The Other Side: Life In WWII Germany, an Interview
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- Опубліковано 26 чер 2024
- A little "film" interview of my German grandmother (Oma) about her childhood in WWII Germany and Soviet occupied East Germany.
This was for my International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme Personal Project.
We immigrated to the U.S. in 1960. As a child my mother had survived the bombing of Dresden. I can still remember what the civil defense sirens of the 1960's did to her. I was just a kid but I could see how she was reliving the horror listening to that siren even if only it was on a short time. To this day it makes me very sad. Please Rest in Peace Mama.
It was the genocide of the German people that is still going on
Yes, the civilans on both sides had a dreadful time...my mother was brought up in wartime Britain...until the day she died she couldn't stand the sounds of firecrackers especially the ones that whistled...it's always the children who suffer....peace
@@SoroshNSD YES IT IS AND NOW OF ALL PEOPLE OF EUROPEAN STOCK EVEN IN AMERICA!!
@@SoroshNSD I AGREE & IT IS INSANE TO PUT GUILT-SHAME ON YOUNGER GERMAN GENERATIONS.
@@vincentadams9569 i don't see that in USA. Maybe you live in wrong area. My nephew is 1st generation German born American & he is precious as well as immigrant parents.
My dutch mother was in berlin in 1944. Her husband was shot. She had a baby in febuary 1945. She walked from berlin to rotterdam with a pram and my sister. Took her 6 months to get to her hometown in rotterdam.
Thank you for making this documentary so that others can hear a first hand account of the horrific deeds done in the name of war! My family is from Bavaria and my Oma and Opa experienced both WWI and WWII. They raised 5 children!
When you told the story of listening to the radio stations that were forbidden, I remember my mom telling me that they did the same!
My grand parents were very religious and when the Nazi party burned books they knew they were no good!
They went without food and my uncle was forced to go into the military!
The only saving Grace in their situation was the Americans occupied their town! The horror’s you described of the rapes made my blood run cold! Hearing it is one thing, experiencing it another! The Americans did not take part of those atrocities in her town Dingolfing. I am sure it did happen elsewhere. But my mother had 3 sisters and thank God they were safe!
Starvation was a scar my mother carried.
Thank you again for your courage to make this video!
"They burned books.." Do you actually know what books? The famous "book burning" was at the Institute of Sexual Science head by Dr Magnus Hirschfield. Book included subjects such as homosexual sex, transgenderism, and child sex. Do you approve of ALL of this literature? This is the book burning you so vigorously oppose. 80 years of brainwashing propaganda by the "good guys" gets most people to automatically spew these lies. Not your fault, but if they lie about this, what else do they lie about? About both then and now.
And oh, around 60,000 French women were raped by US soldiers during the "liberation" of France. Nothing compared to what the Russians did (in their defense these were mainly committed by Russians from Siberia etc), but pretty bad for the "good guys", don't you think?
There are plenty more examples. Such as the deliberate murder by the english in their carpet bombing. It was POLICY, not an accident. THAT was the real war crime of WW2, not ridiculous claims of peddle powered brain bashing machines etc.
I feel for conscripts to the Nazi army who opposed Nazism. I hope your uncle wasnt forced to do anything terrible.
In her own words, "you worry if you say anything you would be on the next train". They all knew.
Keep on people...
I cant imagine living through this. Words cant describe how meaningful her recount is, I'm seriously at a loss. What an amazingly strong woman. War is a ravaging of all things that no one should have to live through, thank you for posting this.
And yet...and yet, the media is filled with war propaganda. By people who should know better. They roll the dice, with our lives. War has to be prevented long before it starts.
My mother was born in Berlin in 1935.. After 1939 my grandfather took the family to East Prussia. They ran from the Russians at war's end and ended up in Stuttgart. My mother immigrated to the United States in 1957. Both she and my Uncle were never the same.. Mom died in 2000 at the age of 65 and she was constantly haunted . None of this was ever spoken of but the trauma was obvious.
