The Fall of Berlin

In January 1945 the Red Army stood less than 100 kilometers from the Oder River, which Hitler had designated as the line where the Russians were to be stopped. A few months later the battle raged along the riverbank. Once the German forces had been cleared from the path, the assault on Berlin could begin. German cities fell into ruins, their inhabitants starved, and the once-powerful armies were forced into retreat. The war was lost, and nothing could change that.

Hitler refused to acknowledge defeat. He alternated between violent fits of rage and irrational fantasies that the Third Reich could still be saved if every German fought with the same conviction as he did. For that reason he sent children, young people and the elderly into battles that could not be won.

The price of his madness was high. Just as the Germans had previously slaughtered their way through the Soviet Union, they now had to endure the Red Army's revenge.

For twelve years Adolf Hitler had presented himself as the infallible Führer of the Third Reich. If not before, then by the spring of 1945 every German should have understood that they had once voted a madman into power. Germany's cities lay in ruins, its inhabitants were starving, and its once mighty armies were fleeing. The war had been lost and there was no way to reverse the course of events.

Although most people knew it was only a matter of time, Hitler refused to accept defeat. In his bunker in Berlin, the disillusioned Führer moved armies around on maps even though they existed only on paper. Like a man who had lost all contact with reality, he swung between choleric outbursts and childish fantasies that the Third Reich could be saved if only all Germans fought with the same conviction as he did. Thus he sent children, young people and old people to their deaths in battles Nazi Germany could not win. If Germany could not triumph, Adolf Hitler believed, its people should perish with it.

The price of his madness was high. Just as the Germans had previously slaughtered their way through the Soviet Union, they now had to suffer the Red Army's revenge.

This is the story of the fall of Nazi Germany.

"Now we want to kill the Germans. They will not get away with this," Vasily Chuikov proclaimed as his troops approached Germany.

Crossing the old 1939 border was a major moment for Soviet soldiers. The propaganda machine in Moscow had done everything it could to inflame hatred of the enemy, and when the soldiers crossed the frontier political officers had already put up posters reading: "Red Army soldier! You are now on German soil. The hour of revenge has come!"

War correspondent Vasily Grossman also noticed the special character of the moment when he reached the border at the end of January and moved into a Germany that appeared comparatively fertile and well developed:

"Twilight. It is foggy and raining. A smell of forest earth. Puddles on the road. Dark coniferous forests, meadows, farms, barns, houses with high roofs. A huge poster: 'Soldiers, here it is. The lair of the fascist beast.'"

"There is much charm in this landscape. The small but very dense forests are beautiful, as are the blue-gray asphalt roads and the cobbled roads leading into the woods. And our artillery, the self-propelled guns and the battered staff trucks filled with plundered booty move onward."

The war correspondent was not as full of hatred as soldiers who marveled that prosperous Germany, with its rich farms, had ever wanted to invade the Soviet Union. But Germany had invaded, and now, in their view, it had to bleed.

"Every step forward now has historical significance (...). Germany is burning, and for some reason it is satisfying to watch this terrible sight. Death for death, their blood for our blood - I feel no pity for these people of hatred. They were the ones who started this war," Lieutenant Vladimir Gelfand wrote in his diary as he crossed into Germany on 28 January 1945.

"We are striking and smashing the enemy as it runs back toward its lairs like a wounded animal," artilleryman Yakov Aronov wrote, accurately enough. The Wehrmacht was now a wounded animal, bleeding more heavily day by day.

The rapid Soviet advance was largely due to the fact that in many places the Red Army faced an opponent that would soon exhaust its last reserves. Late in January Zhukov triumphantly reported to the Soviet General Staff that the Germans no longer had a continuous defensive line. The Wehrmacht was bleeding along the entire front.

German defensive units were exhausted, and most experienced soldiers were either dead, wounded, or otherwise unavailable. To Soviet soldiers, German homes seemed so luxurious that they felt able to plunder them with a clear conscience.

"It is only right that we now take what they own. After all, they live in luxury - the wealth and elegance of their homes are overwhelming. And our superiors turn a blind eye to our looting - they say the Germans have been stealing from us for more than three years. I am very pleased," Lieutenant Vladimir Gelfand wrote in his diary.

"Our soldiers wanted so many things," officer Fyodor Khropaty recalled. "Clothes, watches and jewelry. Some took everything they could get. In large parts of our country living conditions were terrible. But the soldiers were also angry that such a prosperous country had invaded us at all: 'With all these riches - what did they want from us?' they said. I saw men open fire on furniture, smashing wardrobes, cupboards and mirrors with machine guns. They were furious."

"Despair and mortal fear were written on their faces, and many were only partly dressed," another soldier recalled, describing one shocked refugee he never forgot:

"A woman in a dressing gown that fluttered in the wind stumbled past with her hair hanging loose. Madness shone in her eyes. She held a coffee grinder in her hand and kept turning it without stopping. Her lips moved, but no scream could be heard."

The soldier could not leave his post to help the confused woman. Her chances of escaping the Russians were zero.

 
© SAGA Egmont. Original title: Berlins fald. Original language: Danish.

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