01x11 - The End of WWII in Europe

[bunniefuu]

[somber music plays]

♪ The bright horses have broken free
From the fields ♪

♪ They are horses of love
Their manes full of fire ♪

♪ They are parting the cities
Those bright burning horses ♪

♪ And everyone is hiding
And no one makes a sound ♪

♪ And I'm by your side
And I'm holding your hand ♪

[radio, in German] Radio message
from Karl Dönitz, May 1st.

"German men and women,
soldiers of the German Wehrmacht.

Our Führer Adolf Hitler is gone.

In our deepest grief
the German people bow their heads.

He saw the danger of the Bolsheviks
sooner than all of us

and devoted his life to this struggle.

At the end of his struggle
and his righteous life

we cherish his heroic death
in our capital.

During his life he only served Germany.

His commitment in this w*r
also served Europe

and the entire cultural world.

The Führer has appointed me
as his successor.

With the German people in mind
I accept this task

in this, our darkest hour.

My main task is to save German people
from annihilation by the Bolshevik enemy

To this cause
our military campaign will continue.

As long as the Brits and Americans
oppose us,

we will continue to defend ourselves
and we will fight on.

The allied forces don't fight
for their own people anymore,

but only for the Bolsheviks in Europe.

What the German people have
achieved and endured in this w*r,

is historically unparallelled.

I will do everything
for our brave women, men and children

to ensure the best possible
living conditions.

Most of all I need your help. Give me
your trust, since your way is my way.

Stick to order and discipline,
in all cities and all the land."

[somber music plays]

Hello, my name is Géraldine Schwarz.

I'm a writer and journalist
living in Berlin.

I was born from a French mother
and a German father

and somehow I feel a bit like a child
of the French-German reconciliation.

My French grandfather was a policeman
serving the Vichy regime,

which collaborated with n*zi Germany.

My German grandfather
was a member of the n*zi party.

A few years ago,

I discovered that he also took advantage
of the n*zi anti-Semitic policies

to buy a business
to a low price from a Jewish family.

My grandfather was neither a monster
nor a fanatical n*zi.

He was merely a mitläufer.

Like many Germans, he followed
the current out of opportunism.

[vocal music plays]

[man, in German]
Orders from General Weidling,

broadcasted in German and Russian,
in the evening of May 2nd, 1945.

"On April 30th, 1945,
the Führer committed suicide

and abandoned everyone
who were loyal to him.

You German soldiers were ready
to continue the fight for Berlin,

although your ammunition was running low
and the fight was basically pointless.

I command the immediate end
of all resistance

Every hour of resistance prolongs
the suffering of the Berlin population

and our wounded."

On April 30th,

Adolf Hitler had lunch with Eva Braun,
his two secretaries and his cook.

After lunch, Hitler and Eva Braun
said goodbye to everybody in the bunker,

including Hitler's private secretary
Martin Bormann,

and his head of propaganda
Joseph Goebbels,

who was staying in the bunker
with his wife and his six children.

Around 03:30 p.m.,
they heard a g*nsh*t and Heinz Linge,

an SS officer and Hitler's personal valet
opened the door to the study.

He found the two lifeless bodies
on the sofa,

Hitler's head sunken over,
blood dripping from his temple.

Eva Braun had taken a cyanide pill.

The day after the marriage,
Hitler and Eva Braun were dead.

According to Hitler's instructions,

the two bodies were burnt in the garden
behind the Reich Chancellery.

Stalin was informed of Hitler's suicide


and expected unconditional surrender
of the German Army.

Berlin, the n*zi capital.

Adolf Hitler and his architect
Albert Speer had big plans for Berlin.

They wanted to change it into Germania,
their vision of a world capital.

A megalomaniac project

which would harbor endless avenues
for parades,

triumphal arches,
and the largest buildings of the world.

When in 1936, the Summer Olympics
were held in Berlin,

the whole world was looking
at the architectural wonders

of the n*zi capital.

But Hitler also made it ready for w*r.

He built air shelters like this one,
which could hold more than 3000 civilians.

Now it is the Boros Art Gallery.

But Hitler also built
enormous concrete fortresses.

Six Flak towers which were forts
of about 15 meters high

with three-meter-thick walls.

They were built in eight months

and became Berlin's
main defensive fortresses.

The six Flak towers were built

after the first Allied raid
on Berlin in August 1940.

They operated in pairs of two.