From the first 10 seconds to the end, this Woman had me glued,welded and riveted to my chair.
I also had a friend who was a child in Sachsenhausen, East Berlin and aged about nine at wars end. His stories are very similar. The hot crowded air raid shelters where the earth heaved and the old people lost control of their functions, a friend blown up fishing with hand grenades, the local concentration camp being evacuated, bodies everywhere. Eating dead horse meat, rotten flour from a sunken barge, his father and all his uncles lost on the Eastern front although they did not support the Nazis, the Russian invasion. Klaus got out as a young man as the wall went up and came to New Zealand. Terrible times. We all need to watch out for totalitarian regimes, left or right.
Very moving story. Thanks for posting! Nobody wins in a war.
This ↑
Thank you for sharing your Oma's story. People don't really understand courage........until they live and experience what your Oma did. What an extraordinary woman she is.
Very well Spoken ! My parents too were children in Bremerhaven, which got flattened like a pancake except the church in central Bremerhaven. It’s unfortunate that my parents 1) Did not speak much of the war 2) passed away too soon. They too immigrated, they went to NYC. I’m finding lil bits and pieces of info from family in Germany and a aunt who immigrated mid 1950’s … but ya know there’s only cousins left in Germany and the Aunt here … sooo this story hit home… Thanks it’s enlightened me more on their childhood and way of life and departure from Germany…
Unglaublich! Was Sie alles erfahren haben. Es tut mir Leid.
Thank you for producing this. A book called “The Savage Continent” goes into great detail about the horrible aftermath of WWII. It’s well worth the read. I lived in Germany from 1957-1961 and attended high school. I love the German people and have great empathy for their suffering. More stories like this need to be told.
Thank you for sharing your Oma's story. My mother was only 5 when the war began. She lived in Pomerania. She has a difficult time talking about the horrors. After the war, everyone in Pomerania was forced to leave when their state became part of Poland. I don't know how, but my grandparents were able to smuggle her out and she had to travel by herself to go live with my great aunt. So hearing all this helped me hear the story my mother couldn't tell. Thank you. As someone else said, no one wins in a war. I hope that this doesn't repeat in the Ukraine.
Thank you for this post. Many people are not aware, of the side of history, that does not get taught or mentioned. Words can not explain the magnitude of loss of life, pain, sorrow, of the German people. People who were not part of the war, by their own choice. History is not written correctly or honestly. Thanks for letting us learn more, by these survivor's .
We know about the suffering of the German people. We just don’t care.
But they , the children , were part of the war by the choice of their parents. The women contributed by keeping their mouths shut. What would have happened if even 20%of the German people protested? They should have been outraged , not silent.
@@satsumamoon Thank you saysumamoon. I got about 5 minutes in. And all it is is a litany of how awful the Allies were.Of course, all children are innocent and none should suffer. The filmmaker obviously has a lot of affection for her grandmother. But her grandmother is no longer a child. She can reflect as a grown-up. She was incredibly privileged as a child. Her family was allowed to keep their money while others were robbed and then murdered. Some 7,800 of her family's German neighbors were murdered because of their religion. Does she reflect on that and how that might have benefitted her family? Did she notice the empty seats in her school. It reads to me like a manipulative piece of Nazi apologetics.
Thank you for sharing this video, I'm glad she made it out alive.
No person should have that memory of childhood. Doesn't matter who's side they were on. Thank you for your memory.
Thank you for this. It always churns my stomach to hear how the Russians treated German women and girls after this war. That should be taught along with what the Germans did.
Ask what the Germans did to girls in the places they invaded?
It is taught.
Germans killed tortured millions of soviet people/jews/women/children..they did wayyyyyyyyyyy worse bro...rape isn't great, but experimenting on people is even worse
Not only the to the Germans girls and women...In the Baltic countries, the Soviet extermination battalions r*ped, cut off body parts( can't say it on UA-cam) and did other things which can't be described here.Torture, pure and simple, against the civilian population. If you have the stomach, read *Under the ^Sign of the *Scorpion by ÷Juri ÷Lina.A must read.
