Miller, who was Executive Officer and Plans and Policy Officer with the Office of the Director of Intelligence (ODI) at the US Office of Military Government (OMGUS) headquarters in Berlin. In the United States the Senate launched its own investigation into these affairs based largely upon the complaints of a Col. Indeed according to one source, "In July 1945 the army's finance office in Berlin disbursed one million dollars in pay, yet soldiers sent some three million dollars to addresses in America."Īpparently and Lawton's research (for Then We Take Berlin) seems to confirm this the black market attracted players from every level of the military. Since many Germans had little to nothing to barter in exchange for food for their starving families, they traded for a fraction of their value - family heirlooms including, but not limited to, original works of art, family heirlooms, porcelain, jewelry and antiques that the black marketeers ( schiebers) shipped back home. Apparently the Nazis weren't the only looters taking advantage of the war to obtain art and other items of value. But that wasn't enough to keep families clothed, fed and sheltered. And by June 1946 that figure had increased to 50%. In November 1945, it is estimated that the Black Market filled 20% of Germany's food supply. The American soldiers weren't the only ones, British and Russian soldiers as well as German civilians saw the fertile opportunity to capitalize on the state of chaos, particularly in Berlin and Frankfurt. American soldiers, for example, bought cigarettes for ten cents a pack in the PX, the exchange store in the army base, and sold them at multiple times the price they paid. Likewise, habits must be fed at any cost and so cigarettes and alcohol became key commodities as well. So people began bartering for anything that would put sustenance on the table. Thus it was mainly children and the elderly who suffered from what was grimly called "death rations" because no one could survive on the amount of calories in the lowest ration bracket.
Since the government's system of rationing was based upon earned return for labor performed rather than need, anyone who could work received more rations than, say, a pregnant woman who could not. This miasma of need proved to be rich soil that nourished an equally rich black market. Thanks to human ingenuity, however, where there is a demand there is someone willing to step up and become a supplier. Everything that sustains life was in drastically short supply. Worse, the government was forced to ration everything from cigarettes to milk.
Infrastructure services were at a standstill, craters gaped where centuries-old buildings had once stood, the economy was based upon currency the Reichsmark that was essentially worthless. To say that by the end of World War II Germany was in tatters is a massive understatement. This article relates to Then We Take Berlin The Post World War II German Black Market
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