RichardQ Loc: Colorado

The orders from Washington were straightforward: The U.S. Military Government mission in Occupied Germany (coordinated with the other Allies) was to search out the Nazis from among a total of some 8.5 million Germans. A list of the Nazi Party membership was coordinated through an IBM punched card system in Paris.

Nazis were to be barred permanently from any employment in government, the courts, the police, the media, finance, industry, education, and public organizations such as labor unions, societies, etc. The result, hopefully, would be the denazification of the postwar German socity. It also left huge, hard-to-fill personnel gaps in all those fields.

The Soviets chose not to go along with the American program. They often just deported hard-core Nazis to Russia to work indefinitely on Soviet rebuilding. Those remaining did what they were told. The French were reluctant to be strict with Nazis in their Zone, because numerous French military and government officials had collaborated with the Germans during their occupation. The French preferred the term "purification" to "denazification."

To sort out the Nazis from the general public, Washington created a lengthy questionnaire which the Germans knew as Der Fragebogen. It had 131 questions, each to be answered in German with typewriter or block letters. No checking off little boxes. Military Government officers were expected to read them, so fluency in German was needed, although in short supply. More than 16 million Fragebogen were distributed.

After a year, 500 thousand forms had been processed. A backlog of four million forms, plus a potential case load of seven million, swamped the Military Government offices. On January 15, 1946, a Military Government report stated, "The present procedure fails in practice to reach a substantial number of persons who supported or assisted the Nazis."

The Americans and British decided to transfer the denazification process to the Germans. Each of the American Occupation Zone's three states (Länder) got a Minister of Denazification. On April 1st (April Fool's Day!), 1946, a special law established 545 civilian tribunals (Spruchkammer) under German administration and staffed with 22,000 lay judges. Corruption was soon rampant. The aim became rehabilitation rather than punishment.

Those found to be Nazis were now divided into five classes, ranging from"exonerated" (Class V) to "major offenders" (Class I). The Americans sentenced 1,654 major offenders, the French only 13. By 1947, the Allies reportedly held 90,000 Nazis in detention. Almost two million more were forbidden to work as anything but manual laborers. Monitoring them was not easy.

In 1951, six years after the Nazi surrender, the West German government granted amnesties to "lesser offenders" and cancelled judicial denazification. By then, many former prominent Nazis, such as industrialist Alfried Krupp and the managers of I.G. Farben, had been pardoned and restored to power, often with the aid of American and British diplomats.

Fürstenfeldbruck Military Gov't court tries a weapons charge - Feb. 1946


Former Phila. cop, now Military Gov. of Fürstenfeldbruck

Morry Loc: Palm Springs, CA

Extremely interesting story that I never before read. Thanks for sharing.

blacks2 Loc: SF. Bay area

Thank you very much Richard. I always look forward reading your historical articles. I forward all these to some German friends, even they lived there during that time, they had no idea what was going on and your articles put a new light on everything.
Stay well.

RichardQ Loc: Colorado

Thank you for your interest and comment, Morry.

RichardQ Loc: Colorado

Hi, Mike! Glad to hear from you. I really appreciate your interest in my little vignettes of this window of time.

DrWilk Loc: .

Unfortunately, the effectiveness of denatzification was a tragic joke with thousands of people released who really should have been executed and many more who should have served lifetime sentences who were released after a few months at most..

JoAnneK01 Loc: Lahaina, Hawaii

Mahalo Richard for sharing. Your stories are very informational and most are unknown. I definitely have learned a lot from you and continually hope it will continue.

RichardQ Loc: Colorado

Hi, Dr. Wilk, thank you for your comments. The term "denazification" was reportedly coined in the Pentagon around 1943 when proposals arose regarding the ways to deal with a conquered Nazi Germany. The original scope was to eliminate the legal structure of Nazism by rescinding the pertinent laws, eliminating the appropriate government offices, and imprisoning the top leaders. There was no talk of assignng mass guilt to the entire German people until the "Morgenthau Plan" arose in the Treasury Department. This was an emotional response created by the emerging horrors of the concentration camps. But there was little consensus of how to implement mass denazification. Nobody apparently voiced reservations about the conflict between the language of the Fragebogen and the limits of the Military Gov''t officials who were assigned to read them and implement punishment without the necessary manpower.

Cape Codder Loc: Cape Cod

thanks for another interesting vignette of history. I look forward to your stories which give us another view of a difficult time.

RichardQ Loc: Colorado

Thank you for your interest and comments, Joanne. There seems to be a fair amount of curiosity about WW II these days, but few people are aware of the significant influence the postwar occupation of Germany continues to have on current events. I hope to add some of that information to the mix. There were a few movies made about it in the late 1940's and early 1950's, but the public wanted the more dramatic battlefield films. Some of what I've been describing is seen in "The Third Man" (British military gov't in Vienna), "A Bell for Adano" (U.S. military gov't in Italy), "A Foreign Affair" (U.S. military gov't in Berlin), and "The Search" (U.S. military gov't in an unnamed town).

RichardQ Loc: Colorado

Thank you for your feedback, Jill. I'm glad to be able to augment the kaleidoscope of images which still is evolving from that period.

RichardQ Loc: Colorado

Dr. Wilk, it occurred to me that the photos of the little court hearing (and Capt. McBride) have some pertinent background to your comments. MccBride was the director of the Fürstenfeldbruck American Military Government detachment, responsible for reviewing and signing off on more than 10,000 Fragebogen. He held two court hearings a week, mostly involving curfew violations and fines. On this day he had a pair of Fragebogen violators (no photo available), a young man and a middle-aged man, both charged with falsifying their questionnaires. They conveniently forgot to mention they had applied to join a Nazi organization a few years earlier. Their cases were postponed for a few days pending their finding counsel. McBride had a German woman translator at the table, as well as a woman recorder. At that rate, McBride or his successor would still be at that table.

DrWilk Loc: .

Thank you for the update, Richard.
This brought to mind the "justice" handed down to the 72 Gestapo agents who were directly complicit in the murders of the 50 airmen of the "Great Escape." Of the 72, fewer than a third (21) were executed for their crime and 17 went to prison, some for as little as a year even though they had originally been sentenced to life in prison.

vj62 Loc: Fairfax, VA

I remember back, must have been 1953, as a young Ensign Naval Aviator flying into Fürstenfeldbruck AB for some reason and RON'ing. That night at the small O-Club I had to go pee and could not believe my eyes what I saw in there. There were what looked like small urinals about 5+ft. off the floor. I thought 'My God, the Luftwaffe pilots must have been eight feet tall with real teeny tiny weenies.' It was later explained to me that they were for the officers to vomit in then go back out and tip a few more. Even that explanation impressed me.

carlysue Loc: Columbus

I'm slowly catching up on these most interesting vignettes, Richard. There is so much we never know about every war, conflict, coup and debacle. And every one of those has more than one view of "right" and each has a very dark side, as well.