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(narrator) Dresden - the great,
beautiful and historic city

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so far barely touched by the war,

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believed by its inhabitants
to be somehow inviolate -

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became, in the technical language
of the experts,

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a severe case of over-bombing.

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(woman) We had so many refugees
who had come from the Eastern Front

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that at this point
the city had swollen to double its size.

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The only men we had in the city

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were from the veterans' hospital,
blind and crippled.

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The blind were trying to carry
the cripples and couldn't see their way.

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And some people who tried to walk along,
they were pulled in by the fire.

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They all of a sudden disappeared
right in front of you.

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There is such a draught
in a firestorm like that.

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lt's a most horrible thing.

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You have to save yourself
or try to get as far away from the fire

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because the draught pulls you in.

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(narrator) Next day came the Americans.

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A Western demonstration
of support for the Russians,

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now less than 100 miles away.

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Over 1300 Flying Fortresses
to pound the ruins of a city.

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(Gray) The city was in flames
but after three days we had to go in

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and try to find the people
and take them out of the ruins.

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And sometimes a washbasinful
contained nine, ten people,

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because their size had shrunk
to just a small amount.

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We just couldn't believe
that this was a whole person.

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And this picture is just terrible.

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l saw sometimes
two people close together

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who maybe in despair had...
lt was one tiny little figure.

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(narrator) ln the centre of the city,
cordoned oft from the surVivors,

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they built great funeral pyres.

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(Gray) There was no time
to dig individual graves.

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We had to dig mass graves.

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They tried to identify by jewellery
or by belongings,

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but many people could not be identified.

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Later in the ruins
you found inscriptions:

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"Hans, are you alive?"

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"Martha, are you still in the ruins?"

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(narrator)
lndustrial damage was slight.

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The railway was working again
in three days.

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But over 100,000 died.

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Dresden was another monument
to total war.

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(narrator) The last Nazi newsreel
the Germans saw.

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lt features scratch units in action
on the Eastern Front, on German soil.

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The slogans now play on sexual fear
of the Red hordes.

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The main propaganda weapon -
stories of rape,

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stereotyped accounts
backed by dubious pictures

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in which the corpses
may, for once, be German.

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Tales of brutal soldiery told
in the stock language of racial hatred -

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beasts, rape, animals, bestiality.

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Sie haben meine Schwester
und meine Mutter

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00:05:07,432 --> 00:05:10,100
in bestialischer
und tierischer Weise misshandelt.

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Refugees from Germany's eastern
provinces and the occupied territories.

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Families were separated,
never to be reunited.

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Thousands died from drowning,
thousands from shelling.

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The great German Reich was shrinking.

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The Germans coming home.

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On the Western Front

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the Allied air forces
ranged at will beyond the Rhine,

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paralysing all movement
in preparation for the final assault.

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With bombs, rockets and cannonfire

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they struck at bridges, railways, roads,
at a single horse and cart.

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lt was my duty to tell Hitler

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that from the point of view of armaments
the war was lost.

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And l did it in several memorandums,

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and the harshest one was 19 March '45

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in which l told him very bluntly,
which nobody dared to tell,

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that the war will be finished
within four or six weeks.

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(narrator) Hitler boasted
of losses in infantry

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made good by countless numbers
of new units.

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He himself
presented medals to his new recruits.

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What they lacked in experience they made
up for in National Socialist ardour.

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A young runner reports how
he carried weapons up to the front line.

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Als der Russe näher heranrückte,
bestand meine Aufgabe darin,

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Meldungen zu den einzelnen
Kompaniegefechtsständen...

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(narrator) His reward,
an lron Cross Second Class.

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March 24.

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The Rhine crossing.

78
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Montgomery's last showpiece battle.

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Upstream the Americans
slipped across almost unopposed.

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The goal the field commanders
had in mind - Berlin.

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Across the Rhine now.

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From the Dutch border
to the Black Forest in the south,

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the Allied columns pushed on
into the heart of Germany

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through scenes that were
the commonplace of war.

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Towns and villages that burned

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as the towns and villages
of Poland, France, Russia,

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Yugoslavia and Greece had burned.

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But for these civilians, for the women
and children who saw the war go past,

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there were no ghettos
and no gas chambers.

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Only, in some, a sense of anger.

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(woman) The first time l have
had hatred against Hitler and the Nazis

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was not hatred
against the terror regime,

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it was hatred like among gangsters.

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Hitler promised us
to win half of the world

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and he asked us to help him

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and so we have done,

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and now we have nothing.

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We have only our clothes.

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(narrator) The collapse
of Nazi government had left a vacuum.

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The advancing troops
were politically innocent.

101
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Their methods were rough and ready.

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(man) The Bürgermeister's
the first one you meet.

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He'd have his sash on

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and he would inform us
that he was not a Nazi,

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the town council was not.

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We would promptly round them all up

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and ship them out
because we knew we had all the Nazis.

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You put soldiers with townspeople

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and after the first couple of hours
of a small amount of tension

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when both parties realised that the
other was not gonna stab them suddenly,

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we'd find ourselves swapping
hard tack or chocolate

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for a cooked meal
by one of the German families.

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And they in turn would show us family
pictures - not the uniform ones -

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and then you'd find a Gl
showing his family to them.

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lt's funny how the feeling
could change so rapidly.

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Some woman came to me. ln addition
to trying to ofter me her own serVices,

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she was trying to obtain something else.

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l looked at her. l was feeling
particularly mean that day.

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My father was sick and the Red Cross
had given me information

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that my brother-in-law had been killed
in Germany. Word had just come to me

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and l was about ready to tear anyone
apart with my own two hands.

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And l said in desperation almost:

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"Don't bother me.
You're dealing with a Jew."

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"You don't want anything to do with me."

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And she looked at me and she said,
"Aber Sie sind ein weißer Jude",

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which you can translate,
"But you are a white Jew."

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And l did everything to restrain myself
from just belting her in the mouth.

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(narrator) The camps were overrun.

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Many Germans had known of them.
Others had preferred not to know.

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00:11:06,999 --> 00:11:09,542
Now they were forced to see.

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ln one place the mayor and his wife
went home and hanged themselves.

