US files show that there was a belief that neutrals that traded with the Axis should be threatened with post-war reprisals, but although the Americans believed that the Swiss trade with Germany justified bombing her,[65] it was also thought that her exports should be cut down without endangering the work of the Red Cross and intelligence work underway in Switzerland. [67], By early 1942, the food shortages in Greece, which had been invaded by the Germans in April 1941 along with Yugoslavia, and which was now subject to the blockade, reached the famine proportions foreseen by Hoover. The lost Dutch and Danish supplies of meat and dairy products were replaced by sources in Ireland and New Zealand. However, it was no longer possible to entertain at home unless the guests brought their own food and though restaurants and cafes still traded they were now very expensive and crowded. Within hours the British liner Athenia was torpedoed by U-30 off the Hebrides with the loss of 112 lives, leading the Royal Navy to assume that unrestricted U-boat warfare had begun. In World War I, even after two years of war Germany still had gold reserves worth 2.5m marks and over 30 billion marks invested abroad, giving her easy access to exports. Spanish companies did important aircraft work for the Germans, Spanish merchants furnished Germany with industrial diamonds and platinum,[65] and General Franco, still loyal to Hitler because of his support during the civil war, continued to supply Germany with war materials, among them mercury and tungsten. Many factories were dismantled as reparations or were simply destroyed (see also the Morgenthau Plan). They also put together the Statutory List sometimes known as the "blacklist" of companies known to regularly trade with, or who were directly financed by, Germany. Instead, East and West Germany grew in wildly different directions depending on which side of that global battle they fell on. There were reports that Germany, which badly needed to raise foreign currency had been trying to export bicycles and cars to adjacent countries without tyres. At the same time the wireless cabin was sealed so no signals could be sent out while the ship was in the controlled zone. Indeed, due to Germany's willingness to fight until the very last man and Soviet premier Joseph Stalin's insistence on Germany's unconditional surrender, the Allies had fought their way through the German heartland, wreaking devastation along the way. At the most important of these conferences, at Yalta in the southern Soviet Union, the three leaders agreed to split Germany into four different occupation zones, with roughly the eastern third of the country controlled by the Soviet Union, and the western two-thirds split between American, British, and French control. The operation, known as Counterscorch, involved sending radio operators into Belgium to liaise with the resistance, keeping them informed of Allied movements and supplying them with weapons and ammunition. In 1942 the RAF dropped 37,000 tons of bombs on German targets, probably three times the weight dropped on Britain in 1940 and early 1941. An error occurred trying to load this video. If the early hopes were exaggerated, we must not attenuate the actual achievements. In March 2018 the issue boiled over again when Arkadiusz Mularczyk, a Polish lawmaker, asserted that Germany owed reparations that could be worth as much as $850 billion. Is Germany's military still sanctioned because of WW2? - Quora Although Swiss-German trade was generally considered to have ceased after November 1944, some companies, such as the Tavaro Munitions factory at Geneva, Switzerland, clandestinely shipped explosives to Germany, and German assets amounting to one billion francs still remained in Switzerland after November 1945. They decided to set up military zones of occupation in Germany after WWII and split up parts of Germany. By early September the only remaining undamaged deep-water port was Antwerp in Belgium, and the SOE, under the direction of the Ministry of Economic Warfare (MEW) was given the task of ensuring it was captured intact. 623 French people were killed, mostly workers who had gathered outside to cheer the accurate hits. Over the next few months, the ship delivered around 6,700 tons of supplies to Greece, but foundered on rocks and sank during her fifth voyage. [citation needed], In the U.S., with its tradition that "the mail must always get through", and where armed robbery of the mail carried a mandatory 25-year jail term, there were calls for mail to be carried on warships, but the exercise as with all such journeys was repeated on the homeward leg as Contraband Control searched the ship again for anything of value that might have been taken out of Germany. Despite the 5,600 miles (9,000km) and the land barrier of Russia separating Berlin from Tokyo, by mid-1942 a system of fast blockade runners was set up, the freighters traveling non-stop without showing lights or