A third of Dutchmen derived their livelihood from German trade, and Dutch traders were long suspected of acting as middle men in the supply of copper, tin, oil and industrial diamonds from America. She holds a Master's degree in Secondary Education from Marshall University. Hintergrnde und Einschtzungen eines nicht nur innerpolnischen Streites", "Odpowied na zapytanie nr 3812 w sprawie strat poniesionych podczas II wojny wiatowej", "Germany rejects Poland's claim it owes 1.3tn in war reparations", "On Behalf of Victims of Pseudo-Medical Experiments Red Cross Action", "Fundacja Polsko-Niemieckie Pojednanie | Stiftung Polnisch-Deutsche Ausshnung", "Zweiter Weltkrieg: Polens Regierung prft Reparationsforderungen an Deutschland", "Szef Biura Analiz Sejmowych: Polska i Niemcy nigdy po II wojnie wiatowej nie zawary umowy ws. Such was the case of the Columbus, Germany's third-largest liner at 32,581 tons, and the Glucksburg, which ran herself ashore on the coast of Spain when sighted. West Germany also paid 8 million German marks as reparations for forced human experimentation on Yugoslav citizens. The policy of appeasement that was carried out by Britain and France is often considered to be one of the main causes of World War II and began by Germany carrying out actions against the basic terms of the Treaty of Versailles that Germany was forced to accept at the end of World War I.For example, one of the first steps Germany took was to remilitarize the Rhineland. In November all Swedish trade with Germany officially ended. To bridge the gap during the first crucial weeks while the auxiliary anti-submarine craft were prepared, aircraft carriers were used to escort the numerous unprotected craft approaching British shores. [57] Although America did not enter the war for another nine months, she could no longer claim to be completely neutral and Hitler immediately ordered U-boats to attack US vessels. [3] Leith-Ross had represented British interests abroad for many years, having embarked on a number of important overseas missions to countries including Italy, Germany, China and Russia, experience which gave him a very useful worldwide political perspective. [citation needed]. reparacji", "Czonek Rady ISW: zrzeczenie si reparacji w 1953 r. wtpliwe prawnie", "Sprawozdanie w przedmiocie strat i szkd wojennych Polski w latach 1939-1945", "Mularczyk: Nie ma dokumentu speniajcego formalne wymogi uchway rzdu z 1953 r. o zrzeczeniu si reparacji", "Uchwaa Sejmu ws. Learn why and how Germany was divided after WWII. The American Red Cross chartered a "mercy ship", SS Cold Harbor to take 12,000,000lb (5,400,000kg) of evaporated and powdered milk and 150,000 articles of children's clothing, 500,000 units of insulin and 20,000 bottles of vitamins to Marseilles and shortly afterwards sent a second, the SS Exmouth, to carry $1.25m worth of relief supplies into unoccupied France. [4] The Germans had used mines against freighters from the beginning, but now began laying a new type, which did not need to make contact with a ship to destroy it, off the English coast, using seaplanes to drop them in British harbours, channels and estuaries too narrow or shallow for submarines to navigate. He commented; At present their plight is lamentable and will become much worse. [7] The most fundamental consideration was the defence of trade in home waters and the Atlantic in order to maintain imports of the goods Britain needed for her own survival. On 22 December the US State Department made a formal protest, to no avail. A number of prominent liberals denounced the release of food to France in a letter to United States Secretary of State Cordell Hull. On the morning of 7 December 1941 the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a massive pre-emptive strike against ships of the US Pacific Fleet at its base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii with simultaneous invasions of the British possessions of Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaya. [15][16][17] Similarly the (relatively limited) railway electrification was also dismantled with the notable exception of most of the Berlin S-Bahn which retained its third rail infrastructure for the most part. Germany sits in the heart of Europe, and many of the industrial raw materials she can't supply herself can be imported from her European neighbors. [64] Her government refused to cooperate with US economic warfare measures or to sever financial ties with Germany, her main trading partner. Due to the Soviet occupation of East Germany, a communist government with a socialist economy developed. By this time, attacks on German fuel installations had been so successful that September's output was 8% that of April, and supplies were soon exhausted, just when fighter production reached its highest level. Like General Franco in Spain, Portuguese President Antonio de Oliveira Salazar was perceived as pro-Axis but walked a fine line between the two sides, who competed fiercely for Portuguese raw materials,[64] generating huge profits for her economy. It was agreed that the French would hold the Western Mediterranean Basin via Marseilles and its base at Mers El Kbir (Oran) on the coast of Algeria, while the British would hold the Eastern Basin via its base at Alexandria. By the end of June over 2,000 V1s had been launched; 40% of bomber resources were being redirected towards 'Crossbow' targets in the hope of destroying the 7080 launch sites north and east of the Seine.