European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 24, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday May 24, 1990 the stars and stripes a a a Page 3survivors confirm pow deaths author says by Joseph Owen Stuttgart Bureau the Canadian author who asserted in a 1989 Book that a million German prisoners died in . And French prison Camps in 1945 said statements by eyewitnesses confirm that his findings Are Correct. A the most impressive testimony so far that has come out since the Book Are statements by former prisoners who survived the Camps a Toronto novelist James Bacque said wednesday. Bacque said More than 1,500 former prisoners and guards have contacted him by mail or Telephone to relate their experiences. He said six former prisoners told of having watched mass Graves being filled with bodies at Allied prison Camps in Germany and France. But Bacque added a none of these germans has expressed any bitterness or desire for  Bacques Book a other losses a was published last fall in Canada and West Germany. It was released in France earlier this month and an editor at Saint Martins press in new York said his company plans to publish a . Edition in january. The Book states that the . Army had a surplus of food tents and building materials in Germany during the cold wet Spring of 1945. Yet it says the army imprisoned millions of germans in open air Camps and deliberately withheld food shelter adequate clothing mail and medical attention from them based on orders from Gen. Dwight d. Eisenhower. The Book says the army prevented the red Cross and other outsiders from helping prisoners a Large minority of whom were children pregnant women or the elderly. It accuses France of treating German prisoners similarly in forced labor Camps in France. In a Telephone interview Bacque said he plans to add to the next edition of his Book a chapter of additional evidence of neglect of prison Camp inmates. Bacque said that although fragments of the Story have been available for decades crucial army documents were classified until the Early 1970s. Even pow Camps in the Rhine River Valley Canadian author James Bacque maintains up to 1 million germans died in 200 pow Camps built after world War ii. According to some accounts pos were denied water even though some of the Camps were on the Banks of the Rhine. A amps Susan Harris later he said embarrassed american officials had an interest in hiding it and blamed the soviet Union for most postwar disappearances of germans. A there Are lots of people in this Field who could have discovered this and did not a he said. Army historians have attributed the prisoners woes in part to a world food shortage. But Bacque claims that no food shortage occurred and that the Issue is partly irrelevant anyway. A although the myth was supposed to explain Why the allies could not feed the prisoners the majority of deaths in the Camps was caused not by starvation but by the fatal shortage of readily available goods and services such As barbed wire tents water guards the red Cross mail and so on a he wrote. The accounts in the Book have been supported by some former service members. Martin Brech who served As an army guard at a prison Camp in Andernacht West Germany near Bonn in april and May of 1945, said he found the Book a totally consistent with what i  Brech now a philosophy and religion professor at mercy College in Dobbs ferry n.y., said he saw starving prisoners eating grass. He asked a Soldier in the Camp Kitchen to sneak him rations that he could give to the germans Brech said. A the said a we be got More food than we know what to do with a a Brech recalled. The . Soldiers were told that the feeding policies came from higher Headquarters and that they could Only get in trouble by questioning them he said. Brech also said he was Riding in a vehicle behind French troops who were marching away German prisoners As labourers. He said he saw the French beat dozens of the germans to death when they collapsed from exhaustion. Army col. Ret Walter f. Dunn who was a . 3rd army Captain in charge of railroads in the German regions of Thuringia and Saxony in the months after the War said transportation of food and other goods was not a major problem then. A i would say movement was difficult but the transport system was not destroyed a he said. A some tunnels and Bridges had to be rebuilt but the lines 1 was on were moving right  he said he still has copies of 1945 associated press and Christian science Monitor articles that marvelled at the relatively Good condition of the German  Page 1 lengthy and costly invasion of Japan Ambrose said. A when you be got a food shortage you be got to set priorities a he said. A this is a terribly painful thing to do but somebody a got to do  priority was Given to Allied troops then Allied civilians displaced persons and the jews found alive in concentration Camps. These were followed by German civilians and German pos working to Clear away the rubble and rebuild the country. The last group included German pos who weren to working Many of whom were wounded or in bad health when they surrendered. A these Guys were getting 1,500 