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This is Buchenwald.

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Those who had surVived deportation,
slave labour,

134
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selection for the death camps,
starVation,

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were from every country in Europe,

136
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of all callings, of many religions,
many political faiths.

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Some turned on their oppressors.

138
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Allied prisoners were freed.

139
00:12:48,559 --> 00:12:50,643
(cheering)

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00:12:53,439 --> 00:12:57,859
(narrator)
German soldiers went into captivity.

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Displaced persons, ordinary Germans,
prisoners of war passed on the roads

142
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and had nothing to say to each other.

143
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Germany was an ant heap
some giant had kicked to pieces.

144
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Here and there, looting.

145
00:13:46,617 --> 00:13:50,537
Brief opportunities to celebrate
the collapse of the system.

146
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The victors had their own views
on law and order.

147
00:14:03,509 --> 00:14:06,261
Some property was still sacred.

148
00:14:36,417 --> 00:14:41,838
(Speer) ln April '45,
Berlin was more ruins than a town.

149
00:14:41,922 --> 00:14:43,756
ln the centre of Berlin,

150
00:14:43,841 --> 00:14:48,344
one could find almost no building
which was still intact.

151
00:14:48,429 --> 00:14:51,723
But it was my wish
to have the Berlin Philharmonic

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having a concert for the last time.

153
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l knew that it would be my last concert
for a long time, perhaps forever,

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and l invited friends

155
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and as many people as possible to go in.

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We were sitting there in our coats
because there was no heating.

157
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lt was cold and it was shivering

158
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and in this atmosphere
of destruction and misery

159
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the concert started and we started

160
00:15:27,176 --> 00:15:31,179
with the last part
of the Götterdämmerung.

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00:15:34,934 --> 00:15:38,436
(narrator) Hitler no longer
made public appearances.

162
00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:40,229
More and more he withdrew

163
00:15:40,314 --> 00:15:46,027
to his underground headquarters beneath
the lmperial Chancellery - the bunker.

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(Speer) When l came back from this
concert for the military conference,

165
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we came into the bunker
and Hitler was almost out of his mind.

166
00:15:58,082 --> 00:16:00,833
And Goebbels was already there.

167
00:16:00,918 --> 00:16:07,674
And Hitler showed to us the wires he'd
just received of the death of Roosevelt.

168
00:16:07,758 --> 00:16:11,427
Goebbels was jumping up and saying,
"That's it. That's it!"

169
00:16:11,512 --> 00:16:16,015
"Now we have got it. Now l think
everything will turn to the better."

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(narrator) ln the east, over railway
lines converted to the Russian gauge,

171
00:16:22,982 --> 00:16:26,776
the Russian command was piling up
vast supplies of material.

172
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Six armies were involved.

173
00:16:29,113 --> 00:16:33,700
Their object: to smash the German forces
on the approaches to Berlin

174
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and take the capital of Nazi Germany.

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On the 75th anniversary
of Lenin's birth, 16 April 1945,

176
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the massed artillery opened fire.

177
00:17:05,983 --> 00:17:11,904
My heart was going smaller
and l get very anxious

178
00:17:11,989 --> 00:17:14,949
because l knew that the attack began.

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(narrator) The first barrage was
less eftective than Zhukov had hoped.

180
00:17:33,552 --> 00:17:38,639
The Germans were still secure
in their second line of defence.

181
00:17:47,066 --> 00:17:50,109
ln the centre of the front,
opposite Berlin,

182
00:17:50,194 --> 00:17:56,157
there were 400 guns to the mile
to open a way for the assault tanks.

183
00:18:06,919 --> 00:18:10,338
The Red Army was over the Oder,

184
00:18:10,422 --> 00:18:14,675
reinforcing and breaking out
of its bridgeheads.

185
00:18:14,802 --> 00:18:18,554
The armoured columns pushed ahead
against desperate resistance.

186
00:18:18,639 --> 00:18:24,477
Some of our young boys, they jumped
out of the holes, had their Panzerfaust

187
00:18:24,561 --> 00:18:28,606
and they were shooting to the tanks
and destroyed more than four tanks,

188
00:18:28,690 --> 00:18:32,401
and the others
were shooting with their guns

189
00:18:32,486 --> 00:18:35,571
and killed all the Russian soldiers.

190
00:18:35,656 --> 00:18:41,369
And the Russians must have been
before in a Magazin,

191
00:18:41,453 --> 00:18:43,579
or in a sweet factory,

192
00:18:43,664 --> 00:18:47,667
because they had all their arms
full of sweets and chocolate.

193
00:18:47,751 --> 00:18:50,461
Everybody in our unit was 15 and 16

194
00:18:50,546 --> 00:18:55,091
and they were running onto the street
with the chocolate.

195
00:19:03,600 --> 00:19:06,352
(narrator)
ln the west it was a difterent story.

196
00:19:06,436 --> 00:19:10,940
Sidestepping pockets of the enemy
the Allied columns moved east.

197
00:19:12,317 --> 00:19:15,862
(man) You could pick up the telephone
and ring up the next village

198
00:19:15,946 --> 00:19:18,030
to see if it was still German-occupied.

199
00:19:18,115 --> 00:19:20,533
Say,
"Hello, what's happening down there?"

200
00:19:20,617 --> 00:19:25,872
One had almost moved into
a dreamlike and unreal situation

201
00:19:25,998 --> 00:19:31,210
where towns and villages
flew by with no resistance at all.

202
00:19:31,295 --> 00:19:34,088
Normal countryside, no damage at all.

203
00:19:34,173 --> 00:19:39,552
And every day one said to oneself,
"Surely this can't go on."

204
00:19:39,636 --> 00:19:43,306
Certainly, l think,
the thought of one's own surVival

205
00:19:43,390 --> 00:19:46,601
after all this gradually became
more and more uppermost.

206
00:19:46,685 --> 00:19:50,479
When one did run into
any sort of determined resistance,

207
00:19:50,564 --> 00:19:53,024
it was a matter of half anger:

208
00:19:53,108 --> 00:19:56,485
"How dare these people
prolong the agony any more?"

