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Culture Express
  • 5/19/2025

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00:00In April 1945, Soviet director Yuli Reisman makes a film about the end of the so-called
00:18Third Reich. He has 38 Red Army cameramen at his disposal. The title of the film, Berlin.
00:29The liberation of the city by the Red Army is being documented. It begins on April 16th
00:34at the order with the battle of the Zillow Heights, 70 kilometers outside of Berlin.
00:47Sixteen days later, the city is conquered and the red flag is blowing in the wind over
00:52the Reichstag. On May 8th, Germany signs its unconditional surrender. War in Germany is
01:01over. Josef Goebbels is found dead. Adolf Hitler's fate remains unknown. Over two million
01:10people are still living in Berlin, men and women, young and old, guilty and innocent.
01:19Soon only diaries and memories, files and pictures, ashes and dust remain to tell the
01:25tales of their city.
01:49May 9th, Wednesday. We all had to show up with buckets to clear the barricades at the
01:54church. It was a lot of work and the Russians were keeping watch. We are supposed to hand
01:59in our radios or we'll be punished. And not just our radios, but cameras too. After lunch,
02:14I went to the firm with mum. Out of habit, I stupidly greeted colleagues in the yard
02:18with Heil Hitler. The Reichstag is a huge dark building, not pretty. The inside is a
02:36mess of brick and iron. In one of the city halls, there was a huge throne with a portrait
02:43of the Kaiser on the back. I had my picture taken in the chair. The walls were covered
02:50in countless writings of our victorious Russian soldiers and officers. Here, there were soldiers
02:57from Stalingrad. One from Smolensk stood here. We're in the Reichstag. Everything is okay.
03:10Next to Hitler's chancellery, next to his personal bunker, two bodies were discovered.
03:16One male, one female. The corpses are badly burnt and it is impossible to identify them
03:22without further information. We can say that the man is between 50 and 60 years old. One
03:39meter, 65 centimeters tall. The body is charred and smells of burnt meat. The glass splinters in
03:46his mouth suggest he used a thin vial. Experts removed the teeth and lower jaw. His teeth are
04:00surprisingly intact. Dr. Blaschke had a private dental practice at number 213 Kudamm. He was
04:10Hitler's personal dentist from 1932 onwards. His assistant, Käthe Heusermann, was the only person
04:16we could find there. She knew and remembered all the important details about Hitler's teeth.
04:21I held the dental bridge in my hand. I looked for irrefutable evidence. I immediately found it,
04:34took a deep breath and burst out. These are the teeth of Adolf Hitler.
04:51I went to the Russian Kommandatura. It's incredibly difficult to find someone who
04:59understands you there. They couldn't believe there were still Jews in Berlin. I managed
05:04to get permission to move back into our flat. Yesterday I went to the Jewish hospital and
05:18Schatze, the kids had been there last year but were taken away again. I was told they
05:23were taken to Auschwitz. I want to maintain my strength for all of you until you are with me.
05:28I will not surrender hope. This Friday we had our first public service in the small synagogue of the
05:41Jewish hospital. I gave the sermon but I couldn't speak much because the room was filled with crying
05:46and sobbing. Only now did the reality sink in of just how many were missing.
05:53May 13th, the town mayor Bersarin was introduced to the members of the first post-war magistrate
06:15of Berlin. The independent anti-fascist Dr. Arthur Werner was selected as mayor.
06:21In a classically Saxon accent, Ulrich explained to us,
06:28it needs a semblance of democracy. We must retain control of everything.
06:31Later Eppenbeck rushed into my room. You're supposed to write texts for my radio announcement,
06:39he tells me. We had the newest Pravda figures in front of us which we translated into news
06:44with anti-fascist democratic demeanour.
07:14We are now on Moscow time. The clocks were set two hours ahead.
07:41The first German newspaper has been published but it's difficult to get hold of a copy.
08:11Page one contains a message from Stalin, also announcements from the Soviet military command,
08:26including food rations per person per day. People in artistic professions are to receive
08:32the same amount as heavy-duty workers. 600 grams of bread, 100 grams of meat,
08:40one portion of potatoes. Also each month, 100 grams of coffee, 20 grams of tea.
08:45My housekeeper wonders whether all of this will be in the shops.
08:48Hundreds of people are queuing in Reichsstraße. A kind of camp life has emerged. Three quarters
09:03of the people waiting are sitting in chairs. Many women are knitting or mending socks.
09:08Some, like me, are reading. For lunch we had horse meat. It was very tasty.
