At the end of the war Germany was in a terrible mess.

Hundreds of thousands of homes, roads, railways, and bridges had been damaged or destroyed.

Lots of people had been killed or very badly treated by the Nazis.

There were thousands of prisoners of war like Glan Evans.

And there were survivors of the Holocaust – in which millions of Jews and enemies of the Nazi Party had been murdered. 

Most of these people were hungry, ill, and frightened. 

They had a long way to go to find their homes and families – some had no home to go to at all.

<table><thead><tr><th scope="col" colspan="2">Tricky Word</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><th scope="row">Holocaust:</th><td>The killing of European civilians, mainly Jewish people, by the Nazis. </td></tr></tbody></table>

When Germany surrendered in May 1945, it was a country in chaos.

Hundreds of thousands of homes, as well as roads, railways and bridges, had been damaged or destroyed.

The country now had no German leaders. It was split into four zones which were each controlled by a victorious country: the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union (USSR).

The German economy had completely broken down. People struggled to find food, medicines, or supplies.

The country was filled with people on the move. These included millions of ‘slave labourers’, who had been brought to Germany by the Nazis from neighbouring countries, and thousands of prisoners of war like Glan Evans.

There were also survivors of the Holocaust – in which millions of Jews and enemies of the Nazi Party had been murdered. 

Most of these people were hungry, ill, or traumatised. They had a long way to go to find their homes and families – some had no home to go to at all.

The Allies had to help all the refugees they could. They were also trying to find Nazi war criminals who had escaped justice.

For millions, the war was over, but their worries about how they were going to survive were not. It would take many people years to re-build their lives.



<table><thead><tr><th scope="col" colspan="2">Vocabulary Checkpoint</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><th scope="row">Chaos:</th><td>A state of complete confusion and disorder.</td></tr><tr><th scope="row">Victorious:</th><td>Winning.</td></tr><tr><th scope="row">Slave labourers:</th><td>People who had been forced to work for the Nazis, often in terrible conditions.</td></tr></tbody></table>

When Germany surrendered in May 1945, it was a country in chaos.

The country had been ruled since 1933 by the Nazi Party, whose extreme nationalism and race hatred had led to World War Two. All of its leaders were now dead or in jail.

The country now had no German leaders. It was split into four zones which were each controlled by a victorious country: the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union (USSR).

Many German cities had been destroyed or very badly damaged. Hundreds of thousands of homes had been destroyed. Roads, railways and bridges had also been damaged or destroyed.

The German economy had completely broken down. It had no functioning currency, so the people could not be paid for work or easily buy goods, medicines, or supplies. Cigarettes were used as a currency and were used to swap for food and goods.

During the Nazi era millions of people had been brought to Germany as ‘slave labourers’. They were all trying to get home now – just like Glan Evans and the other prisoners of war.

There were also thousands who had survived the Holocaust – in which millions of Jews and enemies of the Nazi Party had been murdered. This was one of the most awful crimes of the twentieth century.

Most of these people were hungry, ill, or traumatised. They had a long way to go to find their homes and families – some had no home to go to at all.

The Allies had to help all the refugees that they could. They were also trying to find Nazi war criminals who had escaped justice.

For millions, the war was over, but their worries about how they were going to survive were not. It would take many people years to rebuild their lives.

By 1949, to make the situation more complicated, the relationship between the Soviet Union and the other Allied nations had broken down so badly that Germany was divided into two countries. The Western zones became the capitalist Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the Eastern Zone became the communist German Democratic Republic (East Germany). This division remained until 1990 when Germany was ‘reunified’ and once again became a single nation.

When Germany surrendered in May 1945, it was a country in chaos.

The Long Walk to Liberation

Germany in Chaos