One tower registered aircrafts via radar
and visual triangulation

and calculated the firing data.

These informations were passed over
to the second tower.

It was armed with eight 128 mm Flak g*ns,

one of the most effective
anti-aircraft g*n of its era.

It was able to fire 20 rounds per minute
up to an altitude of 14 km.

A crew of up to 12 men handled the g*n,

mostly young men from the Hitlerjugend.

To complete the defense
of the beloved city Berlin,

in winter of '45,

Volkssturm soldiers dug anti-tank ditches
at the Seelower Höhen,

forming a defense line of 60 km long.

On January 31st, Red Army soldiers
crossed the frozen Oder river

and formed a bridgehead
less than 100 km from Berlin.

They captured Poland right before
the Yalta Conference,

a meeting between
British Prime Minister Churchill,

President of the United States Roosevelt
and Soviet leader Stalin

to discuss the post-w*r reorganization
of Germany and Europe.

[in Russian]
I have a last friendly request,

my comrade-in-arms and friend.

I'd ask you to drink to health
of the king of England.

A king?

I'm against monarchy, Mr. Churchill,
and you know it.

I'm your guest, Mr. Stalin,
and I really ask you to.

Well, if you need it so much…

I'm ready to indulge you.

To whose health?

I'm suggesting to drink to the king.

I'm drinking…

to the health of Kalinin.

[glasses clinking]

Stalin ordered one of his best men,
Marshal Georgy Zhukov,

to encircle Berlin with 2.5 million troops

to ensure the Americans
and the British did not enter the city.

Zhukov had to launch a direct as*ault
by April 16th the latest.

[ominous music plays]

[Géraldine] On April 16, 1945,
Zhukov's 1st Byelorussian Front

and Marshall Ivan Koniev's


One million Soviets with 3000 tanks

were facing 100,000 German soldiers
in 600 tanks.

But the battle was not a walkover.

[ominous music plays]

[Géraldine] Zhukov overcame the positions
on the Seelow Heights,

but only advanced slowly.

Stalin was furious and ordered Koniev

to send his armored forces
directly at Berlin.

[man, in Russian] Here's the letter
of Pyotr Semenov of the Red Army.

"We didn't have such a day as this one
here at the front yet.

At four in the morning fire was opened
from thousands of Stalinist organs.

And then 'To Berlin!'
was heard all over the place."

This Russian tank, the T34,

some people called it the tank
that saved the world,

and German General von Kleist
even called it

the finest tank in the world.

Colonel-General Guderian,
known for his Blitzkrieg doctrine,

said that the T34s were superior

over any existing German armor
of that period.

With its 500 horsepower V12 engine,

this tank had a top speed
of about 55 kilometers per hour.

The Russians made about 84,000 of them.

They were like ants overwhelming
German territory.

[in German]
Diary of Corporal Werner Hütter.

"Around 4:00 a.m. the Russians woke us up,
we couldn't sleep anymore.

The earth was trembling and shaking.
This was the main attack of the Russians."

-[explosions]
-[heavy g*n fire]

[man, in German] Letter from Adolf Hitler
to Benito Mussolini, April 20th.

"To Benito Mussolini.

Many thanks, Duce,
for your congratulations for my birthday.

The w*r that we fight for our mere
existence now reaches its highlight.

With limitless materials the Bolsheviks
and the Jews will try everything

to unify their destructive forces
in Germany,

to turn our continent into utter chaos.

With great risk for their lives,

the German people, and like-minded folks

must stop this tidal wave,
no matter what the costs are.

With true heroïsm
we will alter the course of this w*r.

In this historic moment in our century,
where Europe's fate will be determined,

I send you my heartfelt greetings.
Adolf Hitler."

[man, in German]
Radio speech, Joseph Goebbels.

Friday, April 20th.

"Germany will soon blossom
like never before after this w*r.

Its ruined landscapes and provinces
will be built up

with new, more beautiful towns
and villages, inhabited by happy people.

Europe as a whole will benefit.

We'll befriend all people
who are of good will

and together we'll heal the wounds

that our continent has had to endure.

On rich fields crops will grow

and there will be no hunger
for the millions who suffer right now.

There will be jobs for everyone

and all the people will experience
blessings and strength.

The chaos will end.

The underworld will not reign,
but order, peace an prosperity.

That was always our intention.
It still is today."

[piano music plays]

[man, in Danish] A letter
by the Danish journalist Jacob Kronika.