Great project. Incredible story. I am. A. Big WW2 buff. It's sad what ppl went through during this time, especially civilians that had to live through this first hand. What a tragedy. Very strong woman. Salute to you ma'am!
Common knowledge for anyone interested in World War 2. Britain did not declare war until May of 1940. They did not bomb Germany in 1939. Care to help correct this video? It would be helpful.
@@MrEldoradot Britain declared war on 3rd September 1939. It started air raids immediately, but dropped leaflets, and suffered huge losses because the aircraft were inadequate and they flew in daytime. However, they also dropped bombs, but were far more inaccurate than they thought. Civilians were killed, persuading Hitler to bomb civilian areas, but of course they'd already done so in Spain, and in northern Europe when they attacked in May 1940.
She comes across to me as a whiney child. No mature reflection on how awful her Germany was.
If you think what happened in Germany can't ever happen again...you have not been paying attention to the world the past 2 years....
and already this very platform is censored.
@@jameseverett4976 You Tube is a private company. They can censor if they want. YOU can create your own website if you choose. REAL censorship is when the GOVERNMENT does it. Learn the difference.
Thank you so much for sharing this with all of us. It is important we all hear these things, I think, especially considering the times (2022). It must chill people who have lived these things to the bone to see and hear what goes on in the world now.
Thank you Erika for sharing your touching and sad story that I am sure millions of other people from all wars can relate to. We should do everything we can to avoid the pointless mass violence of wars.
Thank you, there's nothing that compares to first hand accounts of history. This was a valuable lesson.
Are you of Japanese descent? If so, then I am sure that your people know of such sufferings from the allied crimes against the Japanese, too! We fought for our Vaterland - from British designs and aggression. Udo Walendy disappeared after writing his book called, "Truth for Germany" - this is a free PDF. I have a German-American friend of whom ran for the American presidency, and we have a private German forum for our Volk, but it would be nice to hear from the Japanese, as well
We would like to have strong alliances, and friendships. There is another great book called, "A Century of War" by William F. Engdahl. This books is awesome, and well-researched, and PROVES that the American-Anglo cabal is still at work - they control nearly all of the oil in the world! Please feel free to tag me any time. Tscheuss
A very touching, beautiful video. Thank you.
Correction: the British bombing of Hamburg, began in 1943..., not 1939....Its The Blitz (blitzkreig), the German bombing of London, that began September 7, 1940, 300 German bombers raid London, in the first of 57 consecutive nights of bombing. This bombing “blitzkrieg” (lightning war) would continue until May 1941......this was after the Germans had already bombed Rotterdam and other places in Holland, etc....
Born in Cleveland means she had American citizenship. How different her life might have been! What a random twist of fate for a young girl to live through the war in the Reich. Her testimony is very valuable as a record of events & attitudes. Thank you both.
So many stories we will never know about. The fear, the sadness and there loss, of everything.
Thanks for sharing your personal and painful history. Thank God you made it through it all and are able to talk about it... must have been very stressful. If we don't learn from your story, history can repeat itself.
So true.
I had a friend that was named Irma. She grew up about the same age and close location. She was raped many times . Even as a elderly woman sometimes she would just break down seemingly out of nowhere. I was young and had to ask my parents once why she would cry on Christmas. Everybody always mentions the holocaust and the Jews suffering. But children German women . Polish, Belarus ,dutch and so many more all suffered.. and every story is horrendous
Indeed every story is horrendous but the Nazi thugs bear a unique responsibility for bringing that suffering to the world.
@@ahappyimago rubbish.
Get your head outta the NYTs and put some actual effort into your research.
Also, Hitler did allow money out during the Transfer Agreement.
This lady is mistaken.
