Germany After WW2 | A Defeated People | Documentary on Germany in the Immediate Aftermath of WW2
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This 1946 British documentary short film depicts the shattered state of Germany, both physically and as a society, in the immediate aftermath of World War II. The narration explains what is being done - and what needs to be done - both by the occupying Allied forces and the German people themselves to build a better Germany from the ruins.
A Defeated People (1946)
Germany After WW2 | A Defeated People | Documentary on Germany in the Immediate Aftermath of WW2
NOTE: THE VIDEO DOCUMENTS HISTORICAL EVENTS. SINCE IT WAS PRODUCED DECADES AGO, IT HAS HISTORICAL VALUES AND CAN BE CONSIDERED AS A VALUABLE HISTORICAL DOCUMENT. THE VIDEO HAS BEEN UPLOADED WITH EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES. ITS TOPIC IS REPRESENTED WITHIN HISTORICAL CONTEXT. THE VIDEO DOES NOT CONTAIN SENSITIVE SCENES AT ALL!
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Nice work
British Empire give Germany a lesson give me a fucking break! They gave Eastern Europe to Stalin without even asking!
@Capt Abhimanyu Bhat ....this is not a documentary.....it is a ludicrous brit probaganda. useless.
@Capt Abhimanyu Bhat ....this is not a documentary.....it is a ludicrous brit probaganda. useless.
@@Joseph-nw3gw This sounds like propaganda
I grew up after the war near Berlin and I still remember the rubble and misery we endured. My father never came home but died in Russian captivity. My Mother lost both her brothers in France. May we never see another war like what we experienced ever again!
Very sorry you had to endure that. My mom was a kid in Austria after the war. A liitle better luck for soldiers in Russia. They were sent back in 1960's.
Just imagine if you guys have won the war..
So your father in east Germany
lost a lot of my family in the London blitz , hard to feel sorry for Germans
Don't start no shit, there won't be no shit.
My parents grew up in WW2, they were traumatized.
Now I'm an adult myself and I understand why they couldn't show my brother and me their love.
The war took away the ability to show kindness and love.
My grandparents didn't show it to my parents, my parents didn't show us ...
I suffered so much, my parents suffered, their prents suffered ...
And I hope my son won't suffer too.
All my love I give to him. The best I can.
When war is over it takes generations and generation until also the mental health recovers.
Imagine what it is like for survivors of the Holocaust who slept with corpses, and saw their families go up in smoke.
@@miriamcohen7657 yeah well they didnt do it did they?? her parents didnt do it....?
I am so pleased that you have broken the chains that imprisoned your family to show love and kindness. This is the only way. My best wishes for you and your son!
@@InternalMind I didn't say that they did.
Your parents sound like a couple of assholes. My grandfather served on the beaches in Normandy and my grandmother was an immigrant from Poland. Her entire family was wiped out and she met my grandfather who was a GI before we began initial withdrawal. They were both excellent people who showed all of their children love. My father and his siblings had a poor but happy childhood and gave us something slightly better but similar. There was trauma and they were definitely traumatize considering the only spoke of the war once or twice and when they did it was shocking. However, once they got back home they did their responsibility to their family and their children. I feel like your parents let you down and I'm sorry for that. God bless you. For some trauma can make us and for others it breaks us. 🤷
My mother and grandmother travelled back to Germany from NY in '53 to see relatives a few months before my Grandmother passed away. Nobody there had a car, just bicycles, horses and livestock.
They arrived in a tiny little town in S. Germany (Dorrenbach) in a limo with presents and all sorts of staples the German folks in this town could not obtain. They were treated like royal heroes.
I never got to meet my grandmother, but the main thing she taught my mom that was passed on to me was, never take your blessings for granted. Many of us have no idea how good we've got it. It could always be SO MUCH WORSE!
Well they've got what they've deserved after what Germany did.
German is a Great Country
@@KazimGhouri-qk7tp особенно сейчас.😂 Когда легла под фашингтон.🇺🇲🏳️🌈🇬🇧👎🏼 шольц проститутка!🤣
I very much Miss My German City
I was lives in Munchen I was work In McDonald's
My dad was 16 or 17 when the war ended. His parents were killed because of the Nazis but I don't know the exact circumstances. His parents were originally from Hungary. As soon as he turned 18 he migrated to Australia to work on the Railways in Victoria. He met my mother and they got married. Then in 1975, they adopted me. They both Died in 2009. Mum in January, dad, the following December. Dad, being an orphan was temporarily placed in Hitler's youth, fortunately, it was in a Rural area where he never had to fight. Apparently, towards the end of the War, they made even kids fight. I could never imagine my dad with a gun. Even though I grew up to be involved with guns, dad was very much a pacifist. Being a german in WW2 was just no good for him, he could not wait to leave. I think because of his country of Origin he made an extra s[ecial effort to be kind to everyone. He was a very kind man.
Thank you for sharing your parents story, they sound like lovely people.
Thank you for commenting on this. It is from people who actually lived through things that will teach everyone about what war does. All of the little things, the complexities, but also the simple truths.
Hungary always had been a close ally of Austria for decades joining the "fight against Bolshevism" very early and sending troops to former USSR to fight Stalin. This happened at a time, when US Governments supported Stalin in order to expand his realm. Anyway, they learned afterwards... Back to the situation in Hungary in the 1930s and early 1940s. Quite a Lot of Hungarians joined persecution and prosecution against "Jewish partisans and terrorists", killing hundreds of thousands of people, including children. Either this happened directly on site in the towns and villages as "porgroms", i.e. in a very brutal way that shocked even Eichmann (who actually complained to Himmler about the extreme violence and asked for advice in how to handle a mob slaying children in the streets...), or by deporting persons to concentration camps. Why such escalation, why such hatte crimes? Background had been "Treaty of St. Germain", a system of repression, economic damage and land loss imposed on Hungary by the allies of World War 1, quite close to the stipulations of "Treaty of Versailles", but even worse. A lot of Hungarians considered Jewish elites in Western countries to have created and organized all trouble they experienced after World War 1.
By the way: In Hungary, German troops did not fight until end of 1944, and never fought against Hungarians and did not commit any athrocities against Hungarians. In fact, Wehrmacht soldiers had been helping Hungarians to defend country's population against the Stalin's "Red Army". that had been raping, slaying and looting everywhere in Eastern Europe as the Western allies did their best to support Stalin until 1947... Sad but true.
Yes, at the end of the war, they recruited old men and youngsters in to the "Volkssturm", meaning people's storm. The Hitlerjugend (Hitler's youth) was not a military organization, but educational, i.e. for brainwashing them.
Unfortunately, because ww2, most germans have to specially nice to everyone and feel sorry for a crime they didnt commit
I am born 1953 , living in the countryside, and I remember well the destroyed cities like Hannover which scared me a lot. Still in 1966 in Münster rest of ruins were to be seen.
In 1968 I worked during the holidays in a British military hospital as a civil worker, just 14 years old. The major nurse bullied us Germans always
" bloody Germans" .
I did not take it and complained about at my German boss. He laughed at me and told me to take it. I did not think so. So I went to the British colonel whose office area we Germans were not allowed to enter. But the colonel invited me in his office, curious what this young girl had to say . I told him in my little school English and he reacted nicely. He asked me for my father, wanted to know what he did during war. I told him proudly that none in my family has been a Nazi , my mother was not even in BDM and my father not in Hitlerjugend. But he was a parachute , fought in Crete and Monte Cassino. The Colonel smiled and said
" brave man, brave daughter" . The major nurse had to apologize and to stop this mobbing. A very fair treatment by the British colonel I will never forget ! My father was very proud of me !
So your father fought for the nazis and you wonder why you were referred to as a "bloody German " I think you're lucky that's all you were called.
I love this story
Good job standing up for yourself and your family people can be cruel sometimes.
