WWII’s End in Germany: As Seen by U.S. Army Cameramen I SLICE HISTORY | FULL DOCUMENTARY DD

Germany in the spring of 1945. American troops were gradually conquering the Third Reich. US Army cameramen were at the forefront of the fighting as the GIS advanced further into the country despite the fierce resistance of the Germans. Thousands of German soldiers were still dying for Hitler’s vision of world domination.

After 12 years of Nazi rule, the country now lay in ruins. The cameraman also filmed the liberation of the victims of this war. The pictures of German atrocities went round the world. [Music] The US 7th Armor Division was advancing in the vest. about after crossing the Rine two weeks before the American troops conquered village after village in the area.

Time and again they encountered German units determined to hold out. Air force and artillery would destroy every house and every village in which resistance stirred. There was little the defenders could do to defy the enemy’s superiority. [Music] [Music] in the small village of Bordon. Only the Russian forced laborers were visibly happy about being liberated.

[Music] 1,000 Vmach soldiers were captured and herded together in neighboring Mu. They had been unable to obey their furer’s order of the 11th of March that commanded them to offer resistance and fight our enemies for as long as it takes until they tire and finally break. The civilian population looked after the prisoners of war as well as they could.

After two days on the muddy field, they were taken to an assembly camp. The US fifth infantry division marched on Hitler’s autob barn towards Frankfurt and mine on that day where they first captured the nearby Ryan mine airport. [Music] On the previous day, American units had reached Frankfurt city center.

The Vilhan Bridge was only partially damaged due to a hasty detonation by the retreating Germans. So the troops under Major General Robert W. Gro established a bridge head on its north side where they became engaged in combat with German units. An army cameraman filmed the house-to-house fighting. [Music] The German commander, Lieutenant Colonel Leler, was determined to defend the city.

If we knew that there was no support behind us, he explained to his soldiers, we ought to hoist the white flag and end this battle. But perhaps our leaders have another trump card up their sleeve. Should that be the case, then we must not face the accusation that our or my failure has prevented them from playing it. So, we will do what we have to do.

[Music] On the afternoon of the following day, American artillery shells would hit the command post of the Germans. Leler was seriously wounded and succumb to his injuries. His unit was no longer fit for action. The war in Frankfurt Amine was over. [Music] Units of the US 87th Infantry Division advanced south of the Lan River.

In the Westerald, a young woman noted in her diary, “Suddenly someone shouted, “The Americans are coming.” At 11:00 in the morning, the first American jeeps drove into our village. The village surrendered. Some 200 German soldiers had assembled in the village and were taken prisoner.

The houses were searched hastily. My cousin has 40 soldiers billeted with her. No one could have known it would happen so fast. The feeling that we are now American is indescribable, but also incomprehensible at the moment. A US Army cameraman accompanied an armored unit on the way to Vetsla. The war had arrived in the geographical center of Germany.

After their retreat, some Vermach and SS units had barricaded themselves here on the other side of the Lan River. German snipers put up a final fight. Men in civilian clothes ended the senseless fighting when they hastily hung a white flag from a tree branch. Vetsla capitulated too. Liberated slave laborers celebrated the end of Hitler’s reign of terror.

The American divisions were making an almost unhindered advance toward the north and the east of Germany. On that day, 29th of March 1945, their lines pushed forward up to 100 km. Just outside Vetsla, the GIS came across an area fenced off with barbed wire. Here, the Nazis had set up a transit camp for Allied prisoners of war.

Crews of shot down bombers were transported here to be interrogated. Some 90,000 American airmen had been captured in the entire Reich. Those who were fortunate enough to come under Lufafa custody were safe. For many pilots whose planes had gone down had been lynched by angry mobs. According to prisoner reports, the food rations in the Dulag Luft camp were sufficient.

The Red Cross kept sending food parcels. [Music] The German guards did not always treat the Allied prisoners as cordy as the images from Vetsla suggest. Even the smallest violations of camp regulations were punished harshly. [Music] Now the guards became the prisoners. [Music] Dulag Luft was evacuated on the same day.