How sad for Irma. I agree, so many innocents harmed-killed. Mankind ...
sure ther was sufferimg by german women/polish/dutch ect B-U-T- why did the russians n mongols show up.an do what they did.....cause of hitler an his soldiers what they started n did to the russians n mongols...the germans had it coming couldnt stay in ther own backyard...cause they wanted russias OIL to keep germany war going! germany...reaped the whirlwind.....
My uncle was shot down over Holland during the war. He was a navigator for a bomber. I believe that his death had negative consequences for my family that continue today. This woman's father should have left Germany despite the financial losses.
German/Axis citizens were interned in Allied nations during World War II, so they would have been in another kind of prison "for the duration."
Truly brave Woman. A period of WWII not always discussed is the immediate occupation of the defeated nations in particular Germany in 1945. I can understand the anger & hatred the Russians had towards Germany in regard to the horrific crimes carried out on the eastern front by the Germans but I think that the Soviets made themselves no better than the Nazis in that regard by behaving in almost the exact the same way by endorsing or turning a blind eye to the treatment of civilians in the countries they "liberated" & finally occupied. We know Stalin wasn't exactly too different to if not worse than Hitler but that is another touchy subject. Thinking of Dresden among other things yes the Germans were victims of the madness of war. But this brave woman who was just a child that did nothing wrong, was too young to understand nor deserve the horrible events she lived through German or not that if anyone would think she deserved that, than it is people like them that these terrible things happen for in the first place.
Thank you for this video & for committing it to all our memories so that no one will forget.
The crimes were committed by the communist Soviet Union which was poised to invade Germany and Europe. Germany's preemptive strike beat them to the punch by one month. get off your high horse and read the book Icebreaker.
Do you know how many Russians were killed by the Germans?
@@BasementEngineer ...AW, GIVE IT UP- ALL YOU'RE DOING IS EMBARRASSING YOURSELF ON THE INTERNET-!!!
@@BasementEngineer i dk where you learned that but its wrong. Stalin had purged his armies of its generals. They were no where near ready. Read a history book and stop putting out misinformation
@@BasementEngineer
Don't justify what the german people did
You did very well! Congratulations on a very well done documentary!
This was really super interesting!, Like going back in time. Thanks for the upload.
My mother went through the war in Hungary, it left a big impression on her. My father's father was taken away after the war by the Russians and was not heard of again. This lady endured huge hardship, my life is very easy and I am grateful 🙏
I had a good Polish friend, who was interned in Austria on 1st September 1939. When the Russians reached Lvov, they took his mother and sister away. Some time later (a year?), his sister was released, and was never the same again. To the day of his death, he never knew what became of his mother.
He escaped from Vienna and found his way to Britain, fought in Anders' army, and eventually naturalised British, as did my father-in-law. Neither dared to return.
You did an awesome job on this video! I am very impressed that this was for high school. I have watched professional documentaries that were not as good. You will go far in your future endeavors. Thank you and your Grandmother for posting this!
When you get older, this is such a nice and precious item to have. I treasure my films I have from my bonmamman,(French side) and oma (dutch side).
Long live peaceful Europe !
I grew up in an American suburb of sleeves riding up tattooed arms and smiling faces with permanent grief etched in their eyes.
What a difficult time. Thank you for sharing your story.
Two sides to every story, how can we as bystanders comment on what life was like for those who lived thru such horror. God Bless her.
Thanks for sharing your family with us.
Great video, thanks for sharing.
Very powerful, thank you for sharing.
Really nice interview. Thanks.
Amazing story! Thanks for sharing.
Incredible, excellente story, Gracias!!!
Thank you for your preservation of this dark yet enlightning take from................. the other side
What an amazing story!
This is a very well crafted little documentary. It's authentic, personal and forever relevant.
Thank you for this a very moving story of an ordinary person caught in an awful world war,leaders of our world need to see these memoirs to reinforce the utter uselessness of war,one can only hope
Very moving film ....excellent production
Interesting interview. Thank you.
Thanks for sharing. I had never thought about returning to Germany for a funeral / collect inheritance would lead to being “trapped” under the Nazi regime.
