Referring to the Third Army letter mailed on the previous day, Patton proposed releasing some of the interned Nazis, “many of whom,” he said, “were either aged or pregnant.” Whether this was a joke or merely his extravagant language, it made a poor impression on his colleagues.

Letter, GSP, Jr., to Beatrice, August 27, 1945

1 have been at Frankfurt for a civil government conference. If what we are doing is “Liberty, then give me death.”

I can’t see how Americans can sink so low. It is Semitic, and I am sure of it.

Diary, A ugust 29

Today we received a letter . .. in which we were told to give the Jews special accommodations. if for Jews, why not Catholics, Mormons, etc? I called up General Bull, Deputy Chief of Staff for Eisenhower, and called his attention to possible repercussions but got nowhere. He simply stated that he had investigated it and that the letter had considerable background, Naturally I intend to carry out the instructions to the limit of my capacity in spite of my personal feelings against them and in spite of my fear that in doing such things we will lay ourselves open to just criticism.

We are also turning over to the French several hundred thousand prisoners of war to be used as slave labor in France. It is amusing to recall that we fought the Revolution in defense of the rights of man and the Civil War to abolish slavery and have now gone back on both principles.

The Patton Papers 1940-1945 By Martin Blumenson · 2009