Wanderlust World Wanderlust World May 1945 found Europe shattered. The war's end brought not peace but a continent in pieces—physically, politically, morally.
Germany surrendered unconditionally May 8 (May 9 in USSR). Hitler dead. Berlin rubble. The Wehrmacht ceased to exist. But fighting flickered in Prague, the Baltics, and Yugoslavia into late May.
Cities flattened: Warsaw, Dresden, Berlin, Hamburg, Coventry, Rotterdam, Stalingrad. Transport, industry, housing—gone. 40–50 million European dead (military + civilian). USSR alone: 27 million. Poland lost 17% of prewar population.
12–14 million ethnic Germans expelled/fled from Eastern Europe. Millions of DPs (displaced persons)—forced laborers, POWs, Holocaust survivors, refugees—crowded camps. Repatriation was chaotic; many had no home to return to.
Yalta/Potsdam agreements papered over the West–Soviet split. Eastern Europe fell into Soviet orbit: Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, East Germany. The Iron Curtain descended. Churchill's Fulton speech (1946) named it.
Nuremberg Trials began Nov 1945—first international war crimes tribunal. Denazification in West zones; Sovietization in East. Marshall Plan (1948) pumped $13B into Western Europe. USSR created Comecon (1949) as counter.
UN founded Oct 1945. Bretton Woods (IMF, World Bank) already set. NATO came 1949. Warsaw Pact 1955.
Relief, grief, exhaustion, vengeance, hope. "Zero Hour" (Stunde Null) in Germany. Resistance myths born in France, Italy, Netherlands. Collaboration trials. Jews returning to find neighbors in their homes.
May 1945 wasn't an ending. It was the broken foundation of the next 45 years.