17, The Aftermath of the Second World War

Question 1

Rape by Allied forces

Answer 1

Russian rape of German children

Question 2

Population transfers

Answer 2

15.4 million people displaced by war
1944-48, over 31 million people moved:
Germans fleeing persecution
Poles settling West Prussia and Silesia
Fleeing Ukraine (Poles had persecuted Ukrainians during war)

Question 3

Why did many Jews move to Israel after WW2?

Answer 3

Jews deported during holocaust return to their homes being occupied
State commission set up
State made homes state property, so many Jewish people moved to Israel

Question 4

Children post-war

Answer 4

Alice Baily, 1946: “they know no laws save the law of self-preservation.”

German Red Cross received 300,000 requests to trace missing children, 1945-58
International tracing Service traced 343,057 children, 1945-56

Question 5

French women who fraternised with German soldiers

Answer 5

Heads shaved as a mark of shame
Affairs not frowned upon as much at the time of war

Question 6

What was the Percentages Agreement of 1944 and how did it contribute to the creation of the Iron Curtain?

Answer 6

Churchill deal with Russia handed over more than half of Europe as UK uninterested in war (Romania, Bulgaria)

An iron curtain descends: 1946, Churchill admits he regrets handing so much of Europe over to Stalin – the Soviets are expansionists and want to take over Europe

Question 7

Why and what was the anti-Communist resistance in Poland?

Answer 7

Soviet Communist dominance in Poland

1945-47
The National Armed Forces (NSZ) and other bandits resisted the Communists through guerrilla warfare in the forests