American Germany, Post WWII

[Subdeacon Joe]

Quote

GI's in Rubbleland - by Mathias Haentjes "Frankly, I had very little sympathy for the Germans. After all they were the ones who started the damn war, not us." These sentiments as expressed by US Press Officer Gene Mater are shared by many former GIs who came to Germany at the end of the war. The years 1945-1949 were for many of these young soldiers the most important time of their lives. 'American Germany' tells the stories of German-American rapprochement from the perspective of former occupying troops. The Americans, who had previously only known the Germans from the battlefield or from propaganda, found that their opinion of the local population changed as a result of living in close quarters with them. At the time, they were undertaking a task that was the first of its kind, i.e. to re-educate politically the population of a conquered country, to put that country back on its feet economically and to help its population achieve a whole new attitude to life. In this documentary, Gene Mater and other occupying soldiers discuss their experiences in Germany. They tell us of the misery of post-war Germany, of distrust between the Americans and the Germans, of the black market and of the hunt for hidden Nazis. And they tell us of great emotions. Love amid the rubble - at that time this was no cliché but a reality a thousand times.

 

 

[Moonshine 20515]

Very interesting ..    Thanks for posting.

 

MS

[Calamity Kris]

WOW.  Thank you very much for posting the film.  That takes a number of things I had been told by my family to another level. 

[watab kid]

agreed it puts a point to my german grandparents forbidding me to learn german in the 50s , i did not fully understand it at that time , i regret it today , but i do understand their line of thinking , 

 

while i was raised with a better understanding of the japanese occupation and revitalization i did know of this back then - but my fathers service in the pacific and his friends war bride made that theater a lot more real to me at that time ,