"Berlin, April 20. Hitler's birthday.

On the corner of Lützowplatz
and Lützowstrasse

some fearless people last night
placed a large, primitive poster

on the ruins of a house.

It stands at the height of the first floor
with the inscription:

'We can thank the Führer for this.'

The text is familiar.
It was coined by Dr. Goebbels

and has been used countless times."

By April 25th,

Zhukov and Koniev had completed
the encirclement of Berlin

and started to close in towards
the center.

The main attack started on April 26th,
with the Germans fighting tenaciously,

making skillful use of buildings
and rubble to conduct sniping,

counterattacks, and ambushes,
while many of the high Flak towers

were able to sh**t down
onto the advancing Soviet troops.

After days of bitter fighting,
on April 28th,

Zhukov's forces captured the bridge
on the Potsdamer Strasse

in the very center of the city.

-[explosions]
-[heavy g*n fire]

[male reader 1]
Writing by American w*r Reporter

William J. Fox.

"Wednesday, April 25th, 1945,
along the Elbe.

After all the jeeps had cleared
the last house

and the lead vehicle was about 150 miles
east of the city limits.

The column ground to halt
in a typhoon of dust.

Everyone looked to his right
with an open-mouthed stare.

There, on the tree-lined parallel road
leading from Zausswitz

was a column of horsemen moving west.

One word came from every amazed mouth:
"Russians."

The horsemen apparently
saw the jeeps at the same time,

for they wheeled to their right

and started galloping
toward the Americans.

Among the cavalrymen
were several soldiers on bicycles

and motorcycles.

All of us piled out of our jeeps.

Time stood still
as the first Russian approached."

[in German]
Telegram from Göring to Hitler.

"My Führer,

general Koller told me today,
based on intel from Jodl and Christian

that you, on different occasions,
relied on my judgement

and that I,
should negotiations be necessary,

should handle them,
rather than you in Berlin.

All this was very surprising for me

and I now feel obligated to believe

that if I don't get an answer
before 10:00 p.m.

I must assume
that you are no longer in total control.

I'll accept all consequences

and will do everything
for my people and country.

What I feel for you
in these difficult times, you aleady know,

and can't be expressed in words.

God be with you,
and please try to be safe.

Your faithful Hermann Göring."

[man, in German]
Telegram from Bormann to Göring.

"Your decision to take the leadership
of our nation is high treason.

High treason means the death penalty.

Taking into account
the numerous merits you have acquired

for our party and country,

the Führer will not demand your death,

but he demands that you immediately
step down from office,

based on 'health issues'
that force you to lay down your duties.

Bormann."

[airplane engine roaring]

[Géraldine] One of the most amazing pilots
was a woman, Hanna Reitsch.

She became a test pilot in 1935.

Her flying skills,
her desire for publicity,

and her photogenic star quality made her
the perfect subject for n*zi propaganda.

She was the first female helicopter pilot

and was asked to test many
of Germany's new airplanes.

But she had a crash landing

with the Messerschmitt ME 163
like this one and got badly injured.

After the accident,
she got an Iron Cross First Class.

In 1944, she presented the idea
of Operation Suicide to Hitler,

a kamikaze squad of suicide bombers.

But the plan was never operational.

In the last days of the w*r,
Hanna's lover General von Greim

was appointed leader of the Luftwaffe,
the German Air Force.

Hitler had chosen him
to replace Herman Göring,

who had fallen in disgrace.

On April 26th,
General von Greim asked Hanna Reitsch

to fly him into embattled Berlin
to meet Hitler.

The plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire,

but Hanna Reitsch managed to land
on an improvised airstrip

near the victory column.

Hitler asked von Greim
to have the Luftwaff

attack the Soviet forces
on the ground in Berlin.

He also ordered General von Greim
to fly to Northern Germany

to chase and arrest Heinrich Himmler

for making unauthorized contact
with Western Allies.

On April, 29th, von Greim and Reitsch

left the Führerbunker
and flew out of the city.

Later they were captured and interviewed
by the American Military Intelligence.

Interrogation
of Hanna Reitsch by Robert E. Work

Chief Interrogator on November 1st, 1945.

"When Hanna Reitsch
together with Ritter von Greim,

Goering's successor
as the head of the Luftwaffe,

left Hitler's Berlin air-raid shelter
in the early morning of April 30th, 1945,

Reitsch was given letters to take out
by various of the occupants

who were to remain in the shelter
to die with Hitler."

