﻿1
00:00:15,300 --> 00:00:19,820
In 1941, director Leo de Laforgue
makes a film about Berlin...

2
00:00:21,500 --> 00:00:24,100
..to be called
Symphony Of A World Capital.

3
00:00:29,540 --> 00:00:32,500
The sun always seems to shine
and life is flourishing.

4
00:00:48,980 --> 00:00:51,220
There's no mention of the
Second World War,

5
00:00:51,220 --> 00:00:54,060
no inkling of concentration camps,

6
00:00:54,060 --> 00:00:58,140
no sign of over 300,000
forced labourers in the city,

7
00:00:58,140 --> 00:01:00,980
not a trace of misery and hunger.

8
00:01:00,980 --> 00:01:02,460
Quite the contrary.

9
00:01:07,900 --> 00:01:11,660
This summer, the Reich is
at the height of its power.

10
00:01:11,660 --> 00:01:13,540
Half of Europe has surrendered,

11
00:01:13,540 --> 00:01:16,420
and it's basking in the glory
of its successes.

12
00:01:21,980 --> 00:01:25,380
But in less than four years,
the tide will have turned.

13
00:01:25,380 --> 00:01:28,500
Adolf Hitler will have survived
an assassination attempt.

14
00:01:29,980 --> 00:01:33,700
Allied troops will be ready to storm
the country and take the city.

15
00:01:35,620 --> 00:01:38,500
The war will return to
its source, Berlin.

16
00:01:39,860 --> 00:01:42,180
And there will be little left
of the city but diaries

17
00:01:42,180 --> 00:01:45,620
and memories, files and pictures,
ashes and dust.

18
00:02:12,260 --> 00:02:14,780
TRANSLATION: Sunday, New Year's Eve,

19
00:02:14,780 --> 00:02:16,820
a trip to Grunewald forest
with Kurt.

20
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It was a splendid walk,
deep snow everywhere.

21
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We stopped off for a beer.

22
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We were home by six and
celebrated with Schultzes.

23
00:02:32,460 --> 00:02:35,460
It was the end of an eventful year.

24
00:02:35,460 --> 00:02:37,140
What will the next year bring?

25
00:02:37,140 --> 00:02:39,460
We are fearful of 1945.

26
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TRANSLATION: The new year
began quietly.

27
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Lieutenant Kutner ordered the
whole battalion to listen

28
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to the radio transmission
of the Fuhrer's speech.

29
00:04:18,820 --> 00:04:21,540
January 2nd. Back to work.

30
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Everyone talks about how drunk
they were on New Year's Eve.

31
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In the evening, to the UFA cinema
on Alexanderplatz with Kurt.

32
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We saw Rite Of Sacrifice with
Kristina Soderbaum and Carl Raddatz.

33
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It was a wonderful film.

34
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So sad. We were spellbound.

35
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January 4th. Air raid alert
from quarter to 12

36
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until quarter to one.

37
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It's been quite a smash-up,
another heavy attack.

38
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The capital of the Reich
was attacked by 40 fast bombers.

39
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They crossed the city in loose
formation.

40
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12 dead, 23 injured, 1324 homeless.

41
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TRANSLATION: January 9th.

42
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Something terrible has happened.

43
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They've implicated Count Moltke
in the Hitler assassination attempt

44
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and he will be brought before
the People's Court.

45
00:06:20,740 --> 00:06:23,220
And whoever comes before the
People's Court -

46
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treason, conspiracy
to overthrow the state,

47
00:06:25,780 --> 00:06:28,460
the Nazi regime -
it couldn't be worse.

48
00:06:38,820 --> 00:06:42,180
TRANSLATION: The setting was a room
packed with people.

49
00:06:42,180 --> 00:06:44,060
The proceedings went like this...

50
00:06:44,060 --> 00:06:46,860
Freisler - talented, brilliant and
not bright,

51
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and potent in all three respects,

52
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reads my resume. Details are
affirmed or things added.

53
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Then come questions about
the allegations.

54
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He ignores what doesn't suit him,
dismisses important points.

55
00:07:08,740 --> 00:07:10,860
The name Moltke constantly rang out.

56
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It permeated the proceedings

57
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and it was obvious they wanted
to have me killed.

58
00:07:32,660 --> 00:07:34,700
The barracks are wedged
between the main street

59
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and the subway
next to a sports field.

60
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The station is called
Baumschulenweg, a working class

61
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district with small factories,
handicraft businesses, tenements.

62
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From above, the barracks
look completely alike.

63
00:07:51,780 --> 00:07:53,940
For Berliners
passing by the fences,

64
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it's just a compound,
and they couldn't care less anyway.

65
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On the large meadow opposite
were several barracks

66
00:08:04,940 --> 00:08:07,940
for prisoners of war
and forced labourers.

67
00:08:07,940 --> 00:08:11,700
Most of them are Ukrainians and must
have been terribly mistreated.

68
00:08:11,700 --> 00:08:14,660
Screams rang out again and again.

69
00:08:14,660 --> 00:08:17,020
People living nearby ignored them.

70
00:08:17,020 --> 00:08:20,180
That is, when the screams
of the tortured were heard,

71
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they all closed their windows
as if on command.

72
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TRANSLATION: Homesickness
hits me in waves.

73
00:08:42,620 --> 00:08:44,820
At work I try to suppress
the sadness,

74
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but when I'm alone
it's barely possible.

75
00:08:50,300 --> 00:08:53,180
How many years of my youth
have I lost?

76
00:09:08,300 --> 00:09:09,980
We go to the cinema.

77
00:09:51,780 --> 00:09:54,100
After the film,
straight to the party offices

78
00:09:54,100 --> 00:09:55,740
to pay my member's fee.

79
00:10:03,020 --> 00:10:04,340
January 11th.

80
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The Moltke trial.
Before evening falls,

81
00:10:10,260 --> 00:10:12,740
the prosecution requests
the death penalty.

82
00:10:15,980 --> 00:10:19,540
We just had thoughts,
just Delp, Gerstenmeier and me.

83
00:10:19,540 --> 00:10:22,740
The NS is so afraid of these
solitary men's thoughts

84
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that anything infected by them
must be eradicated.

85
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If that isn't a compliment.

86
00:10:43,460 --> 00:10:46,580
It was too late to execute us
the same day,

87
00:10:46,580 --> 00:10:49,980
so, if it's the Lord's will,
I'll stay alive.

88
00:10:51,620 --> 00:10:53,660
You're still alive, my darling.

89
00:10:53,660 --> 00:10:55,540
Now I fight for you again.

90
00:10:55,540 --> 00:10:57,740
This respite might benefit us.

91
00:11:12,220 --> 00:11:14,500
Kurt came to eat with us.

92
00:11:14,500 --> 00:11:15,940
Mother left us alone.

93
00:11:15,940 --> 00:11:19,620
He played the mandolin and I sang
along, and then he kissed me

94
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and was very tender with me.

95
00:11:57,380 --> 00:11:59,500
The visits to the front lines
in the east

96
00:11:59,500 --> 00:12:02,340
by our Berlin regional
commanders went well.

97
00:12:02,340 --> 00:12:04,980
Our troops in East Prussia
are in high spirits,

98
00:12:04,980 --> 00:12:08,220
confident they will repel
the coming Soviet offensive.

99
00:12:37,140 --> 00:12:39,300
January 16th. For three days now,

100
00:12:39,300 --> 00:12:41,780
there's been a major
Bolshevik offensive.

101
00:12:41,780 --> 00:12:44,020
One of our men, Manfred, cries
in his bed at night

102
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because he's worried about
his family.

103
00:12:45,980 --> 00:12:49,060
He's from Konigsberg, where
the Russians are advancing.

104
00:12:50,620 --> 00:12:53,660
But the battle lines already
reach deep into Silesia.

105
00:12:53,660 --> 00:12:56,140
At night when the American and
English bombers approach,

106
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we man the guns.

107
00:13:19,980 --> 00:13:23,060
Two days ago, the Volkssturm
started enrolling

108
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in civilian jackets and puttees.

109
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Some had never held a gun before.
Extras to plug the gaps.

110
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Every day in the darkroom,
I see the portraits

111
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of young people who - barely
adult - are already dressed

112
00:13:52,500 --> 00:13:54,460
in military uniforms.

113
00:13:54,460 --> 00:13:56,940
Many of them won't live
to see the end of the war.

114
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Their uniform will be the only
garment worn

115
00:14:02,580 --> 00:14:04,340
in their short adult life.

116
00:14:17,020 --> 00:14:20,060
Kurt picked me up for the last time.

117
00:14:20,060 --> 00:14:22,100
He only took me with him
to the station.

118
00:14:23,340 --> 00:14:25,540
Who knows when we'll see
each other again?

119
00:14:47,300 --> 00:14:49,540
The first refugees arrived
from Silesia.

120
00:14:49,540 --> 00:14:51,900
A wagon filled
with dead children arrived

121
00:14:51,900 --> 00:14:53,620
at Berlin's Silesian station.

122
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They'd been standing in the cold
for 96 hours,

123
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packed in like pickled herrings
in a barrel.

124
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Our boss says we have to shift snow,
then dig graves for the dead.

125
00:15:08,780 --> 00:15:12,220
The earth is frozen solid
to 50 centimetres down.

126
00:15:14,020 --> 00:15:17,220
We dig through ice and snow,
then continue down, battering

127
00:15:17,220 --> 00:15:19,660
with hammers and iron wedges.

128
00:15:19,660 --> 00:15:23,060
It was hard for us before.
Now it's even worse.

129
00:15:37,700 --> 00:15:40,460
At three, I visited Muller,
head of the Gestapo.

130
00:15:40,460 --> 00:15:42,860
He said he couldn't do anything
for you as you're a traitor.

131
00:15:45,700 --> 00:15:48,820
I'm fine, my love. I am ready
and determined to happily

132
00:15:48,820 --> 00:15:51,820
place my faith in God's will,
knowing he only wants the best

133
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for us, including you, my dearest.

134
00:15:55,700 --> 00:15:57,540
Farewell, my sweetheart.

135
00:15:57,540 --> 00:16:00,180
May the Lord bless you
and all of us.

136
00:16:03,340 --> 00:16:06,900
Yesterday at noon, they took
Count Moltke from his cell.

137
00:16:06,900 --> 00:16:09,020
By four o'clock he'd been executed.

138
00:16:09,020 --> 00:16:10,740
It was all quite sudden.

139
00:16:27,780 --> 00:16:30,260
The city is teeming with refugees,

140
00:16:30,260 --> 00:16:32,860
all complaining about these
cursed times.

141
00:16:32,860 --> 00:16:34,820
Nobody is mincing their words.

142
00:16:34,820 --> 00:16:39,820
For 24 hours, every person can rage
about his hardship, his desperation

143
00:16:39,820 --> 00:16:42,020
and terror without inhibition.

144
00:16:42,020 --> 00:16:44,100
Then Goebbels is back in control.

145
00:17:32,700 --> 00:17:37,580
Today is the 12th anniversary
of the party's rise to power.

146
00:17:37,580 --> 00:17:39,700
One or two British bombing raids
every night.

147
00:17:39,700 --> 00:17:41,500
During the day,

148
00:17:41,500 --> 00:17:43,180
desperate Wehrmacht reports.

149
00:17:43,180 --> 00:17:46,180
The Fuhrer's radio address
is a good boost to morale.

150
00:18:12,260 --> 00:18:16,460
SINGING

151
00:19:08,500 --> 00:19:11,540
We went downstairs
to Matusack's again.

152
00:19:11,540 --> 00:19:13,660
His wife was also there now.

153
00:19:20,020 --> 00:19:24,020
The Schnapps was flowing until
ten o'clock.

154
00:19:24,020 --> 00:19:27,140
Then we listened to the Fuhrer's
speech.

155
00:19:27,140 --> 00:19:30,140
Uncle Paul is always drunk.

156
00:19:40,540 --> 00:19:42,540
Stalin is at the gate.

157
00:19:42,540 --> 00:19:45,900
The Russians have crossed the
River Oder, advancing on Wriezen

158
00:19:45,900 --> 00:19:47,940
with about 100 tanks.

159
00:19:47,940 --> 00:19:50,820
There is nothing between Berlin
and Wriezen, no anti-tank

160
00:19:50,820 --> 00:19:53,660
guns, no barricades,
not a single soldier.

161
00:19:53,660 --> 00:19:55,100
People are restless.

162
00:20:04,180 --> 00:20:06,860
My loving wife, you ask what's
to be done.

163
00:20:06,860 --> 00:20:10,340
I'm still optimistic on the whole.
The more rational voices say

164
00:20:10,340 --> 00:20:15,620
we still have considerable reserves
and will still get new weapons.

165
00:20:26,980 --> 00:20:30,700
Berlin can't be considered to be any
safer than where you are.

166
00:20:30,700 --> 00:20:33,460
Since there is no adequate means
of travel, I think it best

167
00:20:33,460 --> 00:20:35,940
if you stay there.

168
00:20:55,500 --> 00:20:59,340
The four o'clock weather briefing
indicated that there would be visual

169
00:20:59,340 --> 00:21:02,260
conditions in the Berlin Magdeburg
area.

170
00:21:02,260 --> 00:21:05,740
This was later confirmed
by the ten o'clock conference.

171
00:21:05,740 --> 00:21:07,700
In Berlin, the aiming points were

172
00:21:07,700 --> 00:21:09,740
the centre and the heart
of the city,

173
00:21:09,740 --> 00:21:13,100
an area bounded by the
Lindenstrasse,

174
00:21:13,100 --> 00:21:16,780
the Unter den Linden
and the Wilhelmstrasse.

175
00:21:19,980 --> 00:21:23,740
We had to report early to
Rosenthaler Platz

176
00:21:23,740 --> 00:21:26,660
to build barricades. We hadn't
been working for long.

177
00:21:26,660 --> 00:21:28,300
Everyone was in a good mood,

178
00:21:28,300 --> 00:21:32,180
the lads were singing, but then
the air-raid siren sounded.

179
00:21:35,300 --> 00:21:38,100
SIREN WAILS

180
00:21:50,340 --> 00:21:53,180
NEWSREEL: More than 1,000 Flying
Fortresses sweep out

181
00:21:53,180 --> 00:21:56,100
from their bases in England
to hammer the German capital.

182
00:21:56,100 --> 00:21:59,100
The stern voice of retributive
justice comes to Berlin

183
00:21:59,100 --> 00:22:01,060
in the heavy drone of bombers.

184
00:22:01,060 --> 00:22:02,980
From Berlin went the orders

185
00:22:02,980 --> 00:22:06,580
which wreaked havoc in Rotterdam
and Warsaw. From Berlin,

186
00:22:06,580 --> 00:22:10,420
also, Germany watched without pity
the agony of those millions

187
00:22:10,420 --> 00:22:13,340
of refugees whom war turned
into sad armies

188
00:22:13,340 --> 00:22:15,900
of the uprooted and dispossessed.

189
00:22:32,220 --> 00:22:36,700
Today, the wheel has turned full
circle. Berliners are undergoing

190
00:22:36,700 --> 00:22:39,300
the ordeal to which they
unprotestingly committed

191
00:22:39,300 --> 00:22:41,300
the great cities of Europe.

192
00:22:53,220 --> 00:22:58,100
In 45 minutes, 2,500 tonnes of high
explosive and incendiaries rained

193
00:22:58,100 --> 00:23:01,020
down on the government and army
administrative offices in the heart

194
00:23:01,020 --> 00:23:02,340
of the city.

195
00:23:30,420 --> 00:23:32,460
The city's in a terrible state.

196
00:23:32,460 --> 00:23:35,540
Through smoke, soot and filth,
I reached the publishing house.

197
00:23:35,540 --> 00:23:38,740
The rain's pouring down, binding
the smoke and soot, which sticks

198
00:23:38,740 --> 00:23:40,940
to our shoes like thick porridge.

199
00:23:43,380 --> 00:23:48,540
Disaster struck our anti-aircraft
unit.

200
00:23:48,540 --> 00:23:51,420
A bomb hit the munitions chamber
and all 400 rounds

201
00:23:51,420 --> 00:23:52,980
of ammunition exploded.

202
00:23:52,980 --> 00:23:55,140
All of my classmates are dead.

203
00:24:06,380 --> 00:24:09,300
The districts of Kreuzberg,

204
00:24:09,300 --> 00:24:12,340
Mitte, Horst Wessel and Wedding
were hit hardest.

205
00:24:12,340 --> 00:24:15,580
1,130 dead, 738 missing,

206
00:24:15,580 --> 00:24:20,940
1,116 wounded, 102,061 made
homeless.

207
00:24:28,220 --> 00:24:30,860
Bayerischer Platz underground
station is also

208
00:24:30,860 --> 00:24:35,780
affected. More than 100
bodies are under the rubble.

209
00:24:35,780 --> 00:24:38,700
Men, women and children
stand crowded together.

210
00:24:38,700 --> 00:24:42,780
They hang their heads in silence.
Grave, speechless, solemnly,

211
00:24:42,780 --> 00:24:44,980
they wait for their dead
to be dug up.

212
00:25:01,020 --> 00:25:04,180
Your pick sinks
into something soft.

213
00:25:04,180 --> 00:25:06,540
You shout, "Here! I've found
someone."

214
00:25:06,540 --> 00:25:08,740
A policeman comes running.

215
00:25:08,740 --> 00:25:12,460
Only a German may touch
cold German flesh.

216
00:25:12,460 --> 00:25:16,780
They finally get the body out, grab
it by the leg and pull it out.

217
00:25:16,780 --> 00:25:19,740
Sometimes the leg comes off.

218
00:25:19,740 --> 00:25:23,500
Some puke. At least they still
have something in their stomachs.

219
00:25:29,580 --> 00:25:31,100
NEWSREEL: In this operation,

220
00:25:31,100 --> 00:25:33,460
the Americans lost 19 bombers
and five fighters.

