Do Now

Thinking about the millions of Jews who survived the Holocaust: 1) Why do you think some of them might not want to return to their old homes even if they hadn’t been destroyed? 2) Who should have been responsible for finding them new homes?

• Although the Nazis were defeated 3 months before the Japanese finally surrendered, very little attention had been given to the rebuilding of Europe after the war. The damage and loss of life were staggering – even worse than World War I, which everyone believed was the worst possible. Approximately 20 million soldiers and 55 million civilians were dead – 6 million Jews and 5 million Gypsies, homosexuals, and Nazi opponents killed in the Holocaust; 7 million Chinese and Filipinos killed by the Japanese; tens of millions dead from bombing and starvation.

• Germany, in particular, was in a terrible state after the deaths of so many Jews and years of heavy Allied bombing. Most of the country had near-constant electricity blackouts and food was hard to find. Very few businesses were operating.

• To oversee the rebuilding of Germany and ensure that the remaining Nazis did not try to come to power again, the country was divided into 4 occupation zones, one each by the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviets, and France. The capital, Berlin, was also divided into sections occupied each of those four countries. So tens of thousands of Allied soldiers remained in Germany, organizing the clean-up of ruined buildings and the reconstruction of homes and railroads.

• Instead of weighing down Germany with billions of dollars of debt, like after World War I, the Allies allowed Germany to pay them through giving them their remaining weapons and giving them all the money they made through the sale of coal for several years.

• Italy was ordered to pay $360 million in cash to the Allies, particularly to Yugoslavia, Albania, and Greece, who they had invaded during the war.

• Another top priority for the Allies were the Nuremberg Trials – a series of trials against 24 top surviving Nazi officials. They chose the city of Nuremberg for the trials because the city was more intact than Berlin, and it was where Hitler signed the first anti-Jewish laws. The trials were meant to punish what remained of the Nazi power structure, and also to serve as a record of the horrible things the Nazis did. In the end, 12 of the men were sentenced to death, and the other 12 were given prison sentences or acquitted in exchange for turning over the locations of other Nazi officials.

• The United States and the United Kingdom, in particular, were anxious to create the new United Nations organization to replace the old League of Nations. Like the League of Nations, the United Nations would include representatives from every member country, but this time the organization would have more power to enforce the laws and agreements it created. The first meeting was held with representatives from 51 countries in January 1946, and New York City was chosen to be the UN’s headquarters, with other offices around the world.

• The purpose of the United Nations was to promote international peace, cooperation, and prosperity, and make sure another devastating world war did not happen again. The organization still exists today, and the headquarters building is one of New York City’s most recognizable buildings (front left).

• One of the first orders of business for the United Nations was to come up with a solution for what to do with the millions of Jews in Europe who had survived the Holocaust but had all of their property and possessions stolen by the Nazis. They decided that the easiest solution would be to go with the original British plan to use part of the old Ottoman Empire as a country set aside for Jews. This land, called Palestine, had been inhabited by Muslims and a small Christian community for centuries, but it was the original homeland of the Jewish people, thousands of years before, mentioned in the Bible.

• Because the area was now owned by the United Kingdom, they agreed to let that area of land peacefully become its own country, a new homeland for the Jews, called Israel. The UN approved this plan in November 1947, with Israel set to become independent 6 months later. The only problem was – what about the millions of Muslims and Christians already living there?

• The UN approved the creation of Israel without representation from the local Palestinians, meaning that they had no say in this new country that their land would create. A small number of Jews had been living in Palestine since the late 1800’s because of pogroms, but they only made up a small percentage of the population. The UN planned for the Palestinians to relocate to the dry, desert parts of the country. As soon as the UN approved the creation of Israel, millions of Holocaust survivors began moving to the country, kicking the Palestinians out of their land.

• By the time Israel gained its independence in May 1948, many Holocaust survivors were now part of the new Israeli army, fighting off the Palestinians and their neighbors, who were putting up an armed resistance. When the fighting was over in 1949, Israel captured even more territory than they had originally been given.

• Now that millions of Jewish refugees had somewhere to go, the Allies focused even more effort on rebuilding the cities and economies of Europe. In order to speed up the process, President Truman agreed to the Marshall Plan. After World War II, the United States was actually in a really good economic position. Business had boomed during the war, and although over 400,000 American soldiers had been killed and over 600,000 injured during the war, US cities had not been destroyed by the fighting of the war like European cities.

• Instead of loaning money to European nations, the new Marshall Plan would simply donate $13 billion to any Allied countries that needed it. Donating the money instead of loaning it served two purposes – it meant that the European nations wouldn’t have to deal with repaying the debt once business got back to usual, and it meant that the countries would feel obligated to trade a lot with the US and be open to US decisions and ideas.

• The money began to flow into Europe in April 1948 and lasted for four years. The investment was remarkably successful. By the end of those four years, hundreds of thousands of homes, businesses, railroads, airports, and shipyards had been built, and the European economy was doing even better than it was before the war started. Trouble, though, was brewing in eastern Europe (the area occupied by the Soviets). None of the countries under Soviet control accepted any money from the United States, and disagreements were quickly rising with them over what to do with Germany now that it was becoming successful once again.

Exit Ticket

1. Explain the purpose of the creation of the new country of Israel. 2. Describe the Marshall Plan.