The Allied Occupation of Germany
The Allied Occupation of Germany
In the years following World War II, the Allies occupied a shattered Germany. Many elements of this period of Western occupation have been rather neglected in the schema of World War II history, and the story of the sectors administered by the Britis...
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In the years following World War II, the Allies occupied a shattered Germany. Many elements of this period of Western occupation have been rather neglected in the schema of World War II history, and the story of the sectors administered by the British and Americans is a fascinating one which encompassed revenge for the war, the 'civilising' of 'barbaric' German values and the resettling of refugees as huge numbers of Germans were expelled from Eastern and Central Europe. Britain occupied North-Western Germany for ten years, overseeing the rehabilitation of 'the biggest single forced population movement in modern history'. This was a humanitarian crisis on an unprecedented scale - with hospitals, houses, transport networks and schools mostly destroyed during the war, and the British and Americans running enormous and often inhumane refugee camps. The Allies set about rebuilding the cities which had been destroyed by British and American bombers, and created a new political and economic system - this was part of the 'denazification' of Germany. This book assesses how the British squared their ethical focus on liberalism wit their status as an occupying power responsible for an ongoing humanitarian crisis, and examines the economic, military and political pressures of the period in depth through key turning points - the bombing of Hamburg in 1943 and its aftermath, the case of Schleswig-Holstein unable to absorb overwhelming numbers of expellees, the mismanagement of the refugee camp system and the fallout between occupiers and occupied after the Nuremburg trials of 1945/6.'
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