Editing Victor Gollancz (section)

===Occupation of Germany after World War II===
In April 1945, Gollancz addressed the issue of [[German collective guilt]] in a pamphlet, ''What Buchenwald Really Means'' that explained that not all Germans were guilty. He maintained that hundreds of thousands of gentiles had been persecuted by the Nazis and many more had been terrorized into silence. He also argued that British citizens who had allegedly done nothing to save the Jews despite living in a democracy were not free of guilt. This marked a shift of Gollancz's attention towards the people of Germany. In September 1945, he started an organisation [[:de:Save Europe Now|Save Europe Now (SEN)]] to campaign for the support of Germans,<ref>Edwards (1987), p. 410.</ref> and over the next four years he wrote another eight pamphlets and books addressing the issue and visited the country several times.

Gollancz's campaign for the humane treatment of German civilians involved efforts to persuade the British government to end the ban on sending provisions to Germany and ask that it pursue a policy of reconciliation, as well as organising an airlift to provide Germany and other war-torn European countries with provisions and books. He wrote regular critical articles for, and letters to, British newspapers, and after a visit to the [[Allied-occupied Germany#British Zone of Occupation|British Zone of Occupation]] in October and November 1946, he published these along with photographs of malnourished German children he took there in ''In Darkest Germany''<ref>Victor Gollancz: ''In Darkest Germany''. With an Introduction by Robert M. Hutchins. Hinsdale, Ill.: Regnery 1947.  free download.</ref> in January 1947.

On the [[expulsion of Germans after World War II]] he said: "So far as the conscience of humanity should ever again become sensitive, will this expulsion be an undying disgrace for all those who remember it, who caused it or who put up with it. The Germans have been driven out, but not simply with an imperfection of excessive consideration, but with the highest imaginable degree of brutality." In his 1946 book ''Our Threatened Values'', Gollancz described the conditions [[Sudeten Germans|Sudeten German]] prisoners faced in a Czech [[Internment|internment camp]]: "They live crammed together in shacks without consideration for gender and age... They ranged in age from 4 to 80. Everyone looked emaciated... the most shocking sights were the babies... nearby stood another mother with a shrivelled bundle of skin and bones in her arms... Two old women lay as if dead on two cots. Only upon closer inspection, did one discover that they were still lightly breathing. They were, like those babies, nearly dead from hunger".

When Field Marshal [[Bernard Montgomery]] wanted to allot each German citizen a guaranteed diet of only 1,000 calories a day and justified this by referring to the fact that the prisoners of the [[Bergen-Belsen concentration camp]] had received only 800, Gollancz wrote in response about food shortages in Germany before the end of World War II, pointing out that many prisoners in Nazi concentration camps never even received 800 calories. "There is really only one method of re-educating people", explained Gollancz, "namely the example that one lives oneself."

Gollancz explained his rationale thus, "In the management of our helping actions should nothing, but absolutely nothing else, be decisive than the degree of need." For his biographer, [[Ruth Dudley Edwards]], Gollancz's campaign was based in his concern for the moral underdog and his enjoyment in fighting for unpopular causes.<ref>Edwards (1987), p. 401.</ref> The campaign led Gollancz's friend, Rev. [[John Collins (priest)|John Collins]], to start ''Christian Action'' in December 1946, an organisation with similar aims (which later became involved in the campaign against Apartheid).<ref>Edwards (1987), p. 450.</ref> In 1960, Gollancz was awarded the [[Peace Prize of the German Book Trade]] for his work with SEN.