221
00:25:33,460 --> 00:25:34,740
As they head for home,

222
00:25:34,740 --> 00:25:39,340
they leave behind them a reminder
to Germans that war doesn't pay.

223
00:25:39,340 --> 00:25:42,500
Berlin, they say, is now a city
of dreadful night. As an American

224
00:25:42,500 --> 00:25:46,340
airman said after this trip,
"When Stalin's boys get to Berlin,

225
00:25:46,340 --> 00:25:48,820
"they'd better bring a Fire
Department, because the place

226
00:25:48,820 --> 00:25:50,500
"is really burning now."

227
00:26:18,140 --> 00:26:22,900
The eighth of February. We reached
Stalag VII in Luckenwalde

228
00:26:22,900 --> 00:26:27,260
in the early morning. Due
to overcrowding, there are no bunks.

229
00:26:27,260 --> 00:26:30,300
Each man has a filthy blanket.

230
00:26:30,300 --> 00:26:33,540
The latrine for hundreds
of men is a deep hole.

231
00:26:34,740 --> 00:26:38,660
If the hole is full, Russian
prisoners have to go down and clean

232
00:26:38,660 --> 00:26:40,740
it. They are treated horribly.

233
00:27:01,980 --> 00:27:04,420
Power was cut
for two hours today. I received

234
00:27:04,420 --> 00:27:06,860
the first two letters from Kurt.

235
00:27:06,860 --> 00:27:10,620
Air-raid alarm from 8:45
to half past nine.

236
00:27:12,620 --> 00:27:15,060
We've only
just learned that during the daytime

237
00:27:15,060 --> 00:27:18,260
attack last weekend, the president
of the People's Court, Dr Freisler,

238
00:27:18,260 --> 00:27:21,940
was killed along with most
of his staff.

239
00:27:21,940 --> 00:27:25,100
For a moment, I'm torn between
horror and joy.

240
00:27:25,100 --> 00:27:29,380
Freisler, the man
who sentenced everyone to death,

241
00:27:29,380 --> 00:27:32,980
he died a month too late and many
weeks too early to be made

242
00:27:32,980 --> 00:27:35,380
accountable and face retribution.

243
00:27:48,020 --> 00:27:51,900
My little doll, news
from here. The night was clear,

244
00:27:51,900 --> 00:27:55,500
the temperature dropped to zero.
Tomorrow morning at ten past seven,

245
00:27:55,500 --> 00:27:57,180
I have to go to the Volkssturm,

246
00:27:57,180 --> 00:27:59,140
probably to build tank barriers
again.

247
00:27:59,140 --> 00:28:01,660
I'm still hoping the countermeasures
announced will turn

248
00:28:01,660 --> 00:28:04,140
the tide. All the best from your
dad.

249
00:28:08,660 --> 00:28:10,100
February 15th.

250
00:28:12,420 --> 00:28:14,380
Today I'm alone in the clinic.

251
00:28:14,380 --> 00:28:18,220
Professor Sauerbruch isn't there,
nor is his official deputy.

252
00:28:22,180 --> 00:28:25,100
The order was given
to move all patients to the shelter,

253
00:28:25,100 --> 00:28:28,820
or at least to the basement. First,
children and private patients,

254
00:28:28,820 --> 00:28:31,020
then the women.

255
00:28:33,540 --> 00:28:36,980
In the bunker, I met a half-Jewish
biology professor.

256
00:28:36,980 --> 00:28:40,180
He told me there are Jews
hiding in Berlin.

257
00:28:40,180 --> 00:28:43,740
They have been living for months
or years in cellars and attics,

258
00:28:43,740 --> 00:28:46,540
looked after by friends
and acquaintances.

259
00:28:57,500 --> 00:28:59,660
My love,

260
00:28:59,660 --> 00:29:03,060
we've been apart for two
years already. This fear

261
00:29:03,060 --> 00:29:05,100
of being hunted, what for?

262
00:29:05,100 --> 00:29:09,180
All my life, I've lived as a decent
human being and now I have to hide

263
00:29:09,180 --> 00:29:12,220
like a criminal, like a murderer,
and tormented by my thoughts

264
00:29:12,220 --> 00:29:13,740
about the children.

265
00:29:13,740 --> 00:29:15,500
That's the worst of it.

266
00:29:15,500 --> 00:29:19,340
I am so desperate, because I simply
know nothing about them.

267
00:29:19,340 --> 00:29:21,940
If things went badly
for Miss Muller,

268
00:29:21,940 --> 00:29:25,460
they're no longer alive, but I had
no choice, otherwise I would

269
00:29:25,460 --> 00:29:28,700
have had to face
the Gestapo with them.

270
00:29:28,700 --> 00:29:31,780
When children sing songs
on the radio, it brings tears

271
00:29:31,780 --> 00:29:32,940
to my eyes.

272
00:29:47,380 --> 00:29:49,740
February 25th.

273
00:29:51,100 --> 00:29:54,980
My confirmation in the Church
of Jesus Christ in Dahlem.

274
00:29:58,060 --> 00:30:01,860
Daddy came, we were 14 girls
and six boys.

275
00:30:01,860 --> 00:30:06,500
Unfortunately, it didn't take place
in the church. It was too cold.

276
00:30:07,740 --> 00:30:10,900
Nevertheless, it was very solemn
and no siren interrupted it.

277
00:30:10,900 --> 00:30:14,100
For lunch, we had a good pot
roast that Daddy had brought

278
00:30:14,100 --> 00:30:18,180
with him. In the afternoon, visitors
and real coffee and cake.

279
00:30:37,860 --> 00:30:39,580
February 26th.

280
00:30:42,460 --> 00:30:44,940
Today was the day we were
trained for.

281
00:30:44,940 --> 00:30:47,660
I always wanted to bomb
Hitler's Berlin.

282
00:30:48,780 --> 00:30:51,860
The city has the toughest
anti-aircraft defences

283
00:30:51,860 --> 00:30:55,740
and more enemy fighters
than any other target in Germany,

284
00:30:55,740 --> 00:30:58,580
so it's understandable
that the crews let out tormented

285
00:30:58,580 --> 00:31:01,980
groans when they heard
about it at the briefing.

286
00:31:23,980 --> 00:31:27,740
After take-off, I felt so alone
on my position in the rear

287
00:31:27,740 --> 00:31:31,940
of the plane, in spite of the many
planes around us.

288
00:31:31,940 --> 00:31:33,620
So terribly alone

289
00:31:33,620 --> 00:31:37,620
and afraid that this could be my
last flight.

290
00:31:37,620 --> 00:31:40,380
I cannot describe the emptiness
I felt.

291
00:32:01,180 --> 00:32:03,060
Saw Truxa with Liana at the cinema.

292
00:32:18,820 --> 00:32:22,180
Right at the best part,

293
00:32:22,180 --> 00:32:25,460
the sirens started and we ran
to the bunker.

294
00:32:27,220 --> 00:32:30,220
After the longest distance
we've ever flown, we were right

295
00:32:30,220 --> 00:32:32,140
in the middle of it.

296
00:32:35,500 --> 00:32:39,460
Lurching airplanes. A direct hit
sent the one right next to us

297
00:32:39,460 --> 00:32:40,740
up in flames.

298
00:32:40,740 --> 00:32:44,180
I shuddered in anticipation
of the steel

299
00:32:44,180 --> 00:32:48,540
that could rip through my body
at any second.

300
00:32:48,540 --> 00:32:50,740
Then the bomb bays opened.

301
00:33:21,180 --> 00:33:23,580
A wing of the factory's hit.

302
00:33:23,580 --> 00:33:26,780
Fire breaks out from the incendiary
bombs.

303
00:33:26,780 --> 00:33:28,260
As we walk into the shelter,

304
00:33:28,260 --> 00:33:30,860
we have to avoid the burning
asphalt.

305
00:33:34,500 --> 00:33:38,100
Alexanderplatz in flames.
We have no lights

306
00:33:38,100 --> 00:33:39,740
and no water at home.

307
00:33:45,820 --> 00:33:48,340
After the all-clear,
the film continued.

308
00:34:14,900 --> 00:34:18,220
After what felt like hours,
we reached the beautiful shores

309
00:34:18,220 --> 00:34:20,180
of England, we had made it.

310
00:34:22,980 --> 00:34:26,900
It was over and I was so glad,
I didn't know what to say.

311
00:34:46,820 --> 00:34:49,780
Now the city is dying and can no
longer be saved.

312
00:34:49,780 --> 00:34:51,500
Tired, apathetic people.

313
00:34:51,500 --> 00:34:54,700
The doormen at the entrance tells a
crying woman,

314
00:34:54,700 --> 00:34:57,900
"Be glad, I tell you, that he's
buried in a mass grave.

315
00:34:57,900 --> 00:34:59,660
"At least he's not alone there."

316
00:35:04,940 --> 00:35:07,980
German morale
is in freefall, and every

317
00:35:07,980 --> 00:35:11,780
round of bombing reinforces
this feeling of depression.

318
00:35:14,420 --> 00:35:17,580
But as critical as the situation
may be, it does not in any way

319
00:35:17,580 --> 00:35:19,980
interfere with the normal
daily routine.

320
00:35:19,980 --> 00:35:23,420
Police surveillance is being further
intensified.

321
00:35:28,380 --> 00:35:32,460
The camp was fenced in with barbed
wire, which was electrified.

322
00:35:32,460 --> 00:35:35,700
The guards had dogs and machine
guns.

323
00:35:41,660 --> 00:35:44,660
Our strength was waning.
We were consumed by work.

324
00:35:46,180 --> 00:35:49,820
One day, the kitchen made soup
from dried potato peels.

325
00:35:49,820 --> 00:35:55,300
It was pig swill.

326
00:35:58,900 --> 00:36:00,460
February 28th.

327
00:36:00,460 --> 00:36:03,540
Margot's place has been damaged by
bombs again.

328
00:36:03,540 --> 00:36:06,700
Incendiary bombs fell
on the doctor's flat, but the fire

329
00:36:06,700 --> 00:36:09,860
was extinguished, only caused minor
damage.

330
00:36:09,860 --> 00:36:11,940
He says that's how we'll win
the war.

331
00:36:15,700 --> 00:36:18,220
I darn socks in the evening.

332
00:36:27,660 --> 00:36:29,580
March 3rd.

333
00:36:29,580 --> 00:36:32,620
We left Berlin

334
00:36:32,620 --> 00:36:36,380
early in the afternoon. The Fuhrer
wanted to see progress on the front

335
00:36:36,380 --> 00:36:38,740
lines for himself to strengthen
troop morale

336
00:36:38,740 --> 00:36:40,860
and check ammunition supplies.

337
00:36:58,580 --> 00:37:00,860
The Fuhrer was here.

338
00:37:02,420 --> 00:37:06,180
His visit sharpens our awareness
of where we stand, namely to defend

339
00:37:06,180 --> 00:37:10,460
the capital of the Reich.

340
00:37:26,980 --> 00:37:29,460
Basic order for preparations

341
00:37:29,460 --> 00:37:33,460
to defend the capital. Berlin
is to be defended to the last man

342
00:37:33,460 --> 00:37:35,700
and to the last bullet.

343
00:37:35,700 --> 00:37:38,740
The struggle must be fought
with fanaticism, imagination,

344
00:37:38,740 --> 00:37:41,620
with every means of deception,
cunning, deceit,

345
00:37:41,620 --> 00:37:43,340
on and above the ground.

346
00:37:45,020 --> 00:37:48,460
It is necessary that every block,
every house, every storey, every

347
00:37:48,460 --> 00:37:50,900
hedgerow is defended to the last.

348
00:38:06,380 --> 00:38:10,220
We build tank traps on Landsberger
Allee and in Kniprodestrasse.

349
00:38:10,220 --> 00:38:12,740
We now have daily bazooka
firing and rifle training

350
00:38:12,740 --> 00:38:15,980
under SA supervision in
Friedrichshain.

351
00:38:15,980 --> 00:38:19,660
Many old men are taking
part, from the People's Storm.

352
00:38:21,700 --> 00:38:24,100
The Wehrmacht reports are shocking.

353
00:38:44,980 --> 00:38:49,620
Life is becoming increasingly
primitive.

354
00:38:49,620 --> 00:38:52,540
Detergent and soap have to be made
to last ever longer.

355
00:38:52,540 --> 00:38:56,860
Items for personal hygiene are a
luxury. Sewing material and bits

356
00:38:56,860 --> 00:39:00,020
and pieces are all the clothes
ration card allows for.

357
00:39:00,020 --> 00:39:03,100
The less cultured people of the East
may still feel comfortable

358
00:39:03,100 --> 00:39:06,180
under these circumstances,
but civilised Europeans

359
00:39:06,180 --> 00:39:07,740
suffer and degenerate.

360
00:39:19,220 --> 00:39:23,260
We visited Father. As soon
as we were there, sirens sounded.

361
00:39:23,260 --> 00:39:26,220
We stayed in an overground bunker.

362
00:39:26,220 --> 00:39:30,060
I thought I'd long since overcome my
fear, but today I trembled, afraid

363
00:39:30,060 --> 00:39:32,780
for my life. A terrible bang.

364
00:39:32,780 --> 00:39:36,140
The bunker sways, the lights
go out, people screaming.

365
00:39:36,140 --> 00:39:38,500
The attack lasted two hours.

366
00:39:44,780 --> 00:39:47,340
We saw the tremendous glow
of fire on Prenzlauer Berg.

367
00:39:47,340 --> 00:39:52,220
Opposite, house number 15
was hit and collapsed.

368
00:40:07,180 --> 00:40:10,260
Half Berlin was in flames
and in ruins.

369
00:40:10,260 --> 00:40:13,060
It's enough to drive you insane
when you walk the streets.

370
00:40:13,060 --> 00:40:16,340
Our Berlin, the Berlin I loved
so much.

371
00:40:17,460 --> 00:40:20,580
Even though it disgusts me
that its inhabitants allowed us

372
00:40:20,580 --> 00:40:25,780
to be excluded from their community
just because we're Jews,

373
00:40:25,780 --> 00:40:27,420
I still love my hometown.

374
00:40:37,020 --> 00:40:39,260
March 20th.

375
00:40:40,580 --> 00:40:42,820
We face the toughest challenge in
our history,

376
00:40:42,820 --> 00:40:46,180
Battalion chief Kuckner told
us this morning.

377
00:40:46,180 --> 00:40:49,620
We are to stand firm
with religious fanaticism.

378
00:40:52,660 --> 00:40:55,980
At the shop at 9am, had to walk
home, went for a walk

379
00:40:55,980 --> 00:41:00,100
with Kuzi in the
evening and fetched water.

380
00:41:00,100 --> 00:41:03,700
Got a wonderful letter from Kurt,
read some of the most beautiful

381
00:41:03,700 --> 00:41:05,620
parts to Kuzi.

382
00:41:07,500 --> 00:41:09,900
Went to the cinema with Margot.

383
00:41:11,540 --> 00:41:13,980
ORCHESTRAL PIANO MUSIC PLAYS

384
00:41:16,780 --> 00:41:19,340
Saw Soloist Anna Alt.

385
00:41:57,140 --> 00:42:01,220
Some comrades no longer know
where their relatives are.

386
00:42:01,220 --> 00:42:04,140
East Prussia, Silesia.
Without a home,

387
00:42:04,140 --> 00:42:06,180
the war becomes pointless.

388
00:42:06,180 --> 00:42:08,780
I can't imagine that Berlin
would be lost.

389
00:42:15,300 --> 00:42:18,380
Today, it is they who are deprived
of their last possessions

390
00:42:18,380 --> 00:42:22,580
and their homes, whose relatives
face an uncertain fate in endless

391
00:42:22,580 --> 00:42:25,460
treks and refugee trains.

392
00:42:25,460 --> 00:42:28,380
I well know what it means to live
in permanent uncertainty

393
00:42:28,380 --> 00:42:30,780
about your nearest and dearest
and all the people close

394
00:42:30,780 --> 00:42:34,300
to you in need and misery and hunger
and agony without hearing

395
00:42:34,300 --> 00:42:35,660
anything from them.

396
00:42:37,300 --> 00:42:43,380
I, we, we Jews, we have long
lived through this.

397
00:42:43,380 --> 00:42:46,260
Am I now supposed to feel
pity for them?

398
00:42:52,060 --> 00:42:55,100
63rd Transport was scheduled to
Sachsenhausen

399
00:42:55,100 --> 00:42:58,540
and Ravensbruck.
Destination - Theresienstadt.

400
00:42:58,540 --> 00:43:04,380
Date of departure - March 27th,
1945. For the evacuation of Jews

401
00:43:04,380 --> 00:43:07,620
from the territory of the Reich
to the Theresienstadt ghetto,

402
00:43:07,620 --> 00:43:10,660
the following regulations apply.

403
00:43:10,660 --> 00:43:14,780
Transportation is to take place
in single carriages on a regular

404
00:43:14,780 --> 00:43:19,900
train servicing the Theresienstadt
route. Each person is to take 50

405
00:43:19,900 --> 00:43:22,380
Reichsmark, a complete set of
clothing,

406
00:43:22,380 --> 00:43:24,340
bedsheet and blanket, eating

407
00:43:24,340 --> 00:43:29,020
utensils, plate or pot with spoon,
rations for eight days.

408
00:43:31,180 --> 00:43:35,460
Prohibited items are stock
certificates, currencies, savings

409
00:43:35,460 --> 00:43:39,980
account documents, etc,
animals or ration cards.

410
00:43:39,980 --> 00:43:43,420
Before departure, the carriages
are to be searched for weapons,

411
00:43:43,420 --> 00:43:49,220
ammunition, explosives, poison,
currencies, jewellery, etc.

412
00:43:49,220 --> 00:43:52,540
Without exception, all assets
are to be confiscated.

413
00:44:17,820 --> 00:44:21,500
Easter Sunday. We slept
in very late, reading during the day

414
00:44:21,500 --> 00:44:25,060
and telling each other scary stories
in the evening. We did some

415
00:44:25,060 --> 00:44:27,100
exercises and then we went to bed.

416
00:44:28,700 --> 00:44:30,700
SIRENS WAIL

417
00:44:31,620 --> 00:44:33,580
I'm sick of war.

418
00:44:33,580 --> 00:44:35,620
Every night, fast bombers attack
Berlin.

419
00:44:35,620 --> 00:44:37,620
We are always tired and weary.

420
00:44:40,540 --> 00:44:43,260
And those miracle weapons,
where are they?

421
00:45:03,660 --> 00:45:05,580
Once again, a hostile attack

422
00:45:05,580 --> 00:45:09,740
on the capital by Mosquito aircraft.
One has already got so used to them

423
00:45:09,740 --> 00:45:12,620
that they've become part
of the daily routine.

424
00:45:12,620 --> 00:45:15,980
If they don't come, the Berliners
feel something's missing.

425
00:45:41,060 --> 00:45:42,580
My comrade, Udo,

426
00:45:42,580 --> 00:45:46,940
received a letter from the Pankow
NSDAP branch. His mother

427
00:45:46,940 --> 00:45:50,780
and little sister, Elke, burned
to death in the north of Berlin.

428
00:45:50,780 --> 00:45:52,500
He has no-one now.

429
00:45:52,500 --> 00:45:55,620
He stood still for a long time,
then suddenly jumped on a stool,

430
00:45:55,620 --> 00:45:58,740
tore the large portrait
of the Fuhrer from the wall, spat

431
00:45:58,740 --> 00:46:01,860
on it and stamped on Hitler's head.

432
00:46:01,860 --> 00:46:06,100
When the on-duty sergeant came,
he locked Udo in a cell.

433
00:46:12,620 --> 00:46:14,980
April 12th. The Russians and
Americans

434
00:46:14,980 --> 00:46:17,340
have advanced across the borders
of the Reich.

435
00:46:17,340 --> 00:46:20,260
The situation has markedly
deteriorated.

436
00:46:22,860 --> 00:46:24,780
In the office, we only do the most

437
00:46:24,780 --> 00:46:29,460
urgent work. We are burning most
of our files in case Berlin falls.

438
00:47:11,260 --> 00:47:13,100
My dearest love,

439
00:47:13,100 --> 00:47:15,580
the day before yesterday
was your birthday.

440
00:47:15,580 --> 00:47:18,060
Will there ever be another
one we spend together?

441
00:47:18,060 --> 00:47:19,900
I don't believe it any more.

442
00:47:19,900 --> 00:47:24,100
And the children. Yesterday
Weimar was taken by the Allies.

443
00:47:24,100 --> 00:47:27,180
How will I ever find a trace of them
if things have gone wrong?

444
00:47:27,180 --> 00:47:29,220
I will listen to American
radio today to hear

445
00:47:29,220 --> 00:47:31,100
what happened in Weimar.

446
00:47:31,100 --> 00:47:35,460
BIG BEN CHIMES

447
00:47:46,780 --> 00:47:48,660
This is London calling.

448
00:47:52,300 --> 00:47:54,460
RICHARD DIMBLEBY: I have just
returned

449
00:47:54,460 --> 00:47:56,540
from the Belsen concentration camp.

450
00:47:56,540 --> 00:47:59,900
I find it hard to describe
adequately the horrible things

451
00:47:59,900 --> 00:48:04,180
that I've seen and heard, but here,
unadorned, are the facts.

452
00:48:05,940 --> 00:48:09,860
There are 40,000 men, women
and children in the camp,

453
00:48:09,860 --> 00:48:12,340
thousands of them Jews.

454
00:48:12,340 --> 00:48:16,780
In the last few months alone, 30,000
prisoners have been killed

455
00:48:16,780 --> 00:48:18,380
off or allowed to die.

456
00:48:20,300 --> 00:48:24,540
Dead bodies, some of them in decay,
lay strewn about the road

457
00:48:24,540 --> 00:48:26,580
and along the rutted tracks.

458
00:48:28,940 --> 00:48:31,620
Inside the huts, it was even worse.

459
00:48:31,620 --> 00:48:35,620
I have seen many terrible sights
in the last five years, but nothing,

460
00:48:35,620 --> 00:48:40,820
nothing approaching the dreadful
interior of this hut at Belsen.

461
00:48:40,820 --> 00:48:44,180
I picked my way over corpse
after corpse in the gloom

462
00:48:44,180 --> 00:48:48,380
until I heard one voice that rose
above the gentle, undulating

463
00:48:48,380 --> 00:48:51,100
moaning. I found a girl.

464
00:48:51,100 --> 00:48:53,100
She was a living skeleton.

465
00:48:53,100 --> 00:48:57,100
She was stretching out her stick
of an arm and gasping something.

466
00:48:57,100 --> 00:49:01,780
It was, "English, English,
medicine, medicine."

467
00:49:04,180 --> 00:49:06,180
Got my STEN gun.

468
00:49:55,940 --> 00:49:57,660
RICHARD DIMBELBY: The SS guards,

469
00:49:57,660 --> 00:50:00,660
who shot several of the prisoners
after we'd arrived in the camp

470
00:50:00,660 --> 00:50:03,420
when they thought no-one was
looking, are now gathering

471
00:50:03,420 --> 00:50:06,700
up all the bodies and carting
them away for burial.

472
00:50:12,180 --> 00:50:16,060
May I add to this story only
the assurance that those officers

473
00:50:16,060 --> 00:50:20,260
and men who've seen these things
have gone back to the Second Army,

474
00:50:20,260 --> 00:50:24,460
moved to an anger such
as I have never seen in them before.

475
00:50:41,780 --> 00:50:47,620
A lot of time has passed since we
started marching through Germany.

476
00:50:47,620 --> 00:50:51,700
The Baltic Sea comes to mind,
where we drowned the Fritzes.

477
00:50:51,700 --> 00:50:54,100
Now victory is in our grasp.

478
00:51:50,980 --> 00:51:54,460
In April 1945, Soviet director
Yuli Raizman

479
00:51:54,460 --> 00:51:57,300
makes a film about the end
of the so-called Third Reich.

480
00:51:59,220 --> 00:52:02,300
He has 38 Red Army cameramen
at his disposal.

481
00:52:03,940 --> 00:52:06,340
The title of the film - Berlin.

482
00:52:08,020 --> 00:52:11,860
The liberation of the city by
the Red Army is to be documented.

483
00:52:11,860 --> 00:52:14,180
It is due to start on April 16th

484
00:52:14,180 --> 00:52:16,660
at the Oder with
the Battle of the Seelow Heights,

485
00:52:16,660 --> 00:52:18,820
70km outside of Berlin.

486
00:52:20,140 --> 00:52:22,700
At the banks of the river,
the Red Army has gathered -

487
00:52:22,700 --> 00:52:26,380
2.5 million soldiers,
over 6,000 tanks,

488
00:52:26,380 --> 00:52:30,340
7,000 aircraft and 41,000 artillery.

489
00:52:34,940 --> 00:52:37,380
They are confronted
by the German Army -

490
00:52:37,380 --> 00:52:41,540
one million soldiers, many among
them Hitler Youth and old men,

491
00:52:41,540 --> 00:52:44,100
800 tanks and no air support.

492
00:52:46,100 --> 00:52:49,460
Over two million people are still
living in Berlin.

493
00:52:49,460 --> 00:52:53,060
Men and women, young and old,
guilty and innocent.

494
00:52:55,220 --> 00:52:59,100
Soon, only diaries and memories,
files and pictures,

495
00:52:59,100 --> 00:53:02,100
ashes and dust will tell
the tales of their city.

496
00:53:21,300 --> 00:53:24,660
TRANSLATION: Miracle upon miracle,
we're allowed to sleep in.

497
00:53:24,660 --> 00:53:27,980
No air raid alert, not in the
morning, not in the afternoon.

498
00:53:33,380 --> 00:53:35,500
We fetched water and made preserves,

499
00:53:35,500 --> 00:53:36,620
many glasses,

500
00:53:36,620 --> 00:53:38,180
in case of a long siege.

501
00:53:39,460 --> 00:53:41,420
Sewing and reading in the afternoon.

502
00:53:52,700 --> 00:53:55,100
Nobody who hasn't lived through it
will believe

503
00:53:55,100 --> 00:53:58,580
how orderly life goes on,
despite everything.

504
00:53:58,580 --> 00:54:01,940
The bread carriage and the grocery
truck are ringing their bells

505
00:54:01,940 --> 00:54:05,500
in the streets.
People gather outside to chat.

506
00:54:05,500 --> 00:54:08,140
You're aware of
the approaching catastrophe...

507
00:54:08,140 --> 00:54:09,660
..but it's not here yet.

508
00:54:15,220 --> 00:54:18,260
RUSSIAN NARRATION

509
00:54:30,700 --> 00:54:34,340
The night between April 15th
and 16th felt unusually long.

510
00:54:35,820 --> 00:54:39,940
With nerves strained to the utmost,
expecting major events,

511
00:54:39,940 --> 00:54:41,620
time passes very slowly.

512
00:54:45,060 --> 00:54:47,340
The offensive was due
to start at 5am.

513
00:54:50,020 --> 00:54:52,380
We watched the final seconds
tick by.

514
00:55:00,260 --> 00:55:02,180
ARTILLERY EXPLOSIONS

515
00:55:28,020 --> 00:55:30,820
There has never been a day
like today at the front line.

516
00:55:30,820 --> 00:55:34,740
At four in the morning, thousands
of Stalin organs opened fire.

517
00:55:34,740 --> 00:55:37,580
Later, the battle cry
echoed everywhere -

518
00:55:37,580 --> 00:55:38,700
"To Berlin."

519
00:56:01,100 --> 00:56:02,820
It was cold in the early hours.

520
00:56:02,820 --> 00:56:05,500
Fog rose, the smell
of sulphur everywhere.

521
00:56:05,500 --> 00:56:07,380
The ground dins and trembles.

522
00:56:07,380 --> 00:56:09,100
Hell seemed to have broken loose.

523
00:56:14,020 --> 00:56:17,020
Impacts continue. Our ears have
been deaf for a while now.

524
00:56:17,020 --> 00:56:18,580
Hardly anyone speaks.

525
00:56:20,780 --> 00:56:23,140
Farms and villages
are burning in the distance.

526
00:56:23,140 --> 00:56:25,180
Death stands right next to us.

527
00:56:44,900 --> 00:56:47,500
The city hums like a swarm of bees.

528
00:56:47,500 --> 00:56:49,140
Now it begins.

529
00:56:49,140 --> 00:56:51,100
In Berlin,
we hear the Russian cannons.

530
00:56:51,100 --> 00:56:54,060
Everywhere in the streets,
one encounters military police

531
00:56:54,060 --> 00:56:57,780
hunting down refugees and deserters,
who are convicted on the spot.

532
00:56:58,860 --> 00:57:02,340
A proclamation by the Fuhrer
is hanging on each wall.

533
00:57:02,340 --> 00:57:05,820
Everyone ordering retreat is to be
arrested and killed on the spot.

534
00:57:16,500 --> 00:57:19,500
Michel saw how a barricade
was erected at Alexanderplatz.

535
00:57:20,620 --> 00:57:24,900
He also saw with his own eyes a man
hanging from a tree at a crossroads.

536
00:57:24,900 --> 00:57:27,180
He had complained about
the Nazis and the war.

537
00:57:29,780 --> 00:57:32,220
Supplies precarious and uncertain.

538
00:57:35,580 --> 00:57:38,060
AIR RAID SIREN SOUNDS

539
00:57:48,540 --> 00:57:51,100
Even though the Russians are well
beyond Furstenwalde,

540
00:57:51,100 --> 00:57:53,740
we had to take shelter
from English bomber aircraft.

541
00:57:53,740 --> 00:57:57,500
Uncle Fritz, an old party comrade,
turned pretty brutal.

542
00:57:57,500 --> 00:58:01,100
"Dieter, you have to return to your
battery, it's your duty," he said.

543
00:58:03,180 --> 00:58:05,820
If I didn't go to the Flak tower,
I was to be reported.

544
00:58:32,500 --> 00:58:35,900
I am on German territory,
where I have seen the tiniest Fritz

545
00:58:35,900 --> 00:58:38,260
and the womenfolk.

546
00:58:38,260 --> 00:58:39,860
I'm trying to destroy them faster

547
00:58:39,860 --> 00:58:42,300
so the German no longer thinks
he can invade us.

548
00:58:43,580 --> 00:58:45,380
It will be a reminder and a lesson.

549
00:58:53,500 --> 00:58:56,380
Mum, I have already taken
revenge for Father.

550
00:58:56,380 --> 00:58:58,660
I've killed with my own hands.

551
00:58:58,660 --> 00:59:01,780
I don't know how many
and yet, still too few.

552
00:59:01,780 --> 00:59:04,100
I will take revenge
as long as I shall live.

553
00:59:37,740 --> 00:59:40,940
The higher-ups report that
Furstenwalde has been occupied.

554
00:59:40,940 --> 00:59:43,460
I hope it is not just
a ruse to lift morale.

555
00:59:43,460 --> 00:59:45,740
Many of our people have been killed.

556
00:59:45,740 --> 00:59:48,740
They're lying in a field
or by the side of the road,

557
00:59:48,740 --> 00:59:51,060
falling so close to victory.

558
01:00:15,100 --> 01:00:17,180
Today is the Fuhrer's birthday.

559
01:00:17,180 --> 01:00:18,900
We are already afraid of it.

560
01:00:18,900 --> 01:00:20,900
You can hear the artillery.

561
01:00:20,900 --> 01:00:23,700
Dr Goebbels says we should trust
and have no fear.

562
01:00:23,700 --> 01:00:25,660
The Fuhrer will conduct
an experiment

563
01:00:25,660 --> 01:00:27,500
and all will turn out well
in the end.

564
01:00:35,220 --> 01:00:37,620
The day when usually the flags
of ugly malice would be

565
01:00:37,620 --> 01:00:41,060
flapping all over the country,
there is not a single flag.

566
01:00:41,060 --> 01:00:43,460
Not even the official departments
have flags out,

567
01:00:43,460 --> 01:00:45,500
and that should mean something.

568
01:00:45,500 --> 01:00:46,820
The mood is kaput.

569
01:00:54,060 --> 01:00:56,460
In the afternoon, I reported
to our department in the garden

570
01:00:56,460 --> 01:00:58,220
of the Reich Chancellery.

571
01:00:58,220 --> 01:01:01,140
When Hitler appeared from the
bunker, I reported to him too.

572
01:01:01,140 --> 01:01:04,940
Then the Fuhrer walked along
the length of the delegation.

573
01:02:04,340 --> 01:02:07,540
Together with a local NSDAP group
for the borough of Kreuzberg,

574
01:02:07,540 --> 01:02:09,020
I'm lying in the small bunker

575
01:02:09,020 --> 01:02:10,460
of the Ministry for Propaganda,

576
01:02:10,460 --> 01:02:12,340
waiting to be deployed.

577
01:02:12,340 --> 01:02:14,500
I feel awkward among
the old party comrades.

578
01:02:14,500 --> 01:02:16,580
It disgusts me
that many of them are drunk.

579
01:02:19,380 --> 01:02:21,860
Suddenly, a radio blares
with military marches

580
01:02:21,860 --> 01:02:24,420
and we heard Goebbels' speech
for Hitler's birthday.

581
01:03:22,180 --> 01:03:24,260
Years back, they screamed "Heil."

582
01:03:24,260 --> 01:03:27,180
Now they hate the man
who calls himself the Fuhrer.

583
01:03:27,180 --> 01:03:29,060
They hate him, fear him.

584
01:03:29,060 --> 01:03:31,500
They suffer deprivation
and death for him.

585
01:03:31,500 --> 01:03:34,260
But they have neither the strength
nor the courage to free themselves

586
01:03:34,260 --> 01:03:36,300
from his demonic possession.

587
01:03:46,780 --> 01:03:50,820
No water, no gas,
no electricity either.

588
01:04:21,540 --> 01:04:24,540
It was in Germany when our
soldiers began to ask

589
01:04:24,540 --> 01:04:26,540
why the Germans invaded us.

590
01:04:27,860 --> 01:04:30,620
Millions of our men have seen
the rich farms in eastern Prussia,

591
01:04:30,620 --> 01:04:32,540
the advanced agriculture,

592
01:04:32,540 --> 01:04:36,020
the two-storey houses fitted
with electricity and gas,

593
01:04:36,020 --> 01:04:37,500
the well-paved roads.

594
01:04:41,660 --> 01:04:46,100
They all ask themselves in anger,
"But why did they come to us?

595
01:04:46,100 --> 01:04:47,260
"What did they want?"

596
01:05:07,660 --> 01:05:11,020
Many of my acquaintances, my friends
even, will think that I'm touched,

597
01:05:11,020 --> 01:05:14,940
that I feel for the German cities
and the German population.

598
01:05:14,940 --> 01:05:18,860
I have to confess, no,
I will never, ever pity them

599
01:05:18,860 --> 01:05:23,020
since I have seen for myself the
havoc they have caused in Russia.

600
01:05:23,020 --> 01:05:25,780
The exhaustion is overwhelming,
but we're going to make it.

601
01:05:25,780 --> 01:05:27,180
We have to make it.

602
01:05:53,300 --> 01:05:54,780
Everyone is on the run.

603
01:05:54,780 --> 01:05:56,820
The Russians are coming
to Kaulsdorf.

604
01:05:56,820 --> 01:05:58,460
It's all moving fast.