[Géraldine] Only two letters
were still in Hanna's possession.

Those from the Goebbels'
to their eldest son.

She and von Greim destroyed the others.

Walter Hevel's
and Martin Bormann's letters

were simple official communications.

The one from Eva Braun was also destroyed.

Because von Greim thought
the letter sounded so childish

that he was ashamed
the enemy could read that.

General von Greim committed suicide
while in American captivity

and Hanna settled in Frankfurt
after her release.

In '52 she won a bronze medal
in the World Gliding Championship in Spain

and continued to break records.

In 1961,

she was invited by President J. F. Kennedy
to the White House.

Between '62 and '66, she lived in Ghana

where she was invited
by the President Kwame Nkrumah

to found the first Black African
glider school.

She had a relationship with him.

She wore the Iron Cross with diamonds
that Hitler gave her

till the end of her days.

Letter from Hanna Reitsch in 1972.

"There was never the idea
to convince Adolf Hitler

to fly to Berchtesgarden with me.

In the moment when General von Greim

and I reached the bunker such an idea
would have been entirely crazy.

I not even heard a word
about such a plan in the bunker

because it didn't exist."

[Géraldine] Meanwhile,

Hitler had forbidden
the evacuation of Berlin.

This meant condemning
three million citizens to hell,

trapping them in a city
under incessant bombs and g*nf*re

with almost no medical assistance
and no food.

On top of that, Hitler's death squads
were raging.

"Flying courts of w*r" k*lled anyone
they suspected of desertion,

even young boys from the Volkssturm.

Countless citizens and soldiers

died in vain
in this last battle of Berlin.

[vocal music plays]

[man, in Russian]
Vladimir Gelfand's diary, April, 25.

"I asked the German women
where do they live in broken German.

I wanted to know
why did they leave their house.

And they spoke with horror
about the grief

that the front line soldiers
had caused them

during the first night
the Red Army was here.

[explosions]

They lived not far
from where we were stationed

and from my bicycle rides.

So I could easily go to their home

and sort out the whole story in detail.

Moreover, the wonderful girl
attracted me most of all.

She became so accidentally

and so unexpectedly
for herself and her parents

the reason for so many worries.

I went with them.

They were wealthy.

They had a huge two-storey house
with luxurious furnishings

and excellent interior finishes

and wall and ceiling paintings.

The family was numerous.

When our soldiers came, they sent
everyone to live in the basement.

And the youngest woman

and the most beautiful one
they took with them

and started to sneer at her.

'They poked me here',
the beautiful German woman explained,

lifting up her skirt.

'The entire night.
There were so many of them.

I was a virgin.'

She sighed and started crying.

'They spoiled my youth.

Among them there were old men,
pimply men,

and all of them
climbed on me and poked,

and there were at least 20 of them.

Yes, yes.'

And she cried even harder.

'They r*ped my daughter
in front of me,'

her poor mother added.

And they can return
and r*pe my girl again."

[Géraldine] Russian soldiers
who surrounded machine g*n nests

were shocked to discover
that some defenders

were just crying children.

[somber music plays]

Stories of liberating
Soviet soldiers raping,

looting and k*lling, spread like wildfire.

Once the arrival of the Red Army
seemed inevitable,

suicide expanded like an epidemic.

In Berlin, pastors worried
about the surge of faithful

who came to tell them that they always
carried a cyanide pill with them.

[somber music plays]

[cannon g*nf*re]

[cannon g*nf*re]

[expl*si*n]

[piano music plays]

[man, in German] Diary entry of 16-year
old soldier Dieter Borkowski, April 28th.

"Near Königstor I saw something strange,
from a distance.

On the air-raid cover trenches
in fron of the Bartholomäus Church

I saw five men,
amidst heavy grenade explosions.

With every expl*si*n
rocks and metal flew around.

When I was 100 meters away,
ducking and diving,

I called out to them:

'Take cover!'

But they didn't move.
Then I realized what I saw.

All five of them were dead
and they hung from trees."

[somber music plays]

While the Russian Army
was advancing towards the city center,

anti-Soviet n*zi propaganda
partly became reality.

The German anti-fascist resistance,
especially the communists,

cherished high hopes
in the Soviet liberation.

But those were crushed by the brutality
of the Red Army.

