By Larry Romanoff
June 01, 2020
June 01, 2020
This
story has all the requirements to qualify for a conspiracy theory, and may not
make sense to you without some background for context.
Prior to the US entering WWI, an enormous years-long
anti-German propaganda campaign was unleashed by the Creel Commission, headed
by Walter Lippman and Edward Bernays, the latter being a nephew of Sigmund
Freud. (1) (2) Public literature attacked everything German in America,
including schools and churches. In many schools the German language was
forbidden to be taught to "pure Americans", and administrators were
urged to fire "all disloyal teachers", meaning any Germans. The names
of countless towns and cities were changed to eliminate their German origin: Berlin,
Iowa became Lincoln, Iowa. German foods and food names were purged from
restaurants; sauerkraut became 'liberty cabbage'; dachshunds became 'liberty
dogs' and German Shepherds became 'Alsatians'.
All American orchestras were ordered to eliminate from
their performances any music by classic German composers like Beethoven, Bach
and Mozart. Public libraries removed and (most often) burned all books by
German authors, philosophers and historians. In some states, the use of the
German language was prohibited in public and on the telephone. German
professors were fired from their universities, German-language or German-owned
local newspapers were denied advertising revenue, constantly harassed, and
often forced out of business. The patriotic Boy Scouts of America contributed
to the effort by regularly burning bundles of German newspapers that were on
sale, and Germans were regularly insulted and spat upon by other citizens.
Germans were forced to gather in public meetings and denounce Germany and its
leaders, forced to purchase war bonds and publicly declare their allegiance to
the US flag.
As the rhetoric reached dangerous levels, the
anti-German hysteria and violence increased proportionately. Many Germans were
forcibly removed from their homes, often torn from their beds during the night,
taken out into the street and stripped naked, beaten and whipped, then forced
to kneel and kiss the American flag. Many were tarred and feathered, then
forced to leave their cities or towns. Some were lynched from trees. Priests
and pastors were dragged out of their churches and beaten for giving sermons in
German.
Newspaper editors were screaming that all Germans were spies poisoning American water supplies or infecting hospital medical shipments, and that most "ought to be taken out at sunrise and shot for treason". Congressmen recommended hanging or otherwise executing all Germans in America, State Governors urging the use of firing squads to eliminate "the disloyal element" from the entire state. The US Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels stated that Americans would "put the fear of God into the hearts" of these people. Most Americans are aware that during the national hysteria of the Second World War the US government forced more than 100,000 US-born Japanese into concentration camps, but history has deleted the fact that many more Germans were interned in concentration camps in the US prior to and during the First War, and in all cases had all their assets seized.
With all of this and much more, America was a hotbed
of hatred for the entire German population. After the Second World War, Germany
was widely accused of using propaganda against the Jews, while our history
books have airbrushed out the massive and unspeakably evil storm of hate
propaganda in America against Germans prior to and during WWII. There were
thousands of posters and articles containing lurid descriptions of fake
atrocities, newspaper articles, cartoons and so much more, but the historical
record of this years-long tapestry of lies and hate has been quite well buried.
It is possible to find copies on the internet of many wartime posters, but this
collection has been well sanitised with virtually all of the genuinely evil and
dirty productions apparently lost to history. The narrative today in the
history books casually dismisses all of this as "an innovative use of
graphic arts to stir patriotism", but it was hatred rather than patriotism
that was being stirred.
The propaganda incited an intense hatred for
everything German, to ease US entry into the First World War. It was not
different during the Second World War, and the propaganda/hate campaign was not
limited to the US. In 1940, the UK government initiated what it called an
"anger campaign" with the stated cause of "instilling personal hatred
against the German people and Germany", the authorities pleased that the
original 6% of the British population that 'hated Germany' increased to over
50% by the end of the campaign. The radio waves were full of descriptions of
the "cruelty and blackness of the German soul". There were articles
in the British newspapers advocating the "systematic extermination of the
entire German nation" to be carried out after the war ended. Thus, after
victory over Germany, every person of German extraction was to be executed and
the nation of Germany itself to disappear forever. (3)
It wasn't only the US and UK where this hatred of
Germans was being propagated. Germans in every nation were vehemently portrayed
as evil incarnate, this nature stemming simply from the fact of their being of
German origin. In countries all around the world, the media spread the same
message of hatred against Germany and the Germans. In Brazil, anti-German
demonstrations and riots consumed the country, with German businesses being destroyed
and Germans being assaulted and killed. In almost every nation, the
German-language press and use of the German language completely disappeared
during the war from fear of reprisal, as did all German schools and most
businesses. None re-opened.
