The effect of the war on German civilians
The blockade on Germany, although very important in winning the war, didn’t affect the German people as much as the blockade in WW1 had done. This is because Germany occupied so much territory and was able to supply its people at much better levels than had been the case in WW1. Rationing was introduced at the start of the war though, in late August, 1939, and this also helped maintain adequate levels of supplies until 1944, that is, when, with the war having turned decidedly against the Germans, rations were severely cut.
However, Germany suffered horrendously from the air raids the British and Americans were able to inflict on them once they had supremacy in the air. Particularly after 1942 when a decision was taken to target all German cities with a population over 100,000 with the purpose of hitting ‘the morale of the enemy population – in particular the industrial workers.’ Throughout the winter of 1942-3, German cities were being bombed by British and American bombers, raiding German cities night after night. By the summer of 1943, the raids were occurring day and night. In total, there were not far short of one and a half million missions flown and more than two and a half million tons of bombs dropped. All German cities suffered almost unbelievable levels of damage: Leipzig was the least effected with 20% of the city damaged, Berlin 33%. But as if those figures weren’t frightening enough, in all other German cities the damage inflicted was at higher levels, usually much higher: from 40% to 80%, Mainz for example.
There were, though, a number of particularly heavy (and notorious) raids. For example, the first raid to involve a thousand bombers, on Cologne on May 30th, 1942. Over 3,000 homes were destroyed leaving 45,000 homeless. Or the raids, between July 24th and August 3rd, 1943 on Hamburg, seven heavy attacks in just nine days with incendiary bombs as well as high explosives. Incendiary bombs created a firestorm (a new word, necessary to describe the effects of the bombs) that destroyed 50% of houses and damaged a further 25%. As air was sucked upwards by the heat from the fires, winds approaching 250 kilometres per hour raged. People literally flew through the air and into the flames. Estimates of those killed range between 34,000 and 50,000 civilians, half the city’s homes were destroyed and a million (more than half the population) forced to flee the city. Dresden was to meet the same fate in February, 1945 with three days of intense bombing. It is thought that 25,000 civilians were killed. Cologne and Dresden suffered 60% damage in total, Hamburg 75%.
But think through the human implications of this, apart from the numbers killed. Many more were injured; many more still were left homeless. Clothes would have been destroyed, rationing cards too, making it that bit more difficult to get food. Babies and the elderly would be included in the victims, and I count the survivors as the victims too. Water supplies will have been cut off or else spoiled. Shelter, of course, was a pressing problem. With their husbands at the Front, many women would have had to cope with taking care of their families on their own. I could go on, but you get the picture, I hope. ‘Bomber’ Harris, in charge of operations for the British, was very frank and unapologetic about his aim: ‘the destruction of German cities, the killing of German workers, and the disruption of civilized life throughout Germany.’ He went on to say that ‘… the destruction of houses, public utilities, transport and lives, the creation of a refugee problem on an unprecedented scale, and the breakdown of morale both at home and at the battle fronts by fear of extended and intensified bombing, are accepted and intended aims of our bombing policy. They are not by-products of attempts to hit factories.’[1]
If that was not bad enough, German citizens were also to suffer horrendously at the hands of the invading Russian armies. Once on German soil, the Red Army exacted a brutal revenge for what their people had suffered at the hands of the Germans. There were crude roadside posters urging the Soviet troops ‘Not to forget – Not to forgive’ or ‘Red Army Soldier: You are now on German soil; the hour of revenge has struck!’. An order from Marshal Zhukov in January, 1945 read: ‘Woe to the land of the murderers. We will get our terrible revenge for everything.’ While as the Red Army crossed into East Prussia, a directive read ‘on German soil there is only one master – the Soviet soldier, that he is both the judge and the punisher for the torments of his fathers and mothers, for the destroyed cities and villages … Remember your friends are not there, there is the next of kin of the killers and oppressors.’ They killed indiscriminately, raped, looted and burnt their way through the countryside, the villages and the towns of eastern Germany. Very young girls were raped, aging grandmothers too, some were raped to death, some were killed, their bodies mutilated after being raped. It was vicious, and it was ugly.[2]
But if Germans suffered at the hands of their enemies, whether British and American planes or Russian soldiers, they suffered also as a result of the attitude of their Fuhrer as he stared defeat in the face. For Hitler was adamant that Germany would fight to its last breath. He ordered the same scorched-earth policy on German soil as had been applied in the retreat out of the Soviet Union. Speer was appalled and stood up to his Fuhrer, writing to Hitler saying,
‘No one has the right to take the viewpoint that the fate of the German people is tied to their personal fate.’
Hitler’s response was unapologetic:
‘If the war is lost, the people will be lost also. It is not necessary to worry about what the German people will need for elementary survival. On the contrary, it is better for us to destroy even these things. For the nation has proved itself to be the weaker, and the future belongs to the stronger Eastern nation. In any case only those who are inferior will remain after this struggle, for the good have already been killed.’[3]
Hitler’s orders weren’t carried out, but Germany did fight to the bitter end and so the suffering carried on for longer than it need have had.
[1] Quoted in Norman Stone, pp. 119-20
[2] Quotes from Alan Bullock, p. 968 + Robert Gellately pp. 571-2
[3] Quotes in Alan Bullock, p. 966