Petra Goedde essays

Petra Goedde essays Fraternization and the Feminization of Germany What is primary message being delivered? Villain to Victim discusses the swing in US foreign policy towards Germany at the end of WWII. In 1945, as American forces commenced their invasion of Germany their hearts were hardened towards all the German people. They saw Germany as co-perpetrator in the five year war that engulfed the world. The US image of Germany was of an arrogant race of goose-stepping storm troopers, fanatical to the ideals of world domination espoused by their leader Adolf Hitler. The US conquest of Germany was punishment for the war that they had unleashed across Europe and the resultant atrocities committed in the name of conquest. By the end of 1946 this view had completely changed and the United States was providing aid and support to Germany, treating its people as much as a victim as any other country devastated by the conflict. Goedde discusses how much fraternization between US soldiers and German women was a major factor in this 180 degree shift in opinion. What were the Primary Topics and Sub-Topics? Goedde does a good job of presenting her evidence to support this theory. She attempts to trace a chronological course of the events and presents topical inserts to support her thesis as she goes. Her main body of evidence to support her thesis is based on the martial law of fraternization imposed by the US occupation leadership and its gradual erosion over the first two years of occupation. She uses official documentation such as the Pocket Guide to Germany (1) to illustrate US opinion towards the German people prior to the final invasion and defeat of Nazi Germany. The stereo-type of Germany that US troops were prepared to encounter and what they actually did encounter were two completely different things. This was the underlying reason why non-fraternization failed, and failed very quickly. The demographic shift in populat...