Throughout the world, as in the US, false wartime
propaganda was used as during both World Wars to incite entire populations into
an irrational hatred of everything German, even to the extent of powerful media
recommendations that the entire German race be exterminated after the war. The
American public in particular was as full of hatred for things German during
the Second World War as they were during the First World War; on both occasions
to the extent there was a significant movement to exterminate all those of
German descent in the US.
It was in this context that Eisenhower so famously
said, "God, how I hate Germans", and it was in this context that 12
million Germans died in American concentration camps in Germany AFTER the war.
As James Bacque discovered, the Americans killed between 8 million and 12
million Germans in American concentration camps in Germany. Perhaps two million
were executed, and the rest died by starvation, it being a capital offense to
even attempt to bring food to the prisoners. (4) (5) (6)
The US was a hotbed of hatred for everything German
during the Second World War as well as during the first. Germany and Germans
had been so reviled in the US for decades that most Americans possessed an
instinctive fear and hatred of them. Those memories so fervently instilled by
the propaganda machine, did not dissipate quickly but lingered for many years,
so much so that even after the war it was actually dangerous for an American to
say anything positive or complimentary toward either Germany or German people.
Anyone expressing even tolerance or sympathy for Germans was very liable to
find himself in prison. The above forms the context for what follows. We can
now fast-forward to the end of World War II and the American concentration
camps in Germany.
Concentration
Camps in America
It was in this context that the US military
established around 700 concentration camps for Germans in the US, prisons which
housed nearly 500,000 German so-called "Prisoners Of War" who were
forcibly shipped from the concentration camps in Germany to the US during the
later stages and also after the war ended. The official reasons given for this
enterprise were varied and conflicting. The original government claim stated an
insufficiency of food in Germany so the US military shipped these prisoners to
America to better feed them. A later claim was of insufficient space remaining
in Germany for more American concentration camps, so these civilians were
relocated to the US. Another was that the prisoners filled the country's need
for extra farm labor. (7) (8)
This topic has understandably received little
attention from the US media, and the pages in the history book are mostly
blank. My first impression on reading the few articles that exist was, given
the more or less uniform commentary and context, that an official template had
been followed, though I have been unable to locate it. Wikipedia claims that
"Newspaper coverage of the camps and public knowledge [of them] were
intentionally limited until the end of the war, in part to comply with the
Geneva Convention." Maybe, but I am aware of no stipulation in any
convention, Geneva or otherwise, prohibiting public knowledge of concentration
camps. Let's begin by taking a brief look at the lives of these German prisoners
while encamped in the USA.
Several of the published articles present what is
purported to be quotations from letters written by German prisoners to their
families, letters apparently mailed to Germany. From the September 2009 issue
of the Atlantic magazine, (from a letter purportedly mailed to Germany in
1944): "All in all, our life here is very orderly. We sleep in beds which
have white covers and we eat with knives and forks. Up till now, we were
treated excellently." Another quoted in the Atlantic: "I am really in
a golden cage." And another: "When I was taken prisoner, I visualized
a life of horror but it is quite different."