605
01:05:58,460 --> 01:06:01,780
Digging trenches is useless. There
are no soldiers to defend them.

606
01:06:01,780 --> 01:06:03,460
We're in the rectory basement.

607
01:06:14,940 --> 01:06:18,660
In the basement, the minister
performs a brief service.

608
01:06:18,660 --> 01:06:22,340
Soon after, two Russians appear.
They demand watches.

609
01:06:22,340 --> 01:06:25,900
Mrs F gives them her watch.
The Russians leave.

610
01:06:25,900 --> 01:06:28,420
Meanwhile, at home,
Mrs Richter and Mrs Kushel

611
01:06:28,420 --> 01:06:30,380
were being raped repeatedly.

612
01:06:41,340 --> 01:06:43,220
It happened around midday.

613
01:06:43,220 --> 01:06:45,100
Unter den Linden took a hit.

614
01:06:45,100 --> 01:06:47,900
Without prior warning,
without a bomber aircraft,

615
01:06:47,900 --> 01:06:50,100
one shell impact.

616
01:06:50,100 --> 01:06:53,260
Now it is certain,
Berlin WILL see the Red Army.

617
01:06:57,300 --> 01:06:59,260
Mum wouldn't let me go to the shop.

618
01:06:59,260 --> 01:07:01,100
The tank shoots like crazy.

619
01:07:02,460 --> 01:07:05,140
We hauled our most precious
possessions to the basement

620
01:07:05,140 --> 01:07:06,660
and set up air shelter beds.

621
01:07:14,500 --> 01:07:17,940
They are burning swastikas in the
houses, throwing away the medals.

622
01:07:17,940 --> 01:07:21,020
Me, I clear away the briquettes
in the basement

623
01:07:21,020 --> 01:07:23,180
and bury the Fuhrer's images.

624
01:07:23,180 --> 01:07:26,740
Why? I do still believe in
National Socialism after all.

625
01:07:39,580 --> 01:07:43,300
10pm. Rumours are spreading
in the cellar.

626
01:07:43,300 --> 01:07:46,980
Mrs L says, "Rather a Russian
on the belly

627
01:07:46,980 --> 01:07:49,420
"than an American bomb on the head."

628
01:07:49,420 --> 01:07:51,580
Miss B is screaming in the cellar,

629
01:07:51,580 --> 01:07:55,940
"Now, let's face it,
none of us is still a virgin."

630
01:07:55,940 --> 01:07:57,420
Nobody answers.

631
01:08:08,660 --> 01:08:12,060
There is no doubt.
We're putting the screws on Berlin.

632
01:08:12,060 --> 01:08:13,380
I'm a staff member again

633
01:08:13,380 --> 01:08:15,540
and have to occupy myself
with office work.

634
01:08:15,540 --> 01:08:17,380
The only fun part is listening in

635
01:08:17,380 --> 01:08:19,460
on the German and Allied
radio shows.

636
01:08:19,460 --> 01:08:22,060
They're coming thick and fast
through the airwaves.

637
01:08:58,660 --> 01:09:00,940
The headlines
in Sunday's papers state,

638
01:09:00,940 --> 01:09:04,660
"The cruel front line spirit
now rules over Berlin."

639
01:09:04,660 --> 01:09:08,300
It's about obtaining a turn
in the war by sheer obstinacy.

640
01:09:08,300 --> 01:09:11,020
The order of the day -
a fight to the last Berliner.

641
01:09:12,860 --> 01:09:15,700
Already, new emergency
measures are introduced.

642
01:09:15,700 --> 01:09:19,740
From now on, death penalty
for using electricity for cooking.

643
01:09:27,580 --> 01:09:29,700
Mum has just buried the last pieces
of jewellery.

644
01:09:29,700 --> 01:09:31,380
I'm keeping my watch.

645
01:09:31,380 --> 01:09:32,620
The grounds are too wet.

646
01:09:41,980 --> 01:09:45,620
Mum and I have packed a rucksack
in case we need a quick start.

647
01:09:45,620 --> 01:09:49,380
We each have our papers,
two sets of underwear, soap, shoes,

648
01:09:49,380 --> 01:09:51,580
dress, towel, and so on.

649
01:09:51,580 --> 01:09:54,100
Maybe we'll be kidnapped
and brought to Russia.

650
01:10:07,940 --> 01:10:09,180
April 24.

651
01:10:11,980 --> 01:10:13,740
Today we crossed the Spree.

652
01:10:13,740 --> 01:10:16,460
It's a rather narrow
and pitiful river.

653
01:10:16,460 --> 01:10:18,820
I spit in the damned water
three times.

654
01:10:18,820 --> 01:10:20,340
The Fritzes are cut off.

655
01:10:20,340 --> 01:10:22,060
Now we're supposed to finish them.

656
01:10:40,180 --> 01:10:43,420
In the Flak tower, I reported back
to Senior Lieutenant Kuttner.

657
01:10:43,420 --> 01:10:46,300
In our barracks, I met
only a few of my old comrades.

658
01:10:48,460 --> 01:10:51,580
But there are still news of
victories in the Wehrmacht report.

659
01:10:53,180 --> 01:10:54,300
RADIO CRACKLES

660
01:11:36,020 --> 01:11:39,940
I went to collect water from the big
basin in Number 16 Wins Street.

661
01:11:39,940 --> 01:11:43,140
It's very misty, but we don't
want to use our preserves yet

662
01:11:43,140 --> 01:11:46,020
in case things get even worse.

663
01:11:46,020 --> 01:11:48,460
We are hearing about new deaths
every day,

664
01:11:48,460 --> 01:11:50,500
people who died fetching water.

665
01:12:04,460 --> 01:12:07,820
Around 11am, I got a call from
the Reich Chancellery.

666
01:12:07,820 --> 01:12:10,100
I was to go and see General Krebs.

667
01:12:10,100 --> 01:12:13,380
Krebs told me that I had made
a good impression on the Fuhrer

668
01:12:13,380 --> 01:12:16,820
and had been appointed
Commander of the Berlin Defence.

669
01:12:16,820 --> 01:12:18,420
I was to take over immediately.

670
01:12:24,300 --> 01:12:26,900
At 10pm, I arrived at
the Reich Chancellery

671
01:12:26,900 --> 01:12:29,780
to report on the current situation.

672
01:12:29,780 --> 01:12:33,900
The Fuhrer was once again sitting at
his desk which was covered in maps.

673
01:12:33,900 --> 01:12:37,180
All his words were directed
towards one thought -

674
01:12:37,180 --> 01:12:40,580
if Berlin falls, Germany's defeat
would be inevitable.

675
01:13:05,620 --> 01:13:09,580
The troops are moving in all
directions. Where is the front line?

676
01:13:09,580 --> 01:13:12,580
The captain is badly injured.
He's unlikely to make it.

677
01:13:17,380 --> 01:13:21,180
There are shootings,
fire and smoke everywhere.

678
01:13:21,180 --> 01:13:24,060
The Germans are attacking us
from their windows and doors.

679
01:13:41,100 --> 01:13:43,380
A grenade explodes
in front of the house.

680
01:13:43,380 --> 01:13:46,100
We get a man shot in the arm
and leg into the cellar.

681
01:13:46,100 --> 01:13:48,060
He's lying there
with an emergency bandage

682
01:13:48,060 --> 01:13:49,740
and a shot of morphine.

683
01:13:49,740 --> 01:13:51,780
Miss Blau has been hit worse.

684
01:13:51,780 --> 01:13:54,020
Splinters in her lungs,
losing blood.

685
01:13:54,020 --> 01:13:55,940
I calm her with morphine.

686
01:14:02,580 --> 01:14:05,380
No more beds in Gertraude Hospital.

687
01:14:05,380 --> 01:14:08,180
The injured, Russian
and German soldiers alike,

688
01:14:08,180 --> 01:14:10,300
are mixed together in the corridors.

689
01:14:18,580 --> 01:14:21,300
Performed surgery until midnight.

690
01:14:21,300 --> 01:14:23,220
I wanted to go to my room
to have a drink

691
01:14:23,220 --> 01:14:25,660
and listen to the BBC news.

692
01:14:25,660 --> 01:14:28,620
Suddenly, the bunker
swayed like a boat.

693
01:14:28,620 --> 01:14:32,060
A huge bomb fell
right into the clinic.

694
01:14:32,060 --> 01:14:33,900
My room is in ruins.

695
01:14:33,900 --> 01:14:36,700
The janitor and his wife are dead.

696
01:14:36,700 --> 01:14:39,300
Four nurses are buried under debris.

697
01:14:47,380 --> 01:14:50,380
I've been pondering
whether I'm scared of dying.

698
01:14:50,380 --> 01:14:52,300
No, I'm not afraid to die,

699
01:14:52,300 --> 01:14:54,260
but I fear serious injury.

700
01:14:55,660 --> 01:14:57,340
I'm carrying cyanide with me.

701
01:15:14,420 --> 01:15:18,380
The battle for Berlin rages on
but for Dahlem, it is over.

702
01:15:18,380 --> 01:15:20,940
No more Russian grenades,
no more projectiles,

703
01:15:20,940 --> 01:15:22,420
no more Russian bombs.

704
01:15:33,460 --> 01:15:36,460
Around midday,
I saw three soldiers coming,

705
01:15:36,460 --> 01:15:38,380
the first Russians.

706
01:15:38,380 --> 01:15:41,380
They were very nice,
asked for watches and liquor.

707
01:15:41,380 --> 01:15:43,260
Then they left.

708
01:15:43,260 --> 01:15:46,060
Shortly after, the next group came.

709
01:15:46,060 --> 01:15:48,620
One of them came up to me,
took me outside,

710
01:15:48,620 --> 01:15:50,660
led me upstairs to the sofa.

711
01:15:50,660 --> 01:15:54,380
Surprisingly, I wasn't scared.

712
01:15:54,380 --> 01:15:58,340
I had to take off my trousers and
then he laid on me and did this.

713
01:15:59,980 --> 01:16:01,500
It hurt.

714
01:16:01,500 --> 01:16:03,660
In any case, it was horrible.

715
01:16:10,940 --> 01:16:12,340
We all had to.

716
01:16:12,340 --> 01:16:15,460
Even little Inge,
who was only eight years old.

717
01:16:15,460 --> 01:16:18,820
I kneeled in front of the soldiers
but it was no use.

718
01:16:18,820 --> 01:16:20,740
Later, we had to cook for them.

719
01:16:34,740 --> 01:16:36,860
They say that
during those first few days,

720
01:16:36,860 --> 01:16:39,460
there were around 100 suicides
in Friedrichshain.

721
01:16:46,180 --> 01:16:48,740
The pastor shot himself,
his wife and daughter

722
01:16:48,740 --> 01:16:52,860
because the Russians broke into
the basement and assaulted the girl.

723
01:16:52,860 --> 01:16:56,740
Mrs Hoffman shot her sons and then
cut her veins and her daughter's.

724
01:16:59,020 --> 01:17:01,460
Our teacher, Miss Klinkmoller,
hung herself.

725
01:17:01,460 --> 01:17:03,380
She was a Nazi.

726
01:17:03,380 --> 01:17:05,500
The local group leader, Schmidt,
shot himself

727
01:17:05,500 --> 01:17:07,420
and Mrs Nitschke poisoned herself.

728
01:17:24,740 --> 01:17:26,540
The further we advance into Berlin,

729
01:17:26,540 --> 01:17:28,860
the harder the fighting.

730
01:17:28,860 --> 01:17:34,140
The thick, massive stone houses
make for perfect fortification.

731
01:17:34,140 --> 01:17:36,900
GUNFIRE

732
01:17:51,060 --> 01:17:54,380
Just like in a manoeuvre,
our men jumped from door to door

733
01:17:54,380 --> 01:17:57,580
to attack the Red shooters
hiding on each floor.

734
01:17:57,580 --> 01:17:59,220
Our attack gained ground.

735
01:18:05,540 --> 01:18:07,740
Our units held their ground
at Belle-Alliance-Platz

736
01:18:07,740 --> 01:18:09,860
to block the access
to the government quarters

737
01:18:09,860 --> 01:18:11,740
in the Reich Chancellery.

738
01:18:11,740 --> 01:18:14,860
There are no more defences,
right or left of us.

739
01:18:16,500 --> 01:18:20,820
We only have the bazookas, assault
rifles and a few machine guns left.

740
01:18:26,580 --> 01:18:27,860
ARTILLERY FIRE

741
01:18:27,860 --> 01:18:29,980
EXPLOSIONS

742
01:18:41,100 --> 01:18:43,700
Company Commander Kirchner has
received the Knight's Cross

743
01:18:43,700 --> 01:18:46,180
and returned from
the Fuhrer's headquarters

744
01:18:46,180 --> 01:18:47,740
with Adolf Hitler's best wishes.

745
01:18:47,740 --> 01:18:50,860
The five floors of the Flak tower
are scattered with dead bodies.

746
01:18:50,860 --> 01:18:53,180
A disgusting, sweetly scent
fills the tower.

747
01:18:53,180 --> 01:18:56,020
It stands like an island in the sea,

748
01:18:56,020 --> 01:18:58,420
the Russians having already
moved past us.

749
01:19:16,860 --> 01:19:19,980
We were slowly moving forward
towards the Reichstag.

750
01:19:19,980 --> 01:19:24,780
Suddenly, I was hit by a damned
fascist explosive device.

751
01:19:24,780 --> 01:19:26,220
I was badly injured

752
01:19:26,220 --> 01:19:28,140
and lost consciousness.

753
01:19:54,020 --> 01:19:55,660
We are out of morphine.

754
01:19:57,620 --> 01:20:01,620
It is terrible not to be able
to give sedatives to the injured.

755
01:20:11,460 --> 01:20:12,620
April 30th.

756
01:20:15,700 --> 01:20:18,100
Everyone will remember
the air in Berlin -

757
01:20:18,100 --> 01:20:21,820
acrid and hazy from the fire
and the dust of the stones,

758
01:20:21,820 --> 01:20:23,980
our teeth crunching on sand.

759
01:20:23,980 --> 01:20:26,100
The walls were covered
in German posters.

760
01:20:37,260 --> 01:20:40,100
I am so scared.
We don't have much longer to live.

761
01:20:40,100 --> 01:20:41,700
I certainly won't.

762
01:20:41,700 --> 01:20:43,940
What will my dearest Kurt do?

763
01:20:43,940 --> 01:20:47,220
Surely I will not see any of
my dear soldiers ever again.

764
01:20:57,580 --> 01:20:59,060
EXPLOSIONS

765
01:21:02,020 --> 01:21:04,460
Good day, my friends.
I am still alive,

766
01:21:04,460 --> 01:21:06,420
just a little drunk.

767
01:21:06,420 --> 01:21:09,740
I need it for courage.
Three Star cognac never hurts.

768
01:21:11,420 --> 01:21:13,820
I'm 50m from the Reichstag.

769
01:21:22,580 --> 01:21:25,620
It's not easy to take the Reichstag.

770
01:21:25,620 --> 01:21:28,380
What's left of the once
awe-inspiring Prussian army

771
01:21:28,380 --> 01:21:30,620
was desperately defending
themselves.

772
01:21:30,620 --> 01:21:34,220
The building was transformed
into a fortress.

773
01:21:50,900 --> 01:21:53,780
The Reichstag is filled to
the brink with Russians.

774
01:21:53,780 --> 01:21:58,220
When we shoot ten, 20 more follow.
It's dreadful.

775
01:21:58,220 --> 01:22:01,700
Hand grenades and gunfire
are raining down on us.

776
01:22:01,700 --> 01:22:03,500
In the underground corridors
and vaults,

777
01:22:03,500 --> 01:22:05,060
everyone is shooting at everyone.

778
01:22:18,820 --> 01:22:20,660
I climbed onto the roof
with the soldiers

779
01:22:20,660 --> 01:22:22,580
and passed the flag to one of them.

780
01:22:25,940 --> 01:22:27,700
Finally, I found the spot

781
01:22:27,700 --> 01:22:30,620
where you could see the burning
Reichstag with burning houses

782
01:22:30,620 --> 01:22:33,180
and the Brandenburg Gate
in the background.

783
01:22:33,180 --> 01:22:34,900
And I knew, that's it.

784
01:23:32,580 --> 01:23:34,580
The fighting got more intense.

785
01:23:35,860 --> 01:23:39,260
Houses collapsed
with thunderous noise.

786
01:23:39,260 --> 01:23:42,020
The Fuhrer said goodbye to those
still with him.

787
01:23:42,020 --> 01:23:44,460
He shook hands with everyone
for one last time.

788
01:23:49,940 --> 01:23:52,180
He stood there, hunched over.

789
01:23:52,180 --> 01:23:55,220
I snapped to attention
and signed off for the last time.

790
01:23:55,220 --> 01:23:57,220
In a seemingly calm manner, he said,

791
01:23:57,220 --> 01:23:59,540
"Linge, I will shoot myself.

792
01:23:59,540 --> 01:24:00,860
"You know what to do."

793
01:24:31,500 --> 01:24:34,660
Berlin was still engulfed in battle
when the Central Committee

794
01:24:34,660 --> 01:24:38,940
of the Communist Party sent
delegates from Moscow to Germany.

795
01:24:38,940 --> 01:24:42,620
The First Initiative group landed
70km from Frankfurt Oder.

796
01:24:51,700 --> 01:24:53,500
Nothing to see all around -

797
01:24:53,500 --> 01:24:55,860
no city, no buildings, nothing.

798
01:24:55,860 --> 01:24:58,300
Two young officers approach us
and say,

799
01:24:58,300 --> 01:25:00,500
"We are very happy to be able
to welcome you here.

800
01:25:00,500 --> 01:25:04,700
"We have heard that you are members
of the new German government."

801
01:25:04,700 --> 01:25:06,340
I almost choke.

802
01:25:06,340 --> 01:25:07,780
What did he just say?