My father worked in Muenster in Westfalen in the 1950's, and I visited relatives there.
I don't recall that many ruins at that time.
Oh, poor Germans being bullied. how sad for you.
My mom was 18 when the war ended. My father fought in the Heer Wermacht. Was wounded. They emigrated to the US in 1950. I was born a years later in America. Volunteered for Vietnam in ‘68, infantry. My Dad died when I was 8, so I don’t really remember him. My mom still alive just celebrated her 94th sharp as a tack. I’m torn when I watch these videos as I can see it from both sides, and after years of listening to my moms stories, understand how things got like they did. It’s times like now, when everyone is so divided that give opportunity to the rise of people who start all these problems. Then after so many deaths, countries unite and we sit back and ask what the hell was it all about. War solves nothing, all it does is destroy lives
Except now, there is no country similar to the post-war U.S. to save us from ourselves.
@Piotrekw19 Poles and their endless victim trip. The war is over since 77 years, move on. Especially after occupying czechoslovakia one day after the munich treaty. You can try to whitewash your history but other than poles noone believes it
@Piotrekw19 All I said is literally a fact. Calling me ignorant - oh the irony
Save her memories in a book.
@@makiste4216 What do you mean, move on, return what you took , and then move on, you bastard .
My wife's Dad was a German soldier in WWII. He was captured by the Russians and sent to a prisoner of war camp in Siberia. At the end of the war when he came home and he knocked on the door his Mom didn't recognize him because he lost so much weight. After the war he worked for the Americans in intelligence. She said that he would come home with a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist many times. He never talked much about those times.
And the Germans "rescued" thousands and thousands of N@z1s and gave them clearance to work for the US government. Disgusting. No wonder the Russians hated the West during the Cold War.
@kissa ja koira i dont
He sounds like a very wise person to have survived under such terrible conditions.
@@swagkachu3784U do realise the guy could have been a Nazi. Heck he probably killed allied soldiers. So he got what he deserved in my book nothing to be sorry for.
@@swagkachu3784 IGNORE THE IDIOT
A German friend of mine who was only 8 years old when Berlin fell told me that to survive they had to catch rates, mice and anything and eat them or otherwise they would have starved and that went on for several months. After this he eventually became one of the late Kofi Annan's right hand men in the UN and never forgot his roots and what humanity really is, bad and good.
I saw a rat today in Marylebone/ London rummaging among the rubbish. The thought of eating it would fill me with horror and revulsion.
HUMANITY! Did he learn this lesson before the killing of the jews or after. Such bs
Even the Germans were starving, it helps explain starvation in camps.
@@andrewmclaughlin2701 No, starvation in camps was intentional.
The UK declared war against Germany for invading Poland, but then didn't say a word when the USSR invaded from the east. If the whole war was over Poland, then why was the UK satisfied to see Poland occupied by the USSR when it was over?
the USSR declared war against Germany because you Germans invaded them. they won't stop at Poland unless they beat the shit out of your brain! What Britain could say about that? get themself beaten by the USSR too??
because even though the soviets couldn't capture great Britain by land, they might be able to starve them out, they weren't going to risk a war against Germany and USSR
no, ritko. The USSR invaded poland as part of the Molotov Ribbentrop treaty in September 1939, so with the germany invasion still going on. That is what Schlomo meant, not the "reinvasion" of Poland in 44 and 45.
Btw here is the answer:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Polish_military_alliance
there was a secret protocol
"for mutual assistance in case of military invasion from Germany"
all they wanted was a reason to declare war on Germany. They needed two world wars to prevent a strong Germany.
Good question. The answer lay with the wording of Britain's treaty with Poland --- UK response upon an attack by Germany against Poland. From a practical viewpoint, UK had it's hands full with a German war; a simultaneous war against the Soviet Union would have not been winnable. It's of interest to note that in both world wars Germany never had any designs on the UK; it was the UK which declared war on Germany both times. Treaties lead to WWI involvement, but the UK was the only initial combatant which entered that war for no other reason than to see what it could grab for itself. The same is true for WWII. All wars have a political cause.
The children deserved better life, they didn't start the war. God bless them.
Are we not all God’s children?
I think god was away on vacation, hence ww2
Or it didnt care.
peace
This is what was not emphasized in this film. The civilians get hit the hardest. Not just in Germany
@@pikiwiki definitely and the bombings that kept going on when the war was over does not sit well with me.
Same for the children of other continents where Europeans exploited the native on the name of civilisation...
I once worked with a former US Army cargo pilot who spent about a year after the war flying supplies into Germany (mainly Berlin) for civilians. He and other pilots experienced children rushing into the airfields and begging. They started loading up and distributing specific things being asked for, especially food items.
My mother-in-law was a teenager in a small town in Austria in those days. As the war was coming to a close the family prayed that the Americans would get to them before the Russians. The Americans did and, my mother-in-law's home being larger than most, they took it over as their local headquarters. She told me they were very nice and well-behaved.
I spent 2 years in Germany 1955 to 1957 Cdn Army as part of British Army on the Rhine, or Occupation Force British sector. The Germans at that time had started the rebuild and were getting on with life by then. Still signs of war damage all over the place but very little animosity left and mostly the German people were looking to the future. Some of the younger ones still were not sure what the war was all about or why Hitler had started it but most were very happy it was over.
Damn you are old
past 80 and still march to the tune when its played, mind yo I am in a power chair now as they have removed a hip. this only slows me down to the speed of the chair. Still have fond memories to keep the brain ticking over. Still inntouch with all my friends from thise days. Yes we are all still around.
What about japan? are japan and Germany still good friends to one another
+james ducan Did you experience any combat or service in the Vietnam war? If so what was it like?
thanks for doing your part, Canadians are revered for their bravery and ruggedness because of people like you. sorry for all your troubles though, i'm sure it wasn't any fun.
I am an American. My father too served in Europe. He stayed on after war's end due to point system. Later returning to the states he continued to send packages back, even after him & Mom were married. These were sent to some older folks he met while billed in a small town. He always remarked on the kids licking garbage cans from Army mess halls, how skinny the kids were. The utter destruction of everything & ultimately the futile nature of war.
All because a people allowed their governments to do whatever they wanted without accountability. Just like today.
@@TurdFergusen You are well named.
My thanks to your Father and his comrades in arms. I have my life because of their service.
Was it futile? Fascism in Europe was destroyed. Dictators were killed or went silent for a time. Putin is now rebirthing, fascism & “Nation Building”. Extremists in the US should watch closely.
@@TurdFergusen Die Regierung hat es mit allen Mitteln durchgesetzt und wer nicht mitgemacht, oder dagegen war wurde erschossen, oder erhängt. So war das im zweiten Weltkrieg in Deutschland. Die die man bei den großen öffentlichen Reden der Nazis sah, war nicht die Mehrheit des Volkes, die Mehrheit war dagegen. Schauen Sie sich mal eine neutral Berichterstattung darüber an, dann können Sie vielleicht mitreden ohne Lügen von anderen nachzuplappern.
Thanks to all those posting here of their experience of the effects of world war II. It is a generation that witnessed the culmination of terrible destruction to a rebuilding of prosperity. May the world never forget the lessons learned from this tragedy.
Oh they haven’t forgotten, they just haven’t learned.😢
here we are now on the very edge of war with Russia as i write this. All because of our corrupt Washington DC. may God help us and may God give the Russian military pause and discernment.
It really is kinda shocking to watch these old videos and see where we were and compare it to where we are now. The process of rebuilding an entire country inside and out is really fascinating.
Not the whole country, just cities you can't really destroy a whole country.
