1945: The End of the War, Liberation, Occupation

Over eleven million people were considered displaced persons in 1945. Those who did not return immediately lived mainly in DP camps in the western occupation zones of Germany and Austria. How did they experience this time of uncertainty?

In the year the war ended, the division of East Prussia into areas later annexed by the Soviet Union and Poland had, in effect, already taken place. While the developments in the region shared many parallels, they also revealed key differences—differences that would prove to be defining for the...

At the end of the war in 1945, the town of Reetz (Neumark) east of the Oder was transformed into a large evacuation centre where experiences of flight, deportation and expulsion intertwined.

For Soviet prisoners of war who were freed by Germans in 1945, the end of their imprisonment brought joy and hope for a better future. However, this chapter of their lives was also characterized by uncertainty and the fear that they would be punished on their return home.

Even during the Second World War, Warsaw had already become a symbol of a new kind of systematic destruction—both of people and buildings. This article explores how, out of that devastation, a vision for a new city began to emerge.

The reappraisal of Nazi crimes in Poland was almost written into the establishment of the new socialist system of government in 1945. It was a reaction to the trauma of war, but it also applied the rules of legal integrity – it was a complex panorama, which eludes simple interpretation.

After Czechoslovakia was liberated from Nazi occupation, the country’s Communist Party (KSČ) and the Soviet Union enjoyed a period of popularity in Czech society. But did this also pave the way for state socialism?

The genuine joy at the liberation by the Red Army from the German occupying forces in Slovakia, with cheering crowds lining the streets and women offering food, alcoholic beverages and flowers, coexisted alongside the Red Army’s criminal behaviour, which included sexual violence.