In addition, at the end of the Pacific Theater of War, the Potsdam Conference issued the Potsdam Declaration, the Proclamation Defining the Conditions of Japanese Surrender (July 26, 1945), in which the Western Allies (Britain, the United States, the USSR) and General Chiang Kai-shek`s Nationalist China called on Japan to surrender or be destroyed. A few months later, Ms Hunter was invited by the Foundation of Prussian Palaces and Gardens in Berlin-Brandenburg to visit Potsdam again – for the first time since 1945. The highlight of her stay was a visit to the Cecilienhof Palace, where she was able to see the exhibition she had helped design. You can listen to Mrs. Hunter tell her story in the palace`s audio guide. There was also agreement on whether it was desirable to end the “current abnormal position” of the German war allies – Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania – and its bellicose Co-Finland. A Council of Foreign Ministers would be set up to conclude peace treaties with them that would be concluded after a conference with the Big Three and “other interested allied governments”. This was duly done the following year in Paris and signed the treaties on February 10, 1947. The three Governments took note of the talks held in London in recent weeks between representatives of the British, the United States, the Soviet Union and France with a view to reaching agreement on methods of trial of major war criminals whose crimes have no particular geographical location under the Moscow Declaration of October 1943. The three governments reaffirm their intention to bring these criminals to justice promptly and safely. They hope that the negotiations in London will lead to a speedy agreement to that effect, and they consider it very important that the trial of these serious criminals begins as soon as possible. The first list of accused will be published before 1 September.

Despite many differences of opinion, the British delegation, Stalin and Truman, managed to reach some agreements in Potsdam. It was decided that Germany should be occupied by the Americans, the British, the French and the Soviets. It would also be demilitarized and disarmed. German industry, which could be used for military purposes, had to be dismantled and the educational and judicial system of the defeated country cleansed of Nazi influence. Nazi racial laws and other laws were to be repealed, and war criminals were to be tried and punished. German society was to be democratically reshaped, but the country`s reconstitution as a sovereign state was postponed indefinitely. Meanwhile, Germany was to be headed by an Allied control commission composed of the four occupying powers. The agreement, which was implemented in the form of a communiqué, was not a peace treaty under international law, although it created a fait accompli. It was replaced by the Treaty on the Final Settlement of Germany, signed on 12 September 1990. Despite many differences of opinion, the Allied leaders managed to reach some agreements in Potsdam. For example, negotiators confirmed the status of a demilitarized and disarmed Germany under four zones of Allied occupation.

According to the minutes of the conference, there should be “complete disarmament and demilitarization of Germany”; all aspects of German industry that could be used for military purposes had to be dismantled; all German military and paramilitary forces should be eliminated; and the production of all military equipment in Germany was prohibited. In addition, German society was to be democratically reshaped by repealing all discriminatory laws of the Nazi era and arresting and bringing to justice Germans considered “war criminals.” The German education and judicial system should be freed from authoritarian influence, and democratic political parties should be encouraged to participate in the administration of Germany at the local and state levels. However, the reconstitution of a German national government was postponed indefinitely, and the Allied Control Commission (composed of four occupying powers, the United States, Great Britain, France and the Soviet Union) would govern the country during the interregnum. The Germans of Czechoslovakia (34% of the population of the territory of the current Czech Republic), known as Sudeten Germans, but also Carpathian Germans, were expelled from the Sudetenland, where they formed a majority, linguistic slaves from Central Bohemia and Moravia, and from the city of Prague. The Potsdam Agreement was the August 1945 agreement between three World War II allies, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union. It was about the military occupation and reconstruction of Germany, its borders and the entire European war zone. It also dealt with germany`s demilitarization, reparations, and the prosecution of war criminals. .

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