[78]. [59], For the Nazis, the capture of the Russian landmass, one-sixth of the Earth's land surface or 8,000,000 square miles (21,000,000km2), not only provided the Lebensraum they demanded, but also provided the answer to all their raw material problems. 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. Explore the reconstruction and economy of post war Germany. Coal was now very difficult to obtain however, and although sufficient crayfish were imported from the Danubian nations to allow an enjoyable festive meal, people went cold that Christmas. In Berlin, William Shirer recorded in his diary that there were signs of a rush to convert currency into goods to guard against inflation, but that although the blockade now meant that the German diet was very limited, there was generally enough to eat and people were at that point rarely going hungry. Ships proceeding eastward through the English Channel with the intention of passing the Downs, if not calling at any other Channel port, should call at Weymouth for contraband control examination. Occupying a Chernozem zone of seemingly inexhaustible thick humus, it produced 25% of Russia's wheat, and immense crops of rye, barley, oats, sugar beet, potatoes, sunflowers, flax, maize, tobacco and cotton. 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. East Germany, though technically its own state, was essentially a client state of the Soviet Union. As more U-boats entered service, the weekly toll on Allied merchant ships continued to mount, and by June eggs, cheese, jam, clothing and coal were added to the rationed list. Hoover said that his information indicated that the Belgian ration was already down to 960 calories less than half the amount necessary to sustain life and that many children were already so weak they could no longer attend school, but the British disputed this. East Germany experienced the opposite effect, with a weaker economy, a low standard of living and a decreased population. Example: A poster with two columns (one for East Germany and one for West Germany) might work best here. [18] They were allowed one bar of soap per month, and men had to make one tube of shaving foam last five months. The Allied strategy with Spain was identical to that of Portugal: buy enough tungsten to satisfy the export need and prevent the rest reaching the enemy by whatever means. [60] The whole face of the Soviet economy was transformed from 1928 onwards by Joseph Stalin's 3 Five Year Plans, and whereas three-fourths of total industry was formerly concentrated around Moscow, St Petersburg, and Ukraine[citation needed], planned industrial cities, such as Stalingorsk in west Siberia and Karaganda in Kazakhstan, places that had been barely inhabited a decade prior. To help keep her people supplied with imports, and despite having no shoreline, the Swiss government developed its own merchant marine, acquiring several vessels that had been impounded for smuggling or withdrawal foreign flags. As D-Day approached, the Allies prioritised attacks on Ploieti and the artificial fuel sites. The supply problem was worsened by the Allies' failure to capture a deep-water port able to unload large ships. It included all kinds of foodstuffs, animal feed, forage, and clothing, and articles and materials used in their production. Following the end of the war in Europe in early May 1945, large parts of Europe lay completely smashed. [15] Despite the success in evacuating a third of a million men at Dunkirk and the later evacuations from St Malo and St Nazaire, the British army left behind 2,500 heavy guns, 64,000 vehicles, 20,000 motor cycles and well over half a million tons of stores and ammunition. Churchill himself believed that Sweden could be instrumental in defeating Germany and after the heavy German defeats at Stalingrad and Kursk in 1943 the Russians became vocal in calling on Sweden to do more to aid the Allies. On 17 January 1940 the Minister of Economic Warfare, Ronald Cross said in a speech in the House of Commons: We have made a good start, we must bear in mind that Germany does not have the same resources she had some 25 years ago. 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. 