RESTRICTED
MILITARY GOVERNMENT
IN GERMANY
Technical Manual
Public Safety
Supreme Headquarters
Allied Expeditionary Force
G-5 Division
S.H.A.E.F., London, February 1945
A rare WW2 SHAEF G-5 Division manual, produced in February 1945 (printed by Fosh & Cross in May 1945). This was a ‘Restricted’ document with a limited circulation, marked ’Not to be Published'. It is an important document in the history of the de-nazification of Germany. It was intended to be used in conjunction with the Handbook for Military Government in Germany (December 1944), which planners at SHAEF had worked on throughout 1944, intending it to be a detailed guide to Military Government for the occupying forces after Germany had been defeated. Above all, the handbook emphasised that the Nazi Party was to be destroyed and Nazis purged from the police, government and positions of influence. According to the foreword to Technical Manual Public Safety, this additional public safety manual ‘is an amplification of those instructions and must be read in conjunction with them. Since the Nazi Party have made the German Police their main instrument for imposing their will upon the German people, the responsibilities of Military Government Public Safety Officers for purging, reorganizing and controlling the German Police will be particularly heavy’.
Subjects covered in Technical Manual Public Safety include: organization of Military Government, assignment of Public Safety Officers, war criminals, abolition of Nazi agencies, abolition of hierarchy of command, plans for Police agencies, border control, supervision of German Police, disarmament of German Police, special Police operations, riots, looting, protection of monuments, fine arts and archives, control of Black market and narcotics, military supply routes, restrictions on civilians, curfews, prisoners, counter intelligence liason, exclusion of Nazis from public office and civil service, politcal suspects, suppression of the Nazi Party, investigative techniques, Special Branch, concentration camps, disposal of inmates and camp guards, prison, civil defence, etc.
S.H.A.E.F.: Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force was the headquarters of the Commander of Allied forces in north west Europe, from late 1943 until the end of WW2. U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the commander at SHAEF throughout its existence. Eisenhower transferred from command of the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations to command SHAEF, which was established in London from December 1943. Southwick House near Portmouth was used as an alternative headquarters. Its staff worked on the outline plan for Operation Overlord, created by Lieutenant General Sir Frederick E. Morgan, Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander, and Major General Ray Barker.
After D-Day, SHAEF remained in the United Kingdom until sufficient forces were ashore to justify its transfer to France. At that point, Montgomery ceased to command all land forces but continued as Commander in Chief of the British 21st Army Group on the eastern wing of the Normandy bridgehead. The American 12th Army Group commanded by Lieutenant General Omar Bradley was created as the western wing of the bridgehead. As the breakout from Normandy took place, the Allies launched the invasion of southern France on 15 August 1944 with the American 6th Army Group under the command of Lieutenant General Jacob L. Devers. During the invasion of southern France, the 6 AG was under the command of the Allied Forces Headquarters (AFHQ) of the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations, but after one month command passed to SHAEF. By this time, the three Army Groups had taken up the positions on the Western Front in which they would remain until the end of the war—the British 21 AG to the North, the American 12 AG in the middle and the 6 AG to the South. By December 1944, SHAEF had established itself in the Trianon Palace Hotel in Versailles, France. In February 1945, it moved to Reims and, on 26 May 1945, SHAEF moved to Frankfurt.
Military Government in Germany: Allied-occupied Germany was the administration of Germany from the defeat of Nazi Germany in WW2 until the founding of East and West Germany in 1949. The victorious Allies asserted joint authority and sovereignty over Germany as a whole, defined as all territories of the former German Reich west of the Oder–Neisse line, having declared the destruction of Nazi Germany at the death of Adolf Hitler (the 1945 Berlin Declaration). The four powers divided "Germany as a whole" into four occupation zones for administrative purposes under the three Western Allies (the United States, the United Kingdom, France) and the Soviet Union, respectively. This division was ratified at the August 1945 Potsdam Conference. The four zones were agreed by the United States, United Kingdom and Soviet Union at the February 1945 Yalta Conference, setting aside an earlier division into three zones (excluding France) proposed by the September 1944 London Protocol.
Deviating from the occupation zones planned according to the London Protocol in 1944, at Potsdam, the United States, United Kingdom and the Soviet Union approved the detachment from Germany of the territories east of the Oder–Neisse line, with the exact line of the boundary to be determined in a final German peace treaty. This treaty was expected to confirm the shifting westward of Poland's borders, as the United Kingdom and United States committed themselves to support the permanent incorporation of eastern Germany into Poland and the Soviet Union. From March 1945 to July 1945, these former eastern territories of Germany had been administered under Soviet military occupation authorities, but following the Potsdam Conference they were handed over to Soviet and Polish civilian administrations and ceased to constitute part of Allied-occupied Germany.
In the closing weeks of fighting in Europe, United States forces had pushed beyond the agreed boundaries for the future zones of occupation, in some places by as much as 200 miles. The so-called line of contact between Soviet and U.S. forces at the end of hostilities, mostly lying eastward of the July 1945-established inner German border, was temporary. After two months in which they had held areas that had been assigned to the Soviet zone, U.S. forces withdrew in the first days of July 1945. Some have concluded that this was a crucial move that persuaded the Soviet Union to allow American, British and French forces into their designated sectors in Berlin.
Condition:
In very good condition. The hardback binder boards are in very good condition, with signs of wear and use, fading, and some marks to the front board. The laced binding is good and secure. The text is in very good condition.
Published: February 1945
Grey loose leaf binder boards, with laced binding
Dimensions: 140mm x 215mm
Pages: 84
