Lecture 13: The Post-War Settlement and the Seeds of the Cold War

Refugees on the Move, 1945

- Beginning from the shape Europe was in following SWW because things did not return to normal
and for many sufferings just began
- First off, the death toll, at least 21 M soldiers died alongside 40M civilians as we saw between 20
and 30M died in SU alone and then Jews and other victims
- Aside from the death toll, these numbers also head consequences first a large number of men did
not return form war and so post-war population was predominantly females and this demographic
destruction where in Germany 2/3 men in the year 1918 did not survive the war

War Orphans Receive Hand-Made Toys

- And this demographic imbalance had major consequence: in Berlin summer 1946, a
survey found that among adults between 19 and 21, there were 182 men verses 1105
women and this disproportion of population meant that much of task of rebuilding the
city fell to women and female workers became the face of post-war construction and
leads to another thing of material destruction because of the war

Slide 5
- The fact for instance that transportation and communication networks lay in ruin was a
major barrier to quick recovery
- Roads, railways had to be blown up to prevent advances into or retreat from territories as
the Germans retreated to Germany, they destroyed much of infrastructure as they passed
- For example, in France there were 12 000 railway locomotives when the war began and
by 1945 reduced to 2 000
- In SU, 40 000 miles of railway track were destroyed
- destruction of cities and town meant that economic and productive capacity of European
states were diminished and in SU for example, 32 000 factories were left to rubble and
because these places were destroyed products needed for post war consumer to rebuild
lives were not available and this meant food was a short supply and so hunger and
starvation as a problem and for much of 1945 the population of Hungary live son 565
calories per say and this was not just for East, in Holland 16000 Dutch citizens died in
winter of 1944/1945 after the country was liberated

Displaced persons seeking shelter in Berlin, December 1945

- now another problem was homelessness following the destruction of apartment losses in
major European cities
o SU – 25M people after war
o Germany – 20M, ½ M in just Hamburg
- There were also people that were homeless, orphaned, and so millions of refugees and
displaced people made of liberated prisoners, Jews that survived CC, forced labourer
taken from east to work in German factories and many of these people were in terrible
shape so much so thousands form CC continues to die after and many of those that did
survive desperately needed care and refused to return to home countries
- Also had people that sided with Germans that were chased from their homeland will the
fall of Nazi regime and many were executed but many fled west and especially those that
fled the Soviet advance towards Germany and this included from Baltic states, Romania,
 Poland, Ukraine, Hungary and other that were determined to avoid being caught under
communist rule
- So as much as Nazis want dot remake Europe through extermination, deportation, and
settlement, the end of war brought a dramatic end and 30M displaced people roamed
Europe in camps of displaced people and it took these people a decade to move safely
somewhere and the last of these camps only closed in early 1960s

French woman publicly shamed by head-shaving for alleged involvement with the
Germans
- Also brought brutal acts of retribution and revenge and many of those that lost family and
friends felt rage towards Germans and accompanies
- Women were targeted for rape and public shaming if they were felt to have collaborated
with enemy
- In Eastern Europe, 13M ethnic Germans so people that lived outside Germany were
forced from homes and deported to Germany and this happened in Sudetenland of
Czechoslovakia

Expulsion of Ethnic Germans, 1945

- When the war ended, and the Czech land transferred back the president said that they
were to get rid of the German problem once and for all
- German property was expropriated, German land seized, and Germans were stripped of
their citizenship and 3M ethnic Germans were expelled and dumped into Germany over
18-month period

German POWs in Moscow

- And then there were the 2.3M German prisoners of war the SU had swallowed whole and
a million died in soviet captivity and hundreds of thousands were kept even after hostility
ended to work as slave labourer to rebuild the SU and those that had survived all this only
returned to Germany after Stalin’s death in 1953
- This was also part of pattern of retribution to reshape Europe; for the soviets the fact that
the Nazis killed nearly 3M POWs during Operation Barbarossa justified to use Germán
prisoners as they liked

The Ginza, Tokyo 1945

- And there was the Pacific and destruction there, Japan cities in ruins, China recovering
from loss of 20M citizens and states around Pacific trying to rebuild from Japanese terror
- And in the end perhaps all of these statistics and circumstance brought the truly horrific
nature of SWW where civilians were targeted, POWS taken to be starved and executed,
and nations taken to be exterminated and would take a generation to repair and rebuild
itself

