Children play amidst rubble in post-World War II Berlin, Germany. Credit: Magnum Photos
How about if we just bypass the war and the vengeful aftermath, and go straight to rebuilding? The U.S. is suffering extreme political warfare with revenge and retribution in its wake. Nothing productive is happening in the current federal government. Let’s end the war and resume rebuilding. Our children and grandchildren will be grateful.
Rebuild infrastructure such as worn bridges and roadways, waterways, power grids including solar, and waste treatment. Revitalize public education. Develop universal health care and affordable housing. Instead, our nation and its institutions are foundering on extremist ideology, disinformation, and a vast wealth gap.
These thoughts emerge after serendipity (or algorithm) brought me to a 2016 documentary series entitled After Hitler (or After Hitler: The Untold Story), produced by the French production company Cinétévé. It gives a searing glimpse of the suffering following World War II, children in particular, and revenge inflicted on certain groups.
If you care about what is happening in our nation today and are willing to learn from the past hoping for a better future, I highly recommend viewing, although be advised of its gruesome content. Total World War II deaths are estimated between 50 million and 80 million, most civilians. Many of those occurred in the years after the war ended, from disease, starvation and reprisals.
‘War’ beyond 1945
Anyone short of being a 20th Century European history scholar, yet knows something about World War II, is likely to believe that it ended in Europe in May 1945. But suffering continued long after, even with vast economic aid brought by the Marshall Plan from 1947 to 1952. Its primary goal was to rebuild Europe to withstand the “Red Menace” in the subsequent Cold War between the West and the Soviet Union. How quaint that seems today.
In two episodes the After Hitler documentary delivers an emotionally wrenching story captured on extensive archival video. Cities were destroyed. People were starving. Half of the homes were lost. Many Germans suffered unspeakable retribution, especially in Czechoslovakia. The story is told in Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945, published in 2005 by Tony Judt.
A New York Times book review of Judt’s epic, by Anthony Gottlieb, states, “As Judt notes, the war in Europe did not really end at all. Neither did the persecution of Jews with the closing of the death camps; well over a thousand Jews were killed in Polish pogroms after the liberation of Poland.” (See my May 15, 2025 post, Nie Wieder)
If every American today were to watch this documentary and relate it to what is happening to our nation today in terms of the potential destruction, much of the divisive political rhetoric would abate. To those who push back saying they are tired of hearing allusions to Nazi Germany, or go so far as to disbelieve the Holocaust, a response is found in the lead paragraph of Gottlieb’s book review:
“An old Soviet-era joke, retold by Tony Judt on the next-to-last page of his enormous book, ‘Postwar,’ is about a phone-in on ‘Armenian Radio.’ Is it possible, an eager caller asks, to foretell the future? ‘Yes’, comes the weary answer. ‘No problem. We know exactly what the future will be. Our problem is with the past: that keeps changing’.”
Re-writing history
If the current path continues, we know what the future will be. We will continue on that path as long as we fail to learn from history, and yield to those trying to re-write it to support evil goals. Re-writing history has become rampant under the current administration. One example is occurring with interpretive exhibits at national parks and monuments.
We love our national parks. In our travels to many of them, along with seeing natural wonders, we learned a lot of history. No more, as much of it is being erased at parks. If we were to revisit Independence National Park in Philadelphia, no longer would we see “an exhibit on the contradiction between President George Washington’s enslavement of people and the Declaration of Independence’s promise of liberty,” states a story in the New York Times.
If the U.S. survives as a representative democracy, perhaps future exhibits will enlighten Americans and the world with factual and accurate displays about its descent toward an authoritarian regime supported by a handful of billionaires, and its recovery.
Although they got a lot of help, if Germany and Europe can recover after 1945, so can we today. And it could be that the help will be coming from Europe, anchored by Germany. As the U.S dominated the 20th century, perhaps Great Britain and the European Union will become the beacons of stability, prosperity, and representative democracy in the 21st century. If nothing else, at the recent Davos spectacle they seemed to be the mature adults in the room compared with the childishness of the person who holds the highest office in the U.S.
Wisdom, young and old
European social and political maturity is one thing that impressed me during travels to Europe years ago. Even the young people seemed wiser and more mature. Perhaps some of that arises from living in a land so rich in centuries of history. Maybe they have learned from the harsh episodes of that history. The U.S. has avoided destruction on the scale of World War II resulting from totalitarianism. The Civil War was bad enough, yet we still suffer from underlying racism.
Once experience that did leave me feeling good as a young American in Europe occurred while hitchhiking in Germany. I snagged ride from a man who looked old enough to have been an older child in World War II.
When he learned that I was an American, he almost seemed emotional describing the gratitude of Germans for U.S. aid after the war. Today Europe may be able to return the favor by rallying as an international community of democratic governments who will stand up against authoritarian regimes, and one that is trying to be. The children will be grateful.