The liberated pilots were free to return home. Every obstacle blocking the advance of the troops was immediately cleared by the Sherman tanks. Still, German units were often forced by their commanders to offer resistance to the superiority of the US Army. Those soldiers who wanted to back away from the bloodbath faced on the spot execution. The commander-in-chief south, General Otto Vuler, had handed out unambiguous instructions to his soldiers on the previous day.

I’ve noticed again that an intolerable number of stragglers have been roaming in the areas of retreat. Stragglers are in most cases cowards and sherkers and thus war criminals. They do not deserve our pity because they let their comrades bear the weight of the battle alone. Those who become separated from their units during battle are to report immediately to the next fighting unit.

Finding it is not difficult. The noise of the battle is the safest sign to follow. [Music] American soldiers during the Easter service in the occupied town of Limborg on the Lan River. A Catholic chaplain reads the Holy Mass with the bonnet of a military vehicle serving as the altar. Cameraman Butterfield captured the brief contemplative ceremony.

In nearby Vestald, a young woman noted, “The feeling that we are now under American command is beyond description. Today is Easter Sunday. It was a beautiful and moving resurrection ceremony this morning. We could heave a sigh of relief and sing our hallelujah. The shackles have finally fallen from us. We’re free now.

” and she added, “This time they will drive militarism and national socialism out of our midst, and they will be thorough. Not one iota of what was our world until now will be left standing.” A German soldier wrote to his family on that 1st of April. “This is one of the saddest eers in history for us Germans.

The enemy has penetrated deep into our country, both in the east and the west. Yet the war will only be lost when we give ourselves up. Providence has sent us the furer, and it will not let all the terrible sacrifices we have made be in vain. The US 6th armored division continued to advance into Theia.

Army cameraman Sawyer filmed their onslaught near the town of Muhoen. What the people here couldn’t know was that the Americans would only stay for a few months. As of the 1st of July 1945, Theia became part of the Soviet occupied zone. [Music] A German sergeant wrote in his diary, “The political press and radio coverage endeavors to convince us that the relations between the USA and Britain on the one hand and the USSR on the other are heading for an imminent crisis.

They want to create the impression that it’s just a matter of days before the differences between them come to a head and an incurable breach is created.” and he continued, “It’s obvious that the existing differences are shamelessly and calculatedly exploited these days. An appeal recently issued by the head of the party, Chancellory, Borman, to all Gowlighters, district administrators, and other organization leaders, demands them to stand or fall.

” It seems to me that the emphasis is clearly on the latter. [Music] The American army commanders were in disagreement about the strategy to be followed. Some were determined to reach Berlin before the Red Army. However, US commanderin-chief Eisenhower believed that this move could cost the lives of another 100,000 US soldiers.

Over 10,000 GIS had fallen in March alone. Eisenhower finally directed the bulk of his army towards the south, wanting to destroy the feared Alpine fortress, which would soon prove to be an illusion. [Music] Units of the US 14th Armored Division reached the town of Gmundon at the confluence of the Zala and Maine rivers. The GIs crossed the Zala on assault boats.

Armory cameraman Walter Reesemble was with them at the forefront. Gmundon lay exactly on the supply line of the Germans for the contested front of the main river. So the town was defended by strong forces which had to be quelled in a bloody house-to-house fight. Many German and American soldiers lost their lives here.

The cameramen were not allowed to film dead GIS. [Music] The Americans had taken control of the center of Gimmun on the previous evening. The German defending forces had left the town. Still, the US soldiers searched every single building for snipers. [Music] At first, they found the few remaining town inhabitants.

They’d been hiding in air raid shelters and bunkers for weeks. Then, eventually, the last defending soldiers surrendered, too. [Music] The air force had run several air raids on Gmundon in order to break the German resistance. Now the supplies rolled again through the burning town. [Music] A group of gis tried to save from the flames what remained of the historic old part of town.

But the centuries old half-timbered houses burnt like tinder. [Music] Those who survived had to recover the bodies of the dead and were able to salvage some of their belongings from the ruins. [Music] A citizen of Gimmun later recollected how he felt on the day the town was taken by the Americans. We were naturally relieved, but it was difficult to get accustomed to the idea that these terrible events had suddenly come to an end.

[Music] Once the through roads have been cleared of debris, an armored unit was sent to a special operation upon orders from the highest command. Just a few kilometers outside of Kamundon was the Hamillberg prison camp. US Army Commander General George S. Patton had a special interest in it. He believed that a relative of his was among the 4,000 prisoners of war.

