The 'Fraulein Cannibals' of Post-War Germany: Fact? Fiction?

[Editor's note: This is the first part of a multi-part series.
The interview in the article below took place in 2000-2001.
                                                                   ---Reston Cane]



The Last Dark Secret of WW2

 Nazi Women. Have rumors of cannibal Nazi women

been a male magazine twisted fantasy, as in
this men's magazine picture from the 50s? Or,
is there evidence it occurred?

     One of the darkest histories of World War 2 has

been too taboo to discuss for well over a half-century.
     Until now.

     Given the scale and number of atrocities during

that watershed conflict, one may ask, "What could

be left?"

     Even after 60-plus years, one member attached to the

Office of Strategic Services would only agree to talk on
the record using a pseudonym in place of his actual

name.
     Working for an arm of OSS, the Joint

Intelligence Objectives Agency, and specifically

Operation Paperclip, he will go by the name Rick

Clefferds for the purpose of this article.

     What did Clefferds, and others, keep secret these

many years?

     Cannibalism.

     Occurring in the years 1945 through 1948, allegedly
by women of the former Third Reich. Committed in the
then-U.S. occupied German Zones.

     It has long been a dark, hidden, alleged addendum

to World War 2. That at the close of the war

some members of Germany's most powerless,

disenfranchised group, living in a decimated, famine

afflicted country, tried to feed family

members and themselves by committing, in attics or

basements, at night, hidden from scrutiny

or the light of day, an act so shocking it has

repeatedly been eschewed as a tawdry and
pernicious joke.

     Since the first evidence surfaced, charges of

female Germans cannibalizing Allied personnel were

laughed at. Made to appear apocryphal. And still are

today.

     Why? Instances of cannibalism by the Japanese

during WW2 have been known and accepted since

the end of the war. The eating of civilians as well

as captured U.S. fliers and other military personnel

by Japanese officers is documented fact.

     The cannibalism of civilians, mainly Chinese,

can be attributed to cruelty. The desecration and

cannibalism of U.S. personnel, however, was done

not for hunger, but mainly by Japanese officers

seeking the 'power' of their captured enemy.

 The real cannibals? A picture from the files of Operation Paperclip.

Shown upon capture by Allied troops in 1945. Two years later one

of the women here was implicated in fraternizing, seducing and 

cannibalization of U.S. military personnel.

     The most famous of these incidents was very

late in the war when at least one member of a B-29

crew from a downed bomber on Kyushu was beheaded

and had cooked portions of his body fed to Japanese

officers after the B-29's pilot had been sent to

Tokyo (alive) for interrogation.

     Why was alleged German cannibalism immediately

after the war so hidden? A clue may be found

in the actions of General Douglass MacArthur

in 1950, regarding the war crime trials of the

alleged Japanese cannibalism in the B-29 incident.

     MacArthur had all charges of actual cannibalism

dropped, commuted all death sentences, and reduced

sentences for 23 of those originally charged.

'Tough on Communism, soft on Cannibals'

     Rick Clefferds explained both the whitewashing of

German female cannibalism in Post War-Germany,

and General MacArthur's astonishing actions

as being "tough on Communism, soft on cannibals."

     "Look, my job with JIOA (Joint Intelligence

Objectives Agency) and Paperclip was to cover up all

this evidence of atrocities. And I was as Red White

and Blue as any young American kid. But I knew a few

things. If the U.S. didn't get the scientists that

almost won the war for Hitler with the next

generation of weapons, jet planes, rockets and
atomic bombs, then Uncle Joe Stalin would.

     "Whatever these Nazi monsters had done, this

war was over. The next one was coming. I attribute

to the job I did, and the others with Paperclip, the

saving of the world from domination by Communism. Or

from a conflagration that would have made WW2 look
like a Fourth of July weiner bake."

Post-War life for German women was harsh. Starvation

and near-famine conditions were factors in driving a segment

of the female population to the unthinkable, according to an

operative of the U.S. Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency.. 

     Thus there were justifications for saving former

Nazis and war criminals for a privileged life in

the United States. As heroes in the race to the moon, or

other positions preferable to the hanging, or life

sentence in a Soviet Gulag, many thought they
deserved.

