money with which to trade in the black market, they have to root like animals. [Credit: U.S. Army Signal Corp Photo from Acme – 12/15/47]   Enlarge.

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