Page 38

CHAPTER IV
THE ATTACK AGAINST GERMAN CAPITAL
Looting
The sacking of Germany after her unconditional surrender
will go down in history as one of the most monstrous acts of
modern times. Its excess beggars description and its magni-
tude defies condemnation.
Allied armies that swept into Germany came with blood in
their eyes and the conviction born of propaganda that the
Germans had lost caste as members of the human race, were
unworthy of protection afforded by human law and civilized
institutions such as property rights and security of person. It
was not thought of as looting, but simply as helping one's self
to property the Germans had forfeited by being German.
Russian soldiers were particularly ravenous, their appetites
for loot being restrained only by the limitation placed on their
own rights to hold property. Things the individual Russian
soldier could keep, such as wrist watches, they snatched on
sight, even from the arms of Yankees.
The serious looting by the Russians was conducted officially,
systematically and thoroughly. Every house and apartment
was entered, searched, and stripped of every thing at once
valuable and movable-jewelry, silverware, works of art,
clothing, household appliances, money. Stores, shops, ware-
houses were ransacked. Farms were denuded of farm animals,
machinery, seed reserves, fodder, wine and food stocks. Tele-
phones were removed from residences, telephone and telegraph
lines and equipment were dismantled. Automobiles, motor
trucks, even fire engines, were seized. Everything not nailed
down was hauled away. 1 For the German standard of living
must be lowered to the average of Europe.
The Russian armies of occupation, kept equal in size to the
combined occupation forces of the western powers, live off
the land, paying for requisitions by paper occupation marks.
38