My grandfather being Polish was a victim of child mandatory labour program and was brought to Germany during II world war to work on a farm. Despite being departed from the family he never spoke badly about German families he lived with. He said he was treated decently, was not beated or abused. When I kept asking him about other war stories he usually become quiet. Later I learnt from my parents that many people from his village were killed including kids at his age. It must have been a devastating experience for him. Watching this movie I see it could not be any different for the Germans at that time. It is now our generation's obligation to avoid war in Europe at all costs, so that our children learn about atrocities of war from books and not from the family stories.
Today, Germany is waging a hybrid war against Poland as part of the Fourth European German Reich !
For several dozen years they have been ensuring that the Polish Noah will grow in strength
They finance Putin and send helmets to Ukraine
Ty Polaku od siedmiu boleści !
Вы не хотите давать, но хотите брать.
Так задумайтесь к чему вы идете.
Вы берете у нас в Сибири нефть и газ, и устраиваете войны с колониальной администрацией. А отдавать новые технологии не собираетесь. Это справедливо? ?????....
@@matreschka888 Russian blyat idi na hui
Ahhh, The British Empire teaching the Germans about the evils of imperialism ... :P
The evils of racism and slavery.....we've been stamping it out for 200 years.
idiot
ridiculous propaganda
Someone has too :)
I geuss you have no clue what happened after the war do you
The taste of defeat is the most bitter. What a tragic waste of lives and beautiful cities. 🙏😔
Puh for people born long after WWII its not possible to imagine something like this. There was something about my grandparents, i can’t explain. They stood together like no modern person do today. They always worked on problems and loved each other and all of their children and grand kids with all their hearth. They also never complained, because they always remembered it can get worse.
Has a little more to do with cultural programming than the war.
And here in South Africa we've had 26 years of post apartheid democracy led by the ANC and the country is moving towards collapse through gross incompetence and wide scale corruption.
We pray for your country and may God answer quickly!
Prayers never did shit 💩 and your imaginary friend does not exist
@@garbageday587 and you know that because? 🤔
SA during the apartheid was the most developed country in Africa.
Everyone knows why, no one can say it.
My Father fought in the war, my mother was a German war bride, this clip brings tears, we all must remember this war, and never let our leaders do a thing like this again.
My guy, our leader is Everyone in the population, not the president or wtv if the population stock together they are the leader. I've never seen 1 leader in any animal groupd in this planet have so much control over others,
They're doing it again and We The People are doing nothing about it. This time America is going to be decimated.
After 7 years. Right now, Germany is supplying weapons to some Ukrainian guys using some Nazi slogans, and glorifying Bandera who served in the Third Reich, so that they would kill Russians. What about repetition?
Сегодня. Ваши лидеры опять наступили на грабли. Танки с крестами идут на русские земли.
Результат известен.
And yet..... February 2023 Europe war again. So sad.
I remember living in Germany in the early 1960s as a little boy because my Dad was stationed there. He was in the US Army as a SSG. We were stationed near Frankfurt. I remember thinking how odd this place is. The people living there didn't seem to have anything. I was glad when we we left to come back home.
My dad was in the Air Force as an aviation mechanic we never got to go with him to other countries like Germany where he was stationed. We stayed on the base in the US.
Funny.
Now, during my four times of visiting the US I thought the same about America.
A friend told me what happened when the British soldiers first entered her village in Northern Germany after the defeat in 1945 when she was a young girl.
They came in very cautiously at first, guns raised, and searched every hiding place and poked every haystack until they were sure there were no pockets of resistance left.
At one point they found an air rifle in someone's house and a great commotion ensued until it was explained it was just used by the young son to shoot birds.
Once they had secured the village, they behaved well and in a disciplined manner and didn't mistreat the inhabitants.
The German children used to sometimes run up to the soldiers stationed around the village and shout in English, "You have a bird!" which is a direct translation of a German idiom meaning "You're crazy!" ("Du hast einen Vogel!"). Of course the soldiers didn't understand what the children meant and the children didn't know the direct translation has no meaning in English.
Many German children were victims of war crimes! They had no political ideolgy., like communism!They were catholic school girls, God bless Germany!
@@GabrielaLtc They just carpet bombed them and let them die of hunger till cannibalism ensued.
The Russians raped every female and allied soldiers for chocolate and cigarettes, it has been so reported.
@@GabrielaLtc That was a lifetime ago and most of those people aren’t even alone anymore.
@@GabrielaLtc Not everything told about "the Germans" is true. Have you not been taught that history is written yb those who win the war?
Well sorry but if I had to decide whether to trust Germans or Brits, I'd definitely choose Germans.
Brits aren't trustworthy, not the slightest bit. Also they did nothing to apologize to the world for all their colonization wars. On the contrary, they still believe they are the hottest sh*t on this planet, even when no one cares. The EU doesn't even care about Brexit, yet Brits are so stuck up they think "oh nobody can live without us"...in reality, nobody cares. Also nobody cares about the coronation or the "royals", it's a joke. They take themselves far too serious.
The Brits should've told the boy not to shoot birds for fun - I did that myself about 60 years ago and it haunts me to this day.
My Dad fought in WW2 like a lot of people fathers did of my age - My friends & I used to listen about his stories - Sometimes his stories would reveal the horrors of what men can do to each other-As well as themen with integrity - As I have got older and wiser (some might question that) - And replayed his stories over in my memory - I have my views on my Dad - But as a young man who when was conscripted to fight Germany had already resigned himself to being killed over their at 18 year old ! - But after being demobed at 23 years old at the end of WW2 -And seeing the the hardship of the peoples - He signed up for the control commision - In a bid to help rebuild all of Europe including Germany - And I think it was his way to make amends for all that he had done in the name of King & Country ! - He had a passport signed by Bevin that allowed him to cross any of the zones in Germany - British of course American & Russian Zones To me actions speak louder than words ! - And I am proud of my Dad for the way he thought about what he was made to do and what he did when the powers that be released their grip on him !
My Dad never spoke a word of it although he had a treasure trove of war souvenirs. We only learned about the horror of the concentration camps from letters from a fellow soldier after he died.
My father was sent to Nuremberg in1945 as an Army Corp of Engineers from America.The war was over, he was there to help heal the wounds. He told me to be proud of our heritage and I hope for the best for Gremany forever. Bless you all.
My 1st wifes father was in Germany at the end of the war,a british Soldier,he had been seconded to a US officer as an interpreter.He said it was bad enough seeing places like Dresden but what made him a pacifist was being one of the 1st soldiers to discover Belsen.
@@Mercmad how can you be a pacifist, if places like Belsen exist ? Evil should be fought !
On the contrary, my uncle relieved Bastoyne under Patton. He never breathed a word about it, but that look in his eyes said it all.
I was born during the war in 1942 in Bristol England. You would think that being English my family would have hated the Germans. But I never heard a bad word said about them by my parents. My dad was in the 8th army and my mother looking after me and my brother and her mother. Their view was that like us the Germans had to take the war into its stride and that they were in the same boat as us. My mother and gran would have given them all the help they needed after the war because they knew that the people there were no different than us really Lots of bad things happen in war but we must learn to overcome the things that took place and rebuild for future generations so that peace can replace hatred .
+ronaldrobin very well put! Although the genocide will always show how they let a bunch of people perpetrate the most heinous crimes at such a scale
thank you so much for your honesty and for your goodness.. its very much needed around here.. so way to go!
The German people tend to be far too deferential toward their government, both before WWII, and today, allowing hordes of Islamists into Germany to make havoc...While technology changes, people don't.
In addition, the ' It can't possibly happen here ' mindset doubtless delayed many Germans in the 1930s from fleeing Germany in time. If they had not departed Germany by 1933, it was likely not going to happen. Dachau was opened in 1933, just months after Hitler came to power.
Additionally, IBM ran the records division for the camps, and had an office adjacent to the front gate at each and every camp. IBM refused to sell their technology to the Germans, and insisted on leasing them the equipment and supplying the techs for the duration. Seldom, if ever mentioned, like the cannibalism of the Japanese Army.