Left in the camp were a mere 75 American soldiers. The rest of them had been taken away after a US Army unit on a special mission had reached Helborg 10 days before and was annihilated by the Germans. Most of the prisoners who were now liberated were Yugoslavs. At the end, the GIs managed to find the person they were searching for, General Patton’s son-in-law, Colonel John Waters.

[Music] [Music] [Music] At the northern front, the US first army under Lieutenant General Courtney Hodges fought its way towards the Rur following an established course of action. Any resistance was broken from the air before the ground troops would engage. These are images from Schmalenburg in the Zhaan region.

[Music] Only about 40 km away, 320,000 German soldiers, more than in Stalingrad, had been surrounded on all sides in the rur for one week. Here in Schmelenburg, only a handful of privates were captured on that 8th of April. [Music] Further northeast, soldiers of the US 83rd Infantry Division reached the Holtzen concentration camp.

Just a few prisoners were left in it. Hundreds of them have been taken away on death marches only days before. Cameraman Kia captured the first images of the victims of the Nazi regime since the US Army had begun its advance in the West. And they wouldn’t be the last [Music] Holtzen had been built as an outcamp of the Bhanvite concentration camp.

The Russian, Polish, and Jewish prisoners had to mine bit in a nearby pit under inhuman conditions. The tunnels were to be converted to a bomb-proof manufacturing plant for the armaments industry. The factory was never put into operation. [Music] US troops continued their advance in Thoringia toward the Alba River.

US Army cameramen embedded in the units filmed the war in Germany, but the Third Reich refused to capitulate. Every village and every city had to be defended and held by all means, demanded the Reichkes furer of the SS Henrik Himmler. However, those determined to hold out could do little against the military superiority of the Allies.

[Music] On that day, the 10th of April 1945, the GIS arrested the first major figure of Nazi Germany, the former deputy chancellor France von Parbin. He had helped Hitler to come to power in 1933 and had fallen in disgrace later. Recently, he had lived with his family under house arrest in the Westfailian town of Vel.

During the cross-examination with Major General Harry Twaddle, the Nazi politician questioned the validity of his arrest. He argued that he had never held a military position and was over 65 years of age. Half a year later, Fon was placed on trial in Nuremberg and was released on appeal in 1949. White flags have been fluttering in the wind since 6:00 in the morning in the northern Bavarian city of Cobberg as an indication of the population’s eagerness to surrender.

American units had taken positions just outside the city for nearly 24 hours. Whether there really was another battle with German snipers or whether the US Army cameraman had these scenes reenacted is unclear. At 10:00 in the morning, the city’s senior civil servant, Zhawatag, signed the capitulation.

Fighting came to an end. Proclamation number one was issued by US commander-in-chief Eisenhower and posted in the city center. We come as a victorious army, but not as oppressors in the German territory which is occupied by the armed forces under my supreme command. We will eliminate national socialism and German militarism, abolish the national socialist German Workers Party and do away with the cruel and unjust laws and institutions established by the NSDAP.

[Music] When the soldiers of the US 104th Infantry Division captured the city of Nordous and near the Hearts Mountains on that 11th of April, they weren’t yet aware of how close they were to uncovering the dreadful truth about the atrocities committed by the Germans. In the ruins of Nordhausen, soldiers of the renowned Timberwolf Division took a break from fighting.

For the time being, they were in the mood for jokes with some Polish girls, liberated slave laborers. [Music] On that same day, American soldiers on the southern outskirts of the city reached the ruins of the Bular barracks, which had been heavily damaged during a British air raid. The GIS found several hundred emaciated concentration camp prisoners and slave laborers from the middle Baldora camp who had been toiling in the tunnels of nearby Kornstein for Hitler’s miracle weapons.

The sick and the weak were brought to the Bulka barracks to die. The SS guards had run away after the air raid and abandoned the prisoners to their fate. The liberators found over 2,000 decaying bodies. [Music] The US Army immediately set up a military hospital in the direct vicinity and requested additional medical units to relieve the suffering prisoners.

[Music] There are no words to describe that stench. One of the GIs said later, “Many of our guys were tough and were battleh hardened after they had landed in Normandy. But that experience shocked us to the core and made everyone physically sick. For many of the prisoners, help arrived too late.