366; 370ff. [27] On 7 September wide-ranging new powers were granted to Heinrich Himmler to punish the populace for 'Endangering the defensive power of the German people'; the next day a worker was shot for refusing to take part in defensive work. Scapa Flow was again selected as the main British naval base because of its great distance from German airfields, however the defences built up during World War I had fallen into disrepair. In its most ambitious form, this plan included the annexation of the cities and surroundings of Cologne, Aachen, Mnster and Osnabrck. In a bitter school we soon learnt differently. Via its Commercial Corporation, the US engaged in a preclusive buying programme under British direction of its materials, particularly the chromite ore. ", "Greece gains allies in Bundestag over WWII reparations dispute", "Greece's claims for war reparations should be resolved by int'l court: Bundestag", "Greece Nazi occupation: Athens asks Germany for 279bn euros", "Who still owes what for the two World Wars? But Britain, having already sold 1 billion of her foreign investments and taken on another 3 billion in loans to pay for war materials was now feeling the financial strain of the war. Despite the Allied sympathy with Switzerland's position, some individuals and companies actively supported the Nazi cause for financial or ideological reasons. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. Numerous concessions were made to Germany before the rise of Adolf Hitler, and by 1938 only the territorial settlement articles remained. [36], In the mean time, Poland and Germany concluded several treaties and agreements to compensate Polish persons who were victims of German aggression. British aircraft factories, led by the Minister of Aircraft Production, Lord Beaverbrook worked around the clock to greatly increase production and prevent a collapse of the RAF. Because of Germany's new proximity on the west European coastline and the decrease in shipping traffic, ships which would normally have been used for patrolling the high seas were diverted to more urgent tasks. Portugal also allowed Germany generous credit terms, partly because after the fall of France the presence of a direct land route enabled Germany to threaten Portugal with invasion if she curtailed critical exports. The German population in this area was expelled, together with the Germans of the Sudetenland and the German populations scattered throughout the rest of Eastern Europe. [16] Another important target was ball-bearing manufacture, most of which was concentrated at Schweinfurt, which in the months to come, despite the German deployment of smoke screens, mock factories, jamming devices, searchlights and flak in the area received special attention from the USAAF; Albert Speer and Erhard Milch, the Inspector-General of the Luftwaffe, realised that from this point onwards the writing was on the wall. The highway also allowed the linking up of the Northwest Staging Route, a series of rough Canadian airstrips and radio ranging stations built to convey aircraft from Alberta and the Yukon to Soviet Union and China. The creation of East and West Germany after the end of WWII largely occurred for two reasons: the rest of the world blaming Germany for instigating WWI and WWII and the development of a global rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States and its Western allies. [citation needed]. The German capital, Berlin, although seated squarely in the middle of the Soviet zone, was also split in half between the three Western allies and the Soviet Union. After several decades of moving in wildly different directions politically and economically, the possibility of reunifying Germany came surprisingly quickly. Leith-Ross had not been put off by Chamberlain's initially lukewarm reception to his plan to revive the blockade, but had in fact spent the time after Munich to continue his preparations regardless. The MEW stated that 45,000 tons of rubber, 1,500 tons of tungsten, 17,000 tons of tin and 25,000 tons of vegetable oils had been destroyed as well as important far-Eastern drugs such as quinine. The Nazi official who took the leading role in preparing German industry for war was Hermann Gring. When shipments from these companies were detected they were usually made a priority for interception. 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. Additional payments by German companies which exploited forced workers have been made. However, by the end of December 1939 the Soviets didn't agree to start sending raw materiel since they weren't satisfied by German offers, citing refusal to get some of what they wanted and overly high prices on everyone else, and the actual trade within the framework treaty signed in August only took off in 1940 (see below). Hermann Gring proclaimed in a speech that under the Nazi New Order, the Herrenvolk were entitled to deprive the occupied peoples of their food, and that whoever starved it would not be the Germans. A few hours later another ship, the Navarra was torpedoed without warning, with the loss of 12 Norwegian seamen, by a U-boat which did not stop to pick up survivors. After six months of negotiations, Switzerland also agreed to trim by one third her $60m yearly sales of machine goods and precision instruments to Germany and to cut sales of ball bearings to 10% and ammunition to 5% of the 1942 total. By late 1943 the Germans became so desperate for supplies of key commodities that in one incident they sent a large destroyer force out into the Bay of Biscay to protect ships bringing a cargo into Bordeaux, and lost three vessels (Z27, T25 and T26) to Allied action (Operation Stonewall).
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