calories a Day and 1,500 calories a Day meant starvation in the Long term. And they  thousands More died of thirst even though some of the Camps were on the Banks of the Rhine he said. A germans were denied water. In be got too Many accounts of this to doubt it a Ambrose said. A americans would laugh at germans who were just gasping for water with the Goddam Rhine River right  other accounts have the americans a acting like is guards. Beating people. Kicking people. Just casual violence. Without any purpose to it other than to be cruel a he said. But Ambrose contends that the violence must be placed in the perspective of what the gis experienced in Early 1945. Heavy losses were taken by the allies during february March and april when it was evident the germans had lost the War but were refusing to surrender. Allied troops had also just liberated the nazi death Camps. A there was fury at the germans a Ambrose said. Ambrose questions Bacques search through . Military archives including documents describing a other losses a which the Canadian used As the title of his Book. A i found one that showed 127,300 a other losses from a Camp on the Rhine which he said was the main killing Camp a Ambrose said. A i done to want to accuse him of cheating. He May have not turned the Page  the Back of the document indicated that the men had been transferred to a Camp in Austria. Bacque said in an interview that his totals do not include those numbers. A . Army Europe historian in Heidelberg declined to comment on the Bacque Book saying All pertinent military records Are in the United states. The department of the army also has taken no official position on a other  but army historians in an 11-Page report last october attributed the prisoners woes to a world food shortage Lack of supplies and the fact that a German transport was  it also acknowledged Eisenhower a order to reclassify pos As a disarmed enemy  Ambrose and other historians plan a conference on the German pow question next year a to give an authoritative answer to  the conference also will look at Why it took so Long for information on the prisoners to come to Light. Quot that bothers me very much a Ambrose said. A i am ashamed that it took a Canadian journalist to uncover this Story. Its not so much a Case of an Active cover up. I think that the biggest part of the answer is that nobody thought of it  Forrest Pogue who retired in 1984 As head of the Dwight d. Eisenhower historical Institute at the smithsonian institution said Eisenhower opened All his files to him when he spent five years in the late 1940s researching and writing a military history of the supreme Headquarters Allied expeditionary Force that Eisenhower commanded. A at no time did i Ever run across anything that approached this a he said referring to Bacques allegations about policies designed to let germans die. Germans might have been reluctant to raise the Issue because they were concerned with rebuilding their country after the War. And the cold War began almost immediately after world War ii. A and in that situation a Ambrose said a they did not want to be making accusations against the  contributing to this report Joseph Owen in Stuttgart Wost Germany housing Job shortages slowing soviets pullout by Deedee Arrington Doke staff writer Willinger West Germany a severe housing and Job shortages in the soviet Union Are forcing soldiers to live aboard the trains that brought them Back from Eastern Europe according to a top air Force intelligence officer. The crisis has led soviet officials to slow Down troop withdrawals from Hungary and Czechoslovakia said Brig. Gen. Charles Bishop the Deputy chief of staff for intelligence for the . Air forces in Europe. Soviet troop withdrawals from East Germany have come to a Complete halt. Bishop said soviet military officials described the problems during a recent visit he made to Potsdam East Germany. A you know those trains they left on they re still living on them a Bishop said in an address at the american women a activities Germany conference being held this week in the resort town of Willinger. The soviets have been removing about 2,500 troops per month since the withdrawal began Well below the 9,000 troops that must be removed monthly to meet deadlines set by soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev. Hungary has asked that All soviet troops be withdrawn by the end of june 1991, and Czechoslovakia wants the soviets out by Early next year. A they just can to do it a Bishop said. A we have to be  on other defense issues Bishop said the a greatest continuing threat to the european area comes from countries such As Libya Syria and Israel. By the year 2000, the United states expects the following Middle Eastern and african countries to have chemical weapon capabilities Iran Iraq Syria Libya Ethiopia Israel Egypt saudi Arabia South Africa and South Yemen. Iran Iraq Israel saudi Arabia and South Africa will also have nuclear capabilities he said. In Turkey Safe is a working with the turks Day in and Day out for greater flexibility in stationing troops and weapons As they Are needed to defend natos Southern flank