Russian soldiers who had seen the violence

of the n*zi invasion in their own country,
had nothing but hate for the Germans.

[somber music plays]

[in German] Diary from journalist
Ruth Andreas- Friedrich,

of the German Resistance.

"Goebbels told us for four years
that the Russians would r*pe us.

That they would plunder,
k*ll and burn everything.

Dirty propaganda.
We would welcome our allied liberators."

Here in Charlottenburg,
Russian troops entered this building,

which was a women's hospital.

They were in search of nurses,
but these had already fled.

So the soldiers started to r*pe the women

who were still in bed after giving birth.

Women who had to leave their shelter place

tried to make themselves unattractive,

while other women did exactly
the opposite.

They dressed themselves like prostit*tes,

using the fear of venereal disease
as protection.

Even the disgust of menstruation blood

was used by young women who painted
the inside of their thighs red.

[in German] Excerpt from the diary
of Christa R., April 27th.

"Two Russians.

One of them looked nice
and was very friendly.

They asked me about German soldiers
and weapons.

They searched our house
and questioned my mother and me.

They probably said something like
'mother and daughter'.

Then they left.

Would the Russians be reasonable?

A few moments later more Russians came.

A soldier with an eye wound
dragged me out of the room.

Mother tried to stop him,
but she was pushed away.

I tried to resist,
but he reached for his g*n.

Not much later I came back,
totally disgusted,

and mother and the others consoled me."

[Géraldine] The Soviet High Command
had issued a directive

which stipulated draconian punishments
for undisciplined behavior,

as they didn't want the image
of the Soviet Union damaged.

But it was all in vain.

In Berlin, more than 100,000 women
and girls were r*ped,

most of them more than once.

In total, up to 2 million women
were brutally r*ped

on German territory in the east
by the soldiers of the Red Army.

Emma, Jula, Wilhelmina,
Elsa, Susanne, Gerda,

Liese, Lotte, Lenna, Lore, Rosemarie,
Barbara, Sigrid, Anke.

[man, in German]
Worker's journal from Bertolt Brecht.

"Even after three years, there's
a feeling of panic among men

all caused by the plundering
and raping after Berlin fell.

In working-class areas the 'liberators'
were awaited with desperate joy,

but that changed quickly,

although they left the 70-year-olds
and 12-year-olds alone.

Reports came in that Russian soldiers
went from door to door

bleeding, exhausted, embittered,

stopped firing
so that women could fetch water,

They led the hungry to the bakeries,

and helped to dig out those buried
under the rubble.

But later on,
drunken soldiers besieged houses

retrieved the women
and k*lled the men who resisted.

They r*ped mothers
in front of their children

and stood in queues in front of houses."

[Géraldine] Himmler felt
that the Third Reich came to its end

and started to negotiate
a seperate capitulation

with the Allies behind Hitler's back.

He used his masseur Felix Kersten,
as intermediary between him

and the head of the Swedish Red Cross,
Count Folke Bernadotte.

Several Allied leaders got involved

and the information was leaked
to the press.

Hitler was furious while the rage
and the fighting in Berlin went on.

[explosions]

On April 27th,
Western Allies rejected Himmler's proposal

to surrender all German forces
in the West.

They didn't want to compromise
their alliance with the Soviets.

Hitler was furious about Himmler

and removed him from all offices
and from the n*zi Party.

Himmler fled to Northern Germany
with several companions on of May 20th.

He shaved off his mustache,

wore an eyepatch and a uniform
of the Secret Military Police.

He traveled under the name
of Heinrich Hitzinger.

But the plan to escape didn't succeed.

Himmler drew the attention
of Allied soldiers

and on May 22nd he was taken
to the British headquarters.

There he identified himself

and managed to bite into a cyanide pill
hidden in his mouth.

Within 15 minutes, Himmler was dead.

[somber music plays]

[Géraldine] Kaufering was the largest
of the Dachau subcamps

and the conditions were terrible.

About half of the 30,000 prisoners
died from hunger,

disease, hardship, m*rder
or during the Death Marches.

The 522nd Field a*tillery Battalion,

which consisted entirely of Americans
with Japanese origins,

was also part of the liberation.

In total, 33,000 Japanese Americans
served in the US Army during World w*r II.

But they served in segregated units
just like the Afro-American soldiers.

I suppose the shock of seeing
the camp and its victims

was especially confronting
for those Japanese Americans,

knowing that their own families
were imprisoned in camps in the US

and worrying about what
was happening to them.

