1/13/2024 0 Comments The world after ww2![]() The whole point was that everybody in the community would be able to identify these women and they would be identified forever more as the people who had betrayed their nations." They were paraded before the local communities, taken to, say, a public square, where they were put up on a stage and then had their head shaved in front of everybody. "Quite often they were stripped, sometimes completely naked, but quite often to a degree of nakedness. So come the end of the war, the local populations wanted to put this right, and the way that they did this was by rounding up these poor, unfortunate women, and ritually humiliating them. symbolically as a sort of embodiment of the nation, if you like, so the fact that some of these women had slept with German soldiers was kind of seen as the ultimate betrayal. On women whose heads were publicly shaved to shame them for sleeping with Germans And there were German populations everywhere in Europe, had been for centuries, and it's estimated that between 12 and 16 million Germans were removed from their homes and shunted into Germany just after the war." "But really the biggest minority all over Europe, which was really hated after the war, was, of course, the Germans. ![]() So you have Hungarians in Slovakia, you have Ukrainians in Poland, they wanted to expel them. You see, the different nationalities around Europe who were found, or perceived to have collaborated with the Germans were not really welcome in countries where there were minorities. On expulsions of minorities after the war swapping their watches or oil paintings, anything they could take along to trade for food." They'd leave the cities and go out to the countryside, desperately petitioning farmers to give them something, anything. "People were reduced to doing things like eating tulip bulbs because there was. And I was aware that it hadn't quite ended like that." "I was used to seeing these wonderful, cozy myths about the way the war ended," he tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross, "and everybody celebrating and sailors grabbing hold of nurses in New York's Times Square and kissing them and all of these sort of things. The book has just won the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History from the English branch of PEN, and its narrative flies in the face of what we are used to hearing about that period. This is not the beginning to a futuristic thriller, but a history of Europe in the years directly following World War II, when many European cities were in ruins, millions of people were displaced, and vengeance killings were common, as was rape. Women of all classes and ages prostitute themselves for food and protection. Men with weapons roam the streets taking what they want. Law and order are virtually non-existent because there is no police force and no judiciary. There are no shops, because no one has anything to sell. Though Britain still maintains overseas territories, the handover marked the final end of Britain's empire.Imagine a world without institutions. In 1997 Hong Kong returned to Chinese administration. The Cold War added further complexities, as Britain attempted to insulate former colonies from the influence of the Soviet Union. Each colony's unique societies presented different political pressures which could sometimes lead to violence ranging from riots to massacres. By 1967 more than 20 British territories were independent.ĭecolonisation was a complex process. Ghana became Britain's first African colony to reach independence in 1957. In the Middle East, Britain hurriedly abandoned Palestine in 1948. Malaya became an independent democracy on 31 August 1957. ![]() Thousands were killed, but an effective political and military response prevented a Communist take-over. Less than a year later, communist guerrillas launched a violent campaign aimed at forcing Britain from Malaya. In 1947 India, having contributed enormously to Britain's war effort, became independent.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |