The Anti-Hitler Coalition’s Conferences

Hitler hoffte auf ein Auseinanderbrechen der „unnatürlichen Koalition“ zwischen der Sowjetunion und den Westmächten und somit auf einen Umschwung des Krieges. Damit war es spätestens seit der Casablanca-Konferenz vom 14. bis 26. Januar 1943 vorbei. Winston Churchill und Franklin Delano Roosevelt machten unmissverständlich deutlich, dass diesen Krieg gegen den Hitlerstaat keine Verhandlungen, sondern nur die bedingungslose Kapitulation Deutschlands beenden können.

Die Teheraner Konferenz der „Großen Drei“ (Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt) vom 28. November bis 1. Dezember 1943, die „europäische Beratende Kommission“ der Anti-Hitler-Koalition vom 15. Januar 1944 und die Konferenz von Jalta vom 4. bis 11. Februar 1945 besiegelten diesen Beschluss mit der Aufteilung Deutschlands in drei Besatzungszonen und dem Gebiet von Groß-Berlin.

At the latest, Hitler’s hopes that the “unnatural coalition” between the Soviet Union and the Western powers would break apart and thus turn the war around were dashed as of the Casablanca Conference from January 14 to 26, 1943. Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt made unmistakably clear that only Germany’s unconditional surrender and not any negotiations would end the war against the Hitler state.

The Big Three’s (Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt) Teheran Conference from November 28 to December 1, 1943, the Anti-Hitler Coalition’s “European Advisory Commission” on January 15, 1944 and the Yalta Conference from February 4 to 11, 1945 sealed this decision with the division of Germany into three zones of occupation and the region of greater Berlin.

An SD report on domestic issues from December 9, 1943 provides insights into Germans’ apprehension this meeting:

While great notice is taken of the meetings of the Allies in Cairo and Teheran, the great majority of the populace regards this as a sign of the enemy powers’ disunity and weakness in the sense of German counter propaganda: …

“When the three gifts to the world organize such an elaborate meeting, then it can be assumed that they are up to their necks in worries. They are clinging to one another because they fear the future.” – “Churchill and Stalin probably must be under pressure because Roosevelt probably would not have come to Teheran otherwise, and Stalin would not have left his Kremlin at all.” – “Stalin must also be in trouble if he is traveling to Teheran.”

At any rate, in the opinion of German citizens, some concrete outcome is to be expected from these talks, e.g. an intensification of air terror or the use of new weapons (poison gas). Whatever “dirty tricks” the three have thought up will soon become apparent (Boberach, Meldungen aus dem Reich 15, p. 6109).