On April 22, 1945, the Soviet Army begins the final offensive against Berlin. Germany had been surrounded by the Soviets from the east and by the Americans and British from the west.” A few days ago, we heard gunshots in the distance. That’s why we prepare for any eventuality. My dad set up a box to store groceries. All the bottles were filled with boiled water and kept in the basement.” This is how Renate Scholz, then 9, described the last days of the Second World War. Every night she stopped by the bomb shelter, carrying her school briefcase, her favorite doll, leather and rubber shoes, two overcoats and underwear.
His sister, Helga, 13, described the week of fighting in Berlin this way: “It was Sunday, we were having lunch, when we heard a deafening noise. The noise became more and more loud. The earth was felt to be attracted by a monstrous force. Then the violent boom of an explosion shattered the window panes and you couldn’t see anything else, there was so much dust. My sister sought protection from her mother. In fear, I hid under the table. When the dust settled, we saw that a bomb had hit the house next door. While my parents nailed down the windows, we made our way to the basement.”
Chaos in the German capital
This was the routine of the last days of the war in the capital of the Deutsche Reich, Berlin. People spent most of their time in the bomb shelters. Every night, the bombings were repeated, burning houses and buildings, destroying everything. The roads were littered with rubble, which was then used to build anti-tank barriers. The children were excused from classes. In Berlin, chaos reigned.
Renate and Helga remember that the only joy was to see that the house they lived in was still standing, even though the windows were nailed down. Regime-controlled radio stations continued to hammer out Nazi propaganda, even when many Germans no longer believed in Hitler. They reported that the “Führer” himself led the defense of the capital and that “this fact in itself already gave a unique character to the fight for Berlin”.
the final siege
The two sisters tell of the joy with which they received the news from their father that the war was over and that Hitler was dead. Although they had no idea what the end of the war meant, they simply wished that “everything would get better”, they say. Renate Scholz says that, little by little, she regained hope. Even the fear of the Soviets, which was ubiquitous, disappeared. A few days later, soldiers from the Soviet Union came to live on Helga and Renate’s street.
The final siege of the Nazis had begun on June 6, 1944 – on the so-called “D-Day” – when 55,000 American, British and Canadian soldiers landed on the beaches of Normandy, northeast France, in the largest naval air operation in history. Hitler continued fighting even as the Allies crossed the prewar German border on 12 September. The dictator remained unyielding until he lost Berlin, where he committed suicide on April 30, 1945. On the following May 7, Germany surrendered unconditionally.
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