[male reader 2]
Chiasso, Switzerland, April 29th.

"The city of Como, where the life
of a once-powerful Italian duce,

Benito Mussolini, was snapped short
by an anti-fascist b*llet in his back,

rejoiced as Italian girls pelted bashful
American armored Doughboys with flowers.

No one mentioned Mussolini's name.

That would be an ill omen.

Instead, he was called "That man".

Conscious of fate, Mussolini
was aware of the fate that awaited him.

At the moment of his capture,

as his German guards threw up their hands,

he cried out in horror: "What now!
Is no one going to defend me?"

His last hours were spent in dejection.

Yet he still believed in himself
as another Napoleon.

His last words, quoting
from a famous Italian poem, were:

"From death to the altar
and from the altar to death,"

adding, "No tree reaches the sky."

On April 29th,
Adolf Hitler married Eva Braun.

At that moment,

Soviet troops were already largely
in control of Berlin.

A macabre and bizarre party
was held in the Führerbunker.

Hitler himself was in the side room.

He dictated his political will to one
of his private secretaries, Traudl Junge.

In the afternoon, the Russians launched
a final attack on the German Reichstag.

After a fierce battle,
the Russians were unable to continue

and waited until darkness had fallen.

Hitler had sworn to take his own life
rather than lose to the Allies.

He wanted to be cremated
as he wanted to avoid his corpse

becoming a spectacle for his enemy.

In his last will,

he named Admiral Dönitz as his successor
and as President of the Reich,

Minister of w*r and Supreme Commander
of the armed forces.

Hitler ordered to test the cyanide pills
he had in his possession

on his dog Blondi.

[man, in German]
Political will Adolf Hitler.

"Since I volunteered as
a humble soldier in 1914

during WW I,
approximately 30 years have passed.

During those three decades
all my thoughts and actions

were based on the love
for my fellow Germans.

They gave me the power to endure
the heaviest challenges,

heavier than any man ever had to endure.

I used up my time,
my strength and my health

during those 30 years.

It's not true that I,
or anybody else in Germany,

ever wanted this w*r to begin,
starting in 1939."

By the early morning of April 30th,

Soviet troops had taken part
of the Diplomatic Quarter,

the Ministry of Internal Affairs
and the Moltke Bridge,

a strategic bridge which opened
the way to the Reichstag.

But this didn't happen
without many casualties

and an enormous bloodshed.

[man, in German]
Political will Adolf Hitler.

"That's why I stayed in Berlin,

to choose the moment of my own death

because I think the Führer's position
can no longer be guaranteed.

I die with a joyful heart,

fully aware of the huge achievements

of our troops at the front.

The actions from our women at home,
our farmers and working men,

as well our Hitler Jugend,
the organization that bears my name."

[g*n shot]

This is exactly the same kind of g*n
Hitler used to sh**t himself in the head.

At 03:30 p.m.,

Martin Bormann and his valet
opened the door to the study.

They found the just married couple dead.

The German dictator chose to end his life

while his people were still fighting
to defend Berlin.

Thousands of Germans followed him
and committed suicide too.

[man, in German]
Political will Adolf Hitler.

"Many brave men and women decided

to join me in a self-chosen death.

I begged them, and in fact ordered them,
not to do so,

but to fight on for our nation."

[somber music plays]

With Hitler's suicide
and the atrocities of the Red Army,

tens of thousands of Germans
committed suicide.

The largest mass suicide happened here
in the town of Demmin,

a bastion of Nazism
close to the Baltic Sea.

On April 30th, Soviet troops started
to sack and burn the town.

Countless women were r*ped.

Panic broke out.

Hundreds of civilians
poisoned themselves, shot themselves,

cut their wrists, hanged themselves,

and about 600 of them drowned themselves
in the Peene and Tollense rivers.

[somber music plays]

[Géraldine] Joseph Goebbels
and his wife Magda committed suicide

after they k*lled their six children
with cyanide pills.

Also Martin Bormann and many
other prominent Nazis k*lled themselves.

In Berlin alone,
at least 7000 suicides were reported.

At 02:25 p.m., about one hour
before Hitler's suicide,

the commander
of the Soviet 150th r*fle Division

reported that he had seen a Red Flag
over the steps of the Reichstag.

This false report was sent to Moscow
and abroad.