The Atlantic article tells us: "The POWs were
overwhelmed by the excellent conditions in the camps and the abundance of food and
other articles", further claiming the existence of "countless
letters" from Americans resenting the fact that "there are German
prisoners here and they live better than we do." Texas A&M history
professor Arnold Krammer tells us "German POWs were treated very well. ...
they were given wine and beer with every meal." Wikipedia tells us,
"Many prisoners found that their living conditions as prisoners were
better than as civilians in Germany", and that some prisoners were sent to
a camp, where "each had his own bungalow with garden." Also according
to Wikipedia, they received wine with all their meals, had special meals for
Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, and in fact received too much food:
"Unable to eat all their food, prisoners at first burned leftover food
fearing that their rations would be reduced." (9)
Loren Horton confirms that the German prisoners
"got more rationed items - like cigarettes - than the civilians in the
area could get", and that many Americans believed "the prisoners had
more luxuries than the average citizen". Wikipedia claims further that
"Groups of prisoners pooled their daily beer coupons to take turns
drinking several at a time. They also received two packs of cigarettes a day
and frequently meat", noting as have others that meat and cigarettes were
strongly rationed at the time, and unavailable to most American civilians.
Wikipedia further tells us that for these German prisoners, "their good
treatment began with the substantial meals served aboard (the ships carrying
them to the US)", and that upon arriving in America they were amazed to
travel in unusual comfort on "sleek, comfortable passenger trains"
that carried them to their prison camps.
Someone named John Ray Skates wrote an article
claiming "The high ranking generals had special housing [while] lower
ranking officers had to content themselves with small apartments", some
officers having not only a private home but furnished also with a car and
driver. He also tells us that at least some officers often went to movie theaters
because they were "the only air-conditioned place in town". Skates
tells us further that these prison camps "had most of the facilities and
services that could be found in a small town - dentists, doctors, libraries,
movies, educational facilities". And not only educational facilities.
Horton tells us "the prisoners formed their own orchestras", and that
"a massive nativity scene was constructed at Christmas time" by the
prisoners who "paid for the materials from their 80 cents per day credits.
They had more than $8,000!" They even had sports teams, and printed their
own newspapers. Wikipedia tells us that "nobody could become bored"
as a prisoner since these German prisoners "held frequent theatrical and
musical performances attended by hundreds and even thousands" of people,
including the entire local citizenry and all their American guards, and that
movies were shown four times each week. (10)
According to the Smithsonian magazine, the prisoners
to a man claimed such excellent treatment that their only complaint was the
lack of sufficient girl friends. (11) But then the men in many camps held
"social receptions" with local American girls, this
"unauthorized fraternization between American women and German
prisoners" being so common as to often be a problem. Apparently this
wasn't all bad because in this way many German soldiers met their future wives.
Part of the problem appears to have been the natural attractiveness of German
men, at least to American women. The Atlantic magazine article claimed these
men were often described as "magnificent physical specimens, physically
supreme, muscular types", and "fine specimens of physical
manhood."
As well, "typical Americans" described these
German prisoners as "just the best bunch of boys you ever saw",
"uniformly neat, excessively polite, splendidly disciplined, these young
men are - frankly - hard to dislike." The Atlantic also tells us that
"grateful Americans" (no idea why they were grateful) "often
showed their appreciation by inviting the German prisoners to restaurants and
even their homes for dinner." These warm feelings apparently prevailed to
such an extent the Inspector General wrote that Americans were too "apt to
become overly friendly and solicitous of the prisoner's welfare." All
articles claim the prisoners were more or less free to come and go as they
pleased and, while a few tried to escape, this was never a concern, the prison
camps having little to no security so as to permit the Germans to leave the
camp for their day jobs.
A Ronald H. Bailey informs us that the Germans
adjusted wonderfully to prison life, where the "guards marveled at the
changes" in the men, keeping their compounds so neat, and where "The
prisoners appeared in high spirits. They spent hours creating large and
well-tended flower beds." Wikipedia tells us that the Germans were
"pleased to be captured" by the Americans, and stated Krammer as
reporting that "I've yet to meet a German prisoner who doesn't tell me
that it was the time of their lives". Krammer claims the Germans left the
US "with positive feelings about the country", the men stating,
"We all were positively impressed by the USA ... We all had been won over
to friendly relations with the USA."
