The Legacies of the Second World War

In the summer of 1945, Europe lay in ruins. Across the continent, the fighting had destroyed cities and landscapes and obliterated buildings, factories, farms, rail tracks, roads, and bridges. Many cities were completely devastated. The human costs of the Second World War are almost incalculable (Map 28.1). The death toll far exceeded the mortality figures for World War I. In total, about 50 million human beings perished in the conflict.

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MAP 28.1 The Aftermath of World War II in Europe, ca. 1945–1950By 1945, millions of people displaced by war and territorial changes were on the move. The Soviet Union and Poland took land from Germany, which the Allies partitioned into occupation zones. Those zones subsequently formed the basis of the East and West German states. Austria was detached from Germany and similarly divided, but the Soviets subsequently permitted Austria to reunify as a neutral state.> MAPPING THE PASTANALYZING THE MAP: Which groups fled west? Who went east? How would you characterize the general direction of most of these movements?
CONNECTIONS: What does the widespread movement of people at the end of the war suggest about the war? What does it suggest about the ensuing political climate?

The destruction of war also left tens of millions homeless. These displaced persons (or DPs) — their numbers increased by concentration camp survivors, released prisoners of war, and hundreds of thousands of orphaned children — searched for food and shelter. From 1945 to 1947, the newly established United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) opened over 760 DP camps and spent $10 billion to house, feed, clothe, and repatriate the refugees.

When the fighting stopped, Germany and Austria had been divided into four occupation zones, each governed by one of the Allies — the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and France. The authorities in each zone worked to punish those guilty of Nazi atrocities. Across Europe, almost 100,000 Germans and Austrians were convicted of war crimes; many more were investigated or indicted. In Soviet-dominated central and eastern Europe — where the worst crimes had taken place — retribution was particularly intense.

In Germany and Austria, occupation authorities set up “denazification” procedures meant to eradicate National Socialist ideology from social and political institutions and identify and punish former Nazi Party members responsible for the worst crimes. At the Nuremberg trials (1945–1946), an international military tribunal organized by the four Allied powers tried the highest-ranking Nazi military and civilian leaders who had survived the war, charging them with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Twelve were sentenced to death and ten more to lengthy prison terms.

As the Cold War developed and the Soviets and the Western Allies drew increasingly apart, each carried out separate denazification programs in their own zones of occupation. In the Western zones, military courts at first actively prosecuted leading Nazis. But the huge numbers implicated in Nazi crimes, German opposition to the proceedings, and the need for stability in the looming Cold War made thorough denazification impractical. Except for the worst offenders, the Western authorities had quietly shelved denazification by 1948. The process was similar in the Soviet zone. At first, punishment was swift and harsh. As in the West, however, former Nazis who cooperated with the Soviet authorities could avoid prosecution. Thus, many former Nazis found leading positions in government and industry in both the Soviet and Western zones.