The Lasting Effects of WWII on Europe

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Effects on European Civilian Population

The devastation caused by World War II was so great that its full extent is hard to measure. An estimated 50 million people lost their lives, nearly half of whom were civilians. Again, however, it must be stressed that amid the complete breakdown of society, many countries were unable to provide an accurate number of their losses. Economically, the war cost over a trillion dollars and severely disrupted peacetime production. 

The Holocaust

One major difference between World War II and most earlier wars was the extent to which it affected the civilian population. Specifically, the Nazi regime targeted and killed an estimated 11 million European civilians solely out of political or racial motives in what has come to be known as the Holocaust. 
One of the underpinnings of the Nazi regime was a demented belief in the superiority of the so-called Aryan race, Hitler's ideal of a pure-blooded German people destined to become the world's masters. People who did not fit the Nazi mold were systematically rounded up and sent to concentration camps where some were put to work, while others were murdered in the camps' infamous gas chambers.

Impact on Europe's Jewish Population

The primary victims of the Holocaust were European Jews, although the Nazis also targeted non-Jewish Poles, gypsies, disabled people, homosexuals and political opponents. Jewish victims of the Holocaust numbered around six million.
In 1942, the Nazis devised the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question," a specific plan to round up Jews from around Europe and exterminate them in Nazi death camps. By far, the country whose Jewish population most suffered was Poland, with 90% being killed in the Holocaust.
In fact, about half of all the Jewish victims of the Holocaust were from Poland. Many other countries, such as Hungary, Holland, Yugoslavia, Greece, Belgium, France and Italy also saw their Jewish populations decimated. It is estimated that the Holocaust was responsible for killing over 60% of all European Jews, about a third of the world's overall Jewish population at the time. 

Creation of Israel

The European Jewish population never recovered its former numbers from before the war. Apart from the huge number of victims, many Jews who managed to flee Europe before being caught by the Nazis never returned. In 1948, the state of Israel was officially formed, providing a safe haven for many surviving European Jews. 

Beginning of the Cold War

World War II started an arms race between nations allied to the Soviet Union and those of the United States. Primarily, this Cold War was over the procurement of nuclear weapons and world influence. NATO, or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, was also formed in 1949 with three goals: to deter Soviet expansion, protect against militaristic nationalism on the European continent through a North American presence, and to assist with European political Integration (http://www.nato.int/history/index.html). 

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