Potsdam

• Germany was defeated in May 1945. Then in August, Japan was defeated on 'VJ' Day. The Potsdam Conference happened between July and August 1945. It was the third and final meeting between the USA, Britain and the Soviet Union.
• • Franklin D. Roosevelt died in April 1945 and was replaced by Harry S. Truman. Truman was more reluctant to compromise with the USSR.
• • After the UK General Election in July 1945, Clement Attlee replaced Churchill during the conference.
• • The leaders met at the Cecilienhof Palace in Potsdam.
• • The Nazi Party was banned in Germany.
• • War criminals would be tried in court (prosecuted) during the Nuremberg trials.
• Something called the 'Council of Foreign Ministers' was created. It held its first session in London in September 1945. Its aim was to accelerate the recovery of Europe and to settle peace treaties with the Nazi allies (like Italy, Bulgaria, and Finland).
• • Berlin and Germany were divided between the Grand Alliance powers. The Soviets would receive 1/4 of all the output produced in the British, American and French zones. This seemed to compensate the Soviet Union for not getting reparations.
• • Truman wanted free, democratic elections to happen in the Eastern European countries ‘liberated’ by the Soviet Union but Stalin was not keen on this idea.
• • The UK and USA considered Stalin's installation of an entirely pro-communist government in Poland to be a violation of the Yalta agreement. 2 Polish Communists, Gomułka and Bierut, were very influential and were being supported by the Soviet Union.
• Harry Truman replaced Roosevelt and Clement Attlee replaced Winston Churchill at the Potsdam Conference in Summer 1945. Truman left unhappy about the situation in Eastern Europe.