209
00:19:56,570 --> 00:20:00,740
And the other half
was jolly nearly a blue funk.

210
00:20:06,622 --> 00:20:10,249
(narrator) Uelzen,
a little town in northern Germany,

211
00:20:10,334 --> 00:20:15,504
30 miles short of the Elbe.
Here the Germans did stand and fight.

212
00:20:30,187 --> 00:20:33,606
There was an edginess now
among the Allied fighting men,

213
00:20:33,690 --> 00:20:36,192
their fingers quick on the trigger.

214
00:20:36,276 --> 00:20:39,528
Their opponents were elite troops
and ofticer cadets.

215
00:20:39,613 --> 00:20:42,531
lt took a four-day battle
with considerable losses

216
00:20:42,658 --> 00:20:45,910
and many civilian deaths
before resistance collapsed.

217
00:21:06,890 --> 00:21:09,767
Mostly the Germans
surrendered thankfully.

218
00:21:09,851 --> 00:21:13,312
Their main aim - to go into captivity
with the Anglo-Americans

219
00:21:13,397 --> 00:21:15,398
rather than with the Russians

220
00:21:15,482 --> 00:21:19,652
on whose land and population
they had inflicted such losses.

221
00:21:23,699 --> 00:21:28,369
Desperately they strove
to reach safety in the west.

222
00:21:37,629 --> 00:21:41,757
ln the Ruhr pocket
over 300,000 men of Army Group B

223
00:21:41,842 --> 00:21:45,386
were surrounded and forced to surrender.

224
00:21:46,555 --> 00:21:49,724
The Western Allies
had achieved their main objective -

225
00:21:49,808 --> 00:21:54,478
the destruction
of the German land forces in the west.

226
00:22:05,449 --> 00:22:07,742
(speaks German)

227
00:22:07,826 --> 00:22:11,620
(translator)
lt wasn't until the first half of April

228
00:22:11,705 --> 00:22:13,789
that he retired to the bunker,

229
00:22:13,874 --> 00:22:19,337
because the air raids
were getting worse and more frequent.

230
00:22:23,633 --> 00:22:26,719
The bunker was divided up in such a way

231
00:22:26,803 --> 00:22:31,349
that in the lower area
there was a military conference chamber

232
00:22:31,433 --> 00:22:34,769
with an anteroom
which led to Hitler's study.

233
00:22:34,853 --> 00:22:38,939
His workroom and bedroom
led oft this anteroom

234
00:22:39,024 --> 00:22:43,444
and also a room
with a bathroom for Eva Braun.

235
00:22:46,114 --> 00:22:52,244
There were some women in Hitler's
former life who were important for him,

236
00:22:52,329 --> 00:22:57,500
but l think during the last time

237
00:22:57,584 --> 00:23:02,463
there was nobody else near
and as close to him like Eva Braun.

238
00:23:02,547 --> 00:23:07,843
She loved him really
and she came surprisingly to Berlin

239
00:23:07,928 --> 00:23:13,140
and when she arrived, Hitler tried
to seem angry but he wasn't successful.

240
00:23:13,225 --> 00:23:16,727
His eyes were so full of joy

241
00:23:16,812 --> 00:23:21,607
and he was obviously so happy
that she was there

242
00:23:21,691 --> 00:23:25,986
that nobody tried to send her back.

243
00:23:33,829 --> 00:23:37,331
(narrator) The Russians
were now firing on Berlin itself,

244
00:23:37,416 --> 00:23:40,626
their forward troops
already in the outskirts

245
00:23:40,710 --> 00:23:44,130
fighting their way
from street to street.

246
00:23:44,881 --> 00:23:49,718
So came his birthday, 20 April,

247
00:23:49,803 --> 00:23:53,848
and there came the congratulations

248
00:23:53,932 --> 00:23:58,686
and everybody shook his hand
and wished him the best.

249
00:23:58,770 --> 00:24:02,565
lt was all very depressed,

250
00:24:02,649 --> 00:24:06,652
it was not a happy birthday.

251
00:24:06,736 --> 00:24:09,530
And when the ofticial part was over

252
00:24:09,614 --> 00:24:15,870
Hitler retired at once,
but Eva Braun invited some of the people

253
00:24:15,954 --> 00:24:21,041
to go upstairs in her little living room
to make a birthday party.

254
00:24:21,126 --> 00:24:28,799
And one found a record, a hit song,
to dance with music.

255
00:24:28,884 --> 00:24:36,140
And then we sat around the table and
tried to forget our miserable situation.

256
00:24:36,224 --> 00:24:39,727
There was laughing and joking

257
00:24:39,811 --> 00:24:44,773
and everybody drank
and giggled and gaggled.

258
00:24:44,858 --> 00:24:49,737
lt was a very artificial
sort of gayness.

259
00:24:49,821 --> 00:24:51,864
(speaks German)

260
00:24:53,783 --> 00:24:57,870
(translator) After there was
another conference on the situation,

261
00:24:57,954 --> 00:25:03,167
but it was already apparent
that it was getting near the end.

262
00:25:05,420 --> 00:25:09,757
Reichsleiter Bormann said to me
that l should put everything in motion

263
00:25:09,841 --> 00:25:11,926
so that we would have luggage ready

264
00:25:12,010 --> 00:25:17,097
in case of a possible move
to the Berghof in Berchtesgaden.

265
00:25:22,020 --> 00:25:27,566
He refused absolutely and said,
"No, l cannot leave Berlin."

266
00:25:27,651 --> 00:25:33,155
"l have to make a decision here
in Berlin or l have to go under."

267
00:25:33,240 --> 00:25:38,619
And this was the first time

268
00:25:38,703 --> 00:25:45,167
that he ever mentioned the possibility
that we could not win,

269
00:25:45,252 --> 00:25:51,757
that he mentioned the chance of defeat.

270
00:25:51,841 --> 00:25:55,886
l remember April 20 1945,

271
00:25:55,971 --> 00:25:59,098
that was the birthday of Adolf Hitler,

272
00:25:59,182 --> 00:26:03,435
and on the radio there was a speech
of Joseph Goebbels.