using their radio to avoid detection. However, attacks on the already strained German railway system did seriously affect military operations in early 1943 around 150 locomotives and many freight cars were being destroyed each month. The second period began after the rapid Axis occupation of the majority of the European landmass (Scandinavia, Benelux, France and the Balkans) in 19401941, resulting in Axis control of major centres of industry and agriculture. Aftermath of World War I and the Rise of Nazism, 1918-1933. On the outbreak of war, many South American countries expected to make big profits supplying the belligerents as in World War I. The country subsequently began a slow but continuous improvement of its standard of living, with the export of local products, a reduction in unemployment, increased food production, and a reduced black market. Ultimately it was the sustained Allied bombing of the transport network which broke Nazi resistance. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The Germans maintained an aggressive strategy at sea in order to press home their own blockade of the Allies. [4] Sweden provided Germany with 9m tons of high grade ore per year via its Baltic ports, without which German armaments manufacture would be paralyzed. In November heavy damage was caused by the USAAF to the most important industrial site in Norway, the molybdenum mine at Knaben, 50 miles (80km) from Stavanger. Zur polnischen Diskussion ber Reparationszahlungen aus Deutschland", "Nieznany dokument ONZ z 1969 r. "Wynika z niego wprost, e Polska nie zrzeka si reparacji", "The legal questions behind Poland's claim for war reparations from Germany", "What's Behind Poland's Reparation Debate? All rights reserved. History of Germany after Second World War - History Discussion The German armies defending Normandy were badly restricted by their inability to bring up adequate fuel for their tanks and could only make troop and supply movements at night. From there it was transferred to small coastal vessels and ran the blockade to French Mediterranean ports by night. Eucken helped establish the new German currency, argued for large tax cuts, and oversaw the removal of price controls. The Turkish chromite ore, which like tungsten was an irreplaceable and essential war material, was the only supply available to Germany, who paid using iron and steel products and manufactured goods in order to draw Turkey into her sphere of influence. Danish farmers paid large taxes, and merchant sailors were driven to work as labourers in Germany because of the blockade. Because the Germans forced Dutch fishermen to return to port before dark there was also a shortage of fish, and although Dutch overseas possessions were among the world's main providers of tobacco, it could not breach the blockade. [8] Germany lacked the natural resources Soviet Union had in abundance, whereas Soviet Union was at that time still a relatively backward country in want of the latest technology. Great efforts went into finishing the new battleships King George V and Prince of Wales before the Bismarck could be completed and begin attacking Allied convoys, while the French also strained to complete similarly advanced battleships, the Richelieu and the Jean Bart by the autumn of 1940 to meet the Mediterranean threat of two Italian battleships nearing completion. immediately after the war, millions (~7.7m) of German soldiers were kept in POW camps. Churchill now embraced Soviet Union as an ally and agreed to send arms to make up the shortfall while Soviet industry reorganised itself for the fight. [23] Ships bound for European ports or en route to the North of Scotland should call at Kirkwall. As Soviet troops conducted a prolonged siege of Berlin in the first few months of 1945, Adolf Hitler, Germany's chancellor-cum-dictator and the orchestrator of the murder of six million Jews during the war, committed suicide in his bunker. However, after East Germany's neighbors like Czechoslovakia and Hungary began opening their borders to the West, East Germans flocked to their neighbors to permanently resettle in West Germany. The Allied countries of Britain, France, and the United States controlled West Germany including West Berlin. Motor launches of new Admiralty design were brought into service for coastal work, and later, a larger improved version of the corvette, the frigate was laid down. [55] He described how the "warrior caste" were given the most, followed by essential workmen (in Berlin, William Shirer and the other foreign journalists were classed as "heavy labourers" and received double rations) while at the bottom prisoners, Jews and the insane got the least. Loss of the Yugoslavian and other Balkan mines took away the last supplies of chromium and reduced the supply of lead by approximately 40 per cent the position being worsened by the loss of substantial amounts of scrap which were collected in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. [3], In