09:20May 17th. Listened to the radio at Schöpps and went to the store at 10 a.m. A few of us girls
09:33were there today. Charlotte Henning was raped several times and Edith Gazenza five times.
09:38We all described our experiences. I'm now trying to acquire gynecological instruments to be able to
09:50perform all necessary examinations. The results for gonorrhea are horrifying. Just today I examined
09:57a 15-year-old girl who'd been infected. In the afternoon my friend Ruth came with her daughter.
10:03Four Russians. Swab inconclusive, but certainly antibiotics. This is what you protect your child
10:11from. Suddenly an order came through for all foreigners to leave Berlin. They were to leave
10:36immediately. I made the final decision to leave the city by bicycle or on foot at the
10:40repatriation committee. I was pretty much the only one. None of the French guys who were there
10:46with me agreed. In the morning, I left Berlin by bicycle. Farewell Berlin, city of misfortune and
11:03tristesse. We took the motorway towards Magdeburg by truck. Ten minutes later we had crossed the
11:09Elbe and arrived with the Americans. The loudspeakers announced, on Sunday you will be
11:15in France. I can't quite process it yet. I will only wake from this nightmare when I'm standing
11:22amongst French-speaking civilians. One afternoon someone knocked on my door. Two young Jewish girls
11:36wearing concentration camp clothing were standing there. They told me they'd just arrived from the
11:41concentration camp Stutthof with 30 other Jews. We immediately went down the street with two
11:46trolleys to take them all upstairs. When I saw Berlin for the first time, destroyed and broken,
11:58I didn't feel pity for the Germans. Only bitterness and resentment against the people
12:03caused us such unbearable suffering. They deserve it. I met a Mr. David who had walked
12:25back from Auschwitz. He told me that the kids are almost certainly still alive because they
12:30only arrived last September and they had hardly killed any children since then. Schatze,
12:38it's a horrible thought. They killed children and maybe mine are among them.
13:01Mrs. Schatz came upstairs and said that starting tomorrow all members of the party had to report
13:12for work. Apparently we start at 6 a.m. in Christburger Straße. If it's only work,
13:18it's certainly bearable, but there's a lot of talk of deportation and detention. The time
13:24has come to do penance for my affiliation with the party. A lady appeared and insisted that my
13:40husband accompany her to the Kommandatura. He has been missing ever since. My husband is 71 years
13:47old and has trouble with his bladder. He was a member of the party but never actively involved
13:52in anything. The yard of the Kommandatura was full of Russians. Two officers came in through
14:03the gateway. As they walked past me, one said to the other, shot in the neck. One Russian started
14:12emptying my bags. The only thing he didn't take was my spoon and a handkerchief. Then he pointed
14:18to the cellar room. The floor was full of sleeping people. Suddenly everyone gave a Jew at least two
14:37loaves of bread or ten pounds of potatoes once, somewhere, sometime. Everyone listened to foreign
14:43radio. Everyone supported the persecuted. Tales of awesome heroics are coming to light.
14:48The bigger the fear, the more ridiculous the excuse.
14:53Carried debris to the mountain of rubble in Jablonski Straße at six in the morning. Row
15:07of buckets. We had to work very hard. I was there with Lottie Martin. She was there because her
15:14father had been a party member. I was home at 10 p.m. That's 16 hours of hard work. If it goes
15:22on like this, many of the women won't be able to continue. It's dreadful how us Germans have
15:28to demean ourselves. Are the Americans coming or not? Will they divide Berlin or leave it to
15:51the Russians? Who is even in charge, I ask Andrik. He shrugs. Whoever's turn it happens to be.
16:00Today the papers show how Germany will be divided. The English, Americans, French and
16:17Russians are coming to Berlin. Berlin will have a government made up of four powers. The Americans,
16:26British, French and Russians will have to agree on every detail soon, from education to food sharing.
16:31Theoretically, there should only be problems with the German population.
16:48It's hot in Berlin. Each day is hotter than the last and June heat smoulders over the city. Under
16:58the thin layers of dust, the dead are moving. The scent of their dying hangs in the air like a toxic
17:04cloud. The fumes wafting up from Landwehrkanal are so unbearable that passers-by have to hold a
17:10handkerchief to their nose. At lunchtime, three children who had been badly injured by hand
17:35grenades while playing among the ruins. I had to splint, bandage and stitch. Since noon yesterday,
17:45we've had some water in the boiler room. Nice clean water. And as of 5.30 p.m. today, we have
17:52electricity. We're like children, always switching the light on and off. You're no longer stumbling
18:00around in the dark. You can see each other while talking. Plans are being developed for a European
18:05Cultural Association, exhibitions, theatre, lectures. We've never been as hopeful as we are today.