But when w*r correspondents converged
on the Reichstag,

they found Soviet infantry
hadn't even reached the building.

Aware of his error,

the commander ordered to raise a flag
or pennant on the building,

whatever the human cost would be.

Finally, on April 30th at 10:50 p.m.,

the Red Flag waves over the Reichstag
and over Berlin.

[man, in Russian]
Vladimir Gelfand's diary.

"On the evening of April 30,

a*tillery preparation
of the division's units began.

By this time, our soldiers were
on the second floor of the building.

The Germans were downstairs.

I suddenly noticed them waving
the signal flags.

The sh**ting stopped.

And then they came out to meet
the foremost people of our army."

[piano music plays]

This is Nicolai Iwanowitsch Massalow.

And this is "The Liberator".

A statue that dominates
the Soviet w*r Memorial

and Cemetery in Berlin's Treptower Park.

It shows a Soviet soldier
holding a German child

while standing atop a crushed swastika,
the n*zi emblem.

Somehow it looks like Massalow,
but the similarity is coincidental.

The story goes that for a moment
the streets of Berlin were quiet

as both sides waited for the preparational
a*tillery barrage to open.

Suddenly a child's cry calling
for its mother could be heard.

The voice came from the no-man's-land,

an area which now at any minute
would turn into a hell.

A Soviet soldier with the name
of Nicolai Massalow

was the first to react.

He asked his commanding officer
if he could go rescue the child.

Massalow disappeared and when
he came back he was holding a small girl

whose mother had been k*lled.

A hero in times of complete chaos
and senseless bloodshed.

[in German]
HQ Army report, May 2nd, 1945.

"Our most heroic defender of our
nation's capital, the Führer, has fallen.

Always determined to save his people
and Europe from the Bolscheviks

he sacrified himself for us.

His example, 'loyalty till death',
is mandatory for all soldiers.

The remnants of the government in Berlin
continue to fight bitterly,

divided into individual combat groups."

[ominous music plays]

[Géraldine] Three days after
Hitler's suicide on May 2nd,

in the district of Friedrichshain,

some of the Garrison of the Flak Tower
had committed suicide.

While others decided to break out.

Dieter Borkowski was one of them.

But Soviet troops stopped them near
the S-Bahn station of Schoenhauser-Allee.

Borkowski was taken prisoner.

[man, in German] Excerpt of the diary
from Dieter Borkowski, May 2nd, 1945.

"Our march into the unknown
bears an eerie tension.

I wonder where the Russians are?

Vaguely you can still hear orders:
'March on to Mühlenbeck-Prenzlau!'

Then I see the man
who's giving that order.

This commander was once
Head of Friedrichshain, Humboldthain

and the local Zoo,
Lieutenant Colonel Hoffmann.

He sits in his car, elegantly as ever,
next to the young Lieutenant Keller,

whom I met ten days ago
in the Wilhelmstrasse.

He smiles at me and shakes my hand.

And now Lieutenant Keller,

who was able to escape
from the Führer's headquarters last night,

says that Adolf Hitler shot himself.

He laughs oddly

when he tells me that the Führer married
a young lady named Eva Braun

and then quietly performed his last will.

Goebbels is dead too.

He had himself shot by an officer,
after which his children were poisened.

I feel like throwing up
after I hear all this.

I believe my life is pointless now.

Why this m*ssacre?
The death of so many people?"

[Géraldine] In the wake
of the liberation of Berlin,

some 1700 Jews in hiding were also freed.

They lived underground and were helped
by courageous Berlin citizens,

friends, acquaintances and even strangers.

They were known as U-boote,
so-called "Submerged".

Some had false identities

and despite the hunt of the Gestapo
and civilian collaborators,

many were not traced.

One of the persons that saved many Jews
was Franz Kaufmann,

but he was also denounced
and m*rder*d by the Gestapo

in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

On the other hand,

there were collaborators coming
from an unexpected angle.

Like Stella Goldschlag,

a German Jewish woman
who collaborated with the Gestapo.

The Nazis called her "Blonde poison".

And second to sources,
she betrayed between 600 and 3000 Jews.

The blue-eyed blonde Jewish woman

was arrested by the Nazis in 1943
and tortured.

She agreed to become a "Jew-catcher",

to avoid deportation for herself
and her parents.

She was promised 300 Reichsmark
for every Jew she betrayed.

On the night of May 2nd,

the fighting stopped
and the German generals in Berlin

surrendered to the Soviet Army.

