The news of the end of the Second World War quickly spread in May 1945. But after the surrender of the Nazi regime, peace did not immediately return. Violence was still present; Guilt, stigma and doubts dominated the post -war period as well as denial and trivialization. German hesitated to return abroad. As forced laborers and prisoners of war to Germany, people abdomed remained in the country or emigrated. At the same time, the Allies, together with regime gegers, set the foundations for further German history.
Today, 80 years ago, the Second World War in Europe ended with the fact that the day before came in force to the surrender of all German forces. But the immediate post -war period after May 8, 1945 was also characterized by violence. In the interview, historian Johannes Großmann from the Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU) in Munich, which meant the end of the war for the German population-and how its consequences still work today.
How did the Germans learn on May 8, 1945 that the war was over?
Mostly on the radio, which was already broadcasting in real time. Newspapers also appeared several times a day, for example as an “extra sheet”. The news of surrender and end of the war spread very quickly. Where the Allies had already marched in – in Aachen around the fall of 1944 – there was already relative peace. In contrast, in the few areas, including a few spots in Bavaria, parts of Austria, Bohemia and Saxony – in the few areas still held by the Wehrmacht – the population was indoctrinated until the end.
How did the population experience the immediate post -war period?
Most were certainly relieved – but also in the unclear about how the Allies would now behave towards them. Because, according to recent studies, a large majority of Germans through direct experiences, descriptions of first-hand and rumors in the picture-even if the Nazi propaganda consistently held information about it through the war and violence against the Jews. After the end of the war, the Allied posters presented with pictures from the concentration camps, on which starved figures and corpses were seen. And they forced Germans to look at camp like Buchenwald or Dachau with their own eyes.
Was any violence on May 8th?
No, it remained present – on the one hand, by the fact that many Germans were dulled by experienced or self -exerted violence, on the other hand by weapons that came to private hands and were used for robberies and looting. In the first post-war weeks, gangs passed through the country: some were victims of the Nazi regime with feelings of revenge, other ideologically blinded or just criminals.
Violence by the occupiers also continued to play a role; Sexual attacks were omnipresent. Here, however, the formal end of the war actually marked an incision, since the Allies now reveal very clear commands to prevent violence against civilians – with hard punishments to death judgments. Finally, they could only counteract the accusation of the winning judiciary if they themselves did not commit war crimes.
The war also continued in Polish -occupied areas or Czechoslovakia as a violence event. Historical research today agreed that wars that go far beyond military conflicts, for example through systematic genocide and population shift like in World War II, do not simply end at the push of a button.
How did opponents of the Nazi regime go after the end of the war?
The Allies did not look for compromised elites to rebuild society and politics. For the local administrations, they often use political actors who had been cold by the Nazi regime: Social Democrats, Center Poler, but also nationalist or national liberal forces that were against monarchist or religious motives against National Socialism. Not everyone was flawless Democrats. “Remigrants” who had fled abroad in front of the Nazi regime and now often returned with good language skills were asked. However, some did not want to come back, others had a hard time finding a company that sometimes stigmatized them as “traitors”.
What happened to the surviving victims of the Nazi regime and with displaced persons?
Previous victims of the Nazi regime and displaced persons often lived in Germany after the end of the war. One of the millions of “displaced persons” included liberated concentration camp prisoners-Jewish survivors, defamed or queer by the Nazi regime-as well as millions of forced laborers from Russia, Ukraine and other formerly occupied areas. Violence and population suspension had gone hand in hand during the Second World War.
But many did not want to return to their countries of origin: the Jewish population was threatened in Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, for example after the war. Often, survivors remained in the former concentration camps, which converted the Allies into “Displaced Personal Camps”. These heavily traumatized people needed care and a life perspective that many found in immigration to Palestine or the United States. Former Soviet forced laborers and prisoners of war also hesitated to return home, where captivity was regarded as a cowardice before the enemy and collaboration. Many stayed in Western Europe or emigrated to the USA or Canada.
How did German regime supporters behave after the war?
A path that some Nazi and Wehrmacht elites chose out of hopelessness or ideological delusion was suicide, often collective. A second way was the escape – for example via the famous “rat line”, via Austria and Italy to Latin America. Most people liked to take the outstretched hand of the Allies and arranged themselves.
Many did not want to admit their own guilt and knew nothing about the atrocities of transferring poetry or stated that they had helped someone. Others appealed to have only been seduced by the regime. In this point of view, they were also encouraged by the Nuremberg processes in 1945 and 1946, in which political and military leadership elites were primarily on trial.
What is the importance of the immediate post -war period today?
It was a state of emergency that should be elementary for further German history. Many foundations of today’s political and social order in Germany go back to them- from public service broadcasting based on the British BBC model to the country and local constitutions to the Basic Law. The Allies also accompanied the change in the war economy trimmed to “total war” to an export -oriented peace industry. The cultural and scientific life was also rebuilt. The reopening and re -establishment of universities in particular was important to the Allies. They were convinced that only education could create a democratic, peaceful Germany.
How was the German crimes reminded after the end of the war?
After an intensive memory in the immediate post -war period, the establishment of the Federal Republic and the GDR used a more general, ritualized commemoration of the “victims of war and tyranny”. A critical argument initially remained difficult because many were part of the Nazi system and had little interest in dealing with. It was only in the course of the 1970s and 1980s that a more reflective and self-critical culture of remembrance was created.
Awareness of German guilt continues to this day – but in addition to intensive processing, there was also trivialization, relativization and demands from the start to draw a “final line”. What remains is a broad consensus that political decisions must be made taking into account the Nazi past-especially in foreign policy. The memory of National Socialism will not leave us without personal memories. The bitter experiences and consequences of that time are too much woven into our culture, politics and business – also by the course that the Allies set at the time.
Source: Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich