Quote:
Originally Posted by Laurent Rizzotti
Diplomatically, 1950 or 1951 is the date where the Western countries declared the end of the state of war with Germany. So until this date, they were technically at war with it.
There was no peace treaty with Germany at the end of WWII, due the Cold War starting soon. The Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany was finally negociated in 1990.
To return to the German POWs in 1945, I know mostly the situation in France where Germans POWs were used to rebuild the country and clean minefields (with French experts) until the end of 1948. And they had a POW status. At least for French it was normal, as in 1940 France capitulated and more than 2 000 000 men were sent in POW camps in Germany, most of them until being liberated in 1945 by the Allies.
I know that in 1945 and 1946, hundred of thousands of German POWs were delivered to the French by Americans. 600 000 should be delivered in 1946 but these "deliveries" were stopped in 1946 by the Americans, that say they needed manpower in Germany. This seems to indicate that Americans did not release all POWs available in Germany. But another source says that numerous German POWs delivered to French were returning from USA to Europe. I guess they were excepting to return to Germnay and were heavily disappointed.
Great Britain itself did not start to send back its German POWs to Germany in September 1946 and ended in 1948. By late 1947, almost all restriction on German POW movement and extra camp activities were lifted... which means that they existed before this date.
The fact that in most countries after 1945 German POWs could work outside POW camps and even life in farms with local families did not cancel their POW status, meaning that they couldn't return to their home country. French POW in Germany live the same situation in 1940-1945 (and at least some effectively replaced German farmers completely in this period).
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Laurent,
Putting it bluntly, what I have highlighted in bold in what I have quoted from you above is rubbish. For the simple reason that the terms were unconditional surrender. The Allies WERE NOT PREPARED TO & DID NOT enter into any negotiations regarding terms, hence the reason why Germany had to be 100% over-run, and the structure of the Third Reich dismantled 100%. To claim that 'diplomatically' the war did not end until 1950-51 is garbage, and it has to be called out as such. What happened post-1945 was called reconstruction, which, in keeping with the setting up of a new German Government, would have meant making arrangements with that Government as to the way forward, and as to the way things would be done, going forward.
The volume of German prisoners at the end of the war was such that they could not all be suddenly dumped back into Germany in one fell swoop. To do so would be stupidity on a grand scale. So if former German prisoners were employed on helping to return the infrastructure to what it was previously where they were based, at the time, do you see any harm in that? Were they ALL to be left to sit on ther arses and do nothing for years? Come on, Laurent, get real...