Salzburg was lucky that the US Army, not the Soviet Army, liberated the country from Nazi rule. Still, it was a tough occupation at first. A central problem was denazification. A radical elimination of the former National Socialists would have prevented any attempt at reconstruction. This is how it was maneuvered: Big Nazis were arrested, little Nazis stayed in their positions. There was no awareness of Austria's shared responsibility for the crimes of the Nazis. Responsibility for the crimes was shifted to the "Germans". The drab everyday life had priority: hunger, housing and refugee crises. Still, the US military and state governments slowly tried to build a democracy that would avoid the mistakes of the First Republic. The result was a consensus of the three admitted parties. Nevertheless, the shadow of the First Republic continued to have an effect. The strong VP accused the SP of having little Austrian awareness, the SP accused the VP leaders of being responsible for "Austrofascism".