JF Ptak Science Books  

The pamphlet Plight of Ukrainian DPs : a few typical letters of many being received daily from Europe describing the tragic plight of Ukrainian displaced persons whom the Soviets would forcibly repatriate and doom to enslavement, persecution or death, was published in 1945 or 1946 (but not later than 26 March 1946). It carries a terrific burden over its 31 pages, describes the “plight” of Ukrainian “DPs” at the end of WWII. “Plight” is a very weak word for their situation, as is the term designated them, “DP” or “displaced person”. These people–several million of them—from what I understand had been slave laborers, taken by the Nazis in the advance through Central Europe, and sent to work in German factories and fields. Many were theoretically and sub-practically paid a wage, though in general much of that went to providing themselves food and clothing and such that enabled them to work. These people were known as Ostarbeiter (Eastern Laborer), and at the end of the war many were repatriated to their country of origin. Of the 3-5 million Ostarbeiter, about 2.5 million remained alive at war’s end, with the vast majority–over 2 million–being from the Ukraine. This pamphlet details some of the terrible accounts of Ukrainians being repatriated to the Soviet Union and being treated as plagued outsiders, criminals, and worse, some simply executed, while hundreds of thousands of others were sent on for “re-education”, with many winding up in the Gulags. It was a terrible position to be in–the slave returned home after the war to be treated as a criminal, and slave again.

In general interest I’ve made digital images of the pamphlet, reproduced in its entirety, below:

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 So, the Dearborn Independent was owned and published by Ford beginning in 1920 and rose to a circulation of 900,000 issues a day, the second-leading circulation in the country. It was partially put over this hallmark via incentive quotas in every Ford dealership. As no doubt is familiar to everyone in our modern world, the paper–which also published “The International Jew”– was a happy host to many anti-Semitic articles in its pages over the years. . It was bad stuff. Anyway, boycotts against the Ford company were lodged and a lawsuit emerged in 1927 concerning the paper’s ridiculous anti-Semitic stance. Ford  responded to the accusations in June 1927 saying that he had no idea that the paper had published this sort of garbage since 1920, and that he was shocked by it, and repelled. He recanted, though it seems from historical sources that the published letter of apology wasn’t written or signed by Ford. The response on the other side by Louis Marshall, president of the American Jewish Congress, was reserved, and hoped that the paper no longer published the anti-Semitic filth. Ford closed the paper by the end of 1927. In 1938, Ford accepted the Nazi award of the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, the highest medal offered by the Nazis to a foreign. Hitler had been in power for five years by this point, and his war against the Jews was years old.
So: words and deeds…

Notes:

(FORD, Henry) “Statement by Henry Ford Regarding Charges Against Jews Made in his Publications, The Dearborn Independent, and a Series of Pamphlets Entitled “The International Jew”, together with an Explanatory Statement by Louis Marshall, President of the American Jewish Committee and his Reply to Mr. Ford. Published by the American Jewish Committee, 1927. WorldCat locates ONE print copy, University of Michigan. (There are 5 other copies located, all overseas, Australia, NZ,2 UK, Canada) though they all seem to be only online copies.)

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“La Victoire”¹ is a moving address from the archbishop of Reims, Louis-Augustin Marmottin, celebrating the end of the war, and was printed in June 1945. The monsignor  in particular notes the sacrifices and millions of deaths of “knights of all nations” on the feast of St. Joan: “Knights of all skies, sailors of all oceans, soldiers of all battlefields…” in the fight against Hitler. He writes: “Chevaliers de tous les ciels, marins de tous les océans, soldats de tous les champs de batailles. Il faudrait les saluer tous, les héros de la Pologne et de la Belgique, de l’Alsace et des Ardennes, qui soutinrent le choc initial, terrible, ceux de Stalingrad, des plaines ukrainiennes et des monts du Caucase qui les premiers connurent la victoire, ceux de l’Egypte et de la Tunisie, ceux de l’Italie et de la Normandie et de la Provence, de l’Alsace encore et de l’Allemagne, et tant d’autres dont le sacrifice a fait notre salut”–(from page 4). [““Knights of all skies, sailors of all oceans, soldiers of all battlefields. We should salute them all, the heroes of Poland and Belgium, Alsace and the Ardennes, who sustained the initial, terrible shock, those of Stalingrad, the Ukrainian plains and the Caucasus mountains who were the first to achieve victory. , those of Egypt and Tunisia, those of Italy and Normandy and Provence, Alsace again and Germany, and so many others whose sacrifice made our salvation.”] It should be noted that the cathedral’s construction began in the 13^th century (followed by a complicated history of construction and renovation) and is the traditional site for the coronation of French kings, and also contains a statue to St. Jeanne d’Arc in full armor.