273
00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:08,732
And he said, "Berlin will remain German

274
00:26:08,817 --> 00:26:12,861
and Vienna will be German again."

275
00:26:12,946 --> 00:26:18,409
And my mother said,
"God thanks, we will win the war",

276
00:26:18,493 --> 00:26:23,914
and l said, "Mother, you are wrong
and Goebbels is wrong."

277
00:26:23,999 --> 00:26:28,419
"lt's terrible,
but l am quite sure the war is over

278
00:26:28,503 --> 00:26:30,462
and we will lose the war."

279
00:26:30,547 --> 00:26:35,634
And my mother said,
"Do you think in this hour

280
00:26:35,719 --> 00:26:38,137
Goebbels will tell us a lie?"

281
00:26:48,189 --> 00:26:51,025
(speaks Russian)

282
00:26:52,027 --> 00:26:56,113
(translator) The battle for Berlin
itself was extremely difticult.

283
00:26:56,197 --> 00:26:59,992
lt had to be taken street by street,
house by house,

284
00:27:00,076 --> 00:27:06,665
some of them nine and ten storeys high,
and there were lots of these houses.

285
00:27:06,750 --> 00:27:10,336
The fascists held out on every floor.

286
00:27:10,420 --> 00:27:13,756
They had also set up barricades
in every street.

287
00:27:13,840 --> 00:27:18,385
They'd converted the main buildings
into strongpoints against us.

288
00:27:32,484 --> 00:27:38,072
We were in Berlin now and in this
evening we just visit my mother

289
00:27:38,156 --> 00:27:42,534
and she was very nearly crying,

290
00:27:42,619 --> 00:27:47,790
because she thought
maybe l'm dead or something.

291
00:27:47,874 --> 00:27:53,295
And it was late in the evening
and we wanted to sleep there,

292
00:27:53,380 --> 00:27:58,050
but some men of the house came
and they said, "lt's impossible."

293
00:27:58,134 --> 00:28:02,596
"You can't sleep here because
the Russians are not far from here

294
00:28:02,681 --> 00:28:06,850
and if they arrive here by night
and they see you here with guns,

295
00:28:06,935 --> 00:28:09,228
maybe they will shoot us."

296
00:28:09,312 --> 00:28:11,397
So we couldn't sleep there.

297
00:28:11,523 --> 00:28:15,484
We went over the street,
there was a school, and we slept there.

298
00:28:21,866 --> 00:28:24,660
(man speaks Russian)

299
00:28:25,745 --> 00:28:27,871
(translator) On the 21st,

300
00:28:27,956 --> 00:28:32,459
we went on together into the outer ring
of the suburbs of Berlin itself.

301
00:28:35,630 --> 00:28:40,384
The order of the day of our high command
reverberated through the whole country.

302
00:28:40,468 --> 00:28:43,178
They were heard throughout the world:

303
00:28:43,263 --> 00:28:46,807
"Our soldiers have broken into Berlin."

304
00:28:52,147 --> 00:28:55,315
(narrator) The Russians
worked out their tactics in detail

305
00:28:55,400 --> 00:28:58,694
using models of streets and buildings.

306
00:28:58,778 --> 00:29:02,239
Behind the apparent chaos
of the fighting lay a precise plan

307
00:29:02,323 --> 00:29:05,617
to encircle the city
and strike at the centre.

308
00:29:05,702 --> 00:29:07,911
Some troops had come all across Russia

309
00:29:07,996 --> 00:29:12,166
through territory the retreating Germans
had looted, burned, destroyed.

310
00:29:18,089 --> 00:29:20,841
Berliners sheltering in their cellars

311
00:29:20,925 --> 00:29:24,553
wondered what their fate would be
at Russian hands.

312
00:29:24,637 --> 00:29:27,264
(woman speaks Russian)

313
00:29:29,017 --> 00:29:32,352
(translator) Even the children
had not been evacuated.

314
00:29:32,437 --> 00:29:35,355
They all lived in cellars.

315
00:29:37,734 --> 00:29:39,485
l went into the cellars

316
00:29:39,611 --> 00:29:43,989
and remember most of all
the repetition of this phrase:

317
00:29:45,533 --> 00:29:48,410
"When will this nightmare end?"

318
00:29:48,495 --> 00:29:54,875
Suddenly on April 22, l think - yes -

319
00:29:54,959 --> 00:29:58,921
they came out of the military conference

320
00:29:59,005 --> 00:30:01,965
with a totally stony face

321
00:30:02,050 --> 00:30:08,388
and dark, frightened eyes

322
00:30:08,473 --> 00:30:14,186
and he called us to come
to this little anteroom.

323
00:30:14,270 --> 00:30:21,151
He sent for Eva Braun
and for the secretaries and for the cook

324
00:30:21,236 --> 00:30:25,239
who was still in Berlin
who cooked for him.

325
00:30:25,323 --> 00:30:29,910
And then he came in
and said with a monotone voice

326
00:30:29,994 --> 00:30:35,290
and so unkindly
as we never had heard him speak to us:

327
00:30:35,375 --> 00:30:39,002
"Ladies,
please pack your things at once."

328
00:30:39,087 --> 00:30:42,005
"You have to go to the south."

329
00:30:42,090 --> 00:30:46,468
"The last aeroplane
starts in about an hour."

330
00:30:47,971 --> 00:30:51,849
And then it was silent.
"No", he said, "it's all lost."

331
00:30:51,933 --> 00:30:55,644
"There's no hope. You have to go."

332
00:30:55,728 --> 00:30:58,981
And then was a moment
of absolute silence

333
00:30:59,065 --> 00:31:01,984
and we stood shocked.

334
00:31:03,236 --> 00:31:08,323
Suddenly Eva Braun made a few steps,

335
00:31:08,408 --> 00:31:11,034
went to Hitler and said:

336
00:31:11,119 --> 00:31:15,497
"But you know l don't leave you.
l stay on your side."

337
00:31:15,582 --> 00:31:19,793
"You know that.
Don't try to send me away."

338
00:31:19,878 --> 00:31:23,463
Then Hitler
did something very astonishing

339
00:31:23,548 --> 00:31:28,719
which he never did
and nobody had ever seen such a gesture.

