Allied Internment Camps in Occupied Germany: Extrajudicial Detention in the Name of Denazification, 1945–1950 by Andrew H. Beattie

Abstract

Reviewed by: Allied Internment Camps in Occupied Germany: Extrajudicial Detention in the Name of Denazification, 1945–1950 by Andrew H. Beattie Brian E. Crim Allied Internment Camps in Occupied Germany: Extrajudicial Detention in the Name of Denazification, 1945–1950. By Andrew H. Beattie. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. Pp. xii + 248. Paper $32.99. ISBN 978-1108720731. In May 1946, the British chairman of the Nazi Arrest and Denazification Subcommittee lectured his colleagues representing the other three Allies: "We are trying to educate Germany to democracy and useful work, not to look upon the world from inside of a Concentration Camp" (56). The meeting concerned the nature of internment in the occupied zones of defeated Germany, an issue Andrew Beattie rightfully identifies as underrepresented in the historiography of World War II and the postwar period. Beattie has written a thoroughly researched comparative study of internment that not [End Page 618] only closes this gap in our knowledge, but also corrects more simplistic interpretations depicting the Soviet Union as a cruel and vindictive occupier and the Western powers as intrinsically constructive and democratic. More than 400,000 Germans were interned from one to three years in the Western zones and five years in the Soviet zone. Especially in the first year of occupation, each power used internment to isolate those suspected of crimes by virtue of belonging to dangerous organizations as designated by the International Military Tribunal, the SS for example, and individuals who could endanger the Allies' postwar agenda by virtue of NSDAP affiliations. One of the many lessons from Beattie's study is that the process of building a democratic Germany involved far more antidemocratic and coercive measures than originally assumed. When it came to deciding whom to intern, why, and for how long, the four powers shared more commonalities than differences. Beattie begins by tracing the development of internment policy between 1943 and 1946, noting that the diverse motives and objectives of internment were entangled from the outset. The Allies conceived of draconian measures in anticipation of continued resistance from a heavily armed populace and only altered their policy after the zones achieved an acceptable level of security. Internment was originally planned as a temporary measure before the formal prosecution of war criminals and others designated as Nazi followers. The second chapter compares how internment worked in practice between 1945 and 1950, when the last Soviet internment camps closed. One of the strengths of the book is Beattie's coverage of the French zone and Austria, regions barely mentioned in previous work on the subject. Internment was preventative, political, and lasted longer than often believed. Beattie is careful to distinguish internment from denazification, a term not easily defined, especially when one considers how differently each power approached denazification in its respective zone. Chapter 3 provides a collective profile of internees, breaking down the demographics in each zone and the relative involvement of internees in NSDAP organizations. While "high-value" internees like the top leadership and desirable scientists were held in well-known camps like Ashcan and Dustbin in the American zone, most internees belonged to the so-called Mittelbau of the party, those nameless functionaries who kept the regime running. The fourth chapter explores camp life, describing differing approaches to reeducation, retraining, recreation, religious activity, death, and burial. Unsurprisingly, the Allies were forced to leverage the expansive concentration camp system already in place in addition to constructing separate camps. Although Beattie consistently highlights Allied similarities in internment policy and infrastructure, Soviet camp conditions were markedly worse. Calculating a shockingly high 35 percent death rate for internees in Soviet camps, Beattie concludes: "The Soviets' failure to keep their internees alive was inhumane and amounted to answering one injustice with another" (144). Beattie ends the book with a thoughtful discussion of internment's relationship to [End Page 619] denazification efforts across the zones. Indeed, Beattie's important work reveals that internment is linked to several interrelated issues, including demilitarization, POWs, reparations, war crimes prosecutions, and forced labor. Moreover, Beattie suggests it is more accurate to define internment as extrajudicial as opposed to prejudicial since the vast majority of internees never saw the inside of a courtroom or underwent a formal...