So much of our fates depend on when and where a person is born . God be with us all . I hope .
Thank you for sharing
Destruction of German morale was considered necessary to achieve unconditional surrender, which was in turn necessary because Germany had returned to make war again after the armistice. In truth, Hitler did not intend to surrender but wanted the country destroyed so the German people would be punished for losing.
Her mother sounds like an exceptional human being.
this is awesome. I always wanted to hear this side not just allies or soviets etc and then german soldiers i want to hear from the civilians because they saw everything.
Interesting story.
I have no doubt this was terrible for regular German citizens.
Her account seems to be fought with massive inaccuracies, though. Obviously citizens died when bombing factories, but the well known massacre bombings of Dresden, and Hamburg did not happen until '41, and '42. Not 3 days after the war started. In fact, the well known "Sitz-Kreig", the lack of air, and ground fighting, in the west, lasted until the invasion of France. She recounts the Soviet atrocities that took place, and then Soviet occupation, but if she lived anywhere near Peenemunde, as she says, she was over 60 milles west of any Soviet soldier, and not in the Soviet sector of occupation.
But don't let facts get in the way of a good story.
Wonderful
Thank you for sharing your grandmother's moving story.
This is very well made living history with convincing and sober eye-witness testimony - It;s really important that you made this and saved the memories. We are only the 3rd generation that could do this in the history of humanity. I have to love your grandmother -
This poor woman seems to be rather poor at mathematics. Roughly 37K died the first time Hamburg was bombed rather than the figure of 100K she mentions. As for 500K dying during the bombing of Dresden, that figure is in fact more like 25-35K. Still a lot of innocent people but nowhere close to her estimates.
Thank you for sharing your Oma's story. I couldn't help but think of my parents childhood stories of the war.
AMAZING STORY
This is invaluable; thank you for recording and posting it. And to learn it’s your family history! Those who forget history… needing ‘papers’ to be allowed to go further than arbitrarily, power-hungrily determined by the ‘authorities’…
Both my parents went through WW2 in Austria. It was hard times there too.
I'm watching this in 2022 in Cambodia. This is an AMAZING film and the pictures are wonderful. What an amazing first-hand story of the experience of your Oma. Thank you very much for capturing and sharing this story. Many thanks to you and your Oma.
wow! hello to cambodia! thanks for watching!
You did a nice job A very interesting story....Those were tough times
The same happened to my family in Munich. No running water or electricity. My Dad was born there. Thank goodness they came to America.
This is my mother in law’s story also. She lost her father in a Russian POW camp. She escaped to Meissen from Liegnitz.
Very well done. Your grandma is a very awesome lady!!
Thank you. My parents share similar stories.
wow, what a story.
I did my senior thesis in history on the few months between the fall of Berlin, to the allies (US) for a occupation of West Berlin on 4 July 1945. I wrote my thesis in 1985 and was living in Berlin at the time I gathered my research in 1984. Those two months were fascinating, and frankly, I don’t think the Soviets expected the other Allies from fulfilling the Tehran agreements. Although they still took everything including to Ian’s kitchen sinks from all of Berlin. I interviewed many Berliner’s including The German (Nazi) translator for Himmler and Hitler for English an Italian including Mussolini when he interacted with Hitler and other high level Nazi officials. The US Army Berlin had a fantastic historian and historical archive in the 80s. The information from my interviews and the archives was fascinating. The Nazi had massive archives, mostly in film stored in the below ground buildings at Templehof airfield, but those were flooded by the Russians so no record exists today. Acres of film. Imagine the atrocities and crimes those films held.
I bet those films had very incriminating evidence of Bolshevik atrocities
I may not be a historian, but was it not the Germans that flooded Berlin in 1945? How can the Soviets flood the area when they barely knew the area anyway? And besides, even if it was the Soviets that flooded the place, they may not have known the existence of such films anyway. Just think about it, even after soo much atrocities committed by the Germans in their own country, even they were as surprised by the existence of the concentration camps as the western allies were. If they did know films were there, then they might have been interested by it, not just because of "Bolshevik atrocities", but maybe footage of top secret equipment and facilities, as well as "the atrocities and crimes those films held."
