Date: Wed, 24 May 1995 19:39:28 -0500 Reply-To: H-NET List on German History Sender: H-NET List on German History From: H-GERMAN EDITOR Dan Rogers Subject: German POWs Submitted by: Douglas Peifer My note to H-German members suggesting that they familiarize themselves with the conference volume _Eisenhower and the German POWs: Fact Against Falsehood_ (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State, 1992) before taking Mr. Bacque's comments at face value seems well justified in light of Mr. Bacque's most recent contribution to the forum. Bacque, for those unaware of his background, charges that Eisenhower starved around one million German POWs to death, a deed made inexcusable in the light of an abundant food supply in Europe in 1945. This deed, according to Bacque, was successfully covered up by American authorities, and ignored by German historians, veterans, and the German public at large until Bacque forced the issue to the fore. It saddens me that historians must spend so much time countering various conspiracy theories, but perhaps it is our duty to prevent public acceptence of this and similar conspiracy theories. In any case, Stephen Ambrose, Albert Cowdrey, James Tent, Ruediger Overmans, Guenter Bischof and others have carefully analyzed Bacque's charges point by point, and refuted them in the above work. I will not subject forum members to a repetition. Suffice it to say that Bacque ignores their careful analysis concerning his misuse of the term "Other Losses," the food shortage in Europe in 1945, etc., etc., etc., and prefers to present new, sensational evidence that he has found. In regards to this evidence (the KGB CSSA archival find which purportedly indicates that 421,000 Germans prisoners died in Soviet captivity during the period 1941-1955), Bacque is again either withholding elements of the relevant document, misunderstanding a foreign source, or being misled. Between 3,155,000 and 3,460,000 Germans became Soviet POWs during the course of the war, most during the final period (first figure based on Soviet claims, second compiled from Heimkehrer reports). Around 1,960,000 returned to Germany between 1945 and 1957. No matter how he attempts to manipulate these figures, Mr. Bacque will find it mathematically impossible to come up with a figure of less than 1,190,000 German POWs who died or disappeared during the interval (rather than the 421,000 his new source reveals). It is not coincidental that the number of Germans who died or disappeared under Soviet captivity (between 1,195,000 and 1,500,000) is close to the number of German POWs who never returned to Germany (1,400,000), a figure which Bacque somehow uses to back his thesis. I certainly hope this forum does not degenerate into endless debates with conspiracy theorists, and I will leave further comments regarding Bacque's lost million to others. .