James Gervois

Destitution Intensified: Germany After World War II James Gervois

Hitler is dead and the war is now over leaving Germany totally devastated. There is no organization in place to provide the basic necessities of food and shelter and the Allies are struggling to cope with the chaotic circumstances of 14 million displaced persons, traveling in all directions. Arriving from England, Colin Forsyth-Patterson has just left school, fresh faced, idealistic and naïve. He has been recruited by the Control Commission in Bad Oeynhausen where the British Army has its headquarters. Colin is looking forward to helping Germany get back on its feet, helping to rebuild a ravaged country but the reality is very different as he quickly discovers: extreme poverty; insufficient food and medicine; women driven to prostituting themselves; rape and torture; a morass of peoples moving in all directions. And everyone, including the Allied troops, seemingly involved in the ubiquitous Black Market in which Colin unwittingly becomes involved. ?Destitution Intensified? graphically portrays the worst and the best of human nature, of people coming to terms in a country totally devastated by war.