No, of course. Evidently, there is a half-way solution between Germans being allowed to remain in newly Polish territory with their families, farmland and other properties, and Germans being exploited to death as former POWs in Siberia. What I'm saying is that while the Poles would object to the former, they would probably not object to another kind of solution, half-way towards the unlucky situation of Germans in Siberia. Interestingly, it's the German language that provides us with the term: Gastarbeiter.
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As to my references to famine, of course I noticed you did not support the idea. I was just explaining to you the reason behind some of my posts, which were in reply to posts that agitated that fear. I'm glad to see you agree a famine killing half of the population, that is some 30 million persons, wouldn't be the plan's outcome; thank you.
As to your assessment that the system would remain unstable, that is absolutely possible, it's the same as myself suspecting that such an economy would not be viable without some external input.
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- politically it was stupid. And that applies even if we look at it strictly from the POV of the victors' interests. I don't think I need to explain why. We have today's Germany to show it: without that plan, it turned out to be a peaceful, responsible and wealthy nation, Europe's powerhouse, and it's not unlikely a rearrangement of the balance in the UN will give it a deservedly even more important place in international politics. In the Cold War, of course, the Western part was a valid NATO ally. I doubt that the same outcome would have taken place if the plan had been enforced.
Lets see here If we can suggest some alternatives to some of the assertions in the quoted post.
First: Forced labor outside Germany is what we are talking about here I suppose, to decrease the number of Germans living out of the agricultural production in Germany? By 1947 the Allies actually held roughly
4 million of them, more than a million of them in the Western countries.
Funny that you should speculate about "guestarbetiers" in Poland. In deed there they actually were.
Many of them, but mostly women and children, not men. And from the look of things if it had been kept up past 1950 they would probably be a drain on their "hosts" food supply for only an additional decade before all had expired.
Second, how many Germans would have to be somehow exterminated or otherwise removed for the plan to work? The estimate of an expert on food supply, former U.S. president Herbert Hoover, was that roughly
25 million Germans would have to be exterminated or otherwise removed. He made this estimate in the spring of 1947, while pointing out the stupidity of what he saw as the then U.S. policy of turning what remained of Germany into farmland. Armchair experts can argue all they want, this guy was there and he had the experience to back up his estimate.
Now 25 million is less than 30 million, but that missing 5 million is perhaps due to the fact that part of the
population reduction had already been achieved, but probably more to do with the millions of involuntary "guestarbeiters" in Poland, the UK, France and elsewhere.
So, we have according to a U.S. president, a pastoralization plan still being carried out in 1947, 2 years after the surrender despite what some would protest. The Germans should be thankful to President Hoover, wily as he was he new that the best way to change the Americans mind was to point to the danger to the contents of their wallets.
Third: How come Germany is still here and a stable democracy? Well, some would argue that the U.S. should be thanked for it, while those who have looked closer at the question say
quite the contrary. Germany is democratic today mainly despite U.S. efforts. Memory seems to be a funny thing, apparently collective memory-loss happens quite easily.There once was a great and very powerful nation who pretty much could act with impunity and where the mindset of the public was such that this was
Life Magazine picture of the week. How easy it is to forget.
