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SECURING THE GARDEN AND LONGINGS FOR HEIMAT IN POST-WAR HANOVER, 1945–1948*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2015

ALEX D'ERIZANS
ALEX D'ERIZANS*
Affiliation:
Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY
*
25 Crow Hill Rd, Mt Kisco, NY 10549alex.derizans@gmail.com
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Abstract

Zeroing in on private garden plots, the article discusses the manner in which Germans portrayed themselves in relation to displaced persons (DPs) – former foreign workers, Allied prisoners-of-war (POWs), and concentration camp inmates – in immediate post-Second World War Hanover. Challenging the notion that a coherent narrative of German victimization truly emerged only in the 1950s, the article reveals how German gardeners already articulated loudly a discourse through which they sought to depict themselves as decent, hard-working sufferers, while portraying displaced persons as immoral and dangerous perpetrators. The plots of garden owners, as foci of German yearnings for Heimat, came particularly under threat. Germans cherished such sites, not only because they provided the opportunity for procuring additional sustenance amidst a post-war world of scarcity, but because they symbolized longings to inhabit a peaceful, productive, and beautiful space into which the most turbulent history could not enter, and upon which a stable future could be constructed. Only with the removal of DPs could Germans claim for themselves the status of victims, while branding DPs perpetrators, and reaffirm past patterns of superiority and inferiority in both ethical and racial terms. In so doing, Germans could realize the innocence integral for achieving Heimat and establish democratic stability after 1945.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 58 , Issue 1 , March 2015 , pp. 183 - 215
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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Footnotes

*

I would like to take this opportunity to extend particular thanks to Peter Fritzsche, Margarete Feinstein, Judith Fai-Podlipnik, as well as the anonymous reviewers of the manuscript, all of whom offered invaluable advice and criticism on multiple drafts of the article.

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121 Monthly report from military government, Nov. 45, TNA, FO 1050/27.

122 First fortnightly report, 5–8 July 1945, TNA, FO 1050/253. An attempted bomb attack by a number of Polish Jews on a British military transport in September 1947 probably dramatically enhanced the negative image of DPs in the eyes of the Allies. The Jews involved, which the German press labelled ‘terrorists’, apparently had confessed to being part of a group protesting British recalcitrance concerning the limitation of Jewish immigration to Palestine. See Hannoversche Presse, 9 Sept. 1947, 6 Dec. 1947, StBH; ‘Hannover railway case’, TNA, FO 371/64905.

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124 The KZ-Ausschuss (Committee for Former Concentration Camp Inmates) was one of the principal private organizations in Hanover that formed within the first month of occupation in order to assist concentration camp survivors.

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132 Hilton, ‘The black market in history and memory’, pp. 488–9.

133 The DP police comprised part of a wider judicial system of informal, internal courts for displaced persons camps, which would often operate with the tacit approval of the Allies. It worked to protect the camp from unwanted intruders, as well as maintain law and order, by insuring that inmates did not engage in illegal activities within the camp and surrounding environs. See Wieleba, ‘Die juedischen displaced persons – DPs’, p. 522; Koenigseder and Wetzel, Waiting for hope, pp. 134–41, 199–201.

134 Hans Hasche to League of Garden Plot Owners of Lower Saxony, 2 July 1945, StAH, HR #2, #227.

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146 Hagit Lavsky, ‘The experience of the displaced persons in Bergen-Belsen: unique or typical case?’ in Patt and Berkowitz, eds., ‘We are here’, pp. 227–56, at p. 228.

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157 ‘Hannover – ein zweites Chicago’, as well as the various earlier police reports for 6 Feb. 1946, StAH, HR #2, #227.

158 ‘Wenn andere Leute schlafen’, Hannoversche Presse, 25 July 1947, StAH.

159 Polizeibericht, Jan. 1948, Niedersachsisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, Nds. #230, #2.

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172 Tagebuch der britischen Militärkommandantur in Rücklingen, 13 June 1945 – 15 Feb. 1946), StAH, HR #2, #226. The incident cited took place on 25 July.

173 Ibid., 2 July 1945.

174 Ibid., 6 Feb. 1946.

175 Case of Paul Ziese, reports of criminal incidents involving foreigners, 6 June 45, StAH, HR #2, #199.

176 Case of Richard Bartels, 26 May 1945, StAH, HR #2, #199.

177 Case of Wilhelm Fischer, 6 June 1945, StAH, HR #2, #199.

178 Wilhelm Mueller to military government, 17 July 1945, StAH, HR #2, #227.

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185 Ibid., pp. 6–7, 15, 29.

186 Ibid., p. 19.

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