     What, however, could justify covering

up cannibalism of U.S. military personnel by German

women in the Western Occupied Zones?

     "Look at your question," Clefferds says,

lighting a Lucky Strike. "And, you might ask,

why are we talking just about women?

     "Because mostly that's who was left in the

zones at the end of the war. There were no resources.

What these people did to survive was not, like the

Holocaust, a mass planned genocide. It was small

pockets of citizens who'd lost everything, just

trying to survive. It's not an excuse, but it puts

things in (a) different perspective than the

concentration camps. The Japanese officers
eating fly boys," Clefferds says.

Outlawed artwork. This German-made Art Deco style statuette

was fabricated by ultra right-wing German political factions in the 

late 40s to celebrate the actions of 'Reich's-Frauen' in killing

and cannibalizing occupying Allied soldiers after WW2. The

art work has been outlawed in Germany

     Was that the official reasoning?

     "Fuck. There was no, I repeat, NO official

reasoning here. This was all unofficial. But before

an organization of the U.S. Government is covertly

ready to excuse--which is not really the right

word--is ready to look the other way in something like

this, it helps if there is a qualitative difference

in the type of killing committed. Even, cannibalism.

     "Let me ask you something Mr. Reporter. Do you

see a difference between Tojo generals eating a

dining plate of kid fliers versus a starving

fraulein facing starvation of her daughter and

herself. Doing this as a last resort?"

     As compelling as the point may or may not be,

it was only a minor consideration, according to

Clefferds. The real concern was the need for a
Post War Western Alliance to counter the
Soviets.

     The former JIOA/Operation Paperclip operative

outlined at least five instances of cannibalism he personally

knew of, which to his satisfaction were verified as

having occurred. These were mainly young to middle-

aged German women seducing U.S. and some other

Allied personnel to compromised situations where

they were drugged, killed, butchered, cooked, and
served as food for the starving women, their families.

And at times neighbors.

     Most disturbing is that in at least one of those

instances, vampirism was also verified to have
occurred. That as both a method to kill the drugged
personnel, and as an additional food source.

     "As disgusting as this stuff sounds, the fact

was that less than 50 victims were ever identified.
And it is my belief that in all of it, I doubt if there

were more than 100 victims total. If that.

 Perhaps more disturbing than even the killing, desecration

and cannibalization of U.S. GI's, were proven instances of

'vampirism', whereby bound victims were killed by the drinking

of their blood prior to butchering and cannibalism.

     "But the specific reason none of this was allowed

to reach light of day? Political. Clearly,

unequivocally, undeniably, and righfully so.

     "In the war that was coming, and I think

history has proved (sic) Churchill exactly right, whether

it was the Cold War that did happen, or the hot

war with the Soviets we thought was coming...a

public relations disaster would have ensued

making it impossible to turn Germans into

allies of the West.

     "And that, Mr. Reporter, would have

led, undeniably, to a world that would've made

a loss to Hitler seem like tiddly winks. Hitler was

a Napoleon. We could have fought an occupation

and overturned it in time, with God's help. But a

technologically overwhelming Soviet Union that'd

scooped up all Hitler's scientists, would have

put the West at an unendurable loss, (and) would

have turned Earth into a living Hell.

     "As personally disgusting as cannibalism,

something like that could not be allowed to disturb

the future alliance of Germany and the West that would,

and I think you'll agree did, save freedom in the Post

War World."

The 'Whitewash'

     From 1945 to 1947 Rick Clefferds personally

worked as a can-do member of Operation Paperclip,

a program of the U.S. Office of Strategic Services
under JIOA.

     He had the exigent and critical task of bringing

German Nazi scientists over to the Allied side by

'cleansing' or 'bleaching' their Nazi past. To

integrate them into a Western defense in the

'cold', or assumed 'hot', war with the Soviet Union

that was thought by elements of the West to be coming.

     The most famous of these file cleansings was none

other than of the designer of rockets for both

Hitler's unsuccessful V-2 attempt to level London,

and for John Kennedy's successful plan to put a man on

the moon.

     Wernher von Braun.

