Summary
Eyewitness accounts of the fall of Nazi Germany and the end of the Second World War in Europe. Using unique interviews from the BBC's archives we bring you men and women who fought in the battle for Berlin, and some of those who were with Hitler in his final days. We present the story of a German woman who survived the start of Soviet occupation, and we meet the historian whose 1995 exhibition challenged Germans' view of the war. Plus the sounds of VE Day in London, 8th May 1945, as reported by the BBC at the time. Putting it all into context, presenter Max Pearson talks to Dr Mary Fulbrook, Professor of German History at University College London and author of the award winning book "Reckonings" about the aftermath of the war and the quest for justice.
(Photo by ullstein bild via Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the History Hour Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Max Pearson, |
| 0:04.6 | the past brought to life by those who were there. |
| 0:07.1 | And this week we've got a special edition remembering the end of the Second World War in Europe |
| 0:11.5 | 75 years ago, including eyewitness accounts of the Battle for Berlin. |
| 0:17.0 | Every street was blocked by barricades. |
| 0:21.0 | At the end of every street, the Germans had put a gun position and they fired |
| 0:25.7 | at us at point blank range as we advanced down the street. |
| 0:29.8 | We'll go inside Hitler's bunker in the final days. |
| 0:33.0 | Hitler in those last weeks made a pitiful appearance. |
| 0:38.0 | He was shaking and he was bent and his closes were dirty. |
| 0:44.0 | Plus scores settled the Soviet occupation of Berlin. |
| 0:48.0 | They plundered, they plundered also in other houses, not only in ours, everything that had been a horror story seems to be true. |
| 0:58.0 | Also guilt and remembrance in post-war Germany and the sounds of Veee day in London. |
| 1:04.0 | Everywhere it's an absolute mad scene of hats being flung into the air, |
| 1:09.0 | children lifted on the parents' backs, flags flung into the air, waving hands, a great flutter of waving hands |
| 1:15.4 | from hundreds of thousands of people. |
| 1:17.7 | That's all coming up in this podcast, during which you're going to hear first-hand accounts |
| 1:21.1 | of some of the most dramatic and in some cases most disturbing events of the 20th century. |
| 1:26.0 | By early 1945, Nazi Germany was collapsing, caught in a vice. |
| 1:30.0 | Soviet forces advanced from the east, while American and British-led allies came from the West. |
| 1:35.6 | Alex Last has assembled eyewitness accounts from some of the men and women who fought in the |
| 1:40.4 | final battle that led to Germany's surrender. In April 1945 in the last great offensive to end the war a huge Soviet army |
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