The Battle of Berlin, designated as the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, and also known as the Fall of Berlin, was one of the last major offensives of the European theatre of World War II.
Artur Axmann was the German Nazi national leader (Reichsjugendführer) of the Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend) from 1940 to 1945, when the war ended. He was the last living Nazi with a rank equivalent to Reichsleiter.
Sir Antony James Beevor, is a British military historian. He has published several popular historical works, mainly on the Second World War, the Spanish Civil War, and most recently the Russian Revolution and Civil War.
The evacuation of East Prussia was the movement of German civilian population and military personnel from East Prussia between 20 January and March 1945, that was initially organized and carried out by state authorities but quickly turned into a chaotic flight from the Red Army.
Helmuth Otto Ludwig Weidling was a German general during the Second World War. He was the last commander of the Berlin Defence Area during the Battle of Berlin, led the defence of the city against Soviet forces and finally surrendered just before the end of World War II in Europe.
Blondi was Adolf Hitler's German Shepherd, a gift as a puppy from Martin Bormann in 1941. Hitler kept Blondi even after his move into the Führerbunker located underneath the garden of the Reich Chancellery on 16 January 1945.
The Battle of the Seelow Heights was part of the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation. A pitched battle, it was one of the last assaults on large entrenched defensive positions of the Second World War. It was fought over three days, from 16–19 April 1945. Close to 1,000,000 Soviet soldiers of the 1st Belorussian Front, commanded by Marshal Georgy Zhukov, attacked the position known as the "Gates of Berlin". They were opposed by about 110,000 soldiers of the German 9th Army, commanded by General Theodor Busse, as part of the Army Group Vistula.
The East Prussian offensive was a strategic offensive by the Soviet Red Army against the German Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front. It lasted from 13 January to 25 April 1945, though some German units did not surrender until 9 May. The Battle of Königsberg was a major part of the offensive, which ended in victory for the Red Army.
Marta Hillers was a German journalist, and the author of the memoir Eine Frau in Berlin, published anonymously in 1959 and 2003 in German. It is the diary of a German woman from 20 April to 22 June 1945, during and after the Battle of Berlin. The book details the author's rape, in the context of mass rape by the occupying forces, and how she and many other German women chose to take a Soviet officer as a protector.
Stalingrad is a narrative history written by Antony Beevor of the battle fought in and around the city of Stalingrad during World War II, as well as the events leading up to it. It was first published by Viking Press in 1998. The book won the first Samuel Johnson Prize, the Wolfson History Prize and the Hawthornden Prize for Literature in 1999.
Werner Haase was a professor of medicine and SS member during the Nazi era. He was one of Adolf Hitler's personal physicians. After the war ended, Haase was made a Soviet prisoner of war. He died while in captivity in 1950.
The Silesian offensives were two separate offensives conducted in Silesia in February and March 1945 by the Soviet Red Army against the German Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front in World War II, to protect the flanks of the Red Army during its push to Berlin to prevent a Wehrmacht counterattack. It delayed the final push toward Berlin by 2 months.
Hans Refior was an officer in the German Army during World War II. Refior was on the staff of the last two German commanders of the "Berlin Defense Area" during the final assault by Soviet forces on the city of Berlin.
Else Krüger was Martin Bormann's secretary from the end of 1942 until 1 May 1945. She was born in Hamburg-Altona.
Joachim Ziegler was a high-ranking commander in the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany during World War II. He was a commander of the SS Division Nordland, and was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves.
Gustav Krukenberg was a high-ranking member of the Waffen-SS and commander of the SS Charlemagne Division and the remains of the SS Division Nordland during the Battle of Berlin in April 1945. After Krukenberg surrendered to Soviet Red Army troops, he was tried, convicted and sentenced to prison by a Soviet court. He was released from prison after serving 11 years and died on 23 October 1980 in Germany.
As Allied troops entered and occupied German territory during the later stages of World War II, mass rapes of women took place both in connection with combat operations and during the subsequent occupation of Germany by soldiers from all advancing Allied armies, although a majority of scholars agree that the records show that a majority of the rapes were committed by Soviet occupation troops. The wartime rapes were followed by decades of silence.
Rudolf Weiß was a German officer appointed personal adjutant for the Army's Personnel Department Chief, a position he held until the end of World War II. Further, he was stationed in the Führerbunker in April 1945.
Moltke Bridge is a bridge over the Spree River in Berlin, Germany. Completed in 1891, it connects Alt-Moabit near the main railway station on the north bank to Willy-Brandt-Straße and the Chancellery on the south bank. The bridge is named after Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder (1800–1891), chief of staff of the Prussian Army for thirty years. Moltke died just before the bridge's completion and it was inaugurated by his funeral cortege. The bridge has three crossed arches spanning the Spree made from red Main sandstone, decorated with statues of Johannes Boese, Carl Piper and Carl Begas.
The 79th Guards Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army during World War II.