340
00:31:28,803 --> 00:31:31,471
He kissed her on her lips.

341
00:31:32,515 --> 00:31:40,022
And then it happened
that the other girls and me too,

342
00:31:40,106 --> 00:31:44,318
we heard us saying, "We'll stay, too."

343
00:31:45,028 --> 00:31:48,822
This situation in the bunker

344
00:31:48,907 --> 00:31:52,242
was a fantastic one.

345
00:31:52,327 --> 00:31:54,578
One really can't...

346
00:31:54,662 --> 00:31:56,830
An unrealistic one.

347
00:31:56,915 --> 00:31:59,917
One really can't describe

348
00:32:00,001 --> 00:32:05,672
how the moods
went on and oft like waves.

349
00:32:05,798 --> 00:32:10,928
Sometimes they were all exhilarating
and were thinking,

350
00:32:11,012 --> 00:32:17,976
"Well, now the Western troops
coming for release of Berlin..."

351
00:32:18,061 --> 00:32:20,437
Goebbels was exclaiming

352
00:32:20,521 --> 00:32:25,567
one of the biggest decisions of war
Hitler just made,

353
00:32:25,652 --> 00:32:30,572
he is now determined

354
00:32:30,657 --> 00:32:34,868
no more to fight against the West,
only to the East in Berlin,

355
00:32:34,953 --> 00:32:38,997
and this will mean
that the Western powers

356
00:32:39,082 --> 00:32:43,001
will join us
in our fight against Russia.

357
00:32:43,086 --> 00:32:46,296
Such things happened every now and then.

358
00:32:46,381 --> 00:32:52,594
And then a few minutes afterwards
everybody was speaking about suicide

359
00:32:52,679 --> 00:32:54,680
and how they are preparing it.

360
00:32:54,764 --> 00:32:58,767
Goebbels in detail was saying

361
00:32:58,851 --> 00:33:05,232
how he will let his children be killed
who were already in the bunker.

362
00:33:05,316 --> 00:33:06,775
(speaks German)

363
00:33:06,859 --> 00:33:10,862
(translator) After a few days
the telegram came from Göring

364
00:33:10,947 --> 00:33:13,949
which said, "Mein Führer..."

365
00:33:14,033 --> 00:33:19,079
No longer "my beloved Führer",
just "my Führer".

366
00:33:21,749 --> 00:33:24,376
"l know that you are now totally cut oft

367
00:33:24,460 --> 00:33:29,923
and are no longer in possession
of full freedom to command."

368
00:33:32,301 --> 00:33:37,389
"According to the law of succession,
l will now step into your position

369
00:33:37,473 --> 00:33:44,229
and will undertake to represent Germany
both in internal and external matters."

370
00:33:44,313 --> 00:33:47,899
"Yours, Göring."

371
00:33:47,984 --> 00:33:54,156
Hitler was so worked up over this.

372
00:33:54,240 --> 00:33:58,493
He sat in his chair
and could not grasp it at first.

373
00:34:00,496 --> 00:34:05,333
This was added to by Bormann
who added fuel to the fire somewhat

374
00:34:05,418 --> 00:34:08,628
so that Hitler then said:

375
00:34:08,713 --> 00:34:13,467
"To give me an ultimatum,
that really is the end!"

376
00:34:13,551 --> 00:34:19,473
One day there came one of the men
of the press bureau, press oftice,

377
00:34:19,557 --> 00:34:22,601
and brought the news -

378
00:34:22,685 --> 00:34:29,316
l think he had heard it by radio
from Reuters News Agency -

379
00:34:29,400 --> 00:34:34,529
that Himmler had had negotiations

380
00:34:34,614 --> 00:34:38,033
with GrafBernadotte for capitulation.

381
00:34:38,117 --> 00:34:40,702
And Hitler was very upset

382
00:34:40,787 --> 00:34:45,832
because he held Himmler
for his most faithful paladin

383
00:34:45,958 --> 00:34:48,752
and the most reliable one,

384
00:34:48,836 --> 00:34:54,591
and now he saw
that also he had tried to betray him.

385
00:34:54,675 --> 00:35:01,098
He remembered suddenly that the poison
which he had to use for himself

386
00:35:01,182 --> 00:35:04,935
was given to him
by one of Himmler's staft

387
00:35:05,019 --> 00:35:08,146
and he mistrusted that it may aftect...

388
00:35:08,231 --> 00:35:12,651
Perhaps Himmler tried a dirty trick

389
00:35:12,735 --> 00:35:19,574
and gave him something
that would only make him unconscious,

390
00:35:19,659 --> 00:35:25,247
so that he could be transported
against his will out of the bunker

391
00:35:25,331 --> 00:35:28,291
and delivered to the enemy.

392
00:35:28,376 --> 00:35:34,005
And to test this he ordered a doctor

393
00:35:34,090 --> 00:35:39,719
to try to test this poison capsule
on the dog.

394
00:35:39,804 --> 00:35:44,307
So he said farewell to this creature.

395
00:35:44,392 --> 00:35:50,689
l think it was next to Eva Braun,
this one who stood next to him.

396
00:35:50,773 --> 00:35:53,358
And Blondi died very promptly.

397
00:36:16,424 --> 00:36:19,634
(narrator)
For a tiny handful of German anti-Nazis,

398
00:36:19,719 --> 00:36:23,096
the Russians came as liberators.

399
00:36:24,098 --> 00:36:26,558
(man) On Tuesday morning, the 24th,

400
00:36:26,642 --> 00:36:29,603
we suddenly saw
the Gestapo had disappeared.

401
00:36:29,687 --> 00:36:36,359
During the night the whole prison
was given over to normal prison guards,

402
00:36:36,444 --> 00:36:40,614
old men, not nice men.

403
00:36:40,698 --> 00:36:43,074
And when we saw that...

404
00:36:43,159 --> 00:36:49,539
Many of the uniforms
the Gestapo guards had put away there.

405
00:36:49,624 --> 00:36:53,877
We said,
"Now, when the Russians take over,

406
00:36:53,961 --> 00:36:59,382
you are the men who will be killed,
not we. Let us out."

