QVQ
Sophomore
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2023
- Messages
- 393
- Reaction score
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I had a friend who was a child in Germany during and after WWII
She told me her story and I believe it should be recorded as nearly as I recollect her telling
I am writing this as nearly as I can remember her words:
All the men in her family died in the war.
Her family after the war was her mother, her aunt and her sister
They lived in a house in East Gemany during the initial Russian occupation
Germany was a pile of rubble and there wasn't any food, very little infrastructure
The Russian occupied her area, East Germany.
The Germans were starving.
There wasn't any food, no infrastructure to support farms or move produce.
The children begged food from the Russian troopers
Russians were very soft on children and often gave their entire rations to the children.
The Russian troops did not have adequate food so..
The Russians loaded the women and children in cattle cars and shipped them West, to the American sector.
The distribution of food in the Western sector was a central warehouse where people lined up to recieve a hand out.
My friend stated her mother stood hours in line for a cabbage
All day in line for a cabbage
And cabbage was not a choice. A person received what the giver gave.
Then, seemingly overnight, grocery stores opened.
People were told there was work available cleaning up rubble and rebuilding
The workers were paid in the new German currency and could buy food in the grocery stores.
My friend's mother could spend a few minutes filling a shopping bag with her choice of groceries.
Then spend the rest of the day working to rebuild the farms, factories and infrastructure.
To my friend, it was a miracle. Hope for the future and food on the table. She said it happened almost overnight.
The mechanics of the plan involved:
1) Reissuing currency
2) America had food surplus and former war ships delivered the food
3) The model was grocery stores, jobs and a paycheck.
We read about the Marshall Plan but it is always in terms such as "foriegn aid" and vague political concepts.
I never understood it before my friend told me how it actually worked in real life.
She told me her story and I believe it should be recorded as nearly as I recollect her telling
I am writing this as nearly as I can remember her words:
All the men in her family died in the war.
Her family after the war was her mother, her aunt and her sister
They lived in a house in East Gemany during the initial Russian occupation
Germany was a pile of rubble and there wasn't any food, very little infrastructure
The Russian occupied her area, East Germany.
The Germans were starving.
There wasn't any food, no infrastructure to support farms or move produce.
The children begged food from the Russian troopers
Russians were very soft on children and often gave their entire rations to the children.
The Russian troops did not have adequate food so..
The Russians loaded the women and children in cattle cars and shipped them West, to the American sector.
The distribution of food in the Western sector was a central warehouse where people lined up to recieve a hand out.
My friend stated her mother stood hours in line for a cabbage
All day in line for a cabbage
And cabbage was not a choice. A person received what the giver gave.
Then, seemingly overnight, grocery stores opened.
People were told there was work available cleaning up rubble and rebuilding
The workers were paid in the new German currency and could buy food in the grocery stores.
My friend's mother could spend a few minutes filling a shopping bag with her choice of groceries.
Then spend the rest of the day working to rebuild the farms, factories and infrastructure.
To my friend, it was a miracle. Hope for the future and food on the table. She said it happened almost overnight.
The mechanics of the plan involved:
1) Reissuing currency
2) America had food surplus and former war ships delivered the food
3) The model was grocery stores, jobs and a paycheck.
We read about the Marshall Plan but it is always in terms such as "foriegn aid" and vague political concepts.
I never understood it before my friend told me how it actually worked in real life.
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