Interesting lady w incredible memories…I had a gf in NC whose father was German and he talked about eating dandelions as a child to survive after WWII…
I love this lady & am sure there were many ordinary, innocent Germans just like her. Excellent interview.
thank you, glad you enyoyed.
And there were lots of innocent Czechoslovaks, Poles, Danes, Norwegians, Dutch, Belgians, French, British, Russians, Yugoslavs, Greeks, Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders, Americans,...........
As an ex German, I am so pissed off at people saying, you knew about the holocaust and other autrocities and that all Germans at that time we're Nazis. This video is so honest an account, my parents also went through similar experiences as kids and teens in war torn germany. Most we're victims of a system of government that came about because of the times and THAT'S it period.
Many Germans knew and participated in the violence, looted jew businesses, snitched them out!
Sure, a handful helped jews. Most partook in the atrocities, and the rest didn't think it was their business and did nothing but they knew what was going on!
Oh, poor Germans. Victims of the violence they themselves unleashed. I call it retribution.
I talked to a German lady who grew up in Frankfurt, the western one. Her Dad worked for the railroad, and he told his family, midway through the war, "Something strange is happening. Trains are leaving in the middle of the night." I suspect that those were some of the trains to concentration camps, and that the German government did it's best to keep the average German from knowing what was really going on with regard to the camps. This guy worked for the railroad and he didn't even know. That's not to say that nobody knew, but this example shows me that the Nazi Government did a pretty good job of keeping the truth down to a rumor or less to most civilians. On the other hand, it always strikes me as odd to hear Germans complaining of bombing as if they were unaware of what their own country had already done to Warsaw, Rotterdam, and many other places first.
Today we're learning the power of propaganda, of censorship, of government, even in a free country many people go along, don't want to know what's going on. I can believe that many decent people in Nazi Germany were sheltered from the truth. It was death to speak of it then. Today, people won't discuss politics because they believe propaganda.
@@richardgaynor6113 Thank you for saying something that seems to be increasingly the case. It would be interesting to know in which country you live, but you don't have to say! Kind regards and greetings from Pembrokeshire.
So good & detail, honestly even as a 45 year WW2 obsessed student so much of 'this side' is not known in this very real detail spoken here. My grandparents got out in late 40! Some of the last & it cost them everything they owned home furnishings jewelry car all savings they knew truly knew this kind of story was coming no 1 else on their street left, half died friends family co workers my gramps was a very astute wise man with guts. & for site to war. We are not Jewish but Catholic Germans of generations.
im glad you enjoyed and learned!
civilians always pay the highest price.
What an amazing story by Erika and an amazing job by her grand daughter making this. I will never forget seeing this film.
I hope schools will use this in the classroom to teach students about history.
thank you for watching!
Daddy made the wrong decision. In “Band of Brothers” there’s a scene where a captured German speaks perfect American English to a surprised American. His father had emigrated back to Germany a few years before and he had been drafted. Another American came up and killed the “German”. If his father hadn’t emigrated he would’ve been in an American uniform.
German civilians suffered even more then British civilians...many more died...war is the most grotesque of human failures.
Thank you for sharing. I have been lucky to hear several stories from civilians in Germany and Poland during WW2. It's sad that innocent people have to suffer due to megalomaniacs.
And I heard stories from my mother in Britain. Yes, her suffering was as nothing compared with those in occupied countries, because at least she lived in a free country, and never starved, and the fear was only of invasion, bombs, and rockets (a V1 blew in her front door and all the windows in 1944, while her two little girls were in the garden). My father was fighting in France. She hated the war, and on 8th May 1945, she did not feel sorry for ANY Germans.
The elites make policy while the ordinary person sacrifices and suffers. Elections of political leaders have consequences. Why it is so important to research candidates and demand moral, upright people in our elected offices.