They died from hunger and exhaustion. On the following day, citizens of Nhausen were ordered by the Americans to lay out the bodies of the victims. [Music] The images from Nhausen captured by the US Army cameramen were seen around the world. They became symbols of the Nazi regime of horror. For many GIS, the war now reached a new level.

One of them remembered at a later point. Most of us had nothing personal against the Germans. We thought that many of the stories we’d read in newspapers or heard were fabrications or at least exaggerated. What the war was actually about only became clear when we entered Nord Housen. [Music] South of Yaina, tanks and soldiers of the US 89th Infantry Division pushed forward on that day.

Cameraman Caliendo filmed some remarkable scenes here. American journalist Martha Gllhorn was in the occupied part of Germany as a war correspondent during those days. She reported on the rapid adaptability of the Germans. No one is a Nazi. No one has ever been one. Maybe there were a few Nazis in the next village.

And yes, the city 20 km away was a real hotbed of national socialism. We were fed up with this government, they say, and we welcome the Americans. We have no reason to be frightened. We have done nothing wrong. We are not Nazis. [Music] In most places, the spell of the dictator was gradually broken. More and more Germans now openly showed their delight about the arrival of the Americans.

Women from Drosundorf gave the GIS eggs. The task force R of the US 104th Infantry Division reached the outskirts of Hala on that 14th of April. The advance of the Timberwolf Division was halted when German soldiers opened fire. [Music] After a brief engagement by Sherman tanks, the road was clear again. The Germans surrendered.

[Music] In order to prevent another senseless massacre as well as the destruction of their city, Hala citizens under the leadership of the legendary Count Felix Luknner went out to meet the Americans with white flags and ensured that Hala was not shelled. The local SS commander had yelled after them, “This will cost you your heads.

” The entry into Hala occurred without any major incidents after the agreement. So, the GIs of Task Force K had time to pose one more time for Cameraman Miller. The Americans took total control of Hala on the following day. Whether such skirmishes actually took place in the city remains unclear. [Music] The Thurinkian city of Gira capitulated on that 14th of April.

Soldiers of the German 7th Army were taken prisoner. [Music] [Music] Some people took advantage of the chaotic conditions and looted provisions. A young woman wrote on that day, “A revolting fight over provisions set in immediately. The city is like Babylon, a mixture of strange characters among whom the Germans are not the best.

It seems that peace and quiet will never return. What helps is this daily writing. One can withdraw into it and oppose the absurdity of these weeks with the small everyday things of life. On that same day, US Army cameraman down shot the first footage of Bhimvald concentration camp near Vimar. Most of the SS guards had fled 3 days before.

The prisoners had overcome the remaining thugs and handed the camp over to the advancing US units. The GIS were shocked by the conditions in the enormous camp complex. The 21,000 prisoners had had no bread for 3 days. At least 5,000 of the survivors were in a critical condition, and every day over 200 prisoners were dying from malnutrition and typhoid fever.

The notes of the camp doctor revealed that in the 8-year-old history of Bhanvald, 32,75 prisoners had died, not counting those who had been executed. The next day, US correspondent Edward Ar Muro would report on the radio. As I walked along the prisoner’s blocks, the men who were too weak to stand began to applaud.

It sounded as if it were babies trying to clap their hands. That’s how weak they were. I can’t find words to describe what I saw. There are many fatalities in a war, but these men in the camp were living dead. In contrast, the Germans were wellfed and well-dressed. US Army Commander George S. Patton ordered 1,000 citizens of Vimar to visit Bhanvald camp.

On the 10 km long walk up to the etersburg, many of them seemed unaware of what lay in store for them. The guided tour across the camp had been meticulously organized by the Americans. First, the citizens of VHimar were presented with evidence of the barbarity. shrunken heads and tattooed pieces of skin.

Skillfully prepared souvenirs from an SS production plant. Then they were taken to the crerematorium where the corpses have been piled up. A prisoner described the people’s reactions in a letter to his sister. What they saw were just humble remains of the reality we had experienced. But it was enough for some people to faint. “We didn’t know,” they cried out desperately.

