Following the end of World War II, Bavaria was occupied for a while by US forces, who reestablished the state on 19 September 1945,[12] and during the Cold War it was part of West Germany. In 1946 Bavaria lost its district on the Rhine, the Palatinate. The destruction caused by aerial bombings during the war, in addition to the fact that Bavaria had to take in over two million refugees from the parts of Germany now under Soviet occupation, caused major problems for the authorities.[13]