803
01:25:18,020 --> 01:25:19,300
May the 1st.

804
01:25:20,380 --> 01:25:22,420
I dive from one cellar door
to the other

805
01:25:22,420 --> 01:25:25,500
until I reach Number 33 Lindenallee.

806
01:25:25,500 --> 01:25:28,300
There is supposed to be
a battery radio there.

807
01:25:28,300 --> 01:25:31,980
Everything is filled with debris
and ash. Furniture is damaged.

808
01:25:31,980 --> 01:25:34,620
The walls and ceilings hanging low.

809
01:25:34,620 --> 01:25:37,300
In the basement,
I actually find the radio.

810
01:26:21,020 --> 01:26:24,180
When the message arrives that the
Fuhrer has been killed in action,

811
01:26:24,180 --> 01:26:25,740
everyone leaves the foxholes

812
01:26:25,740 --> 01:26:28,980
and is very agitated
for the next few hours.

813
01:26:28,980 --> 01:26:31,020
There are no more clear orders.

814
01:26:31,020 --> 01:26:33,220
The leadership has
probably lost its head.

815
01:26:39,460 --> 01:26:42,540
We have decided not to leave Berlin
but to stay

816
01:26:42,540 --> 01:26:45,180
and end our life
at our Fuhrer's side,

817
01:26:45,180 --> 01:26:49,100
because to me,
life no longer holds value.

818
01:26:49,100 --> 01:26:52,660
I make this decision also on behalf
of my children,

819
01:26:52,660 --> 01:26:55,460
who are too young
to offer their opinion,

820
01:26:55,460 --> 01:26:59,540
but would surely come to the same
conclusion if they were old enough.

821
01:27:09,940 --> 01:27:13,300
There is no more help
and no more troops to replace us.

822
01:27:13,300 --> 01:27:15,420
We long to sleep
and eat a full meal for once.

823
01:27:36,300 --> 01:27:40,180
In the second half of the day, the
situation became extremely grave.

824
01:27:40,180 --> 01:27:44,300
The defenders of Berlin were
squeezed into a very small space.

825
01:27:44,300 --> 01:27:46,100
There was only one way out.

826
01:28:07,380 --> 01:28:10,820
"Are you the defender of Berlin?"
I asked General Weidling.

827
01:28:12,220 --> 01:28:13,860
"Yes," he answered.

828
01:28:15,380 --> 01:28:18,420
He had given the order of surrender
to his troops today.

829
01:28:33,020 --> 01:28:35,380
The war is over for us. My God.

830
01:28:35,380 --> 01:28:37,980
There is no amount of liquor
you can possibly drink to celebrate

831
01:28:37,980 --> 01:28:41,860
all these occasions. The mood is
the jolliest I've ever seen.

832
01:28:41,860 --> 01:28:44,380
Sacha gets a canister
filled with spirit

833
01:28:44,380 --> 01:28:47,260
and mixes it with juices to create
a devilish concoction.

834
01:28:48,380 --> 01:28:49,940
He calls it Hitler's Death.

835
01:28:51,220 --> 01:28:55,460
MUSIC: En Route by Les Choeurs
De L'Armee Rouge Alexandrov

836
01:29:24,420 --> 01:29:26,540
A young Russian soldier collects
weapons

837
01:29:26,540 --> 01:29:29,540
and kicks against the discarded
helmets lying on the ground.

838
01:29:29,540 --> 01:29:31,380
He laughs and brags.

839
01:29:31,380 --> 01:29:33,500
"Vanya, kaput. Hitler, kaput.

840
01:29:33,500 --> 01:29:35,300
"We go home to Babushka."

841
01:30:04,460 --> 01:30:07,900
I leave our hiding place
in the basement.

842
01:30:07,900 --> 01:30:10,540
At once, I am seized
by a strange atmosphere.

843
01:30:18,020 --> 01:30:19,180
Silence.

844
01:30:20,460 --> 01:30:23,740
A deafening silence after days
and nights of explosions,

845
01:30:23,740 --> 01:30:25,100
roars and shooting.

846
01:30:32,620 --> 01:30:34,380
When I had finally grasped it,

847
01:30:34,380 --> 01:30:37,020
I could no longer contain myself.

848
01:30:37,020 --> 01:30:39,940
It was impossible to hold
back the tears.

849
01:30:39,940 --> 01:30:42,740
The day we'd been yearning for
had finally arrived.

850
01:30:55,420 --> 01:30:57,660
The day of Berlin's surrender.

851
01:30:57,660 --> 01:30:59,940
It is hard to describe.

852
01:30:59,940 --> 01:31:03,060
Vast masses of German prisoners,

853
01:31:03,060 --> 01:31:06,580
their faces reflecting
the drama of the situation.

854
01:31:17,780 --> 01:31:20,460
This cold, cloudy, rainy day,

855
01:31:20,460 --> 01:31:22,900
undoubtedly
the day of Germany's ruin.

856
01:31:28,500 --> 01:31:29,700
I am so scared.

857
01:31:29,700 --> 01:31:31,860
They are picking up all the men.

858
01:31:31,860 --> 01:31:36,460
Our policemen have been collectively
taken away. Our old policemen.

859
01:31:36,460 --> 01:31:39,540
The women, standing in the street
as they were led away, cried.

860
01:31:41,020 --> 01:31:42,660
We might not live much longer.

861
01:31:51,500 --> 01:31:53,700
In the evening, they found Goebbels.

862
01:31:53,700 --> 01:31:56,300
He is dragged to the door of
Wilhelmstrasse.

863
01:31:56,300 --> 01:31:59,660
Hitler's right-hand man is dead
but still recognisable.

864
01:32:01,060 --> 01:32:03,580
Soldiers and civilians
gaze at his corpse.

865
01:32:19,620 --> 01:32:21,380
Before Goebbels killed himself,

866
01:32:21,380 --> 01:32:22,980
he had someone poison his kids.

867
01:32:29,140 --> 01:32:31,820
We were only interested
in one thing -

868
01:32:31,820 --> 01:32:33,420
where's Hitler?

869
01:32:47,820 --> 01:32:52,380
Zoological garden. There was
fighting there. Cages destroyed.

870
01:32:52,380 --> 01:32:55,740
The bodies of monkeys,
tropical birds, bears.

871
01:33:05,300 --> 01:33:07,220
A conversation with an old man.

872
01:33:07,220 --> 01:33:10,500
He had cared for the monkeys
for 37 years.

873
01:33:10,500 --> 01:33:13,500
In one cage was
the body of a dead gorilla.

874
01:33:13,500 --> 01:33:16,380
"Had the animal
been frightening?" I ask.

875
01:33:16,380 --> 01:33:18,300
"No," he answers.

876
01:33:18,300 --> 01:33:19,740
"People are more vicious."

877
01:33:33,780 --> 01:33:36,260
There were rumours
of a dead horse across from us

878
01:33:36,260 --> 01:33:38,700
in a street just off Ku'damm.

879
01:33:38,700 --> 01:33:40,740
I went to cut off a piece as well.

880
01:33:53,100 --> 01:33:55,100
The food situation is critical.

881
01:33:55,100 --> 01:33:58,340
You have to listen carefully to find
out where to get bits and bobs.

882
01:34:10,900 --> 01:34:14,860
I found typhoid pills and warned
everyone against drinking the water.

883
01:34:14,860 --> 01:34:17,860
It comes from pumps,
and because of all the bodies buried

884
01:34:17,860 --> 01:34:21,100
in the rubble of the city, the
ground water could be contaminated.

885
01:34:34,060 --> 01:34:36,180
We took off and walked to Heike's.

886
01:34:36,180 --> 01:34:37,460
There are many bodies

887
01:34:37,460 --> 01:34:40,580
and the bloated cadavers of
horses lying in the street.

888
01:34:41,780 --> 01:34:43,180
It looks terrible.

889
01:34:49,660 --> 01:34:52,380
Luckily, the weather is rather cold.

890
01:34:52,380 --> 01:34:55,740
The body of a man in the next-door
garden has turned blue and black

891
01:34:55,740 --> 01:34:57,580
and is threatening to decompose.

892
01:35:01,940 --> 01:35:04,500
The Russians refuse to deal
with German corpses,

893
01:35:04,500 --> 01:35:07,100
but are very thorough
when dealing with their own dead.

894
01:35:19,780 --> 01:35:21,940
Our soldiers have been through
everything.

895
01:35:23,260 --> 01:35:27,300
Pain and hatred, bitterness and
self blame in the face of defeat,

896
01:35:27,300 --> 01:35:29,140
the hopelessness of encirclement,

897
01:35:29,140 --> 01:35:31,540
desperation in detention camps,

898
01:35:31,540 --> 01:35:33,260
the rage of attack,

899
01:35:33,260 --> 01:35:36,860
the euphoria of victory in battles
from Volga to Spree.

900
01:35:45,660 --> 01:35:49,060
And all that for some of them
to die in these last few minutes

901
01:35:49,060 --> 01:35:50,660
on the streets of Berlin.

902
01:36:12,020 --> 01:36:14,340
The looting of shops has begun.

903
01:36:14,340 --> 01:36:16,940
Yet it's not the Russians
who are responsible for looting,

904
01:36:16,940 --> 01:36:19,140
but mostly the German people.

905
01:36:19,140 --> 01:36:21,180
Unbelievable scenes.

906
01:36:22,780 --> 01:36:26,580
Women hit and scratch each other,
pour oil on themselves,

907
01:36:26,580 --> 01:36:28,860
and rub their skin with jam.

908
01:36:28,860 --> 01:36:31,180
They're carting things away
by the kilo.

909
01:36:53,380 --> 01:36:57,020
It feels strange to no longer be
in charge in your own country

910
01:36:57,020 --> 01:37:00,300
but to be exposed to the
whims of lawlessness.

911
01:37:00,300 --> 01:37:04,220
Where there was once a forced order,
now there is chaos.

912
01:37:20,220 --> 01:37:23,260
We were assigned to Soviet officers
with the task of helping

913
01:37:23,260 --> 01:37:27,140
their commander to establish
and build administrative bodies.

914
01:37:27,140 --> 01:37:29,860
We were to get in touch with former
members of the Communist

915
01:37:29,860 --> 01:37:31,540
and Social Democratic parties,

916
01:37:31,540 --> 01:37:33,340
and with those unions who had

917
01:37:33,340 --> 01:37:36,860
remained true to antifascist
ideology during Hitler's regime.

918
01:37:49,300 --> 01:37:51,540
Proclamation by the Russian
city commander -

919
01:37:51,540 --> 01:37:54,180
"The population is to remain calm.

920
01:38:03,500 --> 01:38:07,380
"All members of the Wehrmacht,
SA and SS have to come forward

921
01:38:07,380 --> 01:38:09,460
"within 72 hours."

922
01:38:09,460 --> 01:38:11,700
So I have to come forward.

923
01:38:11,700 --> 01:38:13,660
I might be taken to Siberia.

924
01:38:29,220 --> 01:38:33,100
Today at noon, there is supposed
to be a nationwide ceasefire.

925
01:38:33,100 --> 01:38:34,980
Germany is surrendering.

926
01:38:45,140 --> 01:38:47,740
At two in the afternoon,
three Douglas aircrafts

927
01:38:47,740 --> 01:38:49,220
appeared in the sky.

928
01:38:52,500 --> 01:38:56,140
The British Air Marshal Tedder
arrived on the first plane,

929
01:38:56,140 --> 01:38:59,140
American General Spaatz
on the second,

930
01:38:59,140 --> 01:39:02,820
and the third brought French General
de Lattre de Tassigny.

931
01:39:06,220 --> 01:39:09,900
At last, another plane landed
with Field Marshal Keitel.

932
01:39:09,900 --> 01:39:11,700
No-one shook his hand.

933
01:39:20,900 --> 01:39:23,100
ARCHIVE: What did open our eyes

934
01:39:23,100 --> 01:39:25,220
was the drive in from the airport
to Kaulsdorf

935
01:39:25,220 --> 01:39:26,980
where the meeting was to take place.

936
01:39:28,380 --> 01:39:31,060
It's a fairly long drive
but you can take my word for it,

937
01:39:31,060 --> 01:39:33,260
that there was hardly a single
habitable house

938
01:39:33,260 --> 01:39:36,780
or usable building within sight
along the entire distance.

939
01:39:39,500 --> 01:39:41,460
One can put it in six words -

940
01:39:41,460 --> 01:39:44,660
Berlin has practically
ceased to exist.

941
01:40:02,660 --> 01:40:04,300
All eyes were on the door.

942
01:40:04,300 --> 01:40:08,380
Over this threshold, those who have
so boastingly proclaimed

943
01:40:08,380 --> 01:40:11,500
to be able to conquer the whole
world would enter at any moment.

944
01:40:16,220 --> 01:40:19,300
Keitel entered,
arrogant and defiant,

945
01:40:19,300 --> 01:40:23,020
strode to his table and raised
the Marshal's baton in greeting.

946
01:40:23,020 --> 01:40:25,820
He eyed up the room
as if from the battlefield.

947
01:40:35,340 --> 01:40:38,820
He looks ridiculously Prussian
as he bangs his heels together.

948
01:40:38,820 --> 01:40:40,500
No-one gets up.

949
01:40:40,500 --> 01:40:43,900
When he sees me, he says,
"Oh, the French. What's next?"

950
01:41:07,420 --> 01:41:10,740
Zhukov asked me if I had read
the articles of surrender.

951
01:41:10,740 --> 01:41:13,100
I answered, "Yes."

952
01:41:13,100 --> 01:41:17,700
The second question was if I was
prepared to accept by signing.

953
01:41:17,700 --> 01:41:20,500
Again, I replied with
a definite "Yes."

954
01:41:28,940 --> 01:41:32,380
At 43 minutes past midnight,
the document was signed.

955
01:41:32,380 --> 01:41:35,580
I ordered the German delegation
to leave the room.

956
01:41:35,580 --> 01:41:38,500
They stood up, bowed,
and left with their heads hung low.

957
01:41:39,780 --> 01:41:42,820
An incredible ruckus
broke out in the room.

958
01:41:42,820 --> 01:41:45,740
Many people had tears of joy
in their eyes.

959
01:41:45,740 --> 01:41:49,220
I then opened up the banquet
and made a toast.

960
01:41:49,220 --> 01:41:52,660
The feast went on way into
the morning with songs and dance.

961
01:41:52,660 --> 01:41:54,620
CHEERING

962
01:42:28,060 --> 01:42:30,500
There is nothing to say
about the night except that

963
01:42:30,500 --> 01:42:32,300
I was allowed to spend it alone.

964
01:42:32,300 --> 01:42:34,980
For the first time
since April the 27th,

965
01:42:34,980 --> 01:42:37,060
there was no-one under my sheets.

966
01:42:37,060 --> 01:42:39,860
No Major, no Uzbek showed up.

967
01:43:29,780 --> 01:43:34,580
In April 1945, Soviet director
Yuri Reisman makes a film

968
01:43:34,580 --> 01:43:37,660
about the end of
the so-called Third Reich.

969
01:43:37,660 --> 01:43:41,220
He has 38 Red Army
cameramen at his disposal.

970
01:43:42,780 --> 01:43:45,300
The title of the film - Berlin.

971
01:43:46,420 --> 01:43:50,140
The liberation of the city by
the Red Army is being documented.

972
01:43:50,140 --> 01:43:53,540
It begins on April 16th
at the Oder with the battle

973
01:43:53,540 --> 01:43:56,940
of the Seelow Heights,
70km outside of Berlin.

974
01:44:05,180 --> 01:44:09,140
16 days later, the city is conquered
and the red flag is blowing

975
01:44:09,140 --> 01:44:12,100
in the wind over the Reichstag.

976
01:44:12,100 --> 01:44:15,540
On May 8th, Germany signs
its unconditional surrender.

977
01:44:17,620 --> 01:44:21,740
War in Germany is over,
Joseph Goebbels is found dead,

978
01:44:21,740 --> 01:44:24,340
Adolf Hitler's fate remains unknown.

979
01:44:26,740 --> 01:44:29,820
Over two million people
are still living in Berlin -

980
01:44:29,820 --> 01:44:33,340
men and women, young and old,
guilty and innocent.

981
01:44:36,100 --> 01:44:41,780
Soon, only diaries and memories,
files and pictures, ashes and dust

982
01:44:41,780 --> 01:44:44,020
remain to tell the tales
of their city.

983
01:45:06,860 --> 01:45:10,220
TRANSLATION: May 9th, Wednesday.
We all had to show

984
01:45:10,220 --> 01:45:12,660
up with buckets to clear
the barricades at the church.

985
01:45:12,660 --> 01:45:15,860
It was a lot of work and
the Russians were keeping watch.

986
01:45:15,860 --> 01:45:20,020
We are supposed to hand in
our radios or we'll be punished.

987
01:45:20,020 --> 01:45:22,900
And not just our radios,
but cameras too.

988
01:45:30,620 --> 01:45:33,260
After lunch, I went
to the firm with Mum.

989
01:45:33,260 --> 01:45:35,740
Out of habit, I stupidly
greeted colleagues

990
01:45:35,740 --> 01:45:37,900
in the yard with "heil Hitler".

991
01:45:48,620 --> 01:45:53,220
TRANSLATION: The Reichstag is a
huge, dark building, not pretty.

992
01:45:53,220 --> 01:45:55,740
The inside is a mass of
brick and iron.

993
01:45:57,540 --> 01:46:00,060
In one of the city halls,
there was a huge throne

994
01:46:00,060 --> 01:46:02,780
with a portrait of the
Kaiser on the back.

995
01:46:02,780 --> 01:46:05,660
I had my picture taken
in the chair.

996
01:46:06,980 --> 01:46:09,860
The walls were covered in countless
writings of our victorious Russian

997
01:46:09,860 --> 01:46:12,140
soldiers and officers.

