A Long-Ago Lesson on How to Win the Peace

[thedrifter]

11-03-2003

A Long-Ago Lesson on How to Win the Peace



By Ralf W. Zimmermann



Most Americans expected the war with Iraq to be fast, surgical, and with very few casualties. The Iraqi people would welcome and celebrate the victorious Americans, just like the liberated French and even the conquered Germans had done in World War II. To stress the similarities, the Bush administration drummed up glorious 1940s war memories and Steven Ambrose-like stories of fighting brotherhoods and grateful German prisoners.



But wait: My own father, a former German Panzerman has so often told me a quite different story of German defeat and rebuilding. He always reminded me that bringing stability and prosperity to Germany had taken much effort over years, not months.



Resurrecting a devastated Germany was a give-and-take process that combined the good, the bad and often the ugly before it succeeded in creating a better Germany and German follow-on generations who became trusted friends of America.



It was April 1945 when my father?s Panzer unit ceased to exist during the final onslaught of the Red Army through Hungary. My father, in charge of a small combat team, consisting of a tank and a few infantry squads, decided to disband his men after observing huge American tank columns proceed along the major autobahns towards Austria.



My dad and a few German Landsers (German grunts) now began the long walk home, skirting many liberated but hostile villages. On his way to Fulda, Germany, he was captured several times. Once he was surrounded by at least twenty armed American grunts and beaten senseless, then robbed of any possible souvenir. Several times, the victory-drunk Americans had misidentified his black Panzer outfit as an SS dress uniform.



After a third escape, my old man ultimately landed in the Wuerzburg prison. There he spent a few days in a cell with a Luftwaffe Lieutenant who had flown ME-109?s in defense of the Reich. Both prisoners shared the Lieutenant?s boot as a latrine. U.S. rations consisted of white sponge bread and water. At night, the Americans staged mock executions to make the Krauts more talkative about their military and Nazi pasts. After one such nerve-wrecking event, the Luftwaffe man remarked: ?Emil, I don?t care if these animals shoot me. I don?t care to live in this great civilization these hoodlums have liberated us with.?



Several weeks later, on another prisoner transport, my dad escaped once again. This time, he made it home. His father?s house was standing and the old professor was alive. But liberation had not come painlessly. The conquering troops had ransacked buildings and looted all valuables, including my grandfather?s hunting rifle collection.



In several basements, the rowdy troops had downloaded excrements in the fruit preserves of the inhabitants. On several occasions, my father observed U.S. troops throw food into the street and just before a child could grab it, kick it into the dirt. My dad?s hatred grew and he was ready to join the German resistance, the Wehrwulfs. Luckily, his father reminded him that the Russians were probably worse and that both should be grateful to be alive.



With time, the hatred on all sides slowly subsided. Fresh U.S. replacement units arrived, together with a sense of decency and compassion. Incarcerated once again for lack of valid papers, my father made the acquaintance of many decent Americans. There was a friendly black soldier who every so often snuck an extra food ration to the prisoners. Then there was a school teacher from Chicago who leaned against the fence, lit a cigarette and after only pulling on the smoke a couple of times, dropped it next to the fence. After a while, my father began talking to the ?Ami? soldiers and discovered much in common with them.



My father ultimately landed a job in the military kitchen and later as a translator with the constabularies operating from Heidelberg. The relationship of trust between former Panzer trooper and the Americans grew. During one black market patrol, one constabulary NCO handed my father his M-1 carbine and told him to guard the loot they had gathered: ?Emil, I can trust you more than these criminals in the platoon. You guard our stuff, while I take a nap.? More friendships developed between the former prisoner and the Amis during joint patrols.



A year later, the industrial police units and labor service guard units gave displaced persons and former German troops an opportunity to guard U.S. installations and provide essential services to American units in Germany. When the Russians decided to blockade Berlin, so-called Labor Service units provided essential manpower for the loading of Allied transport aircraft.



By the time I was born, my father had become an admirer of America and everything the great country stood for. It was a symbol for open mindedness, caring and forgiving. It was reason enough for the old man to spend over 40 years working for the U.S. government.



What are the lessons of all this?



Peace and friendship takes time and effort. It?s usually the second wave of troops, free of bad experiences and prejudice, who will conquer the hearts and minds of the population. It?s trust between the conquered and the winners that begins the peace process from the inside. It?s the kind acts of individuals that start the healing.



The World War II generations on both sides had the patience because they had lived through hard times without the instant gratifications of our modern era. They also saw each other realistically as soldiers and humans. They were able to see a tough process through over the long haul.



Lieutenant Colonel (U.S. Army, ret.) Ralf W. Zimmermann is a decorated Desert Storm veteran and former tank battalion commander. Since his retirement, his columns have regularly appeared in Army Times and other publications. His recent novel, ?Brotherhood of Iron,? deals with the German soldier in World War II. It is directly available from www.iUniverse.com and through most major book dealers. Zimm can be reached at r6zimm@earthlink.net or via his website is at www.home.earthlink.net/~r6zimm.


http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/c...19105298364593


Sempers,

Roger