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| 1945: Liberation and Rebuilding |
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pg. 614 |
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With a bronze bust of Adolf Hitler tucked under his arm, a Soviet soldier celebrates the taking of the Berlin Reich Chancellery building. The last German forces, mostly old men and young boys of the Hitler Youth, could do little to hold back the vast Soviet Army. Berlin fell on May 2, and on May 7, at a schoolhouse near Reims, France, the German forces unconditionally surrendered. Nearly six years of European war--and death and devastation without parallel in history--had ended.
Photo: Suddeutscher Verlag Bilderdienst
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Celebrating their hard-fought victory, a soldier raises a Soviet flag from the roof of the Reich Chancellery, the seat of Nazi power, now occupied by the Soviet Army. Under the leadership of war-hardened Generals Zhukov and Konev, the Soviet Army swept into the city. Frightened citizens of Berlin, fearing retribution, sought to flee the devastated capital.
Photo: Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz
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April 29, 1945: The Neuengamme, Germany, concentration camp is liberated by Britain's Royal Army. Very few inmates remain alive.
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April 29, 1945: 123 SS guards captured at the Dachau, Germany, concentration camp are summarily executed by outraged American troops.
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April 30, 1945: Hitler and his bride, Eva Braun, commit suicide in Hitler's bunker below Berlin.
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April 30, 1945: Hitler's valet and other intimates ascended with the bodies to the Chancellery garden. The corpses were doused with gas and set ablaze.
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April 30, 1945: Allied troops capture Munich, Germany.
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April 30, 1945: The Soviet Army captures the Reichstag building in Berlin.
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April 30, 1945: Soviet troops liberate the Ravensbrück, Germany, camp, where about 2000 inmates remain alive. In two years, 30,000 Jews and non-Jews, most of them women and children, have died there.
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| 1945: Liberation and Rebuilding |
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pg. 614 |
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The Holocaust Chronicle
© 2009 Publications International, Ltd.
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