18:11Konzert in unserer Penne. Concert in our school. The Philharmonic Orchestra played and Mrs. Erna
18:25sang. There were many familiar faces. Some guys had even dressed up again. It was a wonderful night.
18:35The first perm in a long time.
18:43June 16, Saturday. There's a Nazi special operation today. At 7 a.m. we were standing
19:01in rank and file like convicts. A youth leader came and told everyone under 20 to step forward
19:08to receive their youth assignment. Later, two young men showed up and collected the work cards.
19:15Mine still had a big N on it and Horst said, we have no use for Nazis. But the youth leader said
19:23that it was all how it was supposed to be and I could get a different card. I should just go home
19:28and report back at 2 p.m. Then I should go to a meeting of the anti-fascist youth and write a
20:04On the 30th of June, I was ordered to drop all my plans and head to Berlin. Instead of wasting time on an orderly start, we grabbed our hats and hurried down the Autobahn on July 1st as if the Cossacks were right behind us.
20:34Russian officers in old confiscated vehicles rushed up and down our column to check us.
20:41Some wanted a victory toast with us. Others acted like little commissars.
20:50We reached Berlin late afternoon. The Russians had not allowed us to view our sectors beforehand.
20:57Nobody knew exactly where to go. Hundreds of officers and soldiers were looking for places to stay.
21:04Hello BBC, this is Richard Dimbleby speaking from Berlin. The official Allied occupation of Berlin has begun.
21:20The United States 2nd Armored Division is entering the American zone of the city today.
21:27This is the first BBC broadcast from Berlin.
21:34At Reichsstraße, many tanks with white stars drove past us. Suddenly, one tank pulls up at the curb. A soldier leans out and asks, excuse me, how do we get to Grunewald?
21:54We reached Grunewald with field equipment, helmets and rucksacks.
21:58We set up our vehicles in a circle under the trees, like in the prairie in the olden days.
22:06In the new Antifa office, work is fun. It feels like they want the same thing as the Nazis, just under a different name.
22:25There are the same expectations, the same manners of speaking. The young people, they say, are working best.
22:36The ones that are most suited to become team leaders are usually the Hitler Youth leaders.
22:52It got serious on July 4th. Outside of the former Adolf Hitler SS barracks,
22:58now the McNair barracks, the Russians moved in with two companies.
23:07When we saw them, we also positioned two companies there, along with a row of Sherman tanks.
23:14Their artillery fired a salute. Our artillery responded.
23:37I want to greet the American allied forces in the name of the commandant of the city of Berlin and in the name of the Soviet forces.
23:58The next day, Colonel Howley sent his men to the town halls,
24:02raised our flag, and instructed the Germans that from now on they would be taking their orders from the Americans.
24:14Mom had to be at Mrs. Schwering's at half past seven.
24:17They have established an officer's casino in the big villa at Harnackstrasse.
24:22Mrs. Schwering speaks English fluently.
24:27Mom brought wonderful things we haven't seen in six years.
24:31If ever the fate of Berlin had hung by a thread, it was on July the 7th at the meeting with Zhukov.
24:43He brusquely announced, and now gentlemen,
24:45let us discuss the question of how you intend to supply Berlin with food and coal.
24:52An icy wind from the steps swept through the room.
25:01Zhukov insisted. He said that there was not only a food shortage in East Germany,
25:06but also in the Soviet Union, and that the Soviet administration could no longer feed the whole city.
25:20In the beginning, we were expecting just over two million Berliners and printed the
25:23respective number of food ration cards. But soon the situation evolved. Men,
25:30women and children from all over poured into the capital, and we had to print new cards.
25:43Berlin was the transit point for all refugee transports, even though the Allied commander
25:48had locked down the city. In July, 500,000 refugees arrived in or were moved through Berlin.
26:18We have arrived at Stettin train station. The end of the line completely bombed out.
26:33You can only see the sky, rubble and people, people, people.
26:38Refugees, all drifters like us. Who should welcome us?
26:44One Berliner said, there's still space next to that burnt out station wall over there.
26:48You can lie down there.
26:54Red Cross nurses showed us to the camp where we were to be housed. Soon, we stood in front of the
26:59surface air raid shelter and they said, here you can stay. Then they sent us away to Marsch.
