Threads

The government of Germany

Occupation zones, denazification, disarmament, and whether Germany would be run as one economy or four. The Allied Control Council was the compromise, and unanimity was its flaw.

Day by day

The strongest passage on each day, with a link into the record at that exact point.

1. PreludeIntroduction2 passages

   He felt that matters could no longer be carried out by correspondence and that it was time for a third wartime summit between the Grand Alliance to take place. He also urged Truman to delay his withdrawal of American forces from what was now considered the Soviet occupation zone as agreed upon at Yalta, and to use their occupying position as equity before negotiating with Stalin. Although Truman acknowledged that there should be a meeting involving the heads of government,…

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2. 19 July 1945The Fate Of Europe3rd plenary · 1 passage

   Greece fell within a couple of months and its territory was then divided into occupation zones run by the Axis powers. Germany administered the most important regions of the country, which included Athens and Thessaloniki, while other parts, like the Dodecanese Islands and Western Thrace were administered by Italy and Bulgaria, respectively.

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3. 20 July 1945Peace In Italy4th plenary · 1 passage

   The President and the two Generals arrived in the American sector at the US Group Control Council Headquarters for a flag raising ceremony.

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4. 21 July 1945The Polish Question5th plenary · 2 passages

   In vague language at Yalta it had been agreed that Poland would get territory from Germany to the west to compensate what Russia had taken from Poland in the east. At the moment, however, the Red Army was occupying all of Polish territory from Germany’s 1937 border in the east all the way up to the Soviet zone of occupation in Germany in the west. Furthermore, a Soviet backed, Polish Administrative Area had already been established to run the area.

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5. 22 July 1945Poland Betrayed6th plenary · 2 passages

   President Truman’s main concern was that this ‘Polish Administered Area’ was essentially the creation of a fifth occupation zone, something that was made up of the Soviet-supported Lublin Committee and something that lacked the presence of the London Poles. He stated:

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6. 24 July 1945The Nuclear Age Begins8th plenary · 1 passage

   And then of course there was Germany itself – the culprit responsible for bringing the Big Three together in the first place. The Americans and the British wanted a complete denazification of the country and then rebuild a democratic and self-supporting Germany that could provide security in Europe. Stalin, on the other hand, disagreed. Twice in the span of his lifetime, his country had fought wars with Germany and therefore felt that a weak Germany was in Russia’s best…

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7. 25 July 1945Churchill Departs9th plenary · 2 passages

   “We don’t want to pay for Polish revenge. If Poland is to have an occupation zone, that should be clearly defined, but at the present time there are only four zones of occupation. If the Poles have an occupation zone they should be responsible for it. The boundary cannot be fixed before the peace conference. I want to be helpful, but Germany is occupied by four powers, and the boundary cannot be changed now; only at the peace conference.”

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8. 26 July 1945The Potsdam DeclarationRecess · 2 passages

   The group eventually ended up back at the Frankfurt headquarters where Eisenhower had organized the military government of the American-occupied zone in Germany. The offices were housed in a building formerly owned by I.G. Farben, the giant chemical company that had relied on slave labor from concentration camps and involved in medical experiments on inmates at both Auschwitz and the Mauthausen Concentration Camp. Furthermore, it had also supplied the poisonous Zyklon B…

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9. 27 July 1945The Price Of PeaceRecess · 3 passages

   “…namely, that each country would obtain its reparations from its own zone of occupation and would exchange goods between the zones,” Byrnes said.

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10. 29 July 1945Stalin Takes IllStalin ill · 1 passage

    Rich in natural resources, the Ruhr was one of the most industrial areas in all of Germany and it lay in the British Zone of Occupation. If this were to be the route taken toward reparations, then Molotov felt that heavy industrial equipment totalling $2 billion or five to six million tons from the Ruhr should be handed over to the Soviet Union.

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11. 31 July 1945Settling The Polish Question11th plenary · 4 passages

    In other words, 15% of compensated deliveries of industrial equipment were to be shipped to the Soviet Zone from not just the Ruhr, but from all Western zones of occupation. In exchange, the Soviets promised to ship the equivalent of food, grains, and other commodities to help feed the populations in the Western zones, something that had been agreed upon at the meeting between the Foreign Ministers on the day before. In addition, Stalin was able to negotiate an additional…

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12. 1 August 1945The Long Last Day12th & 13th plenary · 5 passages

    Twelve of the twenty-two defendants were sentenced to death, a further seven received prison sentences, and three were acquitted. Numerous other trials against further Nazi conspirators would take place separately in the four zones of occupation in the immediate years to come.

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13. 2 August 1945The Conference EndsProtocol signed · 1 passage

    Meanwhile, Germany would remain divided into four zones under Allied occupation – which was in effect, divided down the middle between East and West. A complete demilitarization of the German state was agreed to and Nazi war criminals were indisputably to be brought to justice in Nuremburg, the city in which they rallied for terror for so many years. And by a complicated formula for reparations, the Soviet Union got the lion’s share – mainly in capital equipment – in view of…

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