I think one of the most poignant things of this period must have been the brilliant resilience of the german women to both deal with life, kids, food, water, fuel for cooking, heating, clothing etc as well as having to support an utterly dejected male population, one hell of a burden
xzqzq: are you a Zionist or a Zionist Jew? Its a dead giveaway when someone has "hordes of Islamists" anywhere in a post. (I'm a Christian, not a Muslim...but I don't HATE Muslims). ZIONISM/Marxism/Communism....is the WHOLE problem. Israel is a ZIONIST apartheid "state" with a PM whose grandfather was a BOLSHEVIK.
My father was in Germany near the end of WW2 until April 1946. He was in the Army Airforce. The early occupation troops would use German houses for housing. My father respected the German people and tried to keep his fellow soldiers from trashing the house where they were living. My family visited Germany in 1967 and visited the people who lived in the house where my father stayed . They remembered my father and served us refreshments. We exchanged Christmas cards with them for several years.
The replies to this video are remarkable in and of themselves. I hope the owner of this channel can document them to preserve them along with the archive footage shown.
Germany don’t start again.
My mother was born 1938 in Danzig. She lost her mother during the war and was separated from her father and siblings. Two of her brothers served in Wehrmacht. One did not return. As the Soviets advanced, she became a refugee and headed west with another family from Danzig. They settled in a small German town near the Czech border. My mother's father reemerged in 1950 in Leipzig with a new wife and the surviving siblings. My mother went to live with him briefly and did not want to stay, so she returned to the couple that took care of her. They were known to me as Oma and Opa. My mother eventually got a job on an American base as a translator in Nuremburg where she met an American GI, my father. She would return home with my father and start a family. She never recovered from the War and suffered from horrible memories and anxiety throughout her life. I think today we would classify it as PTSD. She is gone now, but I'm in touch with my family members back in Germany and my cousins there say the same thing. Their parents, similar age as my mother at the end of the war were very distant. They did not want to be close to many people and were often distant with their own children. I wonder if it had something to do with loss and not wanting to get close to anyone for fear of losing them. The one thing I take away from this terrible event in human history is that my parents, both born before the war from waring countries who had parents that were at war with each other had children together. There's hope!
So many posters go on about this generation being less strong minded than that of the time of WW11. But it's an illusion. The same mental traumas happened to people then as now. Dig into family histories and the people who came back from war and/or regugeehood often carried mental scars as severe as any.
@@carelgoodheir692 I'm sorry but the mental tramas of "this generation" pales in comparison to what the WWII generation experienced. That's why they're called the "GREATEST GENERATION".
‘Hard times create strong men,
strong men create good times,
good times create weak men,
and weak men create hard times.’
G. Michael Hopf
@@carelgoodheir692 Definitely not the same. Back then was bad, bad.
I can't imagine how people felt after going through a war. For the first two months of this recent war in Ukraine, I was wrapped up in the news so much it interfered with my daily life. It was traumatizing to see the constant dehumanization that seemed to get worse and worse. After years of living through a war, I imagine I would never look anyone in the eyes again, disgusted by the species and the feeling that individuals are powerless, lost in waves of destruction and survival.
You deserve it. Your parrents support fascist Germany government so it's your fault. They had to kill or overthrow hitler
Things change so quickly that the illusion of this being such a long time ago develops.
This truly was not that long ago.
My Great Grandparents on Mom's side immigrated from Germany in 1800's sometime.
They settled in Frederick, Texas. My Grandmother was born around 1880-ish. She passed away at 83 in 1978.
My extended family is very large Catholic. My Grandparents moved to West University Place in Houston near Rice University. Mom and her twin sister were born in 1924, 7 children total. They grew up during the Great Depression and told us stories about a less fortunate people coming by looking for work and my grandmother would feed them.
. My grandmother would also feed any homeless animal that passed by. The people would move on but the animals would stay, lol.
My grandmother, my mother, and I all have that animal animal lover gene in our DNA.
My grandfather, Papa Dutch was blessed to have a very good job at a family-owned Dairy. The owner was an alcoholic and handed over many duties to my grandfather and my grandfather was well rewarded.
They were very blessed during the Great Depression.
My mother had four brothers and two of them fought in WW2. My mom is twin sister's husband also fought in WW2.
One was in the Army and two were in the Air Force.
My mom's brother all graduated from Rice University back when it was an all-male, free University.
I have always been very proud of all of them. Throwing up during the Great Depression made strong men and women.
Watching this video reminds me of how history repeats itself. What is going on in Putin's Russia right now is very similar to what happened in Hilter's Germany. The people must be reprogrammed.
I lived in Germany from 1966 till 1976. I am amazed after seeing the destruction how Germany rebuilt its roads factories universities all just in 21 years. Great country super great Germans I learned a lot from the Germans... Honesty sincere work friendship and many many good values on life.
They got a lot of help from the Marshall Plan just like Japan did. Thank you USA. How many are taught that in school?
@@John-jl9de Europe is still occupied by the USA.
@@John-jl9de As Americas main Ally, Britain was treated badly by the US. we were bankrupted by the war, with massive destruction of OUR cities and factories ect, yet it took 4 months of tough negociating to get a reduced loan, that was only cleared in 2006.
@@MrDaiseymay Purpose of WWI was to end European Kingdoms, WWII was to end European Empires. Now the world is free from tyranny.
@@John-jl9de The same Americans who financed Hitler?? American Bush Family had a steel factory in Lower Silesia. They used forced laborers from Gross- Rosen concentration camp .AND Americans still elected these criminals and made them the President of United States. British and Americans played a game on both sides, Europeans concentrate so much on hatred towards Germans they do not notice that Europe is being destroyed and turned into Multikulti shithole like North America. My grandfather was a prisoner of a Nazi camp.. can't deny the suffering of Slavic people. But there is much more to the World War I, World War II and now a war in Ukraine.. Americans and the British are always involved in these Evil wars. And yes, I was taught at school about Marshall plan and also about HOOTON PLAN which is now taking place across Europe
And around ten years later, they'd rebuilt and became the fifth richest country in the world.
oh you know Germans, they are so so so smart, briliant work ethic
manofweed1 who? They are not rich...
Germany is only 18
manofweed1 what about japan?
attackmaster555 lol
My first RAF Medical Branch posting was to RAF-Hospital Wegberg-1956-1959. During my free time, I traveled a large part of Germany and adjacent countries on a motorcycle. What impressed me was the friendliness of the local population, and just how quickly they had rebuilt so many of their cities. I would go back to that time in a heartbeat if time travel was possible. I am currently a small part of an historical record being compiled by a German historian at the University of Paderborn. The many photographs I took of the hospital etc. which is a thumbnail sketch of my time in Germany, have found a useful home in at least two museums / displays related to the various forces stationed in Germany during those years. Project British Forces in Germany. A Yorkshireman living down under in Tasmania the past 50 odd years. 👍🇬🇧🇦🇺🦘
Shevill Mathers • Love Tassie. Lived there near Orford for five years. Greetings 👋
@@dietmarbottcher5900 Paradise on earth. Google: Shevill Mathers Southern Cross Observatory-Cambridge Tasmania 42 South.
What do you think of the oppression by the current governent about the over reaction of the virus
And the poisonous shot
good heavens, down under you say? In Tasmania? You need to come back up to Old Blighty and share your experiences!
Did you manage to visit the concentration camps those "friendly people " built ?
My great-grandfather was actually an elementary school principal before the war. After the war the teachers were checked pretty thoroughly. As he had been forced to join the party he was initially rejected. He was later accepted due to his initial refusal to join the party.
My uncle served in Germany in the US Army in the early 80s. He served on the Berlin wall and he told me about how he saw a East German Soldier defect to West Germany.