27:04Lice were like humans' pets at the time. We had to go for delousing repeatedly.
27:09Children and elders alike had to go through it. It wasn't all around cleansing,
27:14and afterwards the lice were gone. Most of the time, anyway.
27:19Returnees and those who have been deported are in poor health. Babies and toddlers suffered most.
27:25Many have severe nutritional problems. This has caused a lot of deaths.
27:32The German government has been trying to find a way to help the refugees.
27:36But it's not easy.
27:38The German government has been trying to find a way to help the refugees.
27:40But it's not easy.
27:43The German government has been trying to find a way to help the refugees.
27:48But it's not easy.
28:01July 15.
28:03At 9.45, we flew to Germany to the Potsdam Conference in a transport plane.
28:08We were received by Guard of Honor at an airport.
28:15After a 20 minute drive we reached our accommodation in Babelsberg.
28:22It was made up of a series of villas, all looking out over the lake.
28:27Very pleasant.
28:29In the evening I tried to catch a pike.
28:38Berlin is like an island in the south seas, isolated from the world.
28:47Yet Stalin, the British Prime Minister and the American President are in Potsdam to decide our fate.
29:09At 1.30 pm I went to lunch with the Prime Minister.
29:14He had just read the American reports about the results of secret experiments with the atom bomb.
29:22It would not be necessary, he said, for the Russians to enter the war with Japan.
29:27The new bomb was enough to end the war.
29:34The bomb would also change the relationship with the Russians.
29:38Then we could just say, if you insist on doing this or that, then we will wipe out Moscow from the map.
29:45Then Stalingrad, Kiev, Serpastopol and so on.
29:58The day ended with a dinner of the heads of state.
30:09July 25th.
30:12At home I finished the blue blouse with the cut-off sleeves.
30:16At 8 pm I went to the movies with mother.
30:19The film was called Berlin.
30:21It was a Russian film about the Battle of Berlin.
30:38These hands, which are stretched out with the cry of Heil Hitler.
30:48Now these hands are humbly stretched out for bread.
30:53And the Red Army gives this bread.
30:58We were exhausted when we left.
31:01They shouldn't show us something like that.
31:04We only just managed to get through it.
31:05If you were to see this in a few years, it would be different.
31:09But after three months, that's not clever.
31:18On July 28th I did the first consecration of a boy in the small synagogue of the Jewish hospital.
31:24The following day, on July 29th, I married the first Jewish couple in Berlin, in the small synagogue in Rikestraße.
31:32Amid all the terrible suffering, murder and savagery in Auschwitz, two people had found each other.
31:39This was the first joyous day for the newly awakened Berlin congregation.
31:44Oh Schatzl, how wonderful to be lying in one's own bed, knowing one is within one's own four walls.
31:51Good night. I hope you are all relatively comfortable as well.
31:55If you are still alive.
32:13Even though I escaped the gas chambers, the locked doors, the screaming and the beatings, the dogs and the roll calls,
32:21at night it caught up with me.
32:23It all came back.
32:25The barbed wire fences, the young girl, dead in the dirt, Gerd waving goodbye.
32:31The past and the present were merging.
32:34The future was an empty sheet of paper.
32:37Huge headlines in all papers.
32:40The Potsdam Agreement.
32:42Common policy in all occupied territories.
32:45Mutual consent on the order of peace in Europe.
32:48The Berlin Wall.
32:50The Berlin Wall.
32:52The Berlin Wall.
32:54The Berlin Wall.
32:56The Berlin Wall.
32:58The Berlin Wall.
33:00The Berlin Wall.
33:02The Berlin Wall.
33:04The Berlin Wall.
33:06It sounds too good to be true.
33:15This is a historic occasion.
33:20We have conclusively proven that a free people can successfully look after the affairs of the world.
33:36The Berlin Wall.
33:39The Berlin Wall.
33:41The Berlin Wall.
33:43The Berlin Wall.
33:45The Berlin Wall.
33:47The Berlin Wall.
33:49The Berlin Wall.
33:51The Berlin Wall.
33:53The Berlin Wall.
33:55The Berlin Wall.
33:57The Berlin Wall.
33:59The Berlin Wall.
34:01The Berlin Wall.
34:03The Berlin Wall.
34:04The Berlin Wall.
34:06The Berlin Wall.
34:08The Berlin Wall.
34:10Here we have it.
34:12No invasion, but the atom bomb on the city of Hiroshima.
34:21If Hitler had managed to create such an instrument of destruction, I dare not think it.
34:34A few days later.
34:36August 12th.