998
01:46:14,140 --> 01:46:16,460
Here, there were soldiers
from Stalingrad.

999
01:46:16,460 --> 01:46:18,660
One from Smolensk stood here.

1000
01:46:18,660 --> 01:46:21,580
We're in the Reichstag,
everything is OK.

1001
01:46:27,620 --> 01:46:29,900
TRANSLATION: Close to
Hitler's Chancellery,

1002
01:46:29,900 --> 01:46:31,660
next to his personal bunker,

1003
01:46:31,660 --> 01:46:35,580
two bodies were discovered -
one male, one female.

1004
01:46:35,580 --> 01:46:39,620
The corpses are badly burnt and
it is impossible to identify them

1005
01:46:39,620 --> 01:46:41,660
without further information.

1006
01:46:51,980 --> 01:46:54,260
TRANSLATION: We can say that the man

1007
01:46:54,260 --> 01:46:58,740
is between 50 and 60
years old, 1.65m tall.

1008
01:46:58,740 --> 01:47:02,620
The body is charred and
smells of burnt meat.

1009
01:47:02,620 --> 01:47:06,940
The glass splinters in his mouth
suggest he used a thin vial.

1010
01:47:12,940 --> 01:47:16,300
TRANSLATION: Experts remove
the teeth and lower jaw.

1011
01:47:16,300 --> 01:47:18,540
His teeth are surprisingly intact.

1012
01:47:21,980 --> 01:47:24,780
Dr Blaschke had a
private dental practice

1013
01:47:24,780 --> 01:47:29,020
at number 230 in Kudamm. He was
Hitler's personal dentist

1014
01:47:29,020 --> 01:47:30,380
from 1932 onwards.

1015
01:47:31,460 --> 01:47:33,060
His assistant, Kathe Heusermann,

1016
01:47:33,060 --> 01:47:35,140
was the only person we
could find there.

1017
01:47:35,140 --> 01:47:38,260
She knew and remembered
all the important details

1018
01:47:38,260 --> 01:47:39,820
about Hitler's teeth.

1019
01:47:46,260 --> 01:47:48,460
I held the dental bridge
in my hand,

1020
01:47:48,460 --> 01:47:50,820
I looked for irrefutable evidence.

1021
01:47:50,820 --> 01:47:55,100
I immediately found it, took a
deep breath and burst out,

1022
01:47:55,100 --> 01:47:57,940
"These are the teeth
of Adolf Hitler."

1023
01:48:10,780 --> 01:48:14,780
TRANSLATION: I went to the
Russian Kommandantur.

1024
01:48:14,780 --> 01:48:17,860
It's incredibly difficult to find
someone who understands you there.

1025
01:48:17,860 --> 01:48:21,780
They couldn't believe there
were still Jews in Berlin.

1026
01:48:21,780 --> 01:48:24,620
I managed to get permission
to move back into our flat.

1027
01:48:32,460 --> 01:48:36,620
Yesterday, I went to the
Jewish hospital in Schulstrasse.

1028
01:48:36,620 --> 01:48:39,740
The kids had been there last
year but were taken away again.

1029
01:48:39,740 --> 01:48:41,980
I was told they were
taken to Auschwitz.

1030
01:48:41,980 --> 01:48:44,580
I want to maintain my
strength for all of you

1031
01:48:44,580 --> 01:48:47,940
until you are with me.
I will not surrender hope.

1032
01:48:54,980 --> 01:48:57,940
This Friday, we had our first
public service in the small

1033
01:48:57,940 --> 01:49:00,020
synagogue of the Jewish hospital.

1034
01:49:00,020 --> 01:49:02,940
I gave the sermon, but I couldn't
speak much because the room

1035
01:49:02,940 --> 01:49:05,740
was filled with crying and sobbing.

1036
01:49:07,620 --> 01:49:11,380
Only now did the reality sink in
of just how many were missing.

1037
01:49:25,580 --> 01:49:27,460
TRANSLATION: May 13th.

1038
01:49:27,460 --> 01:49:29,860
The town mayor, Berzarin,

1039
01:49:29,860 --> 01:49:34,020
was introduced to the members of the
first post-war magistrate of Berlin.

1040
01:49:34,020 --> 01:49:38,580
The independent anti-fascist Dr
Arthur Werner was selected as mayor.

1041
01:49:42,860 --> 01:49:45,020
TRANSLATION: In a classically
Saxon accent,

1042
01:49:45,020 --> 01:49:47,620
Ulbricht explained to us, "It needs
a semblance of democracy.

1043
01:49:47,620 --> 01:49:49,540
"We must retain control
of everything".

1044
01:49:52,740 --> 01:49:55,660
Later, Erpenbeck rushed into
my room. He is supposed to write

1045
01:49:55,660 --> 01:49:57,940
text for my radio announcement,
he tells me.

1046
01:49:57,940 --> 01:50:00,180
We had the newest Pravda
figures in front of us,

1047
01:50:00,180 --> 01:50:04,140
which we translated into news with
anti-fascist democratic demeanour.

1048
01:50:09,420 --> 01:50:11,500
RADIO, TRANSLATED:

1049
01:50:55,620 --> 01:50:59,180
We are now on Moscow time - the
clocks were set two hours ahead.

1050
01:51:09,500 --> 01:51:12,380
TRANSLATION: The first German
newspaper has been published,

1051
01:51:12,380 --> 01:51:14,180
but it's difficult to
get hold of a copy.

1052
01:51:39,740 --> 01:51:42,020
TRANSLATION: Page one contains a
message from Stalin,

1053
01:51:42,020 --> 01:51:44,380
also announcements from the
Soviet military command,

1054
01:51:44,380 --> 01:51:47,380
including food rations
per person, per day.

1055
01:51:47,380 --> 01:51:50,540
People in artistic professions
are to receive the same amount

1056
01:51:50,540 --> 01:51:52,180
as heavy-duty workers.

1057
01:51:53,220 --> 01:51:57,780
600g of bread, 100g of meat,

1058
01:51:57,780 --> 01:51:59,780
one portion of potatoes.

1059
01:51:59,780 --> 01:52:03,660
Also each month, 100g of coffee,
20g of tea.

1060
01:52:03,660 --> 01:52:06,780
My housekeeper wonders whether
all of this will be in the shops.

1061
01:52:15,100 --> 01:52:18,300
Hundreds of people are
queuing in Reichsstrasse.

1062
01:52:18,300 --> 01:52:20,500
A kind of camp
life has emerged.

1063
01:52:20,500 --> 01:52:23,540
Three quarters of the people
waiting are sitting in chairs.

1064
01:52:23,540 --> 01:52:26,180
Many women are knitting
or mending socks.

1065
01:52:26,180 --> 01:52:28,340
Some, like me, are reading.

1066
01:52:35,060 --> 01:52:36,940
TRANSLATION: For lunch,
we had horse meat.

1067
01:52:36,940 --> 01:52:38,340
It was very tasty.

1068
01:52:43,740 --> 01:52:45,340
May 17th.

1069
01:52:45,340 --> 01:52:47,180
Listened to the radio at Schops

1070
01:52:47,180 --> 01:52:49,300
and went to the store at 10am.

1071
01:52:49,300 --> 01:52:51,860
A few of us girls were there today.

1072
01:52:51,860 --> 01:52:54,460
Charlotte Henning was
raped several times

1073
01:52:54,460 --> 01:52:56,300
and Edith Gasenza five times.

1074
01:52:58,140 --> 01:53:00,660
We all described our experiences.

1075
01:53:04,780 --> 01:53:07,940
TRANSLATION: I'm now trying to
acquire gynaecological instruments

1076
01:53:07,940 --> 01:53:10,940
to be able to perform
all necessary examinations.

1077
01:53:10,940 --> 01:53:13,780
The results for
gonorrhoea are horrifying.

1078
01:53:13,780 --> 01:53:17,060
Just today, I examined a 15-year-old
girl who'd been infected.

1079
01:53:18,140 --> 01:53:21,500
In the afternoon, my friend Ruth
came with her daughter.

1080
01:53:21,500 --> 01:53:23,100
Four Russians.

1081
01:53:23,100 --> 01:53:26,660
Swab inconclusive
but certainly antibiotics.

1082
01:53:26,660 --> 01:53:29,140
This is what you protect
your child for.

1083
01:53:49,900 --> 01:53:52,940
Suddenly, an order came through for
all foreigners to leave Berlin,

1084
01:53:52,940 --> 01:53:54,740
they were to leave immediately.

1085
01:53:54,740 --> 01:53:58,020
I made the final decision to leave
the city by bicycle or on foot

1086
01:53:58,020 --> 01:53:59,900
at the repatriation committee.

1087
01:53:59,900 --> 01:54:02,020
I was pretty much the only one.

1088
01:54:02,020 --> 01:54:04,820
None of the French guys
who were there with me agreed.

1089
01:54:04,820 --> 01:54:07,740
In the morning,
I left Berlin by bicycle.

1090
01:54:18,100 --> 01:54:19,620
TRANSLATION: Farewell, Berlin,

1091
01:54:19,620 --> 01:54:22,140
a city of misfortune and
tristesse.

1092
01:54:22,140 --> 01:54:25,220
We took the motorway towards
Magdeburg by truck.

1093
01:54:25,220 --> 01:54:27,220
Ten minutes later,
we had crossed the Elbe

1094
01:54:27,220 --> 01:54:29,620
and arrived with the Americans.

1095
01:54:29,620 --> 01:54:34,180
The loudspeakers announced,
"On Sunday, you will be in France."

1096
01:54:34,180 --> 01:54:36,660
I can't quite process it yet.

1097
01:54:36,660 --> 01:54:40,220
I will only wake from this
nightmare when I'm standing amongst

1098
01:54:40,220 --> 01:54:42,020
French-speaking civilians.

1099
01:54:49,100 --> 01:54:52,260
TRANSLATION: One afternoon,
someone knocked on my door.

1100
01:54:52,260 --> 01:54:54,140
Two young Jewish girls wearing

1101
01:54:54,140 --> 01:54:56,780
concentration camp clothing
were standing there.

1102
01:54:56,780 --> 01:54:59,940
They told me they'd just arrived
from the concentration camp Stutthof

1103
01:54:59,940 --> 01:55:01,500
with 30 other Jews.

1104
01:55:01,500 --> 01:55:04,700
We immediately went down the
street with two trolleys

1105
01:55:04,700 --> 01:55:06,340
to take them all upstairs.

1106
01:55:13,300 --> 01:55:15,540
TRANSLATION: When I saw Berlin for
the first time,

1107
01:55:15,540 --> 01:55:18,140
destroyed and broken, I didn't feel
pity for the Germans,

1108
01:55:18,140 --> 01:55:21,540
only bitterness and resentment
against the people who caused us

1109
01:55:21,540 --> 01:55:23,660
such unbearable suffering.

1110
01:55:23,660 --> 01:55:24,940
They deserve it.

1111
01:55:40,580 --> 01:55:44,660
I met a Mr David, who had
walked back from Auschwitz.

1112
01:55:44,660 --> 01:55:47,860
He told me that the kids are
almost certainly still alive

1113
01:55:47,860 --> 01:55:50,460
because they only
arrived last September

1114
01:55:50,460 --> 01:55:53,940
and they had hardly killed
any children since then.

1115
01:55:55,660 --> 01:55:58,060
Schatze, it's a horrible thought.

1116
01:55:58,060 --> 01:56:01,100
They killed children,
and maybe mine are among them.

1117
01:56:25,180 --> 01:56:27,060
Mr Scheppes came upstairs and said

1118
01:56:27,060 --> 01:56:30,820
that, starting tomorrow, all members
of the party had to report for work.

1119
01:56:30,820 --> 01:56:34,700
Apparently, we start at
6am in Christburger Strasse.

1120
01:56:34,700 --> 01:56:37,380
If it's only work,
it's certainly bearable.

1121
01:56:37,380 --> 01:56:40,700
But there's a lot of talk
of deportation and detention.

1122
01:56:40,700 --> 01:56:44,220
The time has come to do penance
for my affiliation with the party.

1123
01:56:55,380 --> 01:56:57,540
TRANSLATION: A lady appeared
and insisted

1124
01:56:57,540 --> 01:57:00,340
that my husband accompany
her to the Kommandantur.

1125
01:57:00,340 --> 01:57:02,420
He has been missing ever since.

1126
01:57:04,020 --> 01:57:06,940
My husband is 71 years old and
has trouble with his bladder.

1127
01:57:06,940 --> 01:57:08,620
He was a member of the party,

1128
01:57:08,620 --> 01:57:11,020
but never actively
involved in anything.

1129
01:57:15,860 --> 01:57:19,180
TRANSLATION: The yard of the
Kommandantur was full of Russians.

1130
01:57:19,180 --> 01:57:21,380
Two officers came in
through the gateway.

1131
01:57:21,380 --> 01:57:25,340
As they walked past me, one said to
the other, "Shot in the neck."

1132
01:57:28,940 --> 01:57:31,380
One Russian started
emptying my bags.

1133
01:57:31,380 --> 01:57:34,500
The only thing he didn't take was
my spoon and a handkerchief.

1134
01:57:34,500 --> 01:57:36,820
Then he pointed to the cellar room.

1135
01:57:36,820 --> 01:57:38,700
The floor was full of
sleeping people.

1136
01:57:52,620 --> 01:57:54,700
TRANSLATION: Suddenly, everyone gave
a Jew

1137
01:57:54,700 --> 01:57:58,060
at least two loaves of bread,
or 10 lbs of potatoes once.

1138
01:57:58,060 --> 01:57:59,540
Somewhere, sometime.

1139
01:57:59,540 --> 01:58:01,340
Everyone listened to foreign radio.

1140
01:58:01,340 --> 01:58:03,340
Everyone supported the persecuted.

1141
01:58:03,340 --> 01:58:06,060
Tales of awesome heroics
are coming to light.

1142
01:58:08,100 --> 01:58:10,900
The bigger the fear, the
more ridiculous the excuse.

1143
01:58:19,780 --> 01:58:22,420
Carried debris to
the mountain of rubble

1144
01:58:22,420 --> 01:58:26,180
in Jablonskistrasse at six
in the morning - row of buckets.

1145
01:58:26,180 --> 01:58:27,700
We had to work very hard.

1146
01:58:28,700 --> 01:58:30,380
I was there with Lotti Martin.

1147
01:58:30,380 --> 01:58:33,180
She was there because her father
had been a party member.

1148
01:58:34,740 --> 01:58:38,300
I was home at 10pm.
That's 16 hours of hard work.

1149
01:58:38,300 --> 01:58:41,140
If it goes on like this,
many of the women

1150
01:58:41,140 --> 01:58:43,180
won't be able to continue.

1151
01:58:43,180 --> 01:58:46,180
It's dreadful how us Germans
have to demean ourselves.

1152
01:59:05,300 --> 01:59:07,140
Are the Americans coming or not?

1153
01:59:07,140 --> 01:59:10,100
Will they divide Berlin
or leave it to the Russians?

1154
01:59:12,020 --> 01:59:14,860
"Who is even in charge?"
I ask Endrich.

1155
01:59:14,860 --> 01:59:16,300
He shrugs.

1156
01:59:16,300 --> 01:59:18,020
"Whoever's turn it happens to be."

1157
01:59:30,180 --> 01:59:32,540
Today, the papers show how Germany
will be divided.

1158
01:59:32,540 --> 01:59:36,580
The English, Americans, French and
Russians are coming to Berlin.

1159
01:59:39,100 --> 01:59:41,980
Berlin will have a government
made up of four powers.

1160
01:59:41,980 --> 01:59:46,300
The Americans, British, French
and Russians will have to agree

1161
01:59:46,300 --> 01:59:49,500
on every detail soon,
from education to food sharing.

1162
01:59:52,700 --> 01:59:54,740
Theoretically, there
should only be problems

1163
01:59:54,740 --> 01:59:56,220
with the German population.

1164
02:00:09,580 --> 02:00:12,540
It's hot in Berlin, each day
is hotter than the last,

1165
02:00:12,540 --> 02:00:15,260
and June heat smoulders
over the city.

1166
02:00:15,260 --> 02:00:18,940
Under the thin layers of
dust, the dead are moving.

1167
02:00:18,940 --> 02:00:22,620
The scent of their dying hangs
in the air like a toxic cloud.

1168
02:00:22,620 --> 02:00:26,780
The fumes wafting up from
Landwehrkanal are so unbearable

1169
02:00:26,780 --> 02:00:29,700
that passers-by have to hold
a handkerchief to their nose.

1170
02:00:49,460 --> 02:00:51,460
At lunchtime - three children who'd

1171
02:00:51,460 --> 02:00:53,340
been badly injured by hand grenades

1172
02:00:53,340 --> 02:00:55,020
while playing among the ruins.

1173
02:00:55,020 --> 02:00:57,500
I had to splint, bandage and stitch.

1174
02:01:00,860 --> 02:01:04,900
Since noon yesterday, we've had
some water in the boiler room.

1175
02:01:04,900 --> 02:01:06,700
Nice clean water.

1176
02:01:06,700 --> 02:01:10,820
And as of 5.30pm today,
we have electricity.

1177
02:01:13,140 --> 02:01:16,540
We're like children, always
switching the light on and off.

1178
02:01:16,540 --> 02:01:18,740
You're no longer stumbling
around in the dark.

1179
02:01:18,740 --> 02:01:21,060
You can see each
other while talking.

1180
02:01:21,060 --> 02:01:24,300
Plans are being developed for a
European Cultural Association -

1181
02:01:24,300 --> 02:01:27,500
exhibitions, theatre, lectures.

1182
02:01:27,500 --> 02:01:29,660
We've never been as
hopeful as we are today.

1183
02:01:34,580 --> 02:01:36,820
Concert in our school.