To be fair, JIOA personnel verified only about 50 actual victims of

cannibalism by German women in the Western Occupied Zones

after WW2. All Allied military men. Despite small numbers

compared to other horrors of the war, the stigma of women

seducing men to kill, and then eat, is a horrific one.

     "Most people now know we went to the moon on Nazi

brainpower. Lots and lots of it. Von Braun was just the

tip of that iceberg," says Clefferds, a tall, gracefully

aging man with remnants of a Texas accent and a penchant

for Lucky Strikes, "a habit I picked up working in

the American Zones (in Germany). We handed 'em out for

free to our guys."

     Clefferds has made the case for an equivalence

in importance of saving Nazi scientists and covering

up occurrences of women cannibalizing Western (mostly

U.S.) personnel in the American Zones.

     "One woman I can verify had parts of four

skeletons identified as U.S. and British personnel

in her basement, and pieces of one butchered

young GI in an icebox. She ended up in Italy married to a

wealthy Fiat executive. (She) admitted paying a

prostitute to get them (the victims) drunk during sex,

and let her have them (afterward). She'd take the drunk

young men, pour scotch down their throats until they were

out (unconscious, and) put them on a slant board. Slit their

throats, wrists, and bleed 'em. Her defense, given in pretty

good English was,'they did not suffer'.

     "I personally wanted to taker her outside and shoot

her. I don't know one agency person there who didn't. Or

worse. But we had a world to save, and making an incident

was exactly the wrong way to do that."

 A  fraulein early in the war, attached as a service assistant to a unit

of the Wermacht. By war's end women such as her would be dealing

with the overwhelming  conditions of a decimated nation. This woman

had been investigated by JIOA investigators for seduction in the

disappearance of six U.S. servicemen. Stamped on her file was the 

word, 'INCONCLUSIVE'.

     Clefferds grimaces at the recounting.

     "This is the first time I told anyone this. I

was the guy who got her into Rome. I set meetings

up between Hilda (not her name, but what

investigators nicknamed her) and a half-dozen very

eligible men that were getting rich through the Marshall

Plan.

     "I didn't have a shrink to guarantee anything, but

our position on the ground was that these women went

through hell. Put in a good situation, she would not

commit these acts again. Shit, we weren't going to do

what the Nazis did, and take her out and shoot her, no

matter how much that would have been my personal

preference.

     "She wasn't a bad looker either.

Most of them weren't, which is how they suckered

these kids in. In the end, I'd say nearly all of them were

normal women who'd been pushed too far. Which doesn't

say much for 'normal', but there you are."

     Did the Fiat executive know of her past?

     "Are you shitting me? You think we said,

'By the way, your new lovely wife ate four Allied

military personnel?' That was a non-starter son.

     "No one knew the real past of any of these women.

It couldn't have been done otherwise. And to this day, I've not

heard about any of them going back zombie on us."

     But Clefferds points out that if President Truman,

or leaders of any of the Allied Nations, had been aware

of any of this, even resurrection of the scientists,

the entire operation would have been shuttered.

Horror movie or History?

     Clefferds is more eager to discuss the political

reasons for whitewashing these acts than dwelling on

the horrors themselves. After all, his job was to

erase this chapter from history.

     With the fall of the USSR, and a unified West, and

unimpeachable German-U.S. relationship, truth can safely

be analyzed, Clefferds feels. It also allows him to speak

about the one incident that gave him pause. That might

have led to his quitting the program. Or worse, exposing

Paperclip's role in covering up the cannibalism of U.S.

personnel in the U.S. Zones.

 In the end, the orders against 'fraternization' were ignored by 

young GI's who never could have imagined how an affair with

a pretty woman could become a nightmare.

     "I remember a young girl, German girl, was brought

in by the constab (U.S. Constabulary, U.S. forces acting

in police capacities in U.S. occupied zones). She

looked well-fed, which in itself was odd,"

Clefferds recalls.

     "What truly haunted me, and to this day, was the

look in her eyes. No way to describe that."

     The 11-year old girl had wandered into

a local constabulary HQ. She had a story that first

amused the U.S. personnel. Then horrified them as they

became uncertain whether it was in fact real or not.

