If today's Europe was just one country...

#267

My Dear Friend of Democracy,

Eighty years ago today, on 1 January, in the bitterly cold winter of 1945, in the French-German border region, the German army launched one of its last counteroffensives.

Several battles raged until Allied forces stopped the Germans by 25 January.

Thousands upon thousands lost their lives during these days, 80 years ago.

This is also why today there is now a huge US military cemetery in the French town of Epinal (I wrote about yesterday and took photos of today).

But what if the USA had not intervened in World War II?

Perhaps the map would still look the same as in 1943 (see photo above; German conquests in light grey).

Then large parts of Europe would be a single country. A single dictatorship.

A horror scenario, right?

And how fortunate for Europe that the USA had decided to enter the war.

Perhaps the Europeans alone would have defeated Nazi Germany eventually. One thing is historically sure: US intervention rapidly accelerated the end of Nazi Germany.

There were only two years between the furthest expansion of Nazi Germany and its surrender.

1944:

1945:

✊ Let us learn from the past for our present and for tomorrow. Democracies must be so strong that dictatorships do not even think of attacking them.

See you in Democracy,

Johannes

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Epinal American Cemetery and Memorial / Epinal, France / 31 December 2024