1184
02:01:36,820 --> 02:01:40,300
MUSIC: Lied Der Nachtigall
by Erna Berga and Sein Orchester

1185
02:01:40,300 --> 02:01:43,580
The Philharmonic Orchestra
played and Mrs Erna Berga sang.

1186
02:01:47,620 --> 02:01:49,540
There were many familiar faces.

1187
02:01:49,540 --> 02:01:52,100
Some guys had even dressed up again.

1188
02:01:52,100 --> 02:01:53,780
It was a wonderful night.

1189
02:01:59,460 --> 02:02:01,420
The first perm in a long time.

1190
02:02:12,140 --> 02:02:14,020
June 16th, Saturday.

1191
02:02:14,020 --> 02:02:16,540
There's a Nazi
special operation today.

1192
02:02:16,540 --> 02:02:20,020
At 7am, we were standing in rank
and file like convicts.

1193
02:02:22,300 --> 02:02:26,100
A youth leader came and told
everyone under 20 to step forward

1194
02:02:26,100 --> 02:02:28,580
to receive their youth assignment.

1195
02:02:29,660 --> 02:02:33,580
Later, two young men showed
up and collected the work cards.

1196
02:02:33,580 --> 02:02:36,380
Mine still had a big N on
it and Horst said,

1197
02:02:36,380 --> 02:02:38,100
"We have no use for Nazis."

1198
02:02:39,540 --> 02:02:42,740
But the youth leader said that it
was all how it was supposed to be

1199
02:02:42,740 --> 02:02:44,820
and I could get a different card.

1200
02:02:44,820 --> 02:02:48,220
I should just go home and
report back at 2pm.

1201
02:02:48,220 --> 02:02:50,860
Then I should go to a meeting
of the anti-fascist youth

1202
02:02:50,860 --> 02:02:52,420
and write a protocol.

1203
02:03:21,500 --> 02:03:25,100
On June 30th, I was ordered to drop
all my plans and head to Berlin.

1204
02:03:31,980 --> 02:03:33,940
Instead of wasting time
on an orderly start,

1205
02:03:33,940 --> 02:03:36,980
we grabbed our hats and hurried
down the Autobahn on July 1st

1206
02:03:36,980 --> 02:03:38,940
as if the Cossacks were
right behind us.

1207
02:03:52,460 --> 02:03:55,780
Russian officers in old confiscated
vehicles rushed up and down

1208
02:03:55,780 --> 02:03:57,220
our column to check us.

1209
02:03:58,980 --> 02:04:00,940
Some wanted a victory toast with us.

1210
02:04:00,940 --> 02:04:03,580
Others acted like
little commissars.

1211
02:04:08,300 --> 02:04:11,180
We reached Berlin late afternoon.

1212
02:04:11,180 --> 02:04:14,180
The Russians had not allowed us
to view our sectors beforehand.

1213
02:04:14,180 --> 02:04:16,780
Nobody knew exactly where to go.

1214
02:04:16,780 --> 02:04:20,220
Hundreds of officers and soldiers
were looking for places to stay.

1215
02:04:28,860 --> 02:04:33,020
RADIO: Hello, BBC, this is Richard
Dimbleby speaking from Berlin.

1216
02:04:34,180 --> 02:04:37,620
The official Allied occupation
of Berlin has begun.

1217
02:04:37,620 --> 02:04:41,980
The United States'
2nd Armored Division is entering

1218
02:04:41,980 --> 02:04:44,180
the American zone of the city today.

1219
02:04:45,380 --> 02:04:48,660
This is the first
BBC broadcast from Berlin.

1220
02:04:57,220 --> 02:05:00,740
At Reichstrasse, many tanks
with white stars drove past us.

1221
02:05:00,740 --> 02:05:04,100
Suddenly one tank
pulls up at the kerb.

1222
02:05:04,100 --> 02:05:06,020
A soldier leans out and asks,

1223
02:05:06,020 --> 02:05:08,580
"Excuse me, how do we get
to Grunewald?"

1224
02:05:12,220 --> 02:05:15,580
We reached Gruneweld with field
equipment, helmets and rucksacks.

1225
02:05:19,780 --> 02:05:21,980
We set up our vehicles in
a circle under the trees,

1226
02:05:21,980 --> 02:05:23,660
like in the prairie
in the olden days.

1227
02:05:39,820 --> 02:05:42,460
In the new Antifa office,
work is fun.

1228
02:05:42,460 --> 02:05:44,900
It feels like they want
the same thing as the Nazis,

1229
02:05:44,900 --> 02:05:46,620
just under a different name.

1230
02:05:46,620 --> 02:05:48,500
There are the same expectations,

1231
02:05:48,500 --> 02:05:50,620
the same manners of speaking.

1232
02:05:50,620 --> 02:05:53,940
The young people, they say,
are working best.

1233
02:05:53,940 --> 02:05:57,460
The ones that are most suited
to become team leaders are usually

1234
02:05:57,460 --> 02:05:59,300
the Hitler Youth leaders.

1235
02:06:09,620 --> 02:06:11,980
It got serious on July 4th.

1236
02:06:11,980 --> 02:06:15,260
Outside of the former
Adolf Hitler SS Barracks,

1237
02:06:15,260 --> 02:06:16,820
now the McNair Barracks,

1238
02:06:16,820 --> 02:06:18,980
the Russians moved in
with two companies.

1239
02:06:18,980 --> 02:06:21,540
MUSIC: Soviet National Anthem

1240
02:06:24,740 --> 02:06:27,660
When we saw them, we also
positioned two companies there,

1241
02:06:27,660 --> 02:06:29,340
along with a row of Sherman tanks.

1242
02:06:29,340 --> 02:06:31,540
MUSIC: US National Anthem

1243
02:06:31,540 --> 02:06:33,220
Their artillery fire to salute.

1244
02:06:35,100 --> 02:06:37,220
Our artillery responded.

1245
02:06:57,020 --> 02:07:02,380
I want to greet the American Allied
forces in the name of the commandant

1246
02:07:02,380 --> 02:07:05,860
of the city of Berlin and in the
name of the Soviet forces.

1247
02:07:07,900 --> 02:07:09,540
MUSIC: US National Anthem

1248
02:07:15,540 --> 02:07:19,380
The next day, Colonel Howley
sent his men to the town halls,

1249
02:07:19,380 --> 02:07:22,700
raised our flag and instructed
the Germans that from now on

1250
02:07:22,700 --> 02:07:25,500
they would be taking their
orders from the Americans.

1251
02:07:31,940 --> 02:07:34,780
Mum had to be at
Mrs Schwiering's at half past seven.

1252
02:07:34,780 --> 02:07:37,980
They have established an officer's
casino in the big villa

1253
02:07:37,980 --> 02:07:39,860
at Harnackstrasse.

1254
02:07:39,860 --> 02:07:42,740
Mrs Schwiering speaks
English fluently.

1255
02:07:44,940 --> 02:07:48,420
Mum brought wonderful things
we haven't seen in six years.

1256
02:07:53,300 --> 02:07:55,580
If ever the fate of Berlin had hung
by a thread,

1257
02:07:55,580 --> 02:07:59,020
it was on July 7th at
the meeting with Zhukov.

1258
02:08:00,620 --> 02:08:04,100
He brusquely announced, "And
now, gentlemen, let us discuss

1259
02:08:04,100 --> 02:08:07,460
"the question of how you intend to
supply Berlin with food and coal."

1260
02:08:10,020 --> 02:08:13,500
An icy wind from the steps
swept through the room.

1261
02:08:18,380 --> 02:08:20,220
Zhukov insisted.

1262
02:08:20,220 --> 02:08:23,940
He said that there was not only
a food shortage in East Germany,

1263
02:08:23,940 --> 02:08:27,420
but also in the Soviet Union
and that the Soviet administration

1264
02:08:27,420 --> 02:08:29,260
could no longer feed the whole city.

1265
02:08:37,020 --> 02:08:39,220
TRANSLATION: In the beginning,
we were expecting

1266
02:08:39,220 --> 02:08:42,140
just over two million Berliners
and printed the respective number

1267
02:08:42,140 --> 02:08:43,740
of food ration cards.

1268
02:08:45,780 --> 02:08:47,660
But soon the situation evolved.

1269
02:08:47,660 --> 02:08:51,060
Men, women and children from all
over poured into the capital

1270
02:08:51,060 --> 02:08:52,540
and we had to print new cards.

1271
02:09:00,540 --> 02:09:04,020
Berlin was the transit point
for all refugee transports,

1272
02:09:04,020 --> 02:09:07,580
even though the Allied Kommandatura
had locked down the city.

1273
02:09:07,580 --> 02:09:12,460
In July, 500,000 refugees arrived
in or were moved through Berlin.

1274
02:09:44,980 --> 02:09:48,340
TRANSLATION: We have arrived
at Stettin train station,

1275
02:09:48,340 --> 02:09:50,500
the end of the line,
completely bombed out.

1276
02:09:50,500 --> 02:09:53,900
You can only see the sky, rubble,
and people, people, people.

1277
02:09:55,660 --> 02:09:57,940
Refugees, all drifters like us.

1278
02:09:59,460 --> 02:10:00,860
Who should welcome us?

1279
02:10:02,500 --> 02:10:05,500
One Berliner said, "There's
still space next to that burnt-out

1280
02:10:05,500 --> 02:10:08,140
"station wall over there.
You can lie down there."

1281
02:10:11,700 --> 02:10:14,460
TRANSLATION: Red Cross nurses showed

1282
02:10:14,460 --> 02:10:16,580
us to the camp where
we were to be housed.

1283
02:10:16,580 --> 02:10:19,100
Soon, we stood in front of the
surface air raid shelter

1284
02:10:19,100 --> 02:10:21,500
and they said, "Here, you can stay."

1285
02:10:21,500 --> 02:10:23,100
Then they sent us away to wash.

1286
02:10:26,620 --> 02:10:29,140
TRANSLATION: Lice were like
humans' pets at the time.

1287
02:10:29,140 --> 02:10:31,860
We had to go for delousing
repeatedly.

1288
02:10:31,860 --> 02:10:35,020
Children and elders alike
had to go through it.

1289
02:10:35,020 --> 02:10:36,820
It was an all-around cleansing

1290
02:10:36,820 --> 02:10:38,940
and afterwards the lice
were gone.

1291
02:10:38,940 --> 02:10:40,700
Most of the time, anyway.

1292
02:10:52,220 --> 02:10:55,060
TRANSLATION: Returnees
and those who have been deported

1293
02:10:55,060 --> 02:10:56,340
are in poor health.

1294
02:10:56,340 --> 02:10:58,500
Babies and toddlers suffered most.

1295
02:10:58,500 --> 02:11:01,260
Many have severe
nutritional problems.

1296
02:11:01,260 --> 02:11:03,180
This has caused a lot of deaths.

1297
02:11:18,780 --> 02:11:20,780
July 15th.

1298
02:11:20,780 --> 02:11:24,420
At 9.45, we flew to Germany
to the Potsdam Conference

1299
02:11:24,420 --> 02:11:26,860
in a transport plane.

1300
02:11:26,860 --> 02:11:29,860
We were received by a
guard of honour at an airport.

1301
02:11:32,940 --> 02:11:36,900
After a 20-minute drive, we reached
our accommodation in Babelsberg.

1302
02:11:40,060 --> 02:11:43,300
It was made up of a series
of villas all looking out

1303
02:11:43,300 --> 02:11:45,220
over the lake - very pleasant.

1304
02:11:46,780 --> 02:11:48,540
In the evening,
I tried to catch a pike.

1305
02:12:00,260 --> 02:12:02,820
Berlin is like
an island in the South Seas,

1306
02:12:02,820 --> 02:12:04,620
isolated from the world.

1307
02:12:04,620 --> 02:12:07,780
Yet Stalin, the British prime
minister and the American president

1308
02:12:07,780 --> 02:12:09,620
are in Potsdam to decide our fate.

1309
02:12:26,660 --> 02:12:31,420
At 1.30pm, I went to lunch
with the Prime Minister.

1310
02:12:31,420 --> 02:12:34,860
He had just read the American
reports about the results of secret

1311
02:12:34,860 --> 02:12:36,580
experiments with the atom bomb.

1312
02:12:39,580 --> 02:12:41,660
It would not be necessary, he said,

1313
02:12:41,660 --> 02:12:44,700
for the Russians to enter
the war with Japan -

1314
02:12:44,700 --> 02:12:47,060
the new bomb was enough
to end the war.

1315
02:12:51,460 --> 02:12:55,380
The bomb would also change
the relationship with the Russians.

1316
02:12:55,380 --> 02:12:59,580
Then we could just say, if you
insist on doing this or that,

1317
02:12:59,580 --> 02:13:02,500
then we will wipe out Moscow
from the map,

1318
02:13:02,500 --> 02:13:06,260
then Stalingrad, Kyiv,
Sebastopol and so on.

1319
02:13:15,660 --> 02:13:17,940
The day ended with a dinner
of the heads of state.

1320
02:13:29,300 --> 02:13:31,260
July 25th.

1321
02:13:31,260 --> 02:13:34,580
At home, I finished the blue blouse
with the cut-off sleeves.

1322
02:13:34,580 --> 02:13:37,420
At 8pm, I went to the movies
with Mother.

1323
02:13:37,420 --> 02:13:39,220
The film was called "Berlin".

1324
02:13:39,220 --> 02:13:41,780
It was a Russian film
about the Battle of Berlin.

1325
02:13:43,260 --> 02:13:44,980
LOUD EXPLOSIONS

1326
02:14:16,780 --> 02:14:18,380
We were exhausted when we left.

1327
02:14:18,380 --> 02:14:20,660
They shouldn't show us
something like that.

1328
02:14:20,660 --> 02:14:22,860
We only just managed
to get through it.

1329
02:14:22,860 --> 02:14:26,260
If you were to see this in a
few years, it would be different,

1330
02:14:26,260 --> 02:14:28,740
but after three months,
that's not clever.

1331
02:14:35,820 --> 02:14:39,020
On July 28th, I did the
first consecration of a boy

1332
02:14:39,020 --> 02:14:42,140
in the small synagogue
of the Jewish hospital.

1333
02:14:42,140 --> 02:14:46,100
The following day, on July 29th,
I married the first Jewish couple

1334
02:14:46,100 --> 02:14:48,820
in Berlin in the small synagogue
in Rykestrasse.

1335
02:14:50,340 --> 02:14:54,140
Amid all the terrible suffering,
murder and savagery in Auschwitz,

1336
02:14:54,140 --> 02:14:56,740
two people had found each other.

1337
02:14:56,740 --> 02:14:59,300
This was the first joyous
day for the newly awakened

1338
02:14:59,300 --> 02:15:00,900
Berlin congregation.

1339
02:15:12,420 --> 02:15:16,060
Oh, Schatzel, how wonderful
to be lying in one's own bed,

1340
02:15:16,060 --> 02:15:18,780
knowing one is within
one's own four walls.

1341
02:15:18,780 --> 02:15:20,340
Goodnight.

1342
02:15:20,340 --> 02:15:23,260
I hope you are all relatively
comfortable as well,

1343
02:15:23,260 --> 02:15:25,020
if you are still alive.

1344
02:15:38,540 --> 02:15:40,660
Even though
I escaped the gas chambers,

1345
02:15:40,660 --> 02:15:43,500
the locked doors,
the screaming and the beatings,

1346
02:15:43,500 --> 02:15:45,500
the dogs and the roll calls,

1347
02:15:45,500 --> 02:15:47,780
at night it caught up with me.

1348
02:15:47,780 --> 02:15:50,540
It all came back.
The barbed wire fences,

1349
02:15:50,540 --> 02:15:52,980
the young girl
dead in the dirt,

1350
02:15:52,980 --> 02:15:55,380
Gad waving goodbye.

1351
02:15:55,380 --> 02:15:57,940
The past and the present
were merging,

1352
02:15:57,940 --> 02:15:59,940
the future was an empty sheet
of paper.

1353
02:16:14,180 --> 02:16:16,420
Huge headlines in all papers.

1354
02:16:16,420 --> 02:16:18,060
The Potsdam Agreement.

1355
02:16:18,060 --> 02:16:20,940
Common policy
in all occupied territories,

1356
02:16:20,940 --> 02:16:23,740
mutual consent on the order
of peace in Europe.

1357
02:16:23,740 --> 02:16:25,780
It sounds too good to be true.

1358
02:16:33,180 --> 02:16:35,940
This is a historic occasion.

1359
02:16:38,620 --> 02:16:41,740
We have conclusively proven

1360
02:16:41,740 --> 02:16:43,940
that a free people...

1361
02:16:46,220 --> 02:16:51,140
..can successfully look after
the affairs of the world.

1362
02:17:28,220 --> 02:17:30,180
Here we have it - no invasion,

1363
02:17:30,180 --> 02:17:33,060
but the atom bomb
on the city of Hiroshima.

1364
02:17:38,620 --> 02:17:42,900
If Hitler had managed to create
such an instrument of destruction,

1365
02:17:42,900 --> 02:17:44,820
I dare not think it.

1366
02:18:20,420 --> 02:18:23,140
TRANSLATION: August 12th.

1367
02:18:23,140 --> 02:18:25,900
The Americans are met
with great sympathy.

1368
02:18:25,900 --> 02:18:28,660
Yes, the behaviour of some Germans
is actually disgraceful.

1369
02:18:30,540 --> 02:18:33,500
Every day, one can observe
how German men greedily bend down

1370
02:18:33,500 --> 02:18:36,740
to pick up cigarette butts
thrown away by Americans,

1371
02:18:36,740 --> 02:18:39,220
or German women strolling through
the streets and parks,

1372
02:18:39,220 --> 02:18:41,380
arm in arm with American soldiers.

