28th January 1945: The total war, propagated by Goebbels, strikes back at the Fatherland in all its drama and reaches its climax on German soil. It is the beginning of a hundred days of horror and death, claiming more lives than in all the years of war. Stalin's soldiers push forward in the east, the Wehrmacht has no chance against such a superior force. In a radio broadcast, Adolf Hitler addresses his people, calling for a "fight of destiny". Fleets of Allied bombers strike the capital of Berlin and destroy Dresden, which is overcrowded with refugees. The Allies march from the west towards the Rhine, but the Wehrmacht has blown up all bridges - except one.
March 6, 1945. Cologne is the first major city to fall to the Allies. Shortly after, US troops occupy the only surviving bridge over the Rhine in Remagen. Stalin orders planning for his offensive on Berlin to start immediately. He wants to avoid Berlin falling into the hands of his allies. Goebbels does everything to encourage the Germans – the final ‘Wochenschau’ newsreels in German cinemas stoke up fear of the Red Army. Hitler no longer leaves his Reich Chancellery. He has hundreds of opponents of the regime murdered, and orders the destruction of industrial sites and infrastructure in embattled areas. Only a few fanatical Nazis comply. The British and Americans successfully cross the Rhine. It’s the turning point on the Western Front. The Red Army conquers the ‘fortresses’ of Poznań and Königsberg. Their next objective is Berlin.
April 16, 1945. The Red Army begins its Berlin offensive. The generals are willing to incur heavy losses. On the Western Front, the first concentration camps have been liberated by British and US forces. They discovered emaciated prisoners and mounds of corpses. Hundreds of thousands of Wehrmacht soldiers surrender. Churchill doesn’t want to leave Berlin to Stalin, but Eisenhower has other concerns. He is afraid of German units forming a national redoubt in the Alps. Hitler finally realizes that the war is a lost cause. Only Goebbels and his family remain in the Führer’s bunker. Hitler and his wife Eva Braun commit suicide on April 30. Nor do the Goebbels family survive the downfall. It is left to administrators under Grand Admiral Doenitz to declare unconditional surrender. On May 8, the Second World War comes to an end in Europe.
The final act of the Second World War is its most costly episode. More than one millions German soldiers die in 1945 alone. Before peace comes in May, liberators and the liberated alike must suffer...
The final act of the Second World War is its most costly episode. More than one millions German soldiers die in 1945 alone. Before peace comes in May, liberators and the liberated alike must suffer...