“All of a sudden, and after years of regarding and treating us as criminals, they were faced with the certainty of an indelible guilt.” In a written report, US General Eric F. Wood questioned the educational effects of this action. After the inspection, many citizens had the impedance to claim that they had never heard of this camp, although it was in their direct vicinity.

50,000 German soldiers were herded together in the Misenheim prisoner of war camp near Andak. Thousands more were brought in every day as entire Vermat units laid down their arms and were transported to the meadows on the banks of the Rine. Cameraman Owens was there and filmed Hitler’s boy soldiers. At the beginning of April, the Furer had had the 1928 to 29 age group drafted.

Many 16-year-old boys lost their lives for the collapsing Third Reich. The unusually hot spring sun and insufficient water supplies took their toll on the prisoners. On the previous day, the Allied expedition forces had issued a preliminary assessment of the situation. From all viewpoints, it’s only a matter of time before organized resistance in Nazi Germany will break down completely.

Nothing is now able to rectify the errors made by Hitler and his officials any longer in trying to prolong the war or to turn the situation in their favor. The abilities of the enemy are indeed zero. Many of the prisoners of war were taken to Namur in Belgium in freight wagons. They were the fortunate ones.

In the months to follow, thousands of German soldiers would die on the Ryan Meadows due to supply problems. [Music] The American troops had reached Leipzy where they encountered a remarkable willingness to surrender from the population. Members of the local resistance have been distributing leaflets for days with mottos such as end the senseless war of the Nazis and start waving the white flags.

The people were told to comply absolutely with the instructions of the occupying authorities. Nevertheless, there were fanatics here, too. A 16-year-old boy from the Hitler youth managed to knock out a Sherman tank with a bazooka. Its crew died and the boy was killed by the next tank. [Music] Soldiers of the US 69th Infantry Division combed through the railway station in Leipzig on that 19th of April.

The German forces defending it had surrendered on the previous evening. Yet there could still be individual fighters hiding in one of the largest railway stations in Europe. Army cameraman Smith captured these scenes. Fighting was still going on in parts of the city. After the German military governor, Colonel Fonert, was forced to abandon the railway station and the town hall to the Americans, he barricaded himself with 300 followers in the Battle of the Nation’s monument on the outskirts of the city.

Liberated French prisoners of war were cheering when Major General Fronzigazar was taken prisoner by the Americans. He had been removed from his post as the military governor of Leipzig just a few days before his arrest due to his hesitant attitude. The occupation troops appealed to the population over a PA system to remain calm.

By 2:00 in the morning, the entire city would be in the hands of the Americans. In Leipig’s town hall, the US soldiers made a gruesome discovery. The city’s mayor, Fryberg, had committed suicide together with his wife and daughter. His deputy, the city treasurer, Dr. Lisso, had followed his fate. And also, the head of the local NSDAP, Albert Vidote, had put an end to his life on the Furer’s 56th birthday.

[Music] Yet this discovery was insignificant compared with the frightful scenes the US soldiers faced in the Leipik suburb of Techla. The rubble of a shack in the forced labor camp was smoldering. Horribly mutilated corpses lay everywhere. Evidently, the German security guards had driven over 300 prisoners into the shack, poured petrol over it, and then set it a light before they ran off.

Those who managed to escape the flames were killed by the bullets of the retreating guards. [Music] The US Army cameraman captured every detail. These images would be used as evidence later in trials against the German war criminals. On the same day, tanks of the US 7th Army reached the center of Nuremberg. Hitler personally had ordered that the

city of the Nazi party rallies be defended to the last man standing. Local Gowiter Carl Holtz was a fanatical follower of the furer and was determined to fulfill his wish. So the defense commissioner of Nuremberg personally led raiding patrols against the American tanks. The US troops advanced cautiously as small German units kept engaging them in skirmishes.

Goltz was later found dead in a cellar. [Music] Nuremberg’s historic old town was a heap of ruins. 90% of all buildings have been destroyed. It’s unclear how many German soldiers lost their lives for their furer on the day of his birthday. The Americans also suffered losses. [Music] [Music] On the previous evening, propaganda

minister Yseph Gerbles had held his last radio address in Berlin. The hour has come when we must prove ourselves. Of course, I will stay in Berlin with my assistants. My wife and children are here and will stay here, too. Our fight will be the signal for the most purposeful fight of the entire nation. The burning town of Kaioshimish Hal was captured by the Americans for the second time on the 21st of April.