1373
02:18:48,700 --> 02:18:52,020
Imagine your own son,
18 or 19 years old,

1374
02:18:52,020 --> 02:18:53,940
free of any supervision,

1375
02:18:53,940 --> 02:18:56,940
provided with almost
unlimited resources

1376
02:18:56,940 --> 02:18:59,700
and fortunate enough to be as
attractive as Clark Gable.

1377
02:19:03,100 --> 02:19:05,220
Now imagine him being exposed

1378
02:19:05,220 --> 02:19:08,580
to a people bereft
of any moral standards.

1379
02:19:08,580 --> 02:19:12,180
Berlin women are hungry and lonely.

1380
02:19:12,180 --> 02:19:15,100
INFORMATION FILM NARRATION:
The problem now is future peace.

1381
02:19:15,100 --> 02:19:16,900
That is your job in Germany.

1382
02:19:18,340 --> 02:19:20,060
You are soldiers on guard.

1383
02:19:21,260 --> 02:19:23,700
You will not argue with them.

1384
02:19:23,700 --> 02:19:26,340
You will not be friendly.

1385
02:19:26,340 --> 02:19:27,860
You will be aloof,

1386
02:19:27,860 --> 02:19:30,140
watchful and suspicious.

1387
02:19:31,580 --> 02:19:35,260
Every German is a potential
source of trouble.

1388
02:19:35,260 --> 02:19:37,900
Therefore, there must be
no fraternisation

1389
02:19:37,900 --> 02:19:39,660
with any of the German people.

1390
02:19:54,620 --> 02:19:57,260
The guards have taken possession
of all the motorboats at the end

1391
02:19:57,260 --> 02:19:58,700
of their lake.

1392
02:20:00,700 --> 02:20:02,020
When they're not on duty,

1393
02:20:02,020 --> 02:20:05,020
they race up and down the lake
with German girls in their boats

1394
02:20:05,020 --> 02:20:06,620
and enjoy themselves.

1395
02:20:31,060 --> 02:20:33,660
TRANSLATION: You become numb.

1396
02:20:33,660 --> 02:20:36,900
I alone have diagnosed
50 cases of gonorrhoea.

1397
02:20:36,900 --> 02:20:39,500
Now the cases of unwanted
pregnancies are mounting.

1398
02:20:53,780 --> 02:20:56,540
TRANSLATION: I herewith politely
ask for your attention

1399
02:20:56,540 --> 02:20:58,940
for the suffering of a mother
and wife of a man

1400
02:20:58,940 --> 02:21:00,700
who is currently a prisoner of war.

1401
02:21:00,700 --> 02:21:04,540
She got into this terrible situation
without any personal wrongdoing

1402
02:21:04,540 --> 02:21:07,940
and is in the deepest agony
of the soul, begging for your help.

1403
02:21:12,620 --> 02:21:14,500
TRANSLATION: I was raped by Russians

1404
02:21:14,500 --> 02:21:16,780
on the 21st and 22nd
of April this year,

1405
02:21:16,780 --> 02:21:19,020
which brought about this pregnancy.

1406
02:21:19,020 --> 02:21:21,540
Due to my condition,
I'm suffering from depression

1407
02:21:21,540 --> 02:21:25,140
and therefore ask for a termination
of the pregnancy.

1408
02:21:25,140 --> 02:21:27,300
I'm a paediatric nurse
by profession.

1409
02:21:30,980 --> 02:21:33,220
TRANSLATION:
During a small festivity

1410
02:21:33,220 --> 02:21:36,740
where alcohol was involved,
I was raped by an American.

1411
02:21:36,740 --> 02:21:38,780
This evening now has consequences

1412
02:21:38,780 --> 02:21:42,140
and I therefore politely ask
for the termination of my pregnancy.

1413
02:21:47,860 --> 02:21:51,220
TRANSLATION: The termination
of the pregnancy of Mrs Gerda Karl,

1414
02:21:51,220 --> 02:21:53,820
resident of Berlin-Neukolln,
is hereby approved.

1415
02:22:03,540 --> 02:22:06,300
TRANSLATION: Dear Mum, dear Dad.

1416
02:22:06,300 --> 02:22:08,180
What a terrible place, Berlin.

1417
02:22:09,780 --> 02:22:12,620
You cannot begin to imagine
the bleakness of this megalopolis.

1418
02:22:16,540 --> 02:22:19,540
Even more horrifying are those
Berliners dwelling in the cellars,

1419
02:22:19,540 --> 02:22:21,060
dying of starvation.

1420
02:22:32,940 --> 02:22:35,260
TRANSLATION: What we got
on the Russian card

1421
02:22:35,260 --> 02:22:38,060
wasn't sufficient at all.
We just had to try and organise

1422
02:22:38,060 --> 02:22:39,500
something on the black market.

1423
02:22:41,420 --> 02:22:43,780
My parents scrambled together
anything that could

1424
02:22:43,780 --> 02:22:45,580
possibly be fobbed off -

1425
02:22:45,580 --> 02:22:49,500
our toys, doll houses,
scooters, skates.

1426
02:22:49,500 --> 02:22:52,860
Sometimes, that would get some
good stuff - a little butter,

1427
02:22:52,860 --> 02:22:54,780
some extra bread
or a piece of bacon.

1428
02:23:05,340 --> 02:23:07,740
Everything is being bartered,
trafficked

1429
02:23:07,740 --> 02:23:10,140
and sold to people
at outrageous prices.

1430
02:23:16,180 --> 02:23:19,700
Our GIs have had cheap watches
and cigarettes sent to them,

1431
02:23:19,700 --> 02:23:23,300
which they now sell around
Alexanderplatz or in the Tiergarten

1432
02:23:23,300 --> 02:23:26,620
to their Russian comrades
at fantastic prices.

1433
02:23:26,620 --> 02:23:29,820
Mickey Mouse watches
fetch 10,000 marks apiece.

1434
02:23:31,420 --> 02:23:34,180
They could exchange the money,
one-to-one, into American dollars.

1435
02:23:44,940 --> 02:23:47,540
Fancy visiting antique shops
with no money

1436
02:23:47,540 --> 02:23:49,780
and cigarettes
in one's handbag instead.

1437
02:23:51,420 --> 02:23:54,500
For four packets,
I got a lovely Venetian glass

1438
02:23:54,500 --> 02:23:56,180
and a large tortoiseshell comb.

1439
02:23:57,660 --> 02:23:59,500
How valuable cigarettes are.

1440
02:24:06,980 --> 02:24:08,340
September 10th.

1441
02:24:13,940 --> 02:24:16,540
A few days back,
there was a great military parade

1442
02:24:16,540 --> 02:24:18,300
celebrating the end of the war.

1443
02:24:18,300 --> 02:24:21,980
Thousands of Russians, thousands
of French, thousands of Americans,

1444
02:24:21,980 --> 02:24:24,260
thousands of British.

1445
02:24:24,260 --> 02:24:27,260
For us, it was great that the French
took up as much space as the others.

1446
02:24:28,700 --> 02:24:30,820
Just as many men,
just as many flags.

1447
02:24:41,900 --> 02:24:44,940
The German Reich is shattered.

1448
02:24:44,940 --> 02:24:47,340
The German economy is shattered.

1449
02:24:47,340 --> 02:24:49,540
The German culture is shattered.

1450
02:24:51,940 --> 02:24:54,620
We no longer have a voice
in the League of Nations,

1451
02:24:54,620 --> 02:24:57,340
but are treated like mere
indigenous people in a colony.

1452
02:24:58,940 --> 02:25:02,140
These are the bitter fruits
of five and a half years of war,

1453
02:25:02,140 --> 02:25:04,180
full of struggle and deprivation.

1454
02:25:07,100 --> 02:25:09,420
I'm afraid the Germans have still
not learnt the lesson

1455
02:25:09,420 --> 02:25:11,820
of this terrible war.

1456
02:25:11,820 --> 02:25:14,060
They're only sorry for themselves,

1457
02:25:14,060 --> 02:25:16,140
not for all those they murdered

1458
02:25:16,140 --> 02:25:19,340
and tortured and tried to wipe
from the face of the Earth.

1459
02:25:29,300 --> 02:25:31,500
October 1st.

1460
02:25:34,940 --> 02:25:38,380
Went to see a film
with Gunter in the evening.

1461
02:25:38,380 --> 02:25:41,900
"Jenny and the Gentleman in the
Tailcoat," with Johannes Heesters.

1462
02:25:51,740 --> 02:25:55,020
It looks as though Gunter
is completely infatuated with me.

1463
02:26:00,220 --> 02:26:03,780
I told Mum I'm at the meeting or
she'd get upset and scold me again.

1464
02:26:20,300 --> 02:26:23,260
Mrs Schulze received
a letter from Kurt.

1465
02:26:23,260 --> 02:26:26,020
So Kurt is alive, thank God.
I'm very happy.

1466
02:26:35,380 --> 02:26:38,820
November 8th. The flat is now
halfway cosy and nice,

1467
02:26:38,820 --> 02:26:41,380
the beginning
of an existence in the making.

1468
02:26:41,380 --> 02:26:44,020
But my great anxiety about my
husband and children

1469
02:26:44,020 --> 02:26:46,620
remains my all-encompassing concern.

1470
02:26:46,620 --> 02:26:49,780
I've left no stone unturned
to try and find the children,

1471
02:26:49,780 --> 02:26:52,260
but have remained unsuccessful.

1472
02:26:52,260 --> 02:26:55,060
I don't know how I am to bear
the certainty of their death,

1473
02:26:55,060 --> 02:26:56,660
should this come about.

1474
02:26:56,660 --> 02:26:59,300
And the only person who ever
understood me,

1475
02:26:59,300 --> 02:27:01,020
he, too, will not return.

1476
02:27:12,380 --> 02:27:14,980
In Nuremberg,
an International Court of Justice,

1477
02:27:14,980 --> 02:27:18,500
has convened to pass judgment
on the main war criminals.

1478
02:27:18,500 --> 02:27:20,180
24 defendants.

1479
02:27:26,700 --> 02:27:31,580
The bill of indictment filled seven
closely typed newspaper pages.

1480
02:27:31,580 --> 02:27:34,260
Watching the people flicking
through this document of shame

1481
02:27:34,260 --> 02:27:37,580
with indifference, it seems as
though none of this concerns them,

1482
02:27:37,580 --> 02:27:39,780
neither crime nor perpetrators,

1483
02:27:39,780 --> 02:27:41,740
neither guilt nor punishment.

1484
02:28:09,980 --> 02:28:11,860
These 21 men, these zeroes,

1485
02:28:11,860 --> 02:28:14,940
these hardworking
and confident monsters,

1486
02:28:14,940 --> 02:28:17,660
were the last survivors
of a gang that had ruled Germany.

1487
02:28:22,300 --> 02:28:26,180
Because of them, millions
of soldiers, sailors, pilots

1488
02:28:26,180 --> 02:28:28,540
and civilians died in the war,

1489
02:28:28,540 --> 02:28:31,140
and millions died in gas chambers
and furnaces.

1490
02:28:33,740 --> 02:28:37,260
No famine, no plague, no punishment
of God ever accomplished

1491
02:28:37,260 --> 02:28:38,940
what these men were able to do.

1492
02:28:40,700 --> 02:28:44,140
They caused destruction
such as the world has never seen,

1493
02:28:44,140 --> 02:28:46,820
and there they sat, stony faced.

1494
02:28:51,660 --> 02:28:54,300
Hermann Wilhelm Goring...

1495
02:28:56,140 --> 02:28:58,860
..you must plead guilty or
not guilty.

1496
02:29:07,500 --> 02:29:08,700
Rudolf Hess.

1497
02:29:13,660 --> 02:29:15,020
Wilhelm Keitel.

1498
02:29:20,580 --> 02:29:22,020
Alfred Jodl.

1499
02:29:44,820 --> 02:29:46,780
December 8th.

1500
02:29:46,780 --> 02:29:48,380
Feast of the Immaculate Conception,

1501
02:29:48,380 --> 02:29:50,260
Day of Remembrance.

1502
02:29:50,260 --> 02:29:52,100
The first snow, very cold,

1503
02:29:52,100 --> 02:29:54,580
wind beating against the windows.

1504
02:30:07,140 --> 02:30:11,260
At 7am with mother to the
Borgsdorf forest to fetch wood.

1505
02:30:11,260 --> 02:30:12,700
It was terribly heavy,

1506
02:30:12,700 --> 02:30:15,260
and the forester was about
to confiscate our tools

1507
02:30:15,260 --> 02:30:16,940
when we wanted to saw a trunk.

1508
02:30:18,500 --> 02:30:21,380
We had two large sacks,
a rucksack and a bag,

1509
02:30:21,380 --> 02:30:23,220
and still we had to run
for the train.

1510
02:30:38,620 --> 02:30:41,180
December 10th.

1511
02:30:41,180 --> 02:30:43,900
It's said to be almost
minus 20 degrees Centigrade.

1512
02:30:46,620 --> 02:30:48,900
My hair has turned very grey.

1513
02:30:48,900 --> 02:30:51,780
In general, we all age rapidly now.

1514
02:30:51,780 --> 02:30:55,220
Snow outside, scrunching underfoot.

1515
02:30:55,220 --> 02:30:57,660
Everybody's complaining
about the cold.

1516
02:30:57,660 --> 02:31:00,220
I hope it won't last for long.

1517
02:31:00,220 --> 02:31:01,460
With the lack of coal,

1518
02:31:01,460 --> 02:31:04,620
the malnourished will
freeze to death in their flats.

1519
02:31:04,620 --> 02:31:06,180
It's been happening already.

1520
02:31:18,660 --> 02:31:20,900
First post-war Christmas.

1521
02:31:20,900 --> 02:31:23,220
How different
from what we had imagined.

1522
02:31:23,220 --> 02:31:25,740
No tree, no presents, no Andric.

1523
02:31:27,380 --> 02:31:30,220
But the curfew was lifted yesterday

1524
02:31:30,220 --> 02:31:32,820
and those brave enough
are allowed out after 11pm.

1525
02:31:42,220 --> 02:31:44,060
Eaten lots and well.

1526
02:31:44,060 --> 02:31:47,140
To church with Hansels and Schulzes
at quarter to five.

1527
02:31:47,140 --> 02:31:49,660
It was crowded so we stood
on the upper gallery.

1528
02:31:55,660 --> 02:31:58,860
Another Christmas
without the children.

1529
02:31:58,860 --> 02:32:01,780
Last year, I often thought
about it and wished for the next one

1530
02:32:01,780 --> 02:32:03,780
not to be so sad.

1531
02:32:03,780 --> 02:32:07,020
Now, Christmas will soon come
around and I have even less hope.

1532
02:32:14,740 --> 02:32:16,580
Monday, New Year's Eve.

1533
02:32:16,580 --> 02:32:19,220
Mother was angry with me
when I left in the evening.

1534
02:32:19,220 --> 02:32:21,820
I took my records,
first to Gunter,

1535
02:32:21,820 --> 02:32:24,940
then to Hayo, who lives in
Weissensee. His parents were out.

1536
02:32:26,780 --> 02:32:30,140
Gunter was quite jealous because I
was flirting with Rudi and danced

1537
02:32:30,140 --> 02:32:33,300
the first dance of the New Year
with him. It was "Lantern, Lantern."

1538
02:32:33,300 --> 02:32:35,620
# Laternchen, laternchen

1539
02:32:35,620 --> 02:32:37,500
# Laternchen... #

1540
02:32:45,180 --> 02:32:48,580
At 5am, I went to another family,
who were also celebrating

1541
02:32:48,580 --> 02:32:50,340
and in high spirits.

1542
02:32:50,340 --> 02:32:52,020
At 6am, I returned.

1543
02:32:52,020 --> 02:32:54,540
Mother was livid.

1544
02:32:54,540 --> 02:32:57,300
I went to bed and slept
until 11 the next morning.

1545
02:33:08,300 --> 02:33:12,740
In 1949, Brigitte Eicke married her
childhood sweetheart Kurt Schulze.

1546
02:33:16,220 --> 02:33:18,980
The couple had two children,
a boy and a girl.

1547
02:33:21,900 --> 02:33:27,060
Brigitte spent her entire life in
Prenzlauer Berg and died in 2016

1548
02:33:27,060 --> 02:33:28,540
at the age of 89.

1549
02:33:32,260 --> 02:33:35,820
The trial against the main war
criminals at Nuremberg concluded

1550
02:33:35,820 --> 02:33:39,820
with 12 death sentences, seven
long-term or life prison sentences

1551
02:33:39,820 --> 02:33:42,020
and three acquittals.

1552
02:33:42,020 --> 02:33:45,900
Hermann Goring eluded his punishment
by committing suicide.

1553
02:33:45,900 --> 02:33:49,380
In 1947, over 98% of all registered

1554
02:33:49,380 --> 02:33:52,660
NSDAP members were back at work.

1555
02:33:52,660 --> 02:33:56,340
Even high-ranking SS functionaries
were able to build a career

1556
02:33:56,340 --> 02:34:00,180
after the war, as doctors,
judges, teachers, professors,

1557
02:34:00,180 --> 02:34:01,980
civil servants or journalists.

1558
02:34:05,780 --> 02:34:10,260
Only in 1946 Alice Lowenthal
received confirmation

1559
02:34:10,260 --> 02:34:14,260
that her second husband and her
daughters, Gitti and Ruth, had died.

1560
02:34:14,260 --> 02:34:17,460
All three had been murdered
at Auschwitz concentration camp

1561
02:34:17,460 --> 02:34:19,700
and were declared dead in 1950.

1562
02:34:22,020 --> 02:34:27,100
Alice married again, the son
of the family who had hidden her.

1563
02:34:27,100 --> 02:34:30,740
The pair had another daughter
they named Eva Ruth Gitti.

1564
02:34:33,220 --> 02:34:35,020
Alice died in 1985.

1565
02:34:36,540 --> 02:34:38,300
Eva still lives in Berlin.

