A disaster. That was the fitting word for the Europe that emerged immediately after 1945, covered in soot from cities turned to ashes. Life had collapsed.
Victorious but struggling to find their footing on the continent, the allied occupiers were overstrained with a host of minutiae: administering food, trying to prevent disease outbreaks, running prisoner-of-war camps, revamping the postal service, restoring electricity in major cities.