35:03The Americans are getting a lot of sympathy.
35:06The Americans are met with great sympathy.
35:08Yes, the behavior of some Germans is actually disgraceful.
35:13Every day one can observe how German men greedily bend down to pick up cigarette butts thrown
35:17away by Americans.
35:19Or German women strolling through the streets and parks, arm in arm with American soldiers.
35:30Imagine your own son, 18 or 19 years old.
35:34Free of any supervision, provided with almost unlimited resources, and fortunate enough
35:40to be as attractive as Clark Gable.
35:45Now imagine him being exposed to a people bereft of any moral standards.
35:51Berlin women are hungry and lonely.
35:54The problem now is future peace.
35:58That is your job in Germany.
36:01You are soldiers on guard.
36:04You will not argue with them.
36:06You will not be friendly.
36:09You will be aloof, watchful, and suspicious.
36:14Every German is a potential source of trouble.
36:17Therefore, there must be no fraternization with any of the German people.
36:32General McClure has his quarters near Lake Wannsee.
36:37The guards have taken possession of all the motorboats at the end of their lake.
36:43When they're not on duty, they race up and down the lake with German girls in their boats
36:47and enjoy themselves.
37:14You become numb.
37:16I alone have diagnosed 50 cases of gonorrhea.
37:19Now the cases of unwanted pregnancies are mounting.
37:36I herewith politely ask for your attention for the suffering of a mother and wife of
37:40a man who is currently a prisoner of war.
37:43She got into this terrible situation without any personal wrongdoing and is in the deepest
37:48agony of the soul, begging for your help.
37:55I was raped by Russians on the 21st and 22nd of April this year, which brought about this
38:01pregnancy.
38:02Due to my condition, I'm suffering from depression and therefore ask for a termination of the
38:06pregnancy.
38:07I'm a pediatric nurse by profession.
38:14During a small festivity where alcohol was involved, I was raped by an American.
38:19This evening now has consequences and I therefore politely ask for the termination of my pregnancy.
38:31The termination of the pregnancy of Mrs. Gerda Kahr, resident of Berlin-Neukölln, is hereby
38:36approved.
38:37Dear mom, dear dad, what a terrible place, Berlin.
38:52You cannot begin to imagine the bleakness of this megalopolis.
38:59Even more horrifying are those Berliners dwelling in the cellars, dying of starvation.
39:16What we got on the Russian card wasn't sufficient at all.
39:19We just had to try and organize something on the black market.
39:24My parents scrambled together anything that could possibly be fogged off.
39:28We got toys, dollhouses, scooters, skates.
39:32Sometimes that would get some good stuff.
39:34A little butter, some extra bread or a piece of bacon.
39:48Everything is being bartered, trafficked and sold to people at outrageous prices.
39:58Our G.I.s have had cheap watches and cigarettes sent to them, which they now sell around Alexanderplatz
40:04or in the Tiergarten to their Russian comrades at fantastic prices.
40:09Mickey Mouse watches fetch 10,000 marks apiece.
40:14They could exchange the money one-to-one into American dollars.
40:28Fancy visiting antique shops with no money and cigarettes in one's handbag instead.
40:34For four packets I got a lovely Venetian glass and a large tortoiseshell comb.
40:40How valuable cigarettes are.
40:4710th of September, a few days back there was a great military parade celebrating the end
41:00of the war.
41:01Thousands of Russians, thousands of French, thousands of Americans, thousands of British.
41:07For us it was great that the French took up as much space as the others.
41:11Just as many men, just as many flags.
41:24The German Reich is shattered.
41:27The German economy is shattered.
41:30The German culture is shattered.
41:34We no longer have a voice in the League of Nations, but are treated like mere indigenous
41:39people in a colony.
41:41These are the bitter fruits of five and a half years of war, full of struggle and deprivation.
41:49I'm afraid the Germans have still not learned the lesson of this terrible war.
41:54They're only sorry for themselves, not for all those they murdered and tortured and tried
42:00to wipe from the face of the earth.
42:071st of October, October 1st, went to see an Ufa film with Günther in the evening, Jenny
42:21and the gentleman in the tailcoat with Johannes Hiestas.
42:34It looks as though Günther is completely infatuated with me.
42:42I told mom I'm at the meeting or she'd get upset and scold me again.
43:02Mrs. Schulz received a letter from Kurt.
43:05Sir Kurt is alive, thank God.
43:07I'm very happy.
43:12November 8th, the flat is now halfway cozy and nice, the beginning of an existence in
43:23the making.