     The OSS was contacted, which quickly had the

matter referred to JIOA. Clefferds and his superior

had the girl brought in for questioning.

     "My CO left the room. 'It's yours Rick. Why

they pay you the big bucks' he said. Of course I knew

he had to maintain his deniability. But hell, who wanted

to hear this."

   

     The young girl told Clefferds how her father had

been killed on the Eastern Front, and her brother,

12-years-old, had joined the civilian forces for the

defense of the homeland in the final days of the war.

The brother had been killed as well. The girl, her

mother and her aunt were all that remained.

     As sad and horrendous as the story would be,
it was not something that could be dismissed as untrue
given the dreadful German conditions. And given what
else Clefferds had seen, and had found people to be
capable of.

     "She told how her aunt, and then her

mother, started seeing soldiers. The GI's were 'kind'

to them. Still, her aunt, by the girl's words, hated

the soldiers. Specially having to 'love' them

in exchange for things, as the kid put it."

     The girl ended up describing something

out of a vampire film from the 1990s, which must

have been mind blowing to a young foreign service

worker in occupied Germany in 1946.

     "It was insane. The girl didn't even have the

words to describe what she'd seen. Even with the

interpreters."

   

     Clefferds and a discreet group of OSS investigators

went to the residence, arrested the girl's aunt and

mother, shocked at what they found. An apartment

that, in the front room, was was set up like a brothel.

Behind curtains leading to another room, there was what

Clefferds could only describe as a killing room.

Beyond that was a butchery and large ice box in the room

of an abandoned apartment behind their flat.

     "The insanity was what they had to say. The

aunt was a bona fide Nazi. Had her party papers. The

whole thing. She hated us. She bragged about the young

soldiers she brought home. (That) she and her sister took

into that back room and killed.

     "The Germans are a clean people. And that killing

room looked spic and span. Like a kitchen. But you knew

what went on there. It creeps me out right now. There were

a few specks of blood on the huge butcher knives. They
tested human."

   

     Why had the German women admitted so easily what they

had done? According to Clefferds, that was normal, if

that word can be used, with virtually all the women who
authorities discovered committing such acts.

     "They saw it as some form of accepted resistance.

Something they could, and even should, be proud of. There

was nothing left to them. They couldn't even fight and die,

like their men could. So this was it.
     "When uncovered, it was like saying,

'Fuck you! We still can fight.' I was provided

one psychologist by the government who had clearance to

discuss all I went through. To help me. This was his
suggestion. And over years of thinking (about) this, I think he
had it (right)."

D

Dyanne Thorne, in her role as the ultimate German Bitch,

ILSA SHE WOLFE OF THE SS. Another latter day caricature

of at least some events that were in fact documented by the

Joint Intel Objectives Agency.

     Clefferds continued describing what he learned from

the women about what they'd done.

     At first they had attempted to keep their

daughter/niece out of the rooms when they had a soldier

there. But the spaces were small, and the girl saw more

than they had imagined.

     The aunt proudly detailed everything that was done

to the unlucky GI's. The mother, when told what her

sister said, affirmed it was true.

     The women would bring one soldier home at a time.

The young GI would clearly be contravening the laws

against fraternization with Germans. Which was not unusual.

     In the front room the young American would be seduced

by both the aunt and mother. Clefferds described them

"as women any man might have trouble resisting, fraternization

laws or no laws".

     The aunt, despite hatred of the Allies, was

more than happy to initiate sex. The mother would give the

victim drinks of alcohol. Ironically, the scotch and bourbon

came from other GI's hoping for sex, or casually fraternizing.

Often, the aunt would begin with oral intercourse, and then

actual. The mother would do more casual things, like kissing

the victims in between feeding them drinks of the hard stuff.

     According to Clefferds, the aunt "may have hated

Americans, but she sure enjoyed fucking them. Figuratively

as much as in deed."

 

     The most shocking would occur next. It made Clefferds

particularly angry that a little girl would have seen it.

     When the GI's were taken into the 'killing room', it

wasn't just killing that would occur. The women, mostly the

aunt, but the mother too, would engage in sex with the young

American military personnel as they were bound, and being killed.

[to be continued]