It seems that the wonderful treatment by the Americans
"inadvertently defanged" any Nazi sentiment and created half a
million "Little Ambassadors" for America. This was true in part
because the Germans realised that the "rabid, anti-American
propaganda" they had received, "didn’t fit what they saw in
America". But, and much more importantly, "all German POWs learned by
example what democracy looked like on a daily, personal basis." Krammer
tells us further that due to these and other factors, "thousands returned
to Germany fluent in English and "having a new love and respect for the
United States", having formed "decades long friendships with the
enemy"." Skates tells us that over the years since the war, many
German prisoners have returned to the US for the purpose of seeing the camps
they lived in as young men, and were uniformly "sad" to learn the
camps had all been torn down after the war. He tells us these men are now
"very old" but they still return to the US "to remember their
experience" as prisoners. (12)
We even apparently have documented evidence of all
this. In 2001 and 2002, a research team from a group named TRACES claims to
have filmed over 75 hours of interviews with former German prisoners or their
family members, and have apparently seen copies of cheques issued by the US
Military and payable to German prisoners returning home, and Krammer has
apparently written several books on the matter. Not only that, but the US
government held a kind of memorial celebration in 2004, to "salute the
hundreds of thousands of German prisoners of war taken to camps in the United
States during World War II."
That's a good story, but there are a few chinks in the
armor.
None of the official statements establish a reason for
incarcerating German civilians in the US for years after the end of the war. To
suggest that Germany had no space for more prisons is ridiculous nonsense since
the US military simply established them in fenced open fields without shelter
or protection of any kind. The claim about the shortage of food is true, but
that was because the Americans refused to permit food imports to postwar
Germany, the stated aim being to starve Germany to death, and Eisenhower
ordered the immediate execution of anyone attempting to smuggle food to the
prisoners. If Eisenhower was deliberately starving millions to death in Germany,
and it is beyond dispute that he was, why would he want to bring them to the US
so as "to better feed them"?
What reason could the US government have, to incur the
expense of transporting half a million Germans across the Atlantic, then
feeding and housing them for years? Why not simply let them die with the
others? General Eisenhower, the same man who had made no secret in telling the
country, "God, how I hate Germans", and who had organised and
supervised the extermination of more than 12 million of them, had now moved
from the battlefields into the White House and built 700 "Golden
cages" for these same people, with rations, privileges, and girlfriends
that apparently far exceeded those available to ordinary Americans. In what way
does this story make sense?
The official narrative is that the last shipment of
German prisoners left the US on July 22, 1946, that the men were returned to
Germany, but I have been unable to locate any confirmation of these prisoners
actually having left the US. Certainly it is possible that official and public
records exist which I have not discovered, but the export of half a million
prisoners in a short space of time from only two or three possible locations on
the US Eastern seaboard is more than nothing in terms of public events since it
would have required at least 100 to 150 ships, yet I have been unable to locate
any media or other public evidence of this. The only real facts I could uncover
were brief stories about camps being emptied in the middle of the night, the
locals being told the prisoners had been 'transferred', and to not ask
questions.
Recognising the difficulty in proving that something
didn't happen, I turned my attention to a search for evidence that the Germans
did indeed arrive in Germany as the US narrative claims, but I could find not a
shred of evidence that such a transfer occurred. Neither Germany nor the Red
Cross (who would have been involved in all such transfers) appear to have any
record of any transfer of personnel from the US after the war. And as James
Bacque pointed out, the German ports had all been bombed to rubble and would
have been unable to accept such transfers. As well, in my conversations with
Bacque, he claimed an examination of all military records and troop movements
and had seen no transfers of Germans from the US to anywhere.
The Atlantic magazine contradicted the official
version and claimed they were instead turned over to the UK and France for what
would have been years of punishing forced labor almost certainly ending in
death, claiming that for the prisoners, this was a "modern slave trade on
the grandest scale" (not a nice way to treat "the best bunch of boys
you ever saw"). But from the detailed research by James Bacque and other
sources of information, there appears no record of prisoners arriving from the
US anywhere in either the UK or Europe after the war. Further, of all my media, historical, university, and other contacts in
Germany, only one person was even aware of the existence of German
concentration camps in the USA. I was unable to find anyone with any
knowledge of half a million Germans arriving from the US after the war, and
absolutely no record or evidence of such a transfer.
Epilogue
The US military, led by General Eisenhower,
established enormous concentration camps throughout Germany, some containing
more than one million soldiers and civilians each, and executed or starved to
death around 12 million, most deaths occurring long after the war had ended.