43:24But my great anxiety about my husband and children remains my all-encompassing concern.
43:29I've left no stone unturned to try and find the children, but have remained unsuccessful.
43:34I don't know how I am to bear the certainty of their death should this come about.
43:39And the only person who ever understood me, he too will not return.
43:55In Nuremberg, an international court of justice has convened to pass judgment on the main
43:59war criminals, 24 defendants.
44:09The bill of indictment fills seven closely-typed newspaper pages.
44:14Watching the people flicking through this document of shame with indifference, it seems
44:18as though none of this concerns them, neither crime nor perpetrators, neither guilt nor
44:23punishment.
44:52These 21 men, these zeros, these hard-working and confident monsters were the last survivors
44:58of a gang that had ruled Germany.
45:05Because of them, millions of soldiers, sailors, pilots and civilians died in the war, and
45:11millions died in gas chambers and furnaces.
45:16No famine, no plague, no punishment of God ever accomplished what these men were able
45:21to do.
45:23They caused destruction such as the world has never seen.
45:26And there they sat, stony-faced.
45:29Hermann Wilhelm Göring.
45:39You must plead guilty or not guilty.
45:42Bekenne mich im Sinne der Anklage nicht schuldig.
45:50Rudolf Heerst.
45:56Wilhelm Keitel.
46:00Ich bekenne mich nicht schuldig.
46:03Alfred Jodl.
46:05Nicht schuldig.
46:07Was ich getan habe oder tun musste, kann ich reinen Gewissens vor Gott, vor der Geschichte
46:13und vor meinem Volke verantworten.
46:27December the 8th, Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Day of Remembrance.
46:33The first snow, very cold.
46:35And beating against the windows.
46:50At 7am, with mother to the Borgstorf forest to fetch wood.
46:54It was terribly heavy, and the forester was about to confiscate our tools when we wanted
46:58to saw a trunk.
47:01We had two large sacks, a rucksack and a bag, and still we had to run for the train.
47:21December the 10th, it's said to be almost minus 20 degrees centigrade.
47:29My hair has turned very grey.
47:31In general we all age rapidly now.
47:35Snow outside, scrunching underfoot, everybody's complaining about the cold.
47:40I hope it won't last for long.
47:43With the lack of coal, the malnourished will freeze to death in their flats.
47:47It's been happening already.
48:01First post-war Christmas, how different from what we had imagined.
48:05No tree, no presents, no Andrik.
48:10But the curfew was lifted yesterday, and those brave enough are allowed out after 11pm.
48:24Eaten lots and well.
48:26To church with Hansels and Schulzes at quarter to five.
48:29It was crowded, so we stood on the upper gallery.
48:38Another Christmas without the children.
48:41Last year I often thought about it and wished for the next one not to be so sad.
48:46Now Christmas will soon come around and I have even less hope.
48:53Monday, New Year's Eve.
48:59Mother was angry with me when I left in the evening.
49:02I took my records.
49:03First to Günther, then to Hajo, who lives in Weißensee.
49:06His parents were out.
49:09Günther was quite jealous because I was flirting with Rudi and danced the first dance of the
49:13new year with him.
49:14It was Lantern, Lantern.
49:15At 5am I went to Schöpces, who were also celebrating and in high spirits.
49:33At 6am I returned.
49:35Mother and Aunt Wally were livid.
49:37I went to bed and slept until 11 the next morning.
49:51In 1949, Brigitte Eicke married her childhood sweetheart Kurt Schulze.
49:58The couple had two children, a boy and a girl.
50:04Brigitte spent her entire life in Prenzlauer Berg and died in 2016 at the age of 89.
50:14The trial against the main war criminals at Nuremberg concluded with 12 death sentences,
50:20seven long-term or life prison sentences and three acquittals.
50:24Hermann Göring eluded his punishment by committing suicide.
50:29In 1947, over 98% of all registered NSDAP members were back at work.
50:35Even high-ranking SS functionaries were able to build a career after the war as doctors,
50:40judges, teachers, professors, civil servants or journalists.
50:48Only in 1946, Alice Löwenthal received confirmation that her second husband and her daughter's
50:55Gitti and Ruth had died.
50:57All three had been murdered at Auschwitz concentration camp and were declared dead in 1950.
51:04Alice married again, the son of the family who had hidden her.
51:09The pair had another daughter they named Eva Ruth Gitti.
51:16Alice died in 1985.
51:19Eva still lives in Berlin.
51:49For more UN videos visit www.un.org