Modern-day Germans has learnt this lesson well, but other democracies show worrying signs of preferring 'strong' leaders to 'moral' ones.
Amazingly relevant to the events of today.
Let's make sure history doesn't repeat itself.
Thank you for sharing,all the warmongers need to hear this woman's story and experiences.Away with the warmongers.
Similar situation for my mom. Except they did not have to
endure the horrors commited by the Russians and escaped from warnemunde may 1945. The family of women and children found refuge in a refugee camp in flensburg with the help of a male friend who had a boat and sailed over the Baltic
My great grandmother OMA had to flee from the Russians twice. Once hiding in a bunker in East Prussia in the 1st world war and then fleeing Warnemunde in the 2nd world war. 2 other family members stayed in Berlin. An aunt in the British sector and an uncle in the Russian sector. Sadly neither saw the wall come down
I think the lady's memory is a little misplaced. She might have been in Hamburg; she might have been close to the Baltic Sea but Hamburg faces the North Sea, not the Baltic Sea. Maybe she was just talking about 'we' in general. Also, her figure of 500,000 people 'destroyed' in Dresden is way too high. It was absolutely horrific but not as horrific as that. Even David Irving only put it at 135,000. Modern estimates suggest it was about 30,000. That's still very bad.
Watch it again, she’s not confused. History books are written by the winners.
The Allies can not be seen as the “Liberators” and the “Good Guys” if the world learns the truth about what they really did in an attempt to erase both Germany and the German people.
Go and watch the documentary “Hell-Storm”. It sheds light on lies that have been buried for decades.
@@LJWalter78 The figures would have to have come from the German authorities and records. The allies would have had no idea at all what the numbers were.
Not as many as the hundreds of thousands of civilians and Allied soldiers killed by the Germans….or the millions and millions of Russians killed by the Germans….or the millions and millions of Jews and gypsies killed by the Germans. It’s a pity every German city and town wasn’t completely flattened by the bombers.
@@LJWalter78 She's very confused. Dresden city officials in 1945 put the death toll at 25,000. Joseph Goebbels inflated it to 250,000 for propaganda purposes. A City of Dresen commission in the 2000s revisited the issue and determined that the 25,000 figure was correct. So this is not information from the winners, it's information from the losers who were actually there on scene in Dresden right after the bombing.
@@LJWalter78
Hitler ordered much infrastructure destroyed to punish the German people for losing the war, but Speer disobeyed that order. The Germans along with Stalin’s incompetence starved a huge portion of the major Soviet cities to the point of cannibalism. The cruelty of the Soviet victors was reprisal for that suffering. The Soviet and Chinese casualties were far greater than casualties of the Germans. There was no attempt by British and Americans to annihilate German people, to the contrary there was the Marshal plan which rebuilt Germany.
thank you
The Chopin was an excellent choice for the background music.
Thank you for sharing her story. Well done.
Mit deutschem Untertitel wäre klasse! Leider verstehe ich zu wenig! Einen lieben Gruß aus Duisburg in Germany! Take care, best wishes...🇩🇪
What a very brave, good woman. Thank you for sharing. John, Indiana
This is the best explanation of what happened to the population in Germany before and during WW2 that I have heard
Really? You can't have listened to much or read much.
Read the book Crimes and Mercies The fate of German civilians under allied occupation 1944-1950 by James Bacque
Excellent. My sympathies. War is evil.
An amazing woman,she seems angelic to me and she went thru all that terror and violence.It makes my heart sad the atrocities man does to one another especially woman and children being abused and killed .It angers me-deeply. God bless this brave woman
this upset me.the real horrors? she choose not to share in detail Im sure.
Omg this is really good! :))) German history class
Fascinating. Thank you,
I hope you got an A+.
This is the true picture of war. This is a lesson for America - we should be very, very slow to go to war. Think of Viet Nam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Serbia, Libya, and the list goes on. This video should be shown to all members of Congress and to the President, and perhaps it would make a difference.