Eisenhower had forbidden food to be delivered to the camps, issuing orders to
shoot and kill anyone attempting to smuggle food to the prisoners.
Coincidentally, the US military transported to the US some 500,000 German
soldiers (from these same camps) to be interned in concentration camps where they
would join large numbers of German-Americans and their families who were
imprisoned and had their assets confiscated, also for the sin of being German.
All this done under the command of Eisenhower who, as noted above, had now
transferred to the White House.
But now something strange happens. These same Germans
living under the same watchful eye of Eisenhower and still in the atmosphere of
seemingly limitless hatred for Germans, were now suddenly living "in a
golden cage", in private bungalows, with cars and drivers, "social
receptions" with local American girls, all the beer they could drink and
movies at least four days a week. Instead of being worked and starved to death,
they had so much food they would burn it for fear of having their rations reduced.
And rather than being treated poorly, they had "more luxuries than the
average American citizen", especially for items that were heavily
rationed. These wonderful "physical specimens" were cavorting with
American girls and meeting their future wives, beloved by all Americans while
discovering the blessings of democracy. They had their own orchestras and put
on performances attended by "thousands of people", this while all
German music, composers and authors were banned by the US government in all
other parts of the country. And they printed their own newspapers in German
while German books and newspapers were also banned in the entire US.
Every part of the official narrative begs to be
disbelieved. I do not have all the facts, but a hatred stoked continuously
among the American population from at least 1914, and shared by the President
and military, would not be expected to lend itself to keeping Germans in a
golden cage. Roughly 500,000 Germans
were indeed shipped to the US but I can find no record of them having left and
there is no record of them arriving anywhere else. German Americans had
their assets confiscated and were imprisoned in these same camps with their
families and none permitted to leave, yet our German physical specimens were
apparently free to come and go as they pleased, often to have dinner at the
homes of loving Americans, and accumulating substantial assets in the interim.
I would point out that the "one small group"
of prisoners who accumulated "$8,000" in cash would have to be fictitious
since the median annual income for Americans at the time was only about $1,400.
Moreover, the German-Americans interned in these camps were not being paid
while their assets were being confiscated, and those in the concentration camps
in Germany certainly weren't being paid, so why were these men given daily
prisoner stipends? As well, why would the Atlantic contradict the official
narrative of a return to Germany, claiming instead they were sent to France to
be worked to death as slaves and, if that were the case, how could they return
to the US to be filled with joy at seeing their former prisons?
As documented by several sources, in 1943, the US
military initiated a "formal reeducation program" for German
prisoners, led by university professors, psychologists and psychiatrists, as
well as those who would later form the CIA. Wikipedia tells us "the
program was kept secret because it probably violated the Geneva Convention's
ban on exposing prisoners to propaganda", but the prisoners may have been
exposed to more than propaganda. You will need to study the CIA's Project
MK-ULTRA to have a proper appreciation of this. It would seem reasonable to
conclude these re-educated Germans did not consider their time in America to be
"the best time of their lives", and also likely that these "fine
specimens of physical manhood" were introduced to more than the wonders of
democracy.
I can only speculate at this point but without
substantial - and credible - official documentation, as well as media coverage,
of the shipment of nearly 500,000 men from an American port, I am reluctant to
accept claims that these men actually left the US. And with the lack of any
evidence from official military records and the International Red Cross, it is
pointless to assume they arrived anywhere else.
There are two other items which appear a necessary
part of this puzzle. First, the events described above coincide perfectly in
time with the US military's explosive interest in human experimentation.
Readers may be aware of Shiro Ishii and his Unit 731 in Harbin, China, where
his group performed the most hideous human experiments imaginable, including
live vivisections. (13) (14) Few seem to know that the reason there were no war
crimes trials for the Japanese is that General Douglas MacArthur made a deal
with Ishii that they would all be immune from prosecution if all documents and
records on human experimentation were turned over to the US and Ishii and his
entire troop of thousands would be relocated to America. This is what transpired,
with the Japanese given new identities and housed on US military bases, Ishii
himself being a professor and a supervisor of biological research at the
University of Maryland until his death decades later. Second, these activities
coincide perfectly with the creation of the CIA's horrendous MK-ULTRA program
which was nothing if not "human experimentation" of the worst kind
imaginable. (15) There isn't room to dwell further on these two aspects here.