World War I, neutral ships were subject to being stopped to be searched for contraband. From the beginning of the war, Germany experienced massive labour shortages and as time went by the occupied nations labour forces were virtually enslaved, either to work in factories to supply the Reich or sent to Germany to work in the factories or farms there. [citation needed] As Germany's most important industrial region, it had been equipped with strong air defenses Hermann Gring had already declared, "The Ruhr will not be subjected to a single bomb. A ship stopping at a Control port raised a red and white flag with a blue border to signify that it was awaiting examination. [53][54] Other sources put the total number of deaths resulting from the Axis occupation at 273,000 to 747,000 Greeks, or 3.7-10.2% of the prewar population. To coordinate the distribution of the reparations between the victor powers, the Allied Control Council was established. Cheap restaurants in big towns served dishes comprising turnip or carrot tops made without any kind of fat, and although householders still received a fair ration of rough wine, all spirits were confiscated for industrial use. There were 16m French Americans alone, and by early March at least 15 different organizations collectively known as the Coordinating Council for French Relief were distributing aid in France through The American Friends Service Committee, while the Quaker Committee also distributed around $50,000 worth of food, clothing and medical supplies a month throughout France. But shortly later pursued a policy of radical redrawing of the longstanding Dutch-German border and the transfer of a large part of German territory to the Dutch as reparations. The USSR was owed $100 million from Italy, $300 million from Finland, $200 million from Hungary, and $300 million from Romania,[64] amounting to approximately $12 billion in total in 2022. [7] The country's economic recovery under the newly formed democratic government was, once it was permitted, swift and effective. RAF raids on vehicle factories in Milan, Genoa, and Turin on 2 December 1942 only served to unite the Italian population behind the Mussolini dictatorship, and the plan was dropped in favour of the "disorganisation of German industry". Due to the Soviet occupation of East Germany, a communist government with a socialist economy developed. Although U-boats were the main threat, there was also the threat posed by surface raiders to consider; the three "pocket battleships" which Germany was allowed to build under the Versailles Treaty had been designed and built specifically with attacks on ocean commerce in mind. I would definitely recommend Study.com to my colleagues. The program provided for immediate measures to prevent any disposition, transfer, or concealment of looted gold or other assets, to deny any safe haven for Nazi looted assets in neutral countries, and for the eventual return of looted artefacts to their original owners. How the Welfare State Transformed European Life. [1] This included food, weapons, gold and silver, flax, paper, silk, copra, minerals such as iron ore and animal hides used in the manufacture of shoes and boots. Although Swiss citizens largely rejected the Nazis and subscribed to the Internationalist view expressed by the League of Nations, in order to survive and continue to receive imports, Switzerland had little choice but to trade with Germany, for which she was paid largely in coal. The Mediterranean Sea was effectively blocked at both ends and the dreadnought battleships of the Grand Fleet waited at Scapa Flow to sail out and meet any German offensive threat. Albert Speer said later that this was a decisive turning point in the war.[16]. The Germans, employing their scorched-earth policy, destroyed all dock facilities as they withdrew from the occupied territories in order to deprive the Allies of any logistical advantages. UK National Archives. [16] Harris began pushing for a mass raid using the magic number of 1,000 bombers, although in fact the RAF barely had that many. [23] From the beginning of the war to the beginning of October the daily average number of neutral ships stopping voluntarily at Weymouth was 20, out of which 74, carrying 513,000 tons, were examined; 90,300 tons of contraband iron ore, wheat, fuel oil, petrol and manganese were seized. The MEW believed that any substantial or widespread relaxation of the blockade would inevitably be exploited by the enemy to his own advantage, and declared that they would "not give him that comfort". [18] The new legislation, frequently enforced by the Peoples Court, was made deliberately vague to cover a variety of situations, and could be very severe. Describing how French industry was working for the Germans and how Hitler had seized 1m tons of French wheat to hold in occupied France, the group believed the move would undermine the blockade and lead to Nazi demands for America to continue feeding other conquered lands.