Slide 11
- How was all this to be sorted? How were the global politics to be reorganized once the
domination of Axis powers proceeded and how would peace and balance be restored and
ho and how the diplomatic decision after the war did not leave to peace and instead lead
to the Cold War that pitted the Free World (US) with SU
 - To understand this, need to go a few years back and analyze the relationship between
these two and how did this close and crucial partnership quickly turn to mutual suspicion
and threat of nuclear war
- The alliance between western allies and SU was made to see Hitler defeated and not
because of common political ideal and goals but despite difference when Germany
invaded SU, Stalin became a major figure of Allied relationship

Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill at Tehran (Iran), November 1943

- Some time ago the Big Three, met in Tehran where they planned D-Day but aside from
this planning the also discussed how the war progressing and how it would end and it was
clear that SU because of geographic region would liberate Eastern Europe and Soviets
and western allies would meet up in Germany which they did
- The allies reached the conclusion that Germany would be partitioned between SU and
western allies and these people came away feeling optimistic between the alliance
between these three

The Big Three at Yalta, February 1945

- These impressions would change quickly so what happened to this alliance that had
worked well? Need to look at the next major conference in Yalta, Ukraine

Europe 1945
- By the time of the second meeting at Yalta, the defeated Germany was a forgone
conclusion and eastern Europe already under SU and Red Army only 100 miles outside
of Berlin and western powers were faced with reality of 11M Red Army taking position
of Eastern Europe and much of central Europe and Stalin considered these territories to
be under his influence, territories that would be a part of Soviet block for him the these
states would be as buffer that would protect them from future western aggression

Slide 15
- The problem was that by this point of the war Roosevelt wanted to move away from the
earlier notions of spheres of influence as discussed in Tehran and instead plan around
national self-determinism (idea that every nation had the right to choose own destiny) and
in Yalta Roosevelt didn’t want to carve up Europe between US, GB, and SU once the war
over but wanted the end of system of unilateral action, exclusive alliance, and spheres of
influences and despite these differences there was still goodwill amongst the alliance
after all flushed with prospect of victory and Roosevelt was able to push he primary
concerns of US and that was the creation of UN

The Signing of the Charter of the United Nations, 1945

- Roosevelt believed that by creating a robust international organization set up to regulate
global affairs and diffuse conflict that he could prevent states from acting unilaterally and
help to preserve world peace and he managed to win both Churchill and Stalin to this idea
= UN born and would hold first meeting in SF in April 1945, a direct result of SWW and
Roosevelt’s determination to revert future conflict by creating international organization
where things could be solved and talking through diplomatically
 - And even after Yalta things didn’t seem so bad and despite difference, they were still
working together but during the final months where union amongst the allies really began
to tatter and both sides (western and SU) felt they were being betrayed by the other
o Russian perspective: the fact that Americans pulled back on promised loan for
reconstruction indicated for SU that they wanted to keep the SU weak
o American perspective: Stalin was betrayer because he was violating Allied
agreement by installing communist government in Poland and Romania without
free elections and taking of Europe by creating puppet states

Clement Atlee, Harry Truman and Joseph Stalin at Potsdam, July 1945
- So by the time the allies met for the last time, in Potsdam (defeated Germany) relations
between then were at breaking point where Roosevelt’s affection for Stalin had died in
April 1945 while still being in office and was seceded by Truman who took harder
approach and since the USA successfully used an atomic bomb, the western allies felt
they didn’t need SU assistance against Japan
- Truman felt the US didn’t have any reason to give in to Stalin
- Churchill replaced by Clemen and the end result was that the old comradery was gone,
and a new coldness was governed this final meeting and Truman made tougher demands
including that SU allow free election Eastern Europe

Slide 18
- We see the emergence of Cold War and the differences between SU and Western power
that would remain source of conflict for decades and the SU did not view their action as
ruthless expansionism but instead as a security measure and Stalin reminded his allies
that it was the West attacking the East and not the other way around but little sympathy in
west for SU and less trust in Stalin himself and many in the west interpreted SU policy as
part of worldwide communists conspiracy to dominate globe and SU viewed American
policy as global capitalist expansionist plan based on economic imperialism designed to
isolate SU
- Bottom line is less than a year the grand alliance had fallen apart and only months after
SWW drawn to end the world once again divided

Churchill speaks in Missouri, 1946:

“The Iron Curtain”

Slide 20

The Soviet communist Germany (in Red)

