One book to add the reading list is:
From The Ruins of the Reich
Douglas Botting 1985
Some interesting things.
As most of the Russians were chasing the German woman. Most of the German woman were chasing after the US GIs
How an un official phone line between US GIs & German troops was used to tell each other were there next bombardment was to be so to minimize casualties on both side. And was used when some US officers wanted a photo op in the middle of a river. And asked the German not to shoot at them.
Stalin’s plans to invade the US
That it was not the front line combat troops that did all the rape and pillage. It was mostly the REMF’s
The real Holocaust started at the end of end of 1945 and went to 1950 and it was the Germans.
Included in this book are the incredible battle for Berlin, the rape and pillage by invading Russian troops, starvation and the black market after the war,
The breakdown of Russian & American relations leading to the cold war, and Stalin's desire to push communism all the way to the Atlantic with a World War III.
An example of post-war bartering: With a half pound of butter you could get 50 cigarettes. With 40 of those you could get a bottle of wine and schnapps. You could trade the schnapps for two pounds of butter and start all over again.
Astounding casualty statistics: Poland lost 1 in 6 of it's population, Russia 1 in 10, Yugoslavia 1 in 10, Germany 6%, and 6 million Jews died out of 10 million in Europe. 315 pages.
http://www.geocities.com/schlochau/Books.html
From Library Journal
Many people are familiar with World War II Germany, but far fewer are aware of the aftermath of war in the occupied country. The war crimes trials are well known, but less
discussed is the poor treament of the defeated Germans by their conquerors, the forced repatriation of Russian refugees by the other three Allies, the vice and corruption among the occupying powers, and the failure of denazification.
All these topics and others are surveyed by Botting in this popularly oriented and very readable book. Although the ground has been covered before, this treatment makes it accessible to the general reader. Recommended for public and academic libraries. Pat Ensor, Indiana State Univ. Lib.,
Terre Haute
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0517558653/ref%3Dnosim/porfessionalp5-20/102-3637904-0780938
The Berlin Airlift of 1948
http://mars.acnet.wnec.edu/~grempel/courses/germany/lectures/36airlift.html
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the notorious Danzig Anatomical Institute, where soap and leather were made from corpses of Soviet citizens.
/quote
i have a trange feeling about a book which uses the soap and the leather hoax.