In the rest of the country
some fights went on.

They stopped on May 8th.

During the battle of Berlin,
the German Army lost about 200,000 men,

k*lled, wounded, and taken prisoner.

One hundred and twenty-five thousand
civilians died

and the Red Army suffered around


But historians esteem
that the actual numbers

are probably a lot higher.

[male reader 3]
Letter from private Jack Womer

to his wife Theresa on May 7th.

"I do feel awful thankful to God
and you and my people

for the prayers that brought me through
from the beginning to the end.

It's sure been a long, hard road for me.

I'm just sorry that many of my buddies
couldn't be here to see.

I do feel, Theresa, that the w*r
has had an effect on me a little.

It may be hard for me to get used to
living like a man should live,

but I believe with lots of help from you,
I will make out okay."

[Géraldine] On May 6th, the Polish troops
took over the German Navy,

the Kriegsmarine in Wilhelmshaven.

General Maczek accepted
the German capitulation of the fortress,

the naval base, the East Frisian Fleet,
and more than ten infantry divisions.

[man, in German] Letter from Klaus Mann
to his father, May 8th.

"From Innsbruck we travel
to Berchtesgaden.

There are many allied troops here.

Mainly French, but also
'displaced persons' of all nationalities.

The crowd was even more dense here,

everybody wildly exuberant.

Many drunk people attracted attention
with particularly unbridled manners.

The wine they had gotten so drunk on
came from Hitler's cellar.

For two days the Berghof were flooded
by GI's and 'poilus'

and systematically plundered.

It must have been an true orgy
of plundering and victory."

[in German] From the last German
army message: May 8 and 9.

"The German soldier, true to his oath,

always committed himself to our people,
in an unforgettable manner.

Our nation supported them with sacrifices
until the very last moment.

The unique achievement
of front and homeland

will find its final blessing
in a just judgment of history.

The sacrifices of the German soldiers,
on land, water and in the sky

even earned the respect
of our enemies.

Every soldier can therefore
lay down his weapon with pride

and now, in the darkest hours
of our history,

bravely commit himself
to the eternal work for our people."

[Géraldine] On May 8th, 1945, at 12 a.m.,
World w*r II ended in Europe.

That moment was called "Stunde Null",
which means "Hour Zero".

To express the hope that from the ashes,
a new democratic Germany would rise,

the Allies aimed to denazify
and re-educate the German society.

But the impact was limited.

It was up to the Germans to take
their democratic fate in hand.

A Letter from William Lee Preston
to his brother John.

"Dear John, the w*r is over.

The w*r in Europe is over.

I can hardly believe it.

For it seems only yesterday
we were seeing our first action

in the Siegfried line.

Two nights ago, John A.
sat by an open window

on the second story of the building
my platoon occupies

and listened and watched
for over an hour as German prisoners,

thousands, blew past us on
their way to a POW enclosure.

I listened to the tromp,
tromp of n*zi boots,

no longer in cadence,
no longer marching proudly.

A beaten, tired mob
of German soldiers surrendered."

[somber music plays]

[g*n shot]

[rumble]

[Géraldine] The conclusion
of the European battlefields

of World w*r II is terrifying.

It is estimated that between


were k*lled in the European Theater.

The Soviet Union paying
the highest price, with 20 million dead.

Like in no other conflict before,
civilians were affected.

About 6 million Jews and hundreds
of thousands of Sinti Roma

died in genocides.

Tens of millions of people
lost their home,

and more than 20 million refugees fled
across Europe.

The total cost of World w*r II in Europe

is estimated
at some three trillion dollars.

After the w*r, Germany was divided
into four zones of occupation:

Soviets, American, British, and French.

The city of Berlin was later literally
cut in half by a concrete wall:

The Berlin Wall.

East Germany turned into a communist
dictatorship under Soviet rule,

while Western Germany was integrated
by the Western world

and finally became a strong democracy.

[piano music plays]

[man, in German]
Poem by Bertolt Brecht.

"General, your tank is
a mighty strong vehicle.

It crushes trees,
as well as a 100 people.

But it has one flaw: it needs a driver.

General, your b*mber plane is strong.

It flies faster than a storm
and carries more weight than an elephant.

But it has one flaw: it needs a mechanic.

General, a man is very useful.

He can fly and k*ll.

But he has one flaw: he can think."

[piano music plays]