World War II (1939–1945)

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During this conference the United Kingdom held its general election, and Clement Attlee replaced Churchill as Prime Minister.

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American and Soviet troops meet in April 1945, east of the Elbe River

A devastated Berlin street in the city centre post Battle of Berlin, taken 3 July 1945.

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Atomic explosion at Nagasaki, 9 August 1945.

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Aftermath

Main article: Aftermath of World War II

The Allies established occupation administrations in Austria and Germany.

The former became a neutral state, non-aligned with any political bloc. The latter was divided into western and eastern occupation zones controlled by the Western Allies and the USSR, accordingly.

A denazification program in Germany led to the prosecution of Nazi war criminals and the removal of ex-Nazis from power, although this policy moved towards amnesty and re-integration of ex-Nazis into West German society.

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Prime Minister Winston Churchill gives the "Victory" sign to crowds in London on Victory in Europe Day.

Germany lost a quarter of its pre-war (1937) territory, the eastern territories: Silesia, Neumark and most of Pomerania were taken over by Poland; East Prussia was divided between Poland and the USSR, followed by the expulsion of the 9 million Germans from these provinces, as well as of 3 million Germans from the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, to Germany. By the 1950s, every fifth West German was a refugee from the east. The USSR also took over the Polish provinces east of the Curzon line (from which 2 million Poles were expelled),Eastern Romania, and part of eastern Finland and three Baltic states.

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The Supreme Commanders on 5 June 1945 in Berlin: Bernard Montgomery, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Georgy Zhukov and Jean de Lattre de Tassigny

In an effort to maintain peace, the Allies formed the United Nations, which officially came into existence on 24 October 1945, and adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, as a common standard for all member nations. The great powers that were the victors of the war—the United States, Soviet Union, China, Britain, and France—formed the permanent members of the UN's Security Council.

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The five permanent members remain so to the present, although there have been two seat changes, between the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China in 1971, and between the Soviet Union and its successor state, the Russian Federation, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.