Dramatic Color Footage Shows a Bombed-Out Berlin a Month After Germany’s WWII Defeat (1945)

From Kro­nos Media comes a pret­ty astound­ing mon­tage of video show­ing Berlin in July 1945 — just two months after the Nazis lost The Bat­tle of Berlin and Hitler com­mit­ted sui­cide, and a month after the allies signed the Dec­la­ra­tion Regard­ing the Defeat of Ger­many and the Assump­tion of Supreme Author­i­ty by Allied Pow­ers. 

The 70-year old footage shows a city in sham­bles. You see the wound­ed, and build­ings reduced to piles of rub­ble. The Reich­stag makes an appear­ance, as does the worn-out Bran­den­burg Gate, through which res­i­dents passed from British-con­trolled Berlin to Sovi­et-con­trolled Berlin. And most­ly you see every­day peo­ple try­ing to get on with their lives. Most chill­ing is the final scene, where an aer­i­al shot car­ries you over miles and miles of des­o­la­tion. To see Berlin dur­ing an ear­li­er, cer­tain­ly hap­pi­er time, vis­it our 2013 post: Berlin Street Scenes Beau­ti­ful­ly Caught on Film Between 1900 and 1914.

via Devour

Relat­ed Con­tent

Watch World War II Rage Across Europe in a 7 Minute Time-Lapse Film: Every Day From 1939 to 1945

The Fin­land Wartime Pho­to Archive: 160,000 Images From World War II Now Online

22-Year-Old P.O.W. Kurt Von­negut Writes Home from World War II: “I’ll Be Damned If It Was Worth It”

Down­load 78 Free Online His­to­ry Cours­es: From Ancient Greece to The Mod­ern World