Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
minor successes and several failed attempts on Hitler's life were made, most notably the
July Bomb Plot
(see p.100). But resistance was piecemeal and included assistance given
to
Jews
to help them evade being rounded up onto trains bound for concentration
camps, as part of the Nazi “
Final Solution
” to the Jewish question as decided in a villa
beside Berlin's Wannsee (see p.257).
The fall of Berlin
Enjoy the war while you can! The peace is going to be terrible…
Berlin joke shortly before the fall of the city.
By autumn 1944, it was obvious to all but the most fanatical Nazis that the end was
approaching fast. Even so, Hitler would hear no talk of surrender or negotiation. But
by January 1945, distance between the Allied forces was narrowing inexorably and on
January 27, Soviet forces crossed the Oder 160km from Berlin. Only Hitler now really
believed there was any hope for Germany. he Nazis threw all they could at the eastern
front and mobilized the Volkssturm, an ill-equipped home guard of old men, boys and
cripples. hirteen- and fourteen-year-old members of the
Hitler Youth
were briefly
trained in the art of using the Panzerfaust bazooka, then sent into the fray against tanks
and battle-hardened infantrymen. As thousands died at the front to buy a little time for
the doomed Nazi regime, life in Berlin became a nightmare. he city was choked with
refugees and terrified of the approaching Russians; it was bombed day and night, and
the flash of Soviet artillery could be seen on the horizon.
Behind the lines,
flying court martials
picked up soldiers and executed anyone suspected
of “desertion” or “cowardice in the face of the enemy”. On February 1, 1945, Berlin was
declared
Vertedigungsbereich
(a “zone of defence”) - to be defended to the last man and
the last bullet. he civilian population - women, children and forced labourers - were set
to work building tank traps and barricades; stretches of the U- and S-Bahn formed part
of the fortifications. Goebbels trumpeted a “
fortress Berlin
”, while Hitler planned the
deployment of phantom armies, which existed on battle charts, but hardly at all in reality.
As Berlin frantically prepared to defend itself, the Russians consolidated their
strength. On April 16, at 5am Moscow time, the
Soviet offensive
began with a massive
bombardment lasting 25 minutes. When the artillery fell silent, 143 searchlights spaced
200m apart along the entire front were switched on to dazzle the enemy as the Russians
began their advance. hree army groups totalling over 1.5 million men moved forward
under marshals Zhukov, Konev and Rokossovsky - and there was little the vastly
outnumbered Germans could do to halt them. By April 20 - Hitler's 56th birthday
(celebrated with tea and cakes in the
Führerbunker
) - the Red Army was on the edge
of Berlin. he next day the city centre came within range of their guns, and several
people queuing outside the Karstadt department store on Hermannplatz were killed by
shells. On April 23, Soviet troops were in the Weissensee district, just a few kilometres
east of the centre.
Hitler's birthday party was the last time the Nazi hierarchy assembled before going -
or staying - to meet their respective fates. he dictator and his partner Eva Braun chose
to remain in Berlin, and Goebbels elected to join them in the
Führerbunker
with his
family. It was a dank, stuffy complex of reinforced concrete cells beneath the garden of
the Reich Chancellery. Here Hitler brooded over Speer's architectural models of
1938-45
1939
Thousands of Jews (and other minorities) living in Berlin are
sent to death camps.
World War II begins.
