Author: Stew Ross

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Jacques the Ripper

Sandy and I will be traveling during the first three weeks of April. We are “repurposing” a blog originally published in 2015 under the title of Jacques the Ripper and again in 2018, but in an expanded format under the new title of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Both titles are appropriate as our topic today is about a serial killer who passed himself off as a member of the French Resistance during the occupation. About the only difference between Mr. Hyde and Dr. Marcel Petiot is that Petiot did not drink serum to transform himself into the serial killer — he did it all on his own. His two Paris residences have been included as stops in volumes 1 (page 86) & 3 of Where Did They Put the Gestapo Headquarters?

Some of the artifacts discussed in this blog found their way to the Paris Police Museum (click here to visit the museum web-site). Along with our friend and the best Paris guide, Raphaëlle Crevet (raphaellecrevet@yahoo.fr), we toured the museum during our last visit to Paris and spent several hours examining its exhibits dedicated to the history and forensics of the Paris police department. The majority of exhibits dealt with actual criminal cases of murderers, serial killers (including today’s subject), assassins, thieves, and other unsavory individuals. The museum covers the period beginning in the 17th-century through the present. An original guillotine blade is on exhibit. Located in the 5e, the museum is on an upper floor of a working police station so reservations are a must. Our visit to the police museum with Raphaëlle was so much better than our visit to the Paris Sewer Museum.

Doktor Petiot. Photo by anonymous (15 March 1946). The Netherlands National Archives. PD-CCO 1.0 Universal. Wikimedia Commons.
Doktor Petiot. Photo by anonymous (15 March 1946). The Netherlands National Archives. PD-CCO 1.0 Universal. Wikimedia Commons.
Eighteenth century Paris police uniform. Photo by Sandy Ross (c. September 2022). Paris Police Museum.
Eighteenth century Paris police uniform. Photo by Sandy Ross (c. September 2022). Paris Police Museum.

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The Harriman Committee

The war against Hitler and Germany ended in early May 1945. Europe and in particular, Germany, was in ruins.  Millions of people were displaced. Estimates of displaced persons (DP) ranged between forty to sixty million including homeless, concentration camp survivors, labor camp inmates, and liberated prisoners of war.

Aerial view over the Rhine battle area: the ruins of Wesel, Germany. Photo by Sgt. Travis (c. 1944/45). Imperial War Museum – War Office Second World War Official Collection. PD-Expired copyright. Wikimedia Commons.
Aerial view over the Rhine battle area: the ruins of Wesel, Germany. Photo by Sgt. Travis (c. 1944/45). Imperial War Museum – War Office Second World War Official Collection. PD-Expired copyright. Wikimedia Commons.

European infrastructures were destroyed, food supplies were disrupted to the point where people continued to go hungry, coal for heating was still scarce, major transportation corridors were rendered useless, and manufacturing facilities had been bombed to the point where they could no longer function. (German factories suffered the most both from bombs and equipment pilfering by the Soviets.)

Gen. George C. Marshall (1880−1959), U.S. secretary of state, knew that it was imperative to get Europe back on its feet. The 900-lb gorilla in the room was the Versailles Treaty signed by Germany twenty-five years earlier. The terms of the treaty were so onerous that it was generally considered to be the catalyst for the emergence of Hitler and the Nazis. Gen. Marshall had a vision of the “new” Europe, and its prosperity would need to include all countries, including Germany.

Gen. George C. Marshall shaking hands with Sen. Tom Connally of Texas, as Sen. Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan (far left), President Truman, and James Byrnes (far right) look on, after Marshall’s swearing-in as secretary of state. Photo by Abbie Rowe (21 January 1947). National Archives and Records Administration. PD-U.S. government. Wikimedia Commons.
Gen. George C. Marshall shaking hands with Sen. Tom Connally of Texas, as Sen. Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan (far left), President Truman, and James Byrnes (far right) look on, after Marshall’s swearing-in as secretary of state. Photo by Abbie Rowe (21 January 1947). National Archives and Records Administration. PD-U.S. government. Wikimedia Commons.

The core of Gen. Marshall’s vision was comprehensive American economic assistance to the Europeans. There were two components for accomplishing this vision: creating a working plan and then the execution of the plan ⏤ in other words, getting it approved and funded by the American Congress. He acknowledged that the easy part was putting a plan together and the “heavy task” was “the execution” of the plan.

 To begin the process of developing an economic aid plan, an eighteen-member council was assembled. It was chaired by Averell Harriman (1891−1986), President Truman’s secretary of commerce. The council consisted of business leaders (e.g., CEOs of General Electric, B.F. Goodrich, and Procter & Gamble), labor leaders (e.g., George Meany of the AFL), academics, and public officials. The mission of the council was to develop a report on the “limits with which” the U.S. could provide economic relief to the Europeans. The President’s Committee on Foreign Aid, or the “Harriman Committee” as it was known, provided the road map that eventually became the “European Recovery Program” (ERP) and the final bill, “The Foreign Assistance Act of 1948.”

Averell Harriman. Photo by Joost Evers/Anefo (3 September 1965). Nationaal Archief. PD-CC CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. Wikimedia Commons.
Averell Harriman. Photo by Joost Evers/Anefo (3 September 1965). Nationaal Archief. PD-CC CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. Wikimedia Commons.

Then and now, it is commonly referred to as the “Marshall Plan.” Read More The Harriman Committee