Yalta Conference facts for kids

The Yalta Conference (sometimes called the Crimea Conference) was held in February 1945, just before the Second World War was over. It was when the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (Winston Churchill), the President of the United States (Franklin D. Roosevelt) and the dictator of the USSR (Joseph Stalin) all met in Crimea and talked about what to do with Germany. The Yalta Conference was an important part of European History.

The agreements

Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin (in that order)

The allies agreed that :

Germany was to be completely disarmed
A new world organisation was to be set up called the United Nations (the UN)
Stalin agreed to join the war against Japan three months after the defeat of Germany
Germany would be cut up into four different pieces (occupation zones), one occupied by France, one by the USSR, one by the USA and one by the United Kingdom
Berlin would also be split up into four different pieces
Nazis who committed war crimes would be judged and sentenced
A neutral government would be set up in Poland
Eastern Europe would be under Stalin's influence
Free elections were to be held in those countries free from German rule in Eastern Europe
Start planning reparations and how much money Germany would owe the other countries

Poland's old and new borders, 1945 - Kresy in light blue
A Big Three meeting room
Taken by War Office official photographer, United Kingdom
From left to right: Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin. Also present are Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov (far left); Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, Admiral of the Fleet Sir Andrew Cunningham, RN, Marshal of the RAF Sir Charles Portal, RAF, (standing behind Churchill); General George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff of the United States Army, and Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, USN, (standing behind Roosevelt)