Surviving the Americans: The Continued Struggle of the Jews After Liberation

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Summary: Think You Know About World War II?
Review: I admit this book truly astounded me. If what you know about the end of the war is the Marshall Plan, that the U.S. rebuilt Europe, you have much to learn!

After V-E Day, the end of the war in Europe, the American "Zone" became a destination for many who hoped that from the Americans, help and kinder treatment would be found. Could that be far from the truth?

Dr. Hilliard, now Professor of Communications at Emerson College in Boston, was there. What we don't know, and now must face, is that very little was done for many months after the war for D.P.s (Displaced Persons), Jews, survivors of the Concentration Camps (Jews, political prisoners, intellectuals). In fact, there was no "official" hospital to take care of those who required such medical assistance, and it took some ingenuity and subterfuge to create one. And, in September, after an article appeared in the New York Times (then a true paper of record), President Truman had to order Dwight Eisenhower to provide more assistance in the U.S. Military Zone to the survivors of the Holocaust and the Third Reich, officially....Eisenhower comfortably situated in Paris.

After V-E Day, during what GIs called "National Lorelei Month", many American soldiers were killed by unrepentant Nazis and Germans if they dared venture (armed or unarmed) from the safety of U.S. installations. Meanwhile, Germans played the black market with crafty soldiers interested in making money, bartering for sex with women (many of whom undoubtedly had lost their husbands and boyfriends to the Reich), and occasionally, supplying an unauthorized hospital which is the focus of this book.

Some 7,000 U.S. personnel lost their lives after V-E Day to the "Werewolves" recruited by Himmler and his disciples in the S.S. (Schutzstaffel), but THIS story is even more obscure and less known. It should be read by anyone interested in peace and the problems of the aftermath of war, as we find almost perpetually somewhere across the globe at any time--not only in the Middle East.

It is a sad story, but a hopeful one, because there are always some who will risk all to help others, and THESE are the meritorious whom we should really honor. These men (some of whom, unfortunately, Dr. Hilliard could not name) also belong in Yad Vashem, for they are the righteous.

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Summary: Idealistic Enlisted Men Change US Policy Towards Freed Jews
Review: This is an extremely important work, one that should be read by everyone who has any interest whatsoever in World War II in general, in the Holocaust and its aftermath, or in how the liberating American forces dealt with the 'problem' of what to do with the Jewish survivors of Hitler's death camps. It will make the reader reassess the accepted historical view of Americans as the saviors of Europe after World War II. Author Robert Hilliard was a young enlisted man stationed in Germany at the end of the war. Hilliard takes up the cause of helping the freed concentration camp survivors after attending a 'liberation concert' staged by Jews and hearing the speech of a Jewish doctor who has set up a hospital to care for the freed Jews. He learns that though the Jews are free, in most cases they have nowhere to go, no food, no medical care,and no clothing. Many are still wearing their concentration camp clothes months after the war ends, and some are even wearing the clothes of the hated SS guards because they have nothing else. In addition, Jews are dying with startling regularity at the hospital due to lack of food and medical supplies. To make matters worse, they must watch the 'former' Nazis who ran the country under Hitler resume their old lives, despite the evils they have perpetrated. Hilliard finds that American policy in Germany is little better than that of the Germans. Many Jews are kept in barbed wire installations, under MP guard, and have to try to live on 700 calories a day. They watch the former Nazis ingratiate themselves with the US brass through bribery, lies, and sexual favors. Hilliard and his friend Ed Herman decide to do what they can for the hospital, and this book chronicles their efforts. By the end of the book, they take their plea all the way to the top, and are instrumental in changing US occupation policy towards the freed Jews in Germany. Because of the actions of these two enlisted men, President Truman in effect reprimanded Gen. Eisenhower for his laissez-faire attitude in dealing with former Nazis and treatment of freed concentration camp survivors. The book is well-written, and could easily have run hundreds of pages. Hilliard has crafted a lean and powerful book. I hope that it will be read by many students of history, and I recommend it to any person who is not content to accept the sanitized, for-the-masses packaging of complicated historical periods.