To prevent Soviet infiltration, Nordland sappers blew the Esban tunnel under the Lander Canal, flooding parts of the subway network.

Rumors of mass drowning spread terror.

Hundreds may have died.

Their bodies later buried in Berlin’s old Jewish cemetery.

The Reich still echoed with gunfire.

One Soviet soldier tried to hurl back a German grenade.

It struck a doorway, exploded, and blew off his legs.

By late afternoon, resistance inside collapsed.

Some 300 filthy, unshaven survivors stumbled out of the cellars with hands raised.

Nearly 200 defenders had been killed.

Another 500 lay wounded.

The Soviets turned to the remaining strongholds.

At the Zoo Flack Tower, they sent captured Germans forward with a note promising safe conduct if the garrison surrendered.

At midnight, the giant fortress agreed to give up.

At Spandow Citadel, surrounded on all sides, SS defenders finally capitulated at 300 p.

m.

handing over Germany’s chemical warfare center with its secrets of poison gas that Stalin so coveted.

Berlin’s final days were not just defeat.

They were horror layered on horror.

A capital reduced to fire and rubble.

Women brutalized.

Children thrown into battle.

Hitler dead in a bunker.

His Reich burning in the garden above.

And still in every street and cellar, men were dying.

The battle had been fought to the last, and it had been far, far worse than anyone outside the city could have imagined.

On May 1st, what remained of the German 9inth Army made one last desperate attempt to break through to the west.

The survivors of the Kurach division brought up their final four Panther tanks, just enough to force a Soviet retreat and open a narrow escape corridor.

Around 25,000 men out of the 200,000 who had begun the campaign staggered across the ela into American captivity.

Most were starving, wounded or on the verge of collapse.

Inside Berlin, the fighting ground on.

Mona was down to his last Tiger tank.

In the bunker, Ysef and Magda Gerbles poisoned their six children, then took their own lives.

Their bodies were cremated in the garden above.

At 9:30 that night, Hamburg radio finally admitted what Boliners had been kept from knowing for a day and a half.

Hitler was dead, having fallen at the head of his troops.

Few heard it.

There was no electricity in the city.

The battle now degenerated into chaos.

Martin Borman and the bunker staff tried to escape.

Very few succeeded.

Most were captured or killed, including Borman himself, who seems to have been cut down in a skirmish with Soviet troops.

General Kruenberg of the Nordland Division also attempted to flee, but heavy shellfire forced him to hide in civilian clothes until surrender became unavoidable.

That night, in heavy rain, the remnants of the Muncherberg and 18th Panza Grenaders attempted their breakout from the tear garden.

They pushed toward the Olympic Stadium and Spandowo, rolling over bridges still held by Hitler youth.

Artillery fire turned the Shallot and Bricker into a slaughter house, killing scores, including Ernst Himmler, Heinrich’s younger brother.

Some units clawed their way through, but only a handful reached the Ela.

Most were annihilated along the way.

At 1:00 a.

m.

on May 2nd, Triov was awakened with news that Widling’s men were requesting a ceasefire.

By dawn, Widling crossed under a white flag to the Potama Bridge.

At 6:00 a.

m.

he was taken to Triov’s headquarters where he signed the order of surrender.

The battle of Berlin was over.

The bunker suicides continued.

Generals Krebs and Burgdorf shot themselves.

So did Captain France Shedler, commander of the Libandata Guard.

When Soviet troops finally entered the Reich Chancellery, they found it deserted.

The walls already covered with Russian graffiti.

The price of the battle was staggering.

Around 100,000 civilians died, some 20,000 from heart attacks, another 6,000 by suicide.

Estimates of rape range from 20,000 to over 100,000.

Abortions, normally illegal under Nazi law, were permitted in the months that followed, though no one knows how many were carried out.

The Soviets claimed to have destroyed 90 German divisions, taken 480,000 prisoners, and captured 1,500 tanks, 4,500 aircraft, and 11,000 guns.

In return, they admitted to at least 100,000 dead, 2,000 tanks lost, and 500 aircraft destroyed in the drive from the Oda to Berlin.

At the Zoo Flack Tower, the surrender deadline had come and gone, but once Vidling’s order was confirmed, its garrison finally emerged.

Thousands of Berliners who had sheltered in its concrete depths stumbled into the daylight.

Across the city, Soviet looting slowly gave way to NKVD order.

Troops began clearing streets, restoring water and sewage, and marking their presence with graffiti on the ruins of the Reich Chancellery.

By July, British, American, and French troops had joined the Soviets in occupied Berlin.

The Third Reich was gone, and in its ashes, a new conflict.

The Cold War was already beginning.

On May 4th, Ilsa Ants, who had hidden in her cellar through the rapes and bombardments, finally stepped outside.

At first, unaccustomed to the brightness, I saw nothing but black circles before my eyes, she remembered.

But then I looked around.

The sun was shining, the trees were blooming, the air was soft.

Even in this tortured and dying town, nature was bringing back life.

Up to now, nothing had touched me.

All emotions were dead.

But as I looked over at the park where spring had come, I could not control myself any longer.

For the first time since it had all started, I cried.

[Music] That brings us to the end of today’s video.

I hope you found this look into the final desperate days of the Battle of Berlin both immersive and thoughtprovoking.

These stories remind us of the human cost of total war and why history should never be forgotten.

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I release regular videos covering untold stories, forgotten battles, and personal accounts from World War II, so there’s always more history to uncover.

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Until next time, stay curious and I’ll see you in the next video.

[Music]

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