407
00:36:59,467 --> 00:37:01,551
They were very...

408
00:37:01,636 --> 00:37:06,806
They said, "No, we can't do that.
Tonight the Gestapo will come back."

409
00:37:06,891 --> 00:37:11,144
And then in the afternoon of Tuesday
we made an agreement with them

410
00:37:11,229 --> 00:37:15,065
and said,
"Look, we will put out ourselves,

411
00:37:15,149 --> 00:37:18,235
we the prisoners,
some guards on the roof,

412
00:37:18,319 --> 00:37:23,198
and obserVe the coming here
of the Russian Front."

413
00:37:23,282 --> 00:37:29,746
"ln the minute we hear Russian gunfire,
not only the artillery shelling,

414
00:37:29,872 --> 00:37:33,625
then you will let us out."
They said, "All right."

415
00:37:33,709 --> 00:37:35,835
When the door was opened in the prison

416
00:37:35,920 --> 00:37:38,296
there was with us
a Jewish Russian doctor

417
00:37:38,381 --> 00:37:42,968
who was a concentration inmate
of Sachsenhausen, the famous...

418
00:37:43,094 --> 00:37:45,512
He - l don't know for what reason -

419
00:37:45,596 --> 00:37:49,599
a month ago
was brought by the Gestapo to our prison

420
00:37:49,684 --> 00:37:54,354
to do the most dirty jobs
in the prison all the time.

421
00:37:54,438 --> 00:37:58,733
And we couldn't contact him much
but we knew him.

422
00:37:58,818 --> 00:38:03,697
Then he stood there on the street
and, "Where to go?" as a Russian.

423
00:38:03,781 --> 00:38:05,949
And l said, "Look, come with us."

424
00:38:06,033 --> 00:38:09,244
"My mother-in-law will feed you.
Come in our basement."

425
00:38:09,328 --> 00:38:15,000
And he went with me. When the first
units of Russians came two days later,

426
00:38:15,126 --> 00:38:18,837
he met them at the door
addressing them in Russian:

427
00:38:18,921 --> 00:38:22,465
"We are all anti-fascists
in this basement."

428
00:38:22,550 --> 00:38:26,303
When the Russians came in in the end...

429
00:38:26,387 --> 00:38:33,518
We found the first lot,
the fighting troops which came in,...

430
00:38:33,602 --> 00:38:36,396
They took away our watches, of course,

431
00:38:36,480 --> 00:38:38,648
and they were very cautious.

432
00:38:38,733 --> 00:38:40,942
We could understand that.

433
00:38:41,027 --> 00:38:46,031
They took away things they liked
but they behaved very businesslike.

434
00:38:46,157 --> 00:38:48,491
They stayed in this house here

435
00:38:48,576 --> 00:38:54,247
and they lived in this room, three
or four of them, quite high ofticers.

436
00:38:54,332 --> 00:38:56,708
They got up in the morning
at eight o'clock

437
00:38:56,792 --> 00:38:59,502
and at nine o'clock
they went to the Tiergarten,

438
00:38:59,587 --> 00:39:01,588
which isn't very far from here,

439
00:39:01,672 --> 00:39:05,133
and behind the Tiergarten
is, or was, the Chancellery

440
00:39:05,217 --> 00:39:07,635
where Hitler
was still alive and fighting.

441
00:39:07,720 --> 00:39:10,305
They went out and did their job

442
00:39:10,389 --> 00:39:14,726
and came back
at five o'clock in the afternoon sharp

443
00:39:14,810 --> 00:39:21,107
and then they asked me down here
to play the piano

444
00:39:21,233 --> 00:39:26,071
and give them a little tune.

445
00:39:26,197 --> 00:39:29,908
And then we drank together
and we sang together.

446
00:39:29,992 --> 00:39:33,703
(woman) Suddenly we saw
the first Russian soldiers.

447
00:39:34,580 --> 00:39:37,957
They knocked at our door,

448
00:39:38,042 --> 00:39:41,878
came in and were very kind.

449
00:39:41,962 --> 00:39:47,258
They said to my mother and to me

450
00:39:47,343 --> 00:39:51,930
if there were German soldiers
in the house

451
00:39:52,014 --> 00:39:55,016
or asked for weapons.

452
00:39:55,101 --> 00:39:57,477
And then they left.

453
00:39:57,561 --> 00:40:04,025
But the next Russians
were quite difterent.

454
00:40:04,110 --> 00:40:10,698
One of them raped me
and other inhabitants of the house.

455
00:40:10,783 --> 00:40:14,619
Two women living next door were killed

456
00:40:14,703 --> 00:40:19,666
and we weren't able to bury them
because the shelling was still going on.

457
00:40:19,750 --> 00:40:22,419
When the Russians came along
they asked us:

458
00:40:22,503 --> 00:40:25,672
"Where are your women?
We want to have your women",

459
00:40:25,756 --> 00:40:30,260
or, "Frau, Frau, Frau", they said in
German, what they called German.

460
00:40:30,344 --> 00:40:35,932
l had the trick or l found the trick

461
00:40:36,016 --> 00:40:39,394
to take them to these two dead bodies.

462
00:40:39,478 --> 00:40:42,814
l opened the carpet and said,
"This is my Frau here."

463
00:40:42,898 --> 00:40:45,483
"l can't supply you with any women."

464
00:40:45,568 --> 00:40:49,612
"These are the only two women
we knew here which we had."

465
00:40:49,697 --> 00:40:55,118
And the Russians kneeled down,
some of them,

466
00:40:55,244 --> 00:40:57,871
and made the cross

467
00:40:57,955 --> 00:41:02,459
and said little prayers,
which was very astounding,

468
00:41:02,543 --> 00:41:09,090
and got up again and kissed me
because they thought l was the widower

469
00:41:09,175 --> 00:41:14,929
and gave me presents,
gave me cigarettes, gave me bread,

470
00:41:15,014 --> 00:41:18,975
clapped me on my shoulder
and went oft again

471
00:41:19,059 --> 00:41:24,939
and got what they wanted, probably,
the next house or in the next street.

