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The Second World War in
Europe ended on May 8, 1945.
It raged from 1939 to 1945,
involving Asia and the US as well.
After six years, large parts of
Europe and the world lay in ruins.
Around 60 million people lost their
lives, a tragically high number.
You can learn about the horrors of
this period at many memorials around
the world, including in Germany.
Which places commemorate the victims?
And which tell stories about the perpetrators?
And what became of all
the cities destroyed in the war?
Let's find out more.
Our journey begins in Berlin.
This is where the Second
World War was planned and where it
ultimately returned to.
The city still holds many reminders of the war
and the period of Nazi rule.
One such location is the Reichstag,
the seat of the German parliament.
You can still see bullet holes and
Russian inscriptions left behind
when Soviet soldiers stormed
the building in May 1945.
But this was not the Nazis headquarters.
More than a decade prior, in 1933,
Hitler dissolved parliament and
banned all democratic parties.
One of the Nazis' most important
command centers can be seen at
the Topography of Terror Documentation Center.
Several of the National Socialists
most important headquarters were once
located at this site, including
the Schutzstaffel, or SS for short,
and the secret police or Gestapo.
Here the Nazis organized many
of their cold blooded crimes.
They plotted how to eliminate
political opponents, deport Jews
and other victims to concentration camps
and organized prisoners of war and forced labourers.
We continue to Munich.
Here, too, you'll find a Nazi documentation center.
The Bavarian capital played an
important role in the emergence of
the National Socialist German
Workers' Party, the Nazi party.
It was founded here in 1920
and one year later Adolf Hitler
was elected its chairman.
He quickly organized the
party according to his own
anti-democratic, anti Semitic and racist ideology.
The Munich Documentation Centre is located
where the so-called Brown House,
the Nazi party headquarters, used to be.
An entire NS district was once built
around it, consisting of 68 buildings
with 6,000 employees.
The Second World War lasted 6 years.
At the end, many of
Germany's cities lay in ruins.
The scars of war can still be seen
today, even in places you might not
expect, like on the Museum Island in Berlin.
Here, in the Colonnade Courtyard,
you'll find traces of some of the
final battles of the war.
Or visit the Neues Museum.
It was almost completely destroyed
and only rebuilt in the early 2000s
in a way that shows some
of the war related damage.
The most famous item in the
Neues Museum is the bust of
Egyptian Queen Nefertiti.
Allied bombing devastated many
German cities, including Nuremberg,
Magdeburg, Lübeck, among others.
In Cologne, 95 percent of
the old town was destroyed.
However, miraculously, the cathedral remained
nearly intact, standing tall amid the rubble.
Today, the Cologne Cathedral is one
of the most visited sights in Germany.
From above you can see how little
of the original cityscape remains.
In the city of Dresden, people
gather every year on February 13
to observe a minute's silence
to commemorate the destruction
of their city 80 years ago,
On that fateful night in 1945,
around 1,000 British and US bombers
dropped their deadly cargo over the city
shortly before the end of the war.
An estimated 25,000 people died
and 80,000 homes were destroyed.
All that remained of the
famous Frauenkirche was a ruin.
While the center of Dresden
was rebuilt in the post-war period,
the ruins of the Frauenkirche
were preserved as a reminder
of horrors of war.
In the early 1990s reconstruction began,
financed by donations from all over the world.
Today the church shines
again in all its baroque splendor.
Inside the church, you can still see
the old tower cross that was salvaged
from the rubble.
A replica was donated by
Britain as a gesture of reconciliation.
If you want to know when and where
the Second World War came to an end
in Europe, pay a visit to the museum
Berlin-Karlshorst in the city's east.
This is where the commanders-in-chief
of the German armed forces, or Wehrmacht,
signed the unconditional
surrender of Germany on May 8, 1945,
in the presence of the four
victorious powers: the Soviet Union,
the United States, France and Britain.
In Berlin-Mitte, behind the
Brandenburg Gate, you'll find the
Soviet memorial in the Tiergarten.
It was built immediately
after the end of the war in 1945.
Around 2,500 Soviet soldiers are buried here.
The British military cemetery is located
in Berlin's Westend district.
Around 3,600 members of the
Commonwealth forces are buried here,
most of whom died in air battles over Berlin.
Memorials commemorating the victims
of the Second World War can be found
all over Germany.
The visit to a former concentration
camp is especially moving.
In Thuringia, near Weimar, was one
of the largest forced labour camps
in Germany, the
Buchenwald concentration camp.
Around 266,000 people were imprisoned here:
primarily opponents of the regime, Jewish people,
queer people and prisoners of war.
About 56,000 of them were murdered
or died as a result of the inhumane
conditions of imprisonment.
But now back to Berlin.
One of the largest Nazi memorial
sites is the Memorial to the Murdered
Jews of Europe, dedicated
to the approximately 6 million Jewish victims.
It is located near the
Brandenburg Gate and consists of
nearly 3,000 concrete slabs
arranged in a wavelike pattern.
Walk through the labyrinth and
let the impressions affect you.
Loneliness, hopelessness, feeling lost –
a powerful experience.
Right next to the Reichstag is the
memorial to the approximately 500,000
murdered Sinti and Roma.
The water basin symbolizes
the suffering and the tears shed.
We end our tour at the Kaiser Wilhelm
Memorial Church at Breitscheidtplatz.
You'll recognize it by its distinctive appearance:
the combination of the
new and old church tower.
The church was
destroyed during World War II.
In the 1960s it was given a modern new building.
But the old tower ruin
was preserved as a highly visible
memorial against war and destruction.
And as a symbol of peace and reconciliation.
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