Ghosts of the Ostfront

[Jag34]

I have read many books on WWII in my 52 years. But they were all during WWII. I read this book last year "After the Reich: The Brutal History of the Allied Occupation". This book made me look at people at a whole new light, I can not even find the words to say. I was station in Germany in the 80's and could never really understand why the Germans would do anything to keep the Russians out. Now I fully understand why. People told stories of trying to flea to the west after the war had ended is just horrendous. It goes in to detail of what they saw.

I am in no way condoning what the Germany military did, but for the civilians to go through this is just horrendous. This is a must read book for all of the WWII history buffs.

My 2 cents worth. 

[GScholz]

Indeed. It's one of those books you cannot read around meal time. You'll just lose your appetite. The carnage against Germans in post-war Europe was unrelenting, with rapes, crucifixions, hangings, forced starvation, and forced marches being widespread, with sex and age not being an impediment, and taking place with great enthusiasm by Russian, British, and American troops of occupation.

[zack1234]

British and American troops were doing what?

[Jag34]

If you read the book, The American and British troops only did what would be considered little if nothing compared with the Russian's and all of the countries that were occupied did.

[GScholz]

With the British and Americans we're talking about incidents. Though these incidents were quite numerous. With the Russians we're talking standard procedure.

[Mister Fork]

With the British and Americans we're talking about incidents. Though these incidents were quite numerous. With the Russians we're talking standard procedure.

- for the Russians, it was under order from Stalin...

[DaveBB]

The vast majority of German troops captured by Russians died in Siberian prison camps.  Shoot, the Americans handed over a tremendous amount of prisoners who had purposely surrendered to the West.

Patton was crazy, but there was some validity to his idea of using Germans to destroy the Soviets.

[Ack-Ack]

The vast majority of German troops captured by Russians died in Siberian prison camps.  Shoot, the Americans handed over a tremendous amount of prisoners who had purposely surrendered to the West.

Stalin insisted that we turn over German prisoners of war that had fought on the Eastern Front, for political reasons the Western Allies caved in and gave Stalin what he wanted.  He also insisted that we turn over all Soviet prisoners of war we liberated, even those that sought political asylum.  A vast number of those Soviet prisoners of war were then arrested by the NKVD (again under Stalin's orders) and sent to gulags.

What the Germans did to Soviet citizens during the invasion and later occupation of western Russia and Ukraine was terrible, the Soviets were no better in treating some of their own people from the Soviet villages/towns they liberated.

[zack1234]

The further east you go in Europe the more the societies base their thought processes on turnips and milk churns.

They are all still angry today and it's everyone else's fault that they did not invent credit cards and buying stuff when you are broke

[Curval]

Why did I come in here to begin with?
Oh, yeah. The presenter mentions Beevor's book, and I can recommend his book 'Stalingrad' over the podcast. There's another on Leningrad (St Petersberg) but I can't remember if Beevor was the author. Those accounts are both inspiring and horrendous.

Both brilliant books and he WAS the author on the Leningrad book.

I can't recommend Stalingrad enough, it gives the whole battle some perspective in a unique way.

[NatCigg]

British and American troops were doing what?

I hear more German citizens died after the war than during.  Revenge   

[NatCigg]

The further east you go in Europe the more the societies base their thought processes on turnips and milk churns.

They are all still angry today and it's everyone else's fault that they did not invent credit cards and buying stuff when you are broke

They also wear plastic clothes.

[zack1234]

I hear more German citizens died after the war than during.  Revenge   

Don't start wars is the lesson then

With open borders in the UK we have gained immensely from Eastern European culture and all it has to offer

Blokes with square heads and Eastern European chicks who look like fashion models/serial killers

[Curval]

This is an awesome series.  I have finished the first two episodes.  Want to save the rest for when I travel.  I am going to be all over the other series too.

Thanks for sharing this.

[DaveBB]

No problem. I'm glad I stumbled across it. 

The nature of the Eastern Front was sickening.  One part I remember particularly is a German soldier saying "The villagers welcomed us in.  They provided us with warm rooms and meals for the night.  It was discouraging when orders came down the next day to shoot them all.  We shot 80, including women and children".

The next one I recommend is his series on World War 1.  Each episode is about 3.5 hours long, 6 total.  It is pretty horrific too.