User Reviews

It is May 1945. Germany's ambitions of a racially superior state lasting 10 centuries are crushed forever, Hitler is dead, and the process of dismantling all the physical and mental remnants of his regime is underway. This installment of World at War goes over what happened in Germany and Japan immediately after they were defeated, how people planned ahead for a better and safer planet Earth, and how even in victory, the winning countries didn't trust each other. Right after Soviet forces capture Berlin, Stalin begins his plans for what he wants to happen to Europe. American and Russian soldiers have fun together and exchange souveneirs, but even the most oblivious GI could tell the soviets hated america and no longer trusted them. The USSR, being communist, wanted europe to be communist as well. Russia now had millions of its soldiers in europe, and they were Stalin's trump card when it came to negotiating terms with the west. They suffered the most at the hands of the Nazis and they were the ones to capture germany's capital, so they felt any demands they made were justified. Meanwhile, the new US President Harry S Truman announces the formation of the United Nations; a peacekeeping organization based in New York City that is dedicated to seeing to it that there would be no more aggression in the world. Back in germany, military officials realized that they were responsible for starting the war so they needed to be punished, but germany couldn't pay if the country was a pile of rubble. None of the Allies wanted germany to be powerful again, but the country still had to be rebuilt. As a result, germany was divided into 4 occupied zones in accordance with a meeting at Yalta in 1945. The western portion of the country had 3 zones being controlled by america, France, and the UK. Russia took the rest. Berlin was deep in the soviet zone, and the city itself was divided among the 4 countries. Even though the west was antagonistic to the russians now, the soviet zone had to cooperate with the western ones because they had all the industry. At the Potsdam Conference, Truman meets with Stalin, the latter saying he wants eastern europe to serve as a buffer zone between any possible western aggression and the soviet union. Some time later, Japan is defeated with atomic weapons, and though it seems odd, america wants japan rebuilt as fast as possible. General Douglas MacArthur, hero of the Pacific war, arrives in japan and will effectively run the country for the next half decade. He wants to make sure japan is rebuilt in america's image, and no foreign powers are let in to interfere with this (especially not the soviets). In germany, millions of slave laborers and other undesirables Hitler was going to execute are set free. Many no longer have countries to return to. Some former nazis try to sneak by in prisoner uniforms. The allies then begin to crack down on Hitler's commanders and generals. At Nuremberg, many former nazi leaders are put on trial, and their crimes are so immense they have a new type of criminal charge leveraged against them: crimes against humanity. Some of the defendants include Albert Speer, Hitler's architect and armaments minister, and Herman Goering, head of the air force. The latter manages to kill himself a couple of hours before his execution. The rest are hanged, receive heavy sentences, or let go. In Asia too, there's turmoil. Britain manages to win the war, but paradoxically, still manages to get almost nothing out of it. Its empire is gone, and many of their colonies such as India want independence after giving their troops for Churchill's war. France's colonies are affected as well, as they don't want to let go of Indochina (Vietnam today). France's rule there precipitates a huge conflict that will ultimately go on to be one of the biggest mistakes in american history. Back in Berlin, american and soviet forces oversee the rebuilding of germany the best they can. Many civilians are poor, and americans act disdainfully towards the germans, finally being able to boss around these people that laid waste to europe. As the country rebuilds, the matter of reparations comes into question. The russians want about 20 billion dollars worth of money to pay for the damages caused to them, while america thought this was more than germany itself was worth. A slew of disagreements follow, and the soviets and americans begin to hate each other even more. In Moscow, the soviets celebrate their victory over Hitler with a huge parade of tanks and soldiers in Red Square, a tradition that continues to this day. Brits are allowed to visit rural areas again, but the threat of unexploded bombs and mines is all around them. The only real winner is america. The US is the only country to come out of world war 2 stronger than when it entered, the only major power that wasn't bombed, and is the only nation on earth with atomic weapons. Everyone in europe knows they'll decide how things will be from now on. From this point, germany will be democratic and tolerant, everything that Hitler would have despised. Although we're not entirely done with World at War just yet, this is the end of the line for the show's european viewpoint as far as the war itself goes. The footage is once again really great and much of it is in color, which is unusual for world war 2. We get to see how even when people are winners, they still aren't happy. Now that the war was over, new alliances would be formed, new wars would begin, and america and the soviets would be locked in a stalemate until the early 90s.