Download The End of the War

THE END OF WWII
The Meetings of the ‘Big 3’
V-E Day
Displaced Peoples
The Big 3
• The US President and the British Prime Minister met with
Marshall Stalin on three occasions during the later part of
the war.

The first of these
meeting occurred
in November 1943
at the Soviet
Embassy in
Tehran.
The Yalta Conference
February 1945
The second meeting of the Big Three took place in Yalta in
the Crimea. At this conference decisions were made
regarding:
• The occupation of Germany and also Berlin
• The future government of Poland
• The basic framework of the United Nations
The End of the War
•
On April 30 Hitler committed suicide in a
Berlin bunker and on May 2 Berlin fell to the
Soviet Union.
• On May 8 -V-E Day- the world let out a collective
sigh of relief.
• This was far from the end of instability in the
world.
Potsdam and the Passing of Roosevelt
• On April 12, 1945 Roosevelt died and was replaced by the
VP Harry S. Truman
• In late July Churchill lost an election to Clement Atlee – as
such the meeting at Potsdam that was to finalize the
assault on Japan to have a very different tone than the
previous meetings.
Displaced Persons
• Europe suffered an
immediate
humanitarian crisis as
the wartime systems
of administration
ceased to exist
almost literally
overnight.
The Spread of Communism
• As the Red Army liberated Eastern Europe Stalin installed
Communist dictators in many countries.
• These dictators were ‘puppets’ who were expected to
answer directly to Moscow.
• This process created competing zones of influence
between the US and the Soviet Union.
• In the east, Stalin committed to fighting Japan within 90
days of the defeat of Germany.
Japan Surrenders
• War still raged in the Pacific
until Aug 1945
• (more on this later)
Humanitarian Crisis
•
The Allies were left to administer their zones of
occupation and feed, clothe and house those people
displaced by the war.
•
Many people’s homes had been destroyed or
reassigned during the war. Crops had been destroyed
and government in Central Europe was non-existent.
The UN
On October 24, 1945 the United Nations came into being.
This organization was intended to ensure that war on this
scale would never happen again.