472
00:41:25,024 --> 00:41:28,651
Every night,
l used to go home to see my mother

473
00:41:28,736 --> 00:41:33,114
and get something to eat
and some cigarettes,

474
00:41:33,199 --> 00:41:36,743
because we didn't get any food
at daytime.

475
00:41:36,869 --> 00:41:41,706
And my mother
was every time, every night,

476
00:41:41,790 --> 00:41:44,834
she was very lucky
to see me again, naturally.

477
00:41:44,919 --> 00:41:51,132
And so my mother asked me and also
other people from our house asked me:

478
00:41:51,217 --> 00:41:53,384
"Just take your uniform oft,

479
00:41:53,469 --> 00:41:59,307
stay here
and don't go back to fighting."

480
00:42:00,476 --> 00:42:03,102
Always l said, "No, l can't do it."

481
00:42:03,187 --> 00:42:08,066
l couldn't stay at home safe
and they are still fighting.

482
00:42:14,532 --> 00:42:18,868
(narrator) The Battle of Berlin was
one of the most difticult of the war.

483
00:42:18,953 --> 00:42:22,288
lt cost the Russians over 100,000 men.

484
00:42:33,425 --> 00:42:37,470
Total German losses are unknown.

485
00:42:55,948 --> 00:42:59,075
(man speaks Russian)

486
00:43:00,744 --> 00:43:04,831
(translator)
The storming of Berlin continued.

487
00:43:04,915 --> 00:43:09,335
The encircling ring round the whole city
and round the centre of Berlin itself

488
00:43:09,461 --> 00:43:12,630
was being drawn tighter and tighter.

489
00:43:12,715 --> 00:43:14,924
Only a few hundred yards separated us

490
00:43:15,009 --> 00:43:17,969
from the viper's nest
of Hitler's headquarters,

491
00:43:18,053 --> 00:43:19,971
the lmperial Chancellery.

492
00:43:20,556 --> 00:43:24,809
Then he began, "My last will",

493
00:43:24,893 --> 00:43:29,314
and then he dictated me
at first his private will

494
00:43:29,440 --> 00:43:34,277
and afterwards his political testimony.

495
00:43:35,279 --> 00:43:38,448
And, l must confess,

496
00:43:38,532 --> 00:43:45,913
that l was... l was at first
in a very excited mood,

497
00:43:45,998 --> 00:43:53,421
because l expected that l would be
the first and the only one

498
00:43:53,505 --> 00:43:57,592
who knows, who is going to know,

499
00:43:57,676 --> 00:44:02,096
the explanation and declaration

500
00:44:02,181 --> 00:44:06,059
why the war had come to this end

501
00:44:06,143 --> 00:44:10,355
and why Hitler couldn't stop,

502
00:44:10,481 --> 00:44:14,609
and why the development
and why the catastrophe.

503
00:44:14,693 --> 00:44:20,531
l thought, "Now l will come
to the moment of the truth."

504
00:44:21,700 --> 00:44:24,827
And l was heart bumping

505
00:44:24,912 --> 00:44:29,374
when l wrote down what Hitler said.

506
00:44:29,458 --> 00:44:32,210
But he used nothing new.

507
00:44:32,294 --> 00:44:37,924
He came out with his old phrases.

508
00:44:38,008 --> 00:44:43,346
He repeated his accusations,

509
00:44:43,430 --> 00:44:49,852
his revenge swearing to the enemy

510
00:44:49,937 --> 00:44:54,941
and to the Jewish capitalistic system.

511
00:44:55,025 --> 00:44:59,278
And then he announced

512
00:44:59,363 --> 00:45:04,450
in the second part
of the political testimony,

513
00:45:04,535 --> 00:45:06,828
he announced a new government.

514
00:45:06,912 --> 00:45:10,039
(speaks German)

515
00:45:13,293 --> 00:45:16,879
(translator) Eva Braun
had by now persuaded the Führer

516
00:45:16,964 --> 00:45:23,219
to the point where he actually wanted
to improvise a marriage serVice to her.

517
00:45:30,352 --> 00:45:37,984
To do this, they got an ofticial
from the propaganda ministry

518
00:45:38,068 --> 00:45:41,779
who would fulfil the function
of registrar.

519
00:45:41,864 --> 00:45:47,034
l joined the others
in this little workroom of Hitler's

520
00:45:47,119 --> 00:45:50,496
and they were sitting there
around a table

521
00:45:50,622 --> 00:45:55,918
and so l had to congratulate Eva Braun.

522
00:45:56,003 --> 00:46:01,883
l was a little shy as to what to say,

523
00:46:01,967 --> 00:46:04,802
and l shook hands with her

524
00:46:04,887 --> 00:46:10,057
and she said, "Oh, you can say
Mrs Hitler to me now," and l did.

525
00:46:11,018 --> 00:46:14,562
(narrator) On the rocket,
"This is for the Reichstag."

526
00:46:20,194 --> 00:46:25,740
Others said, "Remember Stalingrad",
"Remember the Ukraine",

527
00:46:25,824 --> 00:46:30,536
"Remember the widows and children",
"Remember the tears."

528
00:46:32,915 --> 00:46:34,832
(Linge speaks German)

529
00:46:34,917 --> 00:46:40,046
(translator)
Hitler had now drawn his conclusions.

530
00:46:40,130 --> 00:46:43,299
He said farewell to everybody.

531
00:46:43,383 --> 00:46:46,677
l was the last one he came to.

532
00:46:47,721 --> 00:46:53,976
Hitler said to me:
"l have given the order to break out."

533
00:46:55,020 --> 00:46:58,022
"You should break out in groups."

534
00:46:58,106 --> 00:47:03,277
"Join one of these groups
and try to get through to the west."

535
00:47:04,988 --> 00:47:11,661
Then l asked Hitler:
"For whom should we fight on for now?"

536
00:47:11,745 --> 00:47:15,122
And to that Hitler said in a monotone:

537
00:47:15,207 --> 00:47:17,834
"For the coming man."

538
00:47:17,918 --> 00:47:24,298
l saluted him. He gave me his hand
and l disappeared out of the room.

