Chapter 18: More of the Occupation.

One major job the division had was to get the displaced and homeless back home. These consisted of Prisoners of War held by the Germans, concentration camp inmates, workers from other countries working in German war industries. I had some contact with the freed concentration camp inmates and POW's as I was the driver for the Ex, officer who did the main handling of taking care of them by DIVARTY Other categories I had no contact with that I could identify. These people listed above were in the American Zone and handled by other units. I saw several large factories used for housing DP's. The memory is kind of vague after all these years. I remember one instance where a released DP happened across one of the Germans who had been his jailer and a lynching almost occurred. I had some contact with Germans who were really hungry. Almost starving in some instances . For over a year after I arrived in Germany the little German kids were at the mess hall exit waiting for left overs from our mess kits. I remember them but do not remember if I had the compassion I should have had for tbeir condition.
There was a lot of giving sex by German women to American soldiers. German men were mostly dead, in Russian prison camps, or even American Prison camps. Women were doing the farm work. The Allies were in no real hurry to finish the de-Nazification. That was most important. In fact they are still looking for Nazi's. To be completed because most men were dead or in prison camp farming was left up to the women. Here are some pictures taken in 1945.

Trading with the former enemy was a major industry for the occupying GI's. As for myself I was looking for a camera to take pictures. I don't remember what camera I used for pictures up to moving in to Melsungen. Probably a borrowed one. When in Melsungen I had acquired a radio that didn't work. I managed to trade it for camera I used thereafter. It used 2 1/4 by 3 3/4 film pack with 12 exposures. No doubt no longer made. It sort of worked like the early Poloriad. But the film was processed in a photo lab or by me at home later. It was tricky to operate keeping it in focus was the hard part because of the shutter, If it was done right everything was well. With the big negative it made great pictures. Oh yes, it also used glass plates it was so old fashioned. I managed to get a good supply of glass negatives with the camera. I also got a good Telefunken radio a good radio of it's time. I brought it home later and kept it for years.
GI's used their ingenuity to make money. Especially the black market. I'll go into t his in more debth later. But as an example when we went to Berlin in October '45 guys were taking cigarettes from K rations. I cant remember how many Just a few but worth money on the black market. A bar of soap was worth 10 dollars. A 5th of whiskey was worth $90' A carton of cigarettes only $10.00 but a lot for that day. Eventually the Military changed things so GI's could send only so much money home a month. They GI's could only spend marks in Germany. If I remember right we were paid in dollars so we could send those home but limited in the amount. I was with a guy who tried to sell something to a black marketeer and the marketeer opened opened up his little suitcase and it was filled with nice new American bills. This was in Berlin. Here is a sample of the spending money in the Base bar. You had to change your pay money for marks if you bought a beer in the Base Bar.


On one of the trips from Le Harve I took a picture of the cemetery at St. Avold France were 25,000 Americans are buried. This was so soon after the war they were still removing the German bodies from an area near the American section to rebury them elsewhere. Unfortunately the camera moved and the picture was fuzzy.
All over the world about 250 Americans were killed each day for 1000 days. That's tragic.

We were billeted in vacated barracks that had been used by construction workers. I believe they worked on the railroad. Here I am in front of one of the barracks. Bathing was done in a bath house across the river a little way from our barracks. I had my picture taken on the way to the the bath house just off to my right. I made a poor repair on the picture.

We had been in Melsungen long enough that I had collected a considerable amount of things. I lived in a room with Bill Blake. we Before were moved to Darmstadt I knew we could not move all our things in a jeep or whatever we were to move in in one trip so I went to the Col. and told him of the problem and he let me take a car or truck I forget and load it up and move it to the barracks in Darmstadt. Darmstadt is about 20 miles south of Frankfurt and perhaps 65 or 70 miles south of Melsungen. We had a room there.





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