- As a result of these tension, Europe was divided between East and West and Germany
was divided into two as was the capital Berlin
- European states also divided based of spheres of influence and this Iron Curtain would
not fall for more than 15 years and this rhetoric would bring the war to brink of nuclear
war
Stalin and Roosevelt chat…
- Post war justice and following war a number of prominent figures that trials would be
held for war-time atrocities not only so that Allies could lead to retribution and
punishment but also to reinsert the ideal and values that were close to being destroyed

The London Charter of 1945:

• 1. Crimes Against Peace – planning, preparation, initiation and waging of aggression and
violation of international treaty so waging of war
• 2. War Crimes- traditional and crimes against prisoner and civilians so murder, ill
treatment and deportation
• 3. Crimes Against Humanity – Holocaust and for jurisdiction for German vs German,
associated with persecution of racial, religious and political ground; real innovation of the
trials
• 4. Conspiracy – being able to ensnare legally people who had taken part in drafting these
plans even though miles away from sites where these schemes were planned out
- Organizations to be indicted as criminal include:
- The Nazi Party, the SS, the SA, the Gestapo, and the Military High Command (to declare
not only induvial but the SS so criminal organizations)
o Interestingly, this position was not initially shared at all and the idea to hold war
crime trials so holding people responsible for the acts committed was novel and
new idea in 1945, the B favoured the execution of Nazi figures, the Russian
favoured trials for senior member for propaganda and for lower ranking Nazi,
Stalin said that 50 000 should be chosen and shot but American took them
seriously and convinced other because allow for punishment while allow for
assertion of moral high ground, reorient German to democracy, and expose the
Nazis, and the reasons why SWW was fought
o How would these trials and name and try and punish unprecedented crime or war
and genocide? And implicated thousands of perpetrators? The standard principle
of international law was that nation could be prosecuted for acts against its own
nation and so these trials would have to break notion that nation are free to
conduct internal affairs as they like
o And then there was issue of assigning individual criminals for acts identified as
acts of state so how to charge individual for starting war, rebuilding military and
who beyond Hitler was responsible and so how could prosecutors reach both he
men who wrote order and obeyed them
o Decided that the four major victorious powers would try the most senior surviving
members in massive international trail in Nuremburg and lesser post men would
be tried by each individual in the zones they occupied but the international effort
the allies met to govern these trial and was agrees that GB, US, SU, and France
would each be responsible for one of the four charges

Goering, Speer and Kaltenbrunner

- Now the allies also had to choose defendants and those chosen were those who occupied
key positions and offices, and many excluded like Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels
- These three were some of the major ones left
The defendants in the dock…
- The trials began in November of 1945 and the best accounts was written by Rebecca
West
- She wrote how the opening of trials was greeted by anticipation and excitement of
theatrical opening night and these defendants appeared elderly and sallow

Robert H. Jackson Addresses the Court

- Now preceding began with very popular opening speeches by Robert Jackson

Goering and Hess Snooze…

- But despite the drama of this first movement the day to day reality of Nuremburg was
characterized by numbing boredom because all the documentary evidence needed to be
read page by page and recorded
- She described how layers and secretaries sagged in their seat, how the guards’ eyes were
puffy with boredom and everyone wanted to leave Nuremburg as early as possible but
there also was drama

Otto Ohlendorf, leader of Einsatzgruppe D, as a witness

- This happened for instance where Otto Ohlendorf confessed to have shot 90 000 Jews
- Rudolph Hoess took the stand and estimate that 2.5M people would have been murdered
in Auschwitz

Rudolf Hoess, commandant of Auschwitz, in Court

- While people like these two appeared as witnesses, both who were tried and executed, the
Holocaust was hardly the central focus and instead these trials wanted to punish the
Germans for conspiracy they hatched through aggressive war to conquer Europe
- And this trial went on for 11 months, 11 death, 7 prison terms, and 3 equated and the
judgment alone had 50 000 words and took two days to read

The Nuremberg Trial Judges

- West noted that the trials conclusion and an unexpected gloom fell over the lawyers
despite all the proceeded producing evidence that the men were abscesses of cruelty and
these men did represent the Third Reich

The defendants…

Goering’s Suicide
- And so, on the night of October 19th, 10 of the 11 were hanged and Goering cheated the
hangman and committed suicide and their bodies later cremated so that there wouldn’t be
a memorial for them
- The fact that 11 men paid with their lives for 60M lives
- The trial was an attempt to re-establish law