Yalta Conference

What happened at the Yalta Conference? What important decisions were made there? After the Second World War was over, Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin met. In February 1945, a conference occurred in Yalta to discuss what they were going to do with Germany and Europe. They wanted to improve Europe, but as usual Stalin only wanted the best for Russia and wanted more land. He was able to come to and agreement that Poland’s boarders will be shifted to the west, taking land from Germany and giving Russia more land.

There were a lot of decisions taking in the Yalta conference. First, The Nazi war criminals were going to be taken to court. They caused a lot of damage to the other countries and so they should be sentenced to anything for breaking international laws during war. Secondly, Germany was to demilitarize and denazify immediately.

Thirdly, and most importantly, Germany’s repayment would be by forced labor. At the end of the First World War, The Treaty of Versailles stated that Germany had to pay a certain amount of gold francs that they could not afford. They were unable to pay the amount that they were given and so Great Britain, France, US, and their allies were unhappy. This time instead of taking money from Germany, they were going to use the Germans for forced labor. This was a better solution for the Allies because the Germans did not have any excuses to get out of the labor. The Allies mainly took the Germans that they thought were going to be most useful to their country, like doctors and engineers. The doctors and engineers that were taken were given a home and a proper salary even though they were part of the forced labor. The salaries that they were given was like every other citizen in the country they were in, they were treated in a reasonable way because they were useful to the government. This was the most important decision taken in the Yalta conference because the Allies benefited easily from the Germans.