Armageddon_ A Novel of Berlin - Leon Uris [191]
“Honey,” he said, “I was never able to put into words why I thought I should stay here and I swear, I don’t think I ever can.”
“Bless, you don’t have to. Well make out. We always have. I know you’re doing the right thing. “
Chapter Twenty-five
AT THE END OF 1946 THE lead story around the world for the day told that Andrew Jackson Hansen had been named a full general and assumed the position of military governor of Germany.
Shrewd observers like Nelson Goodfellow Bradbury felt it came just in time, for the situation was degenerating badly.
In a quiet and efficient way Hansen had built a dazzling record. As first deputy he had sat as a member of the Supreme German Council for several months. At the end of the war he moved in on cartels, froze German assets, and broke the backs of a number of those evil industrial combines. He spearheaded the de-Nazification of two million Germans in the American Zone through the questions of the Fragebogen. A hundred thousand criminal Nazis were in American stockades, and an additional 300,000 were allowed to work only at common labor.
Hansen was tough, yet guided by an overriding principle that the American Zone had to establish its own democracy rather than exist under a military tribunal.
As quickly as clean Germans could be found, the courts and de-Nazification procedures were put into their hands.
Free elections were held in three “lands” in the American Zone with new constitutions governing them and schools reopened with new texts. A free press and radio returned to Germany after a long absence.
Hansen was instrumental in the spurring of youth groups formed on new principles and he encouraged the church to purge any Nazi taint.
Andrew Jackson Hansen was more responsible than any other man for bringing into military government leading American educators, jurists, clergymen, labor leaders, mayors and civic officials, doctors, engineers, and police who lent their skills in fashioning a new path for the German people. He arranged for Germans to travel in America to study American methods and establishments.
He spurred the revival of the opera, the symphony, the theater, and the arts.
On Hansen’s orders three battalions of Negro troops were converted from service units to infantry. A new pride changed them from outfits with severe discipline problems to first-rate troops. His own honor guard in Berlin was a Negro unit. Hansen alone predicted the next step had to be full integration. He felt that the example of a moving, living democracy would have the greatest possible effect on the German people.
A corner of America was established in Germany. The arrival of large numbers of wives and children in the early parts of 1947 did much to put a skid to the occupation orgy.
Schools were built and women’s clubs, PTA’s, and a social life put a large dent into the beer-hall and prostitution business. The reinstatement of family and communal life came as a saving grace in many cases.
The occupation forces published their own newspapers, had a radio network, built movies, servicemen’s clubs, bowling alleys, and libraries. Inexpensive vacations in Bavarian resorts were arranged and schooling through college made available to every soldier.
Law and order were maintained by a magnificent American constabulary of 30,000 mobile police. These white-helmeted, yellow-scarfed troops constituted a crack force that commanded the respect of the Germans.
The most spectacular victory was won by the friendliness of the Americans. The Germans realized that they had come not to bleed the economy or debase the vanquished, but to protect, cleanse, teach, and rebuild.
While General Hansen and his country established a record of progress, the other side of the coin was a dark picture. He took command on the heels of a cruel winter that had paralyzed all of Europe.
In Germany canals froze, putting more burden on the wrecked rail system, now