Notes:

1. MARMOTTIN, Louis-Augustin, Msgr. (1875-1960) “La Victoire. Cathedrale de Reims, 13 Mai 1945.” Printed in Reims (Imp. Du Nord Est), 1945. Original wrappers 7″x 5″, 6pp. Provenance: Library of Congress with their rubber stamp on rear wrapper. Condition: Good. The paper is somewhat browned and weakened and there are old folds here and there in the wrappers. Acceptable condition, overall. [Note: WorldCat states two years of publication—1945 and 1946—though this copy has a rubber stamped date at the foot of the title page stating “21 6 45”, or 21 June 1945.] WorldCat locates only THREE copies, all in France.

JF Ptak Science Books  Quick Post (reprint series) Overall Post #5119

Youth of Czechoslovakia¹ was a Czech-in-exile response to the situation in the country as it stood in 1943. The situation of course was critical, and the compiler of the work, F.L. Lowidt, chronicles the state of the affairs from the end of the First World War to the occupation sometime late in 1943.  About half of the work concentrates on the war period following “the fatal policy of Munich” and the “sacrifice” of Czechoslovakia to impossibly placate Hitler.  It is a very interesting document, and as there are only a half-dozen or so located by WorldCat in libraries worldwide, I’m reproducing it here.  Of special note are the four pages or so dealing with children and the youth being used for “forced labor in Hitler’s war machine”, the “martyrdom of youth”, and the resistance movement.  

Notes

1. LOWIDT, F.J. (compiler); artwork by W. Slosser. Youth of Czechoslovakia. Published by the Czechoslovak Youth Committee, London (and printed by Dugdale Printing, Ltd.).[1943] No date stated but WorldCat (which locates only six copies) believes it to be 1943. My copy–a Library of Congress duplicate–has a cataloguer’s pencil notation for being received on 6 March 1943.  

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This is one of the few remnants that I have of a larger collection of surrender and various sorts of propaganda leaflets dropped on the Wehrmacht and Germany in general in the last two years of World War II. (A longer post on this collection can be found elsewhere on this blog.) This leaflet, the “dissemination” of which was orchestrated by the R.A.F. (Royal Air Force) and the U.S.A.A.F. (United States Army Air Force) and were literally dropped in the tens of thousands on the remaining troops in the final weeks of the war, with the document dated 25 April 1945. (Mussolini was killed on this day, the German forces in Italy would surrender on 29 April, Hitler would commit suicide on 30 April, and the Battle for Berlin would be over on 2 May, with the unconditional surrender of the Third Reich coming in the middle of the night at SHAEF HQ at Reims.)

This leaflet is particularly strong, warning that mistreatment of Allied prisoners in any way or form by Gestapo and its agents would not be tolerated and that if there was mistreatment then those responsible would “be ruthlessly pursued and brought to punishment”.

This warning comes weeks after the liberations and “discoveries” of various concentration and death camps, the truths found in those places definitely helping to form bloody-minded warnings to anyone in Germany committing crimes against Allied POWs.

Even though the propaganda bombing no doubt involved millions of pieces of paper, only a tiny fraction seem to have survived.

Here’s the original along (and transcription) with a government-sponsored translation of the leaflet

“W a r n i n g

The Governments of the United Kingdom, the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, on behalf of all. the United Nations at war with Germany, hereby issue a solemn warning to all Commandants and guards in charge of Allied prisoners of war in Germany and German occupied territory and to members of the Gestapo and other persons of whatsoever service or rank in whose charge Allied prisoners of war have been placed, whether in the battle zones, on the lines of communication or in the rear areas. They declare that they will hold all such persons, no less than the German High Command and the competent German military, naval and air authorities, individually responsible for the safety and welfare of all allied prisoners of war in their charge.

Any person guilty of maltreating or allowing any Allied prisoners of war to be maltreated whether in the the battle zone, lines of communication, in a camp, hospital, prison or elsewhere will be ruthlessly pursued and brought to punishment.

They give notice that they will regard this responsibility as binding in all circumstances and one which cannot be trans­ferred to any other authorities or individuals whatsoever.

Dissemination: R.A.F. and U.S.A.A.F.