10 days prior to that, the 13th SS Corps had succeeded in retaking it. The few hundred remaining inhabitants didn’t seem too impressed by the return of the German forces. A local teacher wrote in her diary, “None of the people standing on the side of the road are happy about our compatriots or about the fact that we’re German again.

They’re thinking they’ll trigger off Allied air raids again, and I wish it was over.” Fascinated, the US Army cameraman filmed this scene with the 82-year-old Katherine Marie Copenhofer wandering alone among the ruins of Kaisim. According to the plan of US Army Commander George S. Patton, the final act was to begin in the Swayabian town of Dillingan on that day.

The crossing of the seventh army over the Danube. The US 12th armored division encountered resistance. The German commander-in-chief West Field Marshal Albert Kessler was determined to halt the enemy’s advance here. He informed General Riton EP who was willing to capitulate that he Kessler had the better overview and that he also had orders to obey.

Three days later, however, the Danu would no longer present an obstacle to the Americans. Adolf Hitler had a nervous breakdown in the bunker under the Rice Chancellory in Berlin on that 22nd of April. The Furer told his shocked generals that the war was lost and that he would commit suicide. From that moment on, coherent conduct of the war by the Vermat no longer existed.

[Music] The bridge over the Danube fell into the hands of the Allies intact. The GIS removed several 500lb bombs which would have destroyed the bridge had they been detonated. The Americans established the bridge head on the other side. In Kitingan near Vertzborg, SS man Richard Yarotsik was led to his execution at dawn.

The town had been in American hands for 2 weeks now. Yarodsik had tried to get to a bridge over the mine in civilian clothes with the intention of blowing it up. He was sumearily caught marshaled as a spy and put before a firing squad. [Music] A military doctor confirmed his death. In Grimmer, east of Leipzig, Army cameraman Hutton filmed soldiers and civilians crossing the small Moulder River on that 23rd of April.

The no man’s land between the Ela and Moulder Rivers was crowded with former slave laborers liberated allied PS and citizens who had fled from besieged towns. Many Vermax soldiers had obviously run away to avoid the approaching Soviets. They thought it better to be taken prisoner by the Americans. Among these were also soldiers from General Vassov’s Ksac army.

They had gone to war on the side of Hitler and were now dreading Stalin’s revenge. The Red Army had reached the Ela River, barely 40 km away. [Music] [Music] Downstream in the town of Dunenburg in Lower Saxony, soldiers of the US Fifth Armor Division discovered some mysterious production sheds in a remote forest. A special model of the V1 missile had

been built here. In actual fact, Hitler’s miracle weapon was unmanned and had been primarily used against cities in the south of England since the summer of 1944. The technicians here had obviously been converting them to be used for kamicazi attacks by fearless pilots. They would steer the otherwise rather inaccurate V1s into undamaged bridges or advancing enemy units.

The curious GIS inspected the peculiar structure which was never used for its intended purpose. [Music] [Music] US Major General Emile F. Reinhardt crossed the Ela in a Russian rowboat to take part in an historic event. A meeting of the American and the Soviet armed forces was staged near Togal as a symbol of the victory against Nazi Germany.

[Music] Soviet cameramen were also present in order to film Reinhardt’s meeting with Major General Vladimir Russov. However, American reporters have been faster. On the previous day, a small American reconnaissance patrol had run into Red Army soldiers. The encounter was captured on film. US President Harry Truman, who had taken over office from Franklin D.

Roosevelt after the latter’s death on the 12th of April would solemnly declare on the following day, “The meeting of our forces in the heart of Germany is of great significance for the entire world. The last desperate hopes of Hitler and his gangster administration have now been obliterated.” Also, in that speech, Truman expressed a wish that seemed unrealistic even at the time it was voiced.

Secondly, the alliance of our armed forces is a signal to us and the entire world that the cooperation between our nations for the course of peace and freedom is an effective cooperation which can withstand the gravest difficulties of the most enormous campaign in military history and end in success. 4 days before Hitler committed suicide and 12 days before the unconditional capitulation of Nazi Germany, the post-war era had begun on the stage of world politics.