When we add together the killing of about 12 million
Germans in American concentration camps after the war, then Shiro Ishii and his Unit 731 troop, the US military's sudden and
vast interest in human experimentation, and the CIA MK-ULTRA project, and add
in the intense hatred of Germans throughout America, stoked almost continuously
for more than 30 years, with prominent politicians calling for the execution of
all Germans in the US, this is the atmosphere and environment into which the
500,000 German prisoners were forcibly transferred to the US, and it is their
"Golden cages" which were so often mysteriously emptied during a
night. There is also the question of the German-Americans interned in the
same camps. Their internment is documented, and the natural assumption has been
made that they were all released at some point, but I have seen no evidence to substantiate this assumption and,
given the existing sentiment that all those of German extract in the country
should be executed, we may be forgiven for wondering about their well-being.
I find myself coming away from this story with an
unshakable feeling that this is a very black chapter in American history which
has been fearfully buried and whose interment is being protected by powerful
people and fabricated mythology. To date, I cannot conclusively prove or
disprove the thesis that the 500,000 German prisoners incarcerated in the US
were used as subjects in the vast array of human experiments being performed at
that time. However, from everything I know, negating all the circumstantial
evidence would be a daunting task. And,
at the risk of sounding foolishly trite, if it looks like a duck and it walks
like a duck and it makes noises like a duck, it's probably a duck.
Notes
(1)
Propaganda: Edward Bernays: 9789563100921: Amazon.com; https://www.amazon.com/Propaganda-Edward-Bernays/dp/9563100921
(2) WWI Propaganda: The Bryce Report, Edward Bernays; www.revisionist.net/hysteria/cpi-propaganda.html
(3) The psychological tricks used to help win World
War Two - BBC; http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20161021-the-psychological-tricks-used-to-help-win-world-war-two
(4) James Bacque - Best-selling author; https://www.jamesbacque.com
(5) Wikipedia Zionists Attack Honest Historian James
Bacque; https://rense.com/general73/wiki.htm
(6) Other Losses by James Bacque - Internet Archive; https://archive.org/details/OtherLosses_201608
(7) German prisoners of war in the United States - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_prisoners_of_war_in_the_United_States
(8) List of World War II prisoner-of-war camps in the
United States: https://military.wikia.org/wiki/List_of_World_War_II_prisoner-of-war_camps_in_the_United_States
(9) Nazi Prisoners of War in America; https://www.amazon.com/Nazi-Prisoners-America-Arnold-Krammer/product-reviews/0812885619
(10) An excerpt from an article by John Ray Skates; www.newsouthernview.com/pages/nsv_shm_pows_camp_clinton.html
(11) German POWs on the American Homefront; https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/german-pows-on-the-american-homefront-141009996/
(12) Preserving America’s World War II POW Camps; https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2018/04
(11) Pure Evil: Wartime Japanese Doctor Had No Regard
for human suffering; https://www.medicalbag.com/home/features/despicable-doctors/pure-evil-wartime-japanese-doctor-had-no-regard-for-human-suffering/
(12) [PDF] General Ishii Shiro: His Legacy is That of
Genius and Madman; https://dc.etsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2167&context=etd
(13)
MKULTRA - RationalWiki; https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/MKULTRA
The original source of this article is Moon of Shanghai
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Larry
Romanoff is a retired management consultant and businessman. He
has held senior executive positions in international consulting firms, and
owned an international import-export business. He has been a visiting professor
at Shanghai’s Fudan University, presenting case studies in international
affairs to senior EMBA classes. Mr. Romanoff lives in Shanghai and is currently
writing a series of ten books generally related to China and the West. He can
be contacted at: 2186604556@qq.com. He is a frequent contributor to Global
Research.
The original source of this article is Moon of Shanghai
Copyright © Larry
Romanoff, Moon of
Shanghai, 2020
