Die Nachkriegszeit
Object numberM2019/057:005
TitleDie Nachkriegszeit
Description“Die Nachkriegszeit ” (The Post-War Period) leaflet distributed by the Allies in western Germany, which urged citizens to essentially behave and not to hinder the Allied effort in occupied areas. The leaflet was collected as a souvenir by Harry Wigglesworth, who served in the British Army from 1939-1946. He served in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany, and was part of the British forces who liberated Bergen Belsen concentration camp on 15 April 1945. Harry was stationed at Oldenburg in Northwest Germany at the end of the war.
Harry was born 6 July 1916 in Leeds, Yorkshire County, England, to Thomas Henry and Mary Ellen Wigglesworth. Harry and his brother Harold joined the Army Reserves just before war broke out in August 1939. He volunteered to join a transport division as a dispatch rider. At end of 1941, Harry was sent to a training battalion as an instructor of an army camp in Wiltshire. In 1943 he joined an armoured division that experimented with new tanks, during which time he was badly injured in a motorbike accident. After recovering he was transferred to a light accac division in the Allied 21st Army Group, a combined British-Canadian unit including the British 11th Armoured Division. He arrived in Normandy and his group was attached to the 5th Tank Division of the Canadian army. It was his job to supply the tanks with ammunition and petrol.
When they came to Bergen-Belsen Harry recalls the “terrible smell,” which lingered in the air around the clock. “I saw all the ovens, all the skeletons, all the piles of bodies, I saw all that.” Harry recalls of his experience “We’d just done six years of war; we thought we’d seen everything. I had nightmares for over two years when I got home. Terrible.”
Harry was born 6 July 1916 in Leeds, Yorkshire County, England, to Thomas Henry and Mary Ellen Wigglesworth. Harry and his brother Harold joined the Army Reserves just before war broke out in August 1939. He volunteered to join a transport division as a dispatch rider. At end of 1941, Harry was sent to a training battalion as an instructor of an army camp in Wiltshire. In 1943 he joined an armoured division that experimented with new tanks, during which time he was badly injured in a motorbike accident. After recovering he was transferred to a light accac division in the Allied 21st Army Group, a combined British-Canadian unit including the British 11th Armoured Division. He arrived in Normandy and his group was attached to the 5th Tank Division of the Canadian army. It was his job to supply the tanks with ammunition and petrol.
When they came to Bergen-Belsen Harry recalls the “terrible smell,” which lingered in the air around the clock. “I saw all the ovens, all the skeletons, all the piles of bodies, I saw all that.” Harry recalls of his experience “We’d just done six years of war; we thought we’d seen everything. I had nightmares for over two years when I got home. Terrible.”
Production placeGermany
Production date 1945 - 1945
Object namepamphlets
Materialpaper
Dimensions
- width: 128.00 mm
height: 208.00 mm
Language
- German The Postwar Episode will be difficult – how difficult depends on you !
The war is over in the occupied parts of West Germany. The terror regime of the SS and Gestapo is a thing of the past. The various positions now purged of Nazis are being gradually filled by responsible Germans. There are no more bombing attacks, life goes on – it isn’t an easy life, much remains to be done: For a start debris and rubble, resulting from a futile armed opposition, have been removed. Gradually, after much labour, ordinary conditions will be restored which will help to bring back again the life of our community – today in the occupied Western parts, tomorrow the whole of Germany.
Self-help – which means:
You will have to pay for it if fanatics want to blow up Gas, Water and Power Generation. This won’t stop the Allies. But more suffering for YOU in the next winter and more problems in construction afresh of YOUR country.
Your family will have to do without if fanatics want to commandeer the food supply chain. The Allied troops have their own food supply. With the import of foodstuffs, countries, now hungry because of German occupation, will definitely have first preference.
Self-help is now the first need of the moment!
+ Self help to-day – to save YOUR family!
+ Self help – to rebuild YOUR native country.
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Harry Wigglesworth