My mother worked in London during the blitz as a nurse. She recalls dancing in the subway during bombing raids including hearing V2 s coming over. There was a sense of lets live for today, who knows what tomorrow brings. She later went to work in NYC and then NZ. She was very proud of her profession and I always admired her resilient approach to life.
My grandma was a nurse in Coventry during the bombings and was buried alive for a 2 days. She later served the Royal Navy in North Africa, I was always engulfed in her stories. She always preached to me to have a skill or a career to fall back on to be able to support yourself & your children. She was proud to be a nurse and it supported her to raise 2 girls alone. She didn't retire until her 70's and was still considered 'Doc' at our church up until she passed in her 90's.
@@dawnwerby5807 That's a great memory to have. Your grandma was right about a career for a woman.
She didn’t hear V2s. They were rockets travelling at more than the speed of sound. She heard V1s. I’m old enough to remember V1s. Saw and heard several. Luckily only one landed near us.
@@oldman1734 I don't think V2 rockets were even seen over London.
However, the sonic boom from the V2 was heard after the rocket exploded but nobody understood what the second boom was.
Furthermore, citizens of London were told at first the V2 detonations were cooking gas explosions.
(Didn't want to terrify the locals... nevermind they had survived 5 years of the blitz and about a thousand V1's.)
I knew an English coal scientist who went to Germany in June 1945, the first thing he had to do was to stop fires in underground mines. The German miners had all been dragged into the Wehrmacht over the last several months and the coal in the neglected mines had spontaneously combusted. There were also coal stockpiles on fire from the same cause, nothing much could be done about those as nobody could get near them and water would have actually made things worse.
May we never lose these films because more than studying it decades later the view of people during and right after these events is priceless
I met a man at Oktoberfest who had been a US POW. He sought my friends and I out pegging us for US GIs. What he told me brought tears to my eyes.
He told me that he was sent to a camp in Tennessee, and that the POWs had to build their barracks while living in tents. Some of these men learned their trades in the POW camp according to him.
He appreciated that after the war, the Allies gave Germany the material to rebuild, but allowed the Germans to do the work. This restored their pride. Much like we see in this video. That was long-term thinking by the Allies, and something seriously lacking in today's geopolitics.
There's more, but at the end of his story all three of us were crying. I just pray that we are the same people today that we were back then.
My mother was a nurse, and she became acquainted with a lady from Germany, who had become a doctor, and told her how bad it was during and after the war. At one point she had to make a skirt out of a swastika flag, as she had no other cloth available. Here in the US my grandfather's brothers, who were farmers, had German POW's sent out to work for them(in Kansas) as they could speak German. Their own father had been an immigrant from Germany when he was 16, stowing away so he wouldn't be drafted when Bismarck was busy unifying the German states.
In the late 60s I met Germans who immigrated to the US as children after WWII. Their father was a Nazi soldier. His children would claim they were from Lithuania. Other German post war immigrants in the town would tell their neighbors they were Dutch.
Ten years after the war there was very little evidence of the war. The German CULTURE is one of the most productive cultures in the world. They are a great people.
Aren't you getting cause and effect a little confused here? That's in no small part thanks to the campaign of denazification after the war. Plus eastern Germany never recovered from the war, not fully, not even to the present day, after being subjected to Russian occupation. That same threat of Russian agression was also a unifying factor that people could get behind.
history tells that not only productive but also destructive.
That's just being human.
My family and I, as a 7 year old, moved to Germany in June of 1956. My father helped administrate a Catholic orphanage and as a result ,we traveled through Bavaria quite often. My siblings and I became friends with many German children. We lived there for four and one half years. The thing that made the most lasting impression on me was the still devastated regions through which we traveled and regularly visited. The destruction and immense rubble piles still lining the streets of many cities and what appeared to be industrial areas was still clearly visible. The shortages of many basic commodities which we took and still take for granted was wide spread. Yes, I agree that, the German people are a great and industrious people and as we know, with the incredible resources made available through the Marshall Plan, Germany healed itself and prospered. But let there be no mistake, ten years after the war Germany was still crawling out of the rubble. We still have shoe boxes filled with pictures of that period in case the revisionist want to say different.
Donald Zlotnik Direct American investment really helps.
My father was 5 when the war ended for them in NW Germany. They were living on a family farm that sustained during and after the war. He said they would eat a lot of rabbit. To this day he still won’t eat rabbit. 😅 My father was lucky. His father was able to evade being captured and made his way home.
They immigrated to the US where my father ended up attended U of Michigan and USC. 😊
My grandmother was a little girl and lived on the Eastern side of the iron curtain until they escaped to the western side in 1947. The stories she has and things she saw could only be described as a horror show.
She saw a terrible things from Soviet soldiers?
@@skorik7910 both sides. But moreso the soviets.
@@gottroubletactical like what give us examples
@@honeststranger1070 during or after the war?
@@gottroubletactical during the war and after first hand information is really valuable than these books
the german mother fending for her children during ww2 has my deepest admiration and respect and awe .They did an impossible heartbreaking job and they did it well..the real hero are those mothers
Well said!!!
Before d destruction, someone has to envoy to the allies ( it is correct by lt. Col. Stauffenberg).
Yeah forget the sacrifice of millions of soldiers for some milf lol GO FUCK YOURSELF
@@daniellap.stewart6839 if you can't say something nice, then don't say.
they paid for the sins of the husbands and fathers. germany invented total war and got repaid in the same.
It's amazing 70 million people were still alive after the war. I'm amazed anyone survived.
Before that maybe 70m, more than 5m perished
27 миллионов советского ( в основном русские,белорусы и Украины) народа убил немецы. Это ведь не в счёт ? Это Самый настоящий геноцид .
I was in the 2nd TAF during the occupation, For the most part, relations were harmonious, however, some still thought they could continue the war, and they had to be handled firmly. I in general enjoyed my 18 months I was never on a normal station but lived in the community.
It's truly amazing how the German people rebuilt their country so fabulously and quickly. They didn't mope around feeling sorry for themselves like other defeated people often do.
I remember reading about German diaspora from West Prussia to many countries in Europe and Americas, I could not imagine how hard life had been for these people who were forced to leave their homes they grew up in. It also broke my heart especially when Prussia was dismembered, people were stripped off of their identity.
That's so interesting. How do you feel about the fact that that is exactly what they did to Jews, but with the focused intention of annihilating them completely in the most barbaric way imaginable?
@@aeryinaviolet who did what? The prussian refugees? Dont be so hypocrital, you americans were interested what happended to the jews in the midlle of the 40s, when it was already a question of money! So if you want someone to care for the jews, make it by yourself , your country made a genozid and kept the whole land which wasn't even yours!!! And you will tell us germans about moralitiy? Whats that, a bad joke?!
@@aeryinaviolet those things are fake, you have been deceived. you spend your breath on defending the oldest enemies, murderers, and blasphemers of Christ and his church. Repent.
@@aeryinaviolet two wrongs dont make a right asshole
@@felixmalotka6680 hey i'm a jew from russia I think yall immoral cunts
Was stationed in the USAF in Germany in the mid 80's. Had a large group of older German civilians to work alongside with. They all found time over a meal in their homes to share with the experiences of growing up post war.
Absolutely nothing compared to Warsaw, Minsk, Kiev, St Petersburg (Leningrad), Budapest ... the list is endless.
Episodes like the Babi Yar - a blot on humanity, a stain.
I am an American ,duly proud of my Anglo-Celtic ancestry;vicariously proud of my uncles & great uncles who served so dutifully in that war....HOWEVER.....the sickening truth about the CAUSES of war is not what we have been told....
I lived in Germany during the mid to late 1950's, the memories of what I saw of it make it difficult to realise there had been a war. The recovery was remarkable, only the ruin of Cologne Cathedral stands out, everything else I saw was restored.
I was in Cologne in July, 1959 and saw the cathedral..I was told it was not destroyed during the Allied bombing raids although the rest of the city was destroyed.
@@jimelliott6200 I also saw the cathedral and stayed in a house just next to it. it was not damaged (or not much).
@@jimelliott6200 Yes, that is correct. The pilots were ordered not to destroy the cathedral.
The Economic Miracle Years.
But I’ve heard people say that many nazi administrators and officials were still needed and ran things.
I have heard it claimed that denazification was not fully completed until the mid 1960s.
Thanks to the Marshall Plan
My grandfather was a fireman in London docks during The war, he lost many friends during the war , But he never hated the german people. I spent many times in Germany, my ex girlfriend is German.I feel sorry for all the trouble German people are going through now, they are strong people,
good decent comment,, thanks for that
How come germans are in trouble '' now '' ?:)) Germany is the strongest economy of Europe today lmao .And everyone knows that WW2 was not only their fault .
qpae123 Why? Islam.
Mark Thorne Yes islam is causing trouble to the germans,
Thanks grandad but you speak garbage and obviously know nothing. For 1946 this is a very interesting and an amazingly unbiased little film. Hey they got Elvis. Germany isn't in trouble it's been an amazing transformation and some of my best buds are from there. Most Europeans esp Danes and Dutch still hold quite the grudge though. Made in Germany is the most respected imprint on earth.
03:09 Cologne. A city that had been faced 262 air raids during war and was destroyed up to 90 percent in some quarters when war was finished.
My father was a WWII veteran, just to clarify where I'm coming from.
After Germany unified in the late 19th century, the work ethic of the German people increasingly posed a problem for the British; GB felt a sense of entitlement regarding industrial output, yet Germany posed an increasingly serious challenge based upon standards of precision, quality. etc. Competition was already simmering prior to the assasination of the Archduke Ferdinand; GB would not brook any intrusions into their sphere of influence, merit be damned. German military attachees had witnessed firsthand how the British treated their adversaries in the South Sudan and elsewhere, and subsequent German policy was promulgated based upon such observations. Germany was essentially backed into a corner which they were ill equipped to occupy, and so they responded. A century has passed...is it still necessary that Germans be made the scapegoat of history? I've worked with a great many Germans during the course of doing international business, and I was always very impressed with every aspect of their behavior; these people are not the monsters they've been made out to be, and it's well time that we moved past that thinking.
Danke für diese lieben und netten Worte. Grüße aus Deutschland.
My half sister Monique, same mother, was born in Berlin 4th of May 1945, our mother managed to cross into France where later I was born, I recall the hatred we received as refugees from the 3rd Reich, being called 'sale boches' and often made to apologize for atrocities committed against the French & others during the war... As an old man now I sometimes watch these, at time poignant and disturbing, 'documentaries' on CZcams, they bring tears in my eyes, but I have to admit that my heart bleed with both shame and proudness at what Germans were able to do, during the war, and its aftermath, when within 10 years they were possibly the most vibrant if not the most dominant industrialized country in Europe, when France was still dealing with poverty and poorly equipped to rebuild, especially in the North (Normandy, Brittany, Pas de Calais, etc.) Even England, which I visited in the early sixties, London still had entire blocks in ruins, same in Holland and Belgium... Growing up in the fifties was a mixture of happiness and sadness for what had happened less than 10 years earlier, that and that alone is the reason I cherish the idea of European Union, regardless of certain problems which are now becoming a trigger for possible disunity, which could see old & all problems resurfacing as if History has to always repeat itself but let us hope that sanity will prevail and the future will be saved from such a monumental failure that resonates deeply watching this documentary... Amen
Thank you for sharing that history...your history. So unfair that you had to bear some of that shame over something that really had nothing to do with you, other than the accident of birth of where and to whom you were born.
Coincidently, I was born exactly 5 years after your sister, on May 4, 1950.
The Russians beat you pretty good. Your people the shoemakers, the tailors donned those dramatic fancy nazi uniforms and began to fantasize they were superior race. All those fantasies were finished by the Russians! Btw the Germans are not Aryans. Aryans are Persians and some people of North India. Read what Aryan is.
@@jakeb8298 a gazillion russians died
@@visionist7 so what? The nazis were defeated and that crazy austrian clown hitler committed suicide. Russians wreaked havoc in berlin. Hundreds of thousands of nazis were marched to siberia the gloomy sad faces of german generals is a sight to be happy at, almost all worked to death in siberia, germany was ruined. the superior race lol. Look at the so called superior race german prisoners marching defeated spat upon by ordinary Russians! The retired german chancellor now works for a russian oil company! The head of the arrogant bows forever.
And yet Germany is look up high amongst most countries. Swallow that up
My Uncle was in the Battle of the Bulge. I never ever heard him talk about what he saw. When he found out I was joining the Army the only thing he said was how much he hated the Army, and Military life. At the end of his time served, and the War had ended the recruiter talked to him about reenlisting. These were his words to the Recruiter. " Before you waste my time and your time I just want to let you know that I'm not interested in anything the Army has to offer me". That was the end of the conversation.
Your uncle wasn't proud of his bravery and making it back home safe?
My uncle certainly wasn't proud of his bravery. Perhaps The Bravery of others, but not his. I think it was probably just be accumulation of what he saw, and the death of that he saw.. the war definitely affected him, and not in a good way.
Smart uncle
I had to chuckle...Like your dad, my dad was drafted and served during Korea and he absolutely despised the army and often told the story about finally getting out, walking in the door at home, taking off his army jacket and wiping his feet on his army jacket.
He hated it....And what do I do? I joined in 1986. 😂
@@Cogic Real combatants don't act live actors in films. Ticker tape parades were full of guys that were never deployed.
@1:59 There is a scene in "28 Days Later" that reminds me of this. It's at the beginning when he is walking through deserted London and comes upon a big message board where people were desperately trying to get in contact with missing loved ones.
Wow,
This documentary cuts through it all..
To think of the death and destruction that all can be traced back to one man is incredible.
....and not true at all XD
@@KillKenny09 What do you mean?
@@SeniorJr815 well,
one single person can not start a world war...
one single person can not start a political party....
one single person can not manipulate the whole nation...
Here in Germany we still have thousands of actual Neonazis. These people do believe that Hitler was the great Führer, who did all of that by himself. They still fall for the propaganda from 1930-45.
You are not one of them, but you sound very naive...
Without Dietrich Eckart (1868-1923) of the "Thule Society", there would have never been a german Reichskanzler named Hitler....
And without the millions of germans, there wouldn´t have never been a WWII... at least as we know it.
I am sorry for my bad english...
But let me ask you this:
Who is responsible for the nuclear mass murder of hundres of thousands japanese civilians in Nagasaki and Hiroshima?
Would you give all the credits to Harry Truman?
Did he decide that all by himself?
@@KillKenny09 Take a breath dude jeez. Don’t insult me or act like you know anything about me you lil punk. I barely even said anything but my point is that, yes, the origins of the war can be traced back to one man. The Nazis were by far the most radical/aggressive/prejudice political party during their rise to power. They very likely would not have had any momentum or influence in the German government without Hitler. He created fame and sympathy through his mass public speeches and propaganda and writings like Mein Kampf. He was the one who was appointed chancellor (after some very improbable circumstances) and eventually made himself dictator. Hitler was the one who lead Germany to re-armament and annexation and eventually invasions. Hitler sparked WW2 how tf can you argue that. Maybe another world war would have happened a different way but we are talking about this war dummy
@@SeniorJr815 "don´t insult me..." and calls a stranger a punk and a dummy...
XD
My mother in law went to Germany after the war from the UK as part of the Red Cross. She had trained as a dietitian and spent a lot of time there assisting those people.
Dietitian during a time of hunger?
Sorry to hear what happened to German civilians after the war, they rebuilt their country easily but nothing will restore the life of the civilians that lost their lives.
Nor the original historical landmarks. God Bless the German people...beautiful, resilient, courageous.
@@bonniebluebell5940God Bless Germany
Thank you for all your commments
It helps me to understand why my childhood was so difficult to grow up in Germany in the 1990s & 2000s.
Nun du bist einfach ein Opfer der alliierten Umerziehung, klar hat man mit den Lügen die man über uns Deutsche erzählt so seine Probleme, aber so ein paar Aussagen aus der damaligen Zeit änderten das für mich alles.
Zitat:
“Wir haben diesen Krieg durch Gräuelpropaganda gewonnen und wir fangen jetzt erst richtig damit an. Wir werden diese Gräuelpropaganda fortführen, wir werden sie steigern bis niemand mehr ein gutes Wort von den Deutschen annehmen wird, bis alles zerstört ist, was ihnen Sympathien in anderen Ländern entgegenbringen könnte und bis sie derart verwirrt sind, dass sie nicht mehr wissen, was sie tun sollen. Wenn dies erreicht ist, wenn sie anfangen ihr eigenes Nest zu beschmutzen, und zwar nicht widerstrebend sondern mit Übereifer den Siegern gehorchend, nur dann ist der Sieg vollkommen. Es wird niemals endgültig sein. Die Umerziehung bedarf gewissenhafter, unentwegter Pflege wie ein Englischer Rasen. Nur ein Moment der Unachtsamkeit und das Unkraut bricht durch, dieses unausrottbare Unkraut der geschichtlichen Wahrheit.” Ein alliierter Umerzieher zu Prof. Dr. Friedrich Grimm (Verfasser des äußerst lesenswerten Buches “Politische Justiz - die Krankheit unserer Zeit“, Bonn 1953)
“…Wir machten aus Hitler ein Monstrum, einen Teufel. Deshalb konnten wir nach dem Krieg auch nicht mehr davon abrücken. Hatten wir doch die Massen gegen den Teufel persönlich mobilisiert. Also waren wir nach dem Krieg gezwungen, in diesem Teufelsszenario mitzuspielen. Wir hätten unmöglich unseren Menschen klarmachen können, daß der Krieg eigentlich nur eine wirtschaftliche Präventivmaßnahme war…“ James Baker - US-Außenminister 1989 - 1992 (DER SPIEGEL 13 / 1992
“…Sie müssen verstehen, dieser Krieg gilt nicht Hitler und dem Nationalsozialismus. Dieser Krieg wird wegen der Stärke des deutschen Volkes geführt, das ein für allemal zu Brei gemacht werden muß. Es spielt keine Rolle, ob die Deutschen sich in den Händen eines Hitler oder eines Jesuiten-Priesters befinden…“ Winston Churchill britischer Kriegspremier-Minister (Emrys Hughes, Winston Churchill - His Career in War and Peace, Seite 145).
“…Wir hätten, wenn wir gewollt hätten, ohne einen Schuß zu tun, verhindern können, daß der Krieg ausbrach, aber wir wollten nicht…” Winston Churchill 1945
“…Ich möchte keine Vorschläge haben, wie wir kriegswichtige Ziele im Umland von Dresden zerstören können, ich möchte Vorschläge haben, wie wir 600.000 Flüchtlinge aus Breslau in Dresden braten können…” Winston Churchill
“…Geheimdokumente enthüllen: London wies 1940 Friedensfühler zurück. Das britische Kriegskabinett unter Winston Churchill wies im Juli und August 1940 mehrere von deutscher Seite und neutraler Seite kommende ‚Friedensfühler’ zurück. Dies geht aus bisher geheim-gehaltenen britischen Kabinettspapieren des Jahres 1940 hervor, die jetzt nach der vorgeschriebenen 30-jährigen Sperre freigegeben wurden…“ “Augsburger Allgemeine” vom 2. Januar 1970
.
“…Was wir im deutschen Widerstand während des Krieges nicht wirklich begreifen wollten, haben wir nachträglich vollends gelernt: daß der Krieg schließlich nicht gegen Hitler, sondern gegen Deutschland geführt wurde…“ Eugen Gerstenmaier - Bundestagspräsident ab 1954, während des Krieges Mitglied der „Bekennenden Kirche“
“…Unser Hauptziel ist die Vernichtung von so viel Deutschen, wie möglich. Ich erwarte die Vernichtung jedes Deutschen westlich des Rheines und innerhalb des Gebietes, das wir angreifen…“ General Dwight D. Eisenhower zu Beginn des Angriffs an der Röhr (Nebenfluß der Ruhr im Sauerland)
“…Hitler und das deutsche Volk haben den Krieg nicht gewollt. Wir haben auf die verschiedenen Beschwörungen Hitlers um Frieden nicht geantwortet. Nun müssen wir feststellen, daß er recht hatte. An Stelle einer Kooperation Deutschlands, die er uns angeboten hatte, steht die riesige imperialistische Macht der Sowjets. Ich fühle mich beschämt, jetzt sehen zu müssen, wie dieselben Ziele, die wir Hitler unterstellt haben, unter einem anderen Namen verfolgt werden…“ Sir Hartley Shawcross - der britische Generalankläger in Nürnberg (vgl. Shawcross “Stalins Schachzüge gegen Deutschland”, Graz, 1963
„… dass die Signatarmächte des Vertrages von Versailles den Deutschen feierlich versprachen, man würde abrüsten, wenn Deutschland mit der Abrüstung vorangehe. Vierzehn Jahre! lang hatte Deutschland auf die Einhaltung dieses Versprechens gewartet … In der Zwischenzeit haben alle Länder … ihre Kriegsbewaffnung noch gesteigert und sogar den Nachbarn Geldanleihen zugestanden, mit denen diese wiederum gewaltige Militär-Organisationen dicht an Deutschlands Grenzen aufbauten. Können wir uns dann wundern, daß die Deutschen zu guter Letzt zu einer Revolution und Revolte gegen diese chronischen Betrügereien der großen Mächte getrieben werden?…“ Lloyd George am 29. November 1934 im englischen Unterhaus, Englands Premier während der Kriegszeit (vgl. Sündermann, H. “Das dritte Reich“, Leoni 1964, S. 37)
„Ich will den Frieden - und ich werde alles daransetzen, um den Frieden zu schließen. Noch ist es nicht zu spät. Dabei werde ich bis an die Grenzen des Möglichen gehen, soweit es die Opfer und Würde der deutschen Nation zulassen. Ich weiß mir Besseres als Krieg! Allein, wenn ich an den Verlust des deutschen Blutes denke - es fallen ja immer die Besten, die Tapfersten und Opferbereitesten, deren Aufgabe es wäre, die Nation zu verkörpern, zu führen. Ich habe es nicht nötig, mir durch Krieg einen Namen zu machen wie Churchill. Ich will mir einen Namen machen als Ordner des deutschen Volkes, seine Einheit und seinen Lebensraum will ich sichern, den nationalen Sozialismus durchsetzen, die Umwelt gestalten.“ Adolf Hitler - nach Beendigung des Frankreich-Feldzuges in einem Gespräch mit seinem Architekten Prof. Hermann Giesler (Giesler: “Ein anderer Hitler”, Seite 395)
„…Nicht die politischen Lehren Hitlers haben uns in den Krieg gestürzt. Anlaß war der Erfolg seines Wachstums, eine neue Wirtschaft aufzubauen. Die Wurzeln des Krieges waren Neid, Gier und Angst…“ Generalmajor John Frederick Charles Fuller - britischer Militärhistoriker (vgl. “Der Zweite Weltkrieg“, Wien 1950)
How America and its Allies treated the vanquished countries of Germany and Japan after WW2, was truly unbelievable. How does anyone think that these countries would have been as kind to its vanquished enemies?
Then it’s a good job the good guys won eh?
@@TesterAnimal1 As a famous song has it: The good guys lost.
Well, check out how the Germans treated occupied France.
Many most? French opinioned it was the best time in France, ever.
@@BasementEngineer not if you were a Jew!
My school teacher ( German, history, religion) , who has not been a Nazi but was a Christian in Prussian tradition, said : they did it not because of humanity, but because they needed our help against the Sovietunion and the communist ideology. This interest was put higher . Otherwise there would have been the Morgenthauplan, which is getting realized actually. The strategy is always : US in, Russia out, Germany down. This means now tearing ungrateful ( to Russia) Germany in a war against Russia. Anyhow I appreciate the humanity of the American people very much. This is different from the policy of their government, they mostly do not know about the real reasons , brainwashed like the whole collective West.
I served in the 11th ACR on the border between East and West Germany, from 1975 - 1977. I didn't think much about it, but that was barely 30 years since the war ended. Now, looking back, I can see many facets that were still the result of being an occupied, defeated country. They were recovering very nicely, there was a remnant of that legacy. Very interesting. I'm wondering if there is any kind of follow up to this type of documentary as the country moved forward through the 60s and 70s.
I was in Hanau from 89 to 91. Just visited Point Alpha this past fall.
Some of these box cars look like the same as the ones used for transporting people to work and death camps during the war.
The melodramatic spin on that dated music...stands out.
As our Grandfather came from Germany to USA before WW1 2 of his sons were drafted into the US Army. Uncle Paul served in an Airborne Unit and saw the horrors of war. Our Father was sent to Nuremberg in 1945 Army Corp of Engineers.His job clean up . Germany is part of my heritage, Peace to all.
An excellent real-time documentary that explains the very hard work that was necessary to create the Long Peace the entire world now enjoys.
Peace?
This is a reminder that all war and fighting is not the real answer to mankind ...but living in a peaceful life of peace .
That’s true, but humans like conflict. If we don’t have conflict to entertain ourselves, we make it.
(West) German here, a little story about the coal transportation right after WW2. During the winter 1945/46 people started looting coal trains.
The catholic Archbishop of Cologne, Josef Frings, basically gave absolvence for stealing or "organising" of food and heating materiel during his silvester sermon on 31. december 1946 and so coined the term "fringsen" for exactly that activity.
The grandpa of a friend of mine was "drafted" by the british to protect these coal trains from looting and they gave him a rifle to do so. In reality, it was understood that he would never fire a shot in earnest, since most people who would steel from the trains were from his neighbourhood. When his service wasn´t needed anymore, authorities somehow forgot about the weapon and it was still in hios family a few years ago, allthough undocumented...
Always the common people suffer. Even today ,nothing changed.
gg
This movie is interesting - because it showed a change in the British government policy in the occupied Germany.
The first movies made by the angloamericans were also showing German people in the rubble of the destroyed cities, but with a total different attitude, like:
„Look how this nazis got what they deserve… „
„Don’t fraternize, don’t trust them, the nazi-ideology is still in their heads..“
In this first phase the british forces in germany was suspicious about these weird Germans and wanted to destroy the german arrogance and made very clear that they are defeated and had no moralic right to complain about their situation.
For the German economy the first plan was simple to dismantle the industry to make it impossible for the Germans to ever start a new war in the future.
This included dismantling of the railroad tracks and confiscating of locomotives and every kind of machinery tools.
You must know that Great Britain at that time was suffering itself very harsh from the effects of war.
After two worldwars against Germany the British Empire was simply broken and was struggling hard to recover.
In this situation the british were suddenly confronted with the nasty job to rule a part of the destroyed Germany.
They had the responsibility for the survive of the civilian population suffering from lack of food, housing and no coal for heating in the very cold winters 1945 and 1946.
So they were forced to change their policy - they had to stop dismantling and to organize the rebuilding of the infrastructure.
But how you can explain that to your own population?
When this population was suffering from lack of anything itself?
And when they was used to propaganda where the Germans were depicted as terrible monsters?
So this movie was made to excuse the British government that they had to care for the Germans.
Explaining that they had no choice.
And trying for the first time to show the Germans as humans who deserves help.
The thought of the little children lost and unable to find their parents breaks my heart.
Maybe think of the little Jewish children, ona and a half million of them that the Germans murdered.
@@stevenrichards3699 children maybe. Old people voted for the Nazis and cheered. They were accomplices.
@@patriciabrenner9216 you can care about both, children are children innocent of their adults they don’t know anything better.
@@sofiabravo1994 I care zero for German children then. I am rather happy that at least the Germans paid a bit for their crimes! At least they saw what killing children does.
@@patriciabrenner9216 Your lies have been completely dis-proven during the Zuendel trials in Toronto.
I visited both East and West Berlin in 1987. What a stark contrast.
Could you elaborate? I’m German, albeit too young to have experienced the east/west division first hand.
Any nation can take an inspire from this story, how they are rising today
Excellent Presentation Thankyou
Interesting film. I was born in Germany in the British sector after WW2,1946. My father was a POW captured in 1939, in Poland and mother was Ukrainian. Her whole family was taken by the Nazi's. They met after the war in a refugee camp.
yeah and they were all fine
Was your mother’s family Jewish?
@@johnindo6771 probably not. The nazis killed a lot of slavs as well.
@@johnindo6771 the Holocaust was not just against the Jewish people there was at least 6 million other people murder in the Holocaust.
My maternal grandmother was a Holocaust Survivor. She was the only one of her family to walk out of the Holocaust alive.
My family is Christian.
@@timpanlimpan yes they did, sadly all my family down to one.
I am glad that the German people got back on their feet after the 2nd World War . They are a strong people . I am English and wish them much happiness.
Kunal Nagarkoti I wish I was there next to you so I could take you back to post war Germany,Japan.
They were mesmerized by Hitler. But who could blame them? He brought pride back to their nation, cleaned out brothels, got many jobs in the country. A powerful pedigree to go bye when inciting hatred against all other races.
@elite13 can you please reply what Kunal said. He deleted his reply
@Pa. D he himself might have deleted, who knows. Seems like that's an embarrassing comment. Other repliers might remember that
I thought germany was invincible
Back in the 60s I met Germans who immigrated from Germany to the US post WWII. Their father had served as a Nazi soldier. His sons would claim they were from Lithuania rather than Frankfurt. Other post WWII German immigrants to the US might tell their neighbors they were Dutch.
I wrote a novel 'Hannelore' about my mother's and grandmother's flight from their ancestral home in Ohlau, Lower Silesia, now Olava in Poland. The largest ethnic cleansing in recorded human history was that of the Germans after WWII. 13-15 million expelled from their homes. This was actually a war crime endorsed by Truman and Churchill. Few people know the scale of the event, or its horrors. "They got what they deserved" was a common refrain; can a child be held responsible for crimes against humanity?
Scary stuff, see how lucky we are these days.
We were something on that time too brother.past life
It will happen again.
@@buyerofsorts p0
You don't have the right to build nuclear weapons and we have that right huh.
Don't take things for granted uptil our life ends
“History is always written by the victors” - Winston Churchill
Saul Juarez. This quote is quite prevalent and I’m trying to figure out the alternative.Are we to assume that it would be more accurate if the particular time period would be elucidated,let’s say by Goebbels or Streicher for instance?
@@NomenFugazi if loser get to write history then germany would've won both world wars and after their victory against russians in berlin they decide to split their country in to east and west order to help both the russians and te allies in their rebuilding effort.
@@idodeclare6804 Yes, that’s about it.I’m so tired seeing that cliche of a quote as a comment to all WW2 related postings.Nobody is keeