Berlin's last resistance: heroic escapes and fatal fights in 1945

Berlin's last resistance: heroic escapes and fatal fights in 1945

Mitte, Deutschland - On April 23, 1945, the city center of Berlin was in the state of emergency. Hitler's territory had shrunk to a depressing minimum of only 80 square kilometers. While hundreds of thousands of German soldiers and civilians expected the unstoppable end of the war, the city was firmly under control of brutal fights. The city center was officially closed at 12 noon, and only locals were allowed to leave the city. The flight was a challenge for many because important main roads of barricades were blocked. The journalist Theo Findahl, who had lived in Berlin since 1939, managed to flee to Dahlem, where he and his friends in a garden about the rumors circulated in Berlin. [Welt] reports that on April 16, 1945, the Red Army began the storm on Berlin with 2.5 million soldiers.

After only three days of bitter battles, the last German front line collapsed on the Seelower heights. On April 20, Hitler's 56th birthday, the Soviet artillery opened the fire on the government district. The first tanks reached the city limits on April 21, while the districts of the city were gradually conquered - Hohenschönhausen fell on April 23, Reinickendorf and Spandau on April 24, Zehlendorf on April 25th.

The situation in the city

The fights increasingly concentrated on large crossings and bridges. For many Germans, including Jews such as Siegmund Weltlinger and Hans Rosenthal, the hiding game ended when the danger of deportation seemed to get past. On April 27, Hitler's area of ​​land was only a tenth of the Berlin city area, and millions of people were looking for protection in bunkers and air -raid shellers. German resistance was weak; Many soldiers faced the election between captivity and death, while the Red Army advanced to the center of Berlin unstoppably. According to the [Süddeutsche Zeitung], the Wehrmacht was already significantly weakened, and the NSDAP refused to accept a surrender.

The last contents of the Wehrmacht did everything possible to stop the Soviet advance. The desperate location was shown in the mobilized population that was used for the construction of trenches and shelves. On April 30, the surviving leadership around Hitler, Joseph Goebbels and Martin Bormann kissed the reality of the approaching defeat, while the command force was supposed to draw a brutal line by Hitler's suicide on the same day. On April 30th, the Red Army Lasts had the flag over the Reichstag, two days later, on May 2, the last Wehrmacht associations in Berlin surrendered. [DHM] adds that the unconditional surrender was signed on May 8th.

The effects

The fights for Berlin demanded terrible lives. It is estimated that at least 80,000 Soviet and around 100,000 German soldiers and civilians died. In a stressful climate of fear and hopelessness, the citizens of the city turned to unsuccessful perseverance slogans, while reality continuously took its course on the streets of Berlin. Hitler's optimistic promise from the "final victory" became increasingly unbelievable, especially in the last few weeks of the war.

On April 25, 1945, a guide order prompted the ruthless shootings of civilians by the Waffen-SS commands. In the middle of this dark atmosphere, the last resistance of the German Army seemed unstoppable in view of the targeted offensive of the Red Army. May 8, 1945 finally marked the official end of the war in Europe and heralded a new era.