539
00:47:24,383 --> 00:47:28,636
Suddenly there was a bang,
there was a shot,

540
00:47:28,762 --> 00:47:33,307
and it was obviously within the bunker,

541
00:47:33,392 --> 00:47:40,898
because the noises
of the outside shooting,

542
00:47:40,983 --> 00:47:45,570
we know how they sound.

543
00:47:45,654 --> 00:47:51,325
And the little boy of Goebbels,

544
00:47:51,410 --> 00:47:55,746
he noticed that there was another sound.

545
00:47:55,873 --> 00:48:01,669
He said, "Oh, that was a bull's-eye."

546
00:48:01,753 --> 00:48:06,507
And l thought, yes, you are right.
That was really a bull's-eye.

547
00:48:06,592 --> 00:48:09,468
(speaks German)

548
00:48:09,553 --> 00:48:12,638
(translator)
l went into Hitler's workroom

549
00:48:12,723 --> 00:48:19,604
with the former Reichsleiter Bormann
and this picture presented itself to us.

550
00:48:20,689 --> 00:48:24,859
Hitler was sitting
on the left of the sofa

551
00:48:24,943 --> 00:48:31,115
with his face bent slightly forward
and hanging down to the right.

552
00:48:31,199 --> 00:48:37,038
With the 7.65
he had shot himself in the right temple.

553
00:48:38,040 --> 00:48:40,666
The blood had run down onto the carpet

554
00:48:40,751 --> 00:48:46,380
and from this pool of blood
a splash had got onto the sofa.

555
00:48:52,721 --> 00:48:57,850
Eva Braun was sitting on his right.

556
00:48:57,935 --> 00:49:02,939
Eva Braun had drawn both her legs
up onto the sofa

557
00:49:03,023 --> 00:49:06,233
and was sitting there with cramped lips

558
00:49:06,318 --> 00:49:09,612
so that it immediately
became clear to us

559
00:49:09,696 --> 00:49:12,198
that she had taken cyanide.

560
00:49:14,201 --> 00:49:17,161
l took Hitler by his neck.

561
00:49:17,245 --> 00:49:21,999
Behind me were two other ofticers
from his bodyguard.

562
00:49:23,877 --> 00:49:29,966
And so we took Hitler's body
and proceeded with it into the park.

563
00:49:34,137 --> 00:49:39,058
ln the park, we laid the bodies
together next to each other

564
00:49:39,142 --> 00:49:42,395
and poured
the available petrol over them.

565
00:49:44,439 --> 00:49:49,318
ln the Reich Chancellery park
there was fire all around.

566
00:49:51,446 --> 00:49:53,531
A draught had got up

567
00:49:53,615 --> 00:49:58,828
so that we could not set the corpses
alight with an ordinary match.

568
00:50:04,960 --> 00:50:08,796
So l twisted a taper
out of some paper from a notebook

569
00:50:08,880 --> 00:50:13,801
and Reichsleiter Bormann,
who meanwhile had also come upstairs

570
00:50:13,885 --> 00:50:18,806
with others like Dr Goebbels,
Burgdorf and some ofticers,

571
00:50:18,890 --> 00:50:25,021
lit the taper
and l threw the taper onto the bodies

572
00:50:25,105 --> 00:50:29,483
and in an instant
the corpses were set alight.

573
00:50:37,284 --> 00:50:39,118
(Nikulina speaks Russian)

574
00:50:39,202 --> 00:50:42,079
(translator)
That night we were the first

575
00:50:42,164 --> 00:50:45,416
to take the fight
into the Chancellery itself.

576
00:50:47,836 --> 00:50:54,175
Our objective was to be the planting
of our banner on the building itself.

577
00:50:54,259 --> 00:50:56,052
There was a group of us.

578
00:50:56,136 --> 00:51:00,306
Our group consisted of me,
Sanogen, Alimov and Uzbek,

579
00:51:00,390 --> 00:51:03,559
who was the Young Communist organiser
of our battalion.

580
00:51:03,643 --> 00:51:07,188
He and his Young Communists
had fought through with us together.

581
00:51:07,272 --> 00:51:11,067
They protected me so that l could fight
my way in to hoist the flag.

582
00:51:11,151 --> 00:51:13,069
They gave me the banner to enable me

583
00:51:13,153 --> 00:51:15,780
to get into the building itself
and hoist it up.

584
00:51:15,864 --> 00:51:17,865
Having got into the building,

585
00:51:17,949 --> 00:51:22,161
we started making our way
up the staircase towards the attic.

586
00:51:23,872 --> 00:51:29,960
Some fascists opened up on us and
Sanogen was hit in the head and fell.

587
00:51:30,087 --> 00:51:32,505
His friends rushed forward to him

588
00:51:32,589 --> 00:51:36,300
while l had to make it upstairs
to plant the banner.

589
00:51:42,557 --> 00:51:46,185
And having made my way onto the roof
through a shell hole,

590
00:51:46,269 --> 00:51:49,605
l secured our red banner
with a length of telegraph wire.

591
00:51:49,689 --> 00:51:51,774
(cheering)

592
00:51:53,652 --> 00:51:57,071
- How do you do?
- You're one of Joe Stalin's soldiers

593
00:51:57,155 --> 00:52:00,574
- and l'm pleased to meet you.
- (man speaks Russian)

594
00:52:02,661 --> 00:52:06,163
(narrator) When the armies
of East and West met in Germany

595
00:52:06,248 --> 00:52:10,709
there was a brief moment
of warmth and comradeship.

596
00:52:10,794 --> 00:52:14,755
- Well, we fought the same way together.
- Yes.

597
00:52:14,840 --> 00:52:21,220
Well, all the best, old man. l'm very
glad to have met you. Very glad indeed.

598
00:52:21,304 --> 00:52:25,766
- (speaks Russian)
- Thank you very much.

599
00:52:25,851 --> 00:52:29,562
We don't understand the language
but we mean the same thing.

600
00:52:46,288 --> 00:52:51,709
(narrator) The Red Army saw themselves
as liberators, not avengers.

601
00:53:01,428 --> 00:53:04,805
But the crimes of Hitler's Reich
had to be paid for,

602
00:53:04,890 --> 00:53:07,975
it was the ordinary German who paid.