World War II

The Impact of Total War

Economic Damage: Western Europe

Impact of Strategic Bombing 75% of Berlin Uninhabitable 20 million homeless in Germany Dutch lose 219,000 hectares of land French lose 40% of prewar transportation systems Norway lost 14% prewar capital

Dresden After Allied Bombing

Economic Damage: Eastern Europe

USSR 70,000 villages & 1,700 towns 32,000 factories 40,000 miles of RR track Greece 1/3 of forest 2/3 merchant marine Hyperinflation from German extraction of cost of occupation Poland 3/4 RR track 1/6 farms City of Warsaw leveled Yugoslavia 25% of vineyards 50% livestock 60% of roads 75% of RR bridges 1/5 of all dwellings 1/3 of industry

The Human Cost

36 million Europeans die!

Deadliest and Most Destructive Conflict in Human History

Military Deaths

COUNTRY MILITARY DEATHS USSR 8.6 million

Germany Italy Rumania United States China 4 million 400,000 300,000 405,399

2.2 million
1.7 million

D-Day Invasion

Japan

Civilian Deaths

CIVILIAN DEATHS Japan 500,000 China 15-20 million USSR 16 million Poland 5 million Yugoslavia 1.4 million Greece 430,000 France 350,000 Hungary 270,000 Netherlands 204,000 Rumania 200,000 ALL EUROPE 19 million

COUNTRY

Proportion of Pre-War Population Lost

COUNTRY
Poland Yugoslavia USSR Greece Germany France Britain

PROPORTION OF POP LOST 1/5 1/8 1/11 1/14 1/15 1/77 1/25

Demographic Change
Gender Imbalance
USSR: 20 million more women than men Germany: 2/3 of men born in 1918 did not live to see 1945 Yugoslavia: All men in entire villages wiped out

Orphans
Yugoslavia: 300,000 Poland: 200,000 Netherlands: 60,000 Czechoslovakia: 49,000

Belgian Refugees

Ethnic Cleansing
Germans exterminate Jews, Gypsies, Slavs Homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Communists Red Army Rapes & Pillages 87,000 women in Vienna raped in 3 weeks following occupation 150-200,000 Russian babies born to German women 1945-1946 Displaced Persons Refugees Allies force migration of ethnic minorities

The Red Army Seizes Berlin

(35,000 Soviets die in this battle alone!)

The Impossible Peace

Three Big Questions What will Eastern Europe look like?
What to do with Germany?

What form will post-war international relations take?

Allied Summits
Casablanca: January 1943 Allies Agree to Call for Germanys Unconditional Surrender Teheran: December 1943 Allies agree to divide Germany Border between Poland & the USSR will move to the west USSR to have access to Baltic Sea Moscow: October 1944 (Stalin & Churchill only, no FDR) Secret Deal Churchill & Stalin agree on percentages of influence in Eastern Europe Not too significant ratified the inevitable Only Balkans were up for grabs both agreed to 50:50 split

Eastern Europe
Soviet troops physically occupied E. Europe at end of WWII. USSR viewed E. Europe as essential to its security It wanted a sphere of influence.

Yalta
(February, 1945)
Declaration of Liberated Europe Promise to form representative gov.s, facilitate elections, etc. U.S. & GB formally accept Soviet domination of Eastern Europe Left out issue of Germany b/c it was so divisive Did FDR sell out?

The Big Three at Yalta

The Iron Curtain

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow. -Winston Churchill, March 5, 1946

The German Question

Plan A: The Morgenthau Plan
Plan for the Leveling of the Post-War Economy March 1946 Strictly limited German Industry, de-Nazification, abolished army It is of the utmost importance that every person know, that this time, Germany is a defeated nation. -Henry Morgenthau, Jr. U.S. Sec. of Treasury

Plan B
Re-build Germany so it can become a self-supporting ally. You can have peace, or you can have vengeance, but you cant have both. -Herbert Hoover to Harry Truman

Potsdam
July 17-August 2, 1945
Nullified German annexations including Austria Statement of Occupation Aims Prosecution of war criminals Expelled Germans living outside of new Germany Germany to pay reparations Division of Germany, Austria & their capitals into 4 zones Potsdam Declaration: Unconditional Surrender in Truman Stalin Japan (USA) (USSR) German question to be decided at final peace conference, which never occurs.

Atlee
(GB)

Divided by Default
US came to favor a unified Germany w/ reconstructed economy. USSR still saw a restored Germany as a major threat. Britain, France, USA merged zones to form West Germany (May, 1949). USSR established East Germany as a satellite state (Oct. 1949).
West Germany Divided Berlin

East Germany

Postwar International Cooperation

1. War Crimes Trials in Germany, Japan, & Italy 2. The United Nations 3. The Bretton Woods Accords

The Nuremburg Trials

First known war crimes trial. Originally tried 24 Germans for crimes against humanity. No clear legal precedent. Most suspects claimed the court had no jurisdiction Claimed it was victors justice 12 sentenced to death, 9 jailed, 3 acquitted In all, about 1800 Germans tried after WWII

The United Nations

Truman Addresses the UN UN founded Oct. 1945 Conference (1945) Security Council Five permanent members w/ vetoes: United States, Great Britain, France, USSR & China General Assembly Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

The Bretton Woods Accords

(July 1944)

Defined structure of postwar international finance & trade. Created -International Monetary Fund (IMF) -World Bank -General Agreement on Tariffs & Trade (precursor to World Trade Organization)