FEATURES
12 The Linguist Vol/58 No/3 2019
ciol.org.uk/tl
Anne Stokes outlines the extent of the Allies' book distribution
programmes to 're-educate' Germans after World War II
D
uring the early D-Day landings of 1944, "an
unlikely weapon of war: crates of books"
1
were
deposited on Normandy's beaches by British
and American troops. They were intended for
distribution in liberated territories through libraries and
propaganda and information centres. Both countries
considered books a useful tool for denazification and
rehabilitation, and, in light of Nazi anti-enemy
propaganda, for re-educating liberated people about
the heritage and values of the liberators. Indeed, in
occupied Germany, the US and British book distribution
efforts were deemed sufficiently important to be
coordinated within the Psychological Warfare Division of
SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary
Force) under the command of General Eisenhower.
Although this was a joint effort, carefully planned and
implemented by the British and US governments and
publishers from 1943 onward, the content of their
stockpiles differed. The British ones mainly featured
books written specifically for propaganda purposes, as
well as translations of British classics arranged by the
British Council. It was the British Council that had
proposed the stockpiling programme, out of concern for
the British book trade after the war, since not much of
literary merit was published during the hostilities.
The American effort, which was based on a strong
partnership between the OWI (Office of War Information)
and CBW (Council of Books in Wartime), aimed to put
millions of contemporary American books into the hands
of liberated people as soon as hostilities ended. The CBW
had been established by publishers keen to help the war
effort and to extend their global reach after the war.
Titles in the main US series, the Overseas Editions
(OEs), appeared in English. From early 1944 onward,
they were also translated into French, Dutch, German
and Italian, mostly by émigré writers and academics. A
second, smaller series of slimmer Transatlantic Editions
(TEs) was translated into French and Dutch from October
1944, due to concerns that the OEs would not be ready
in time.
THE RE-EDUCATION OF
FOREIGN RULE
Map showing the
British (green), French
(blue), American
(orange) and Soviet
(red) zones of occupied
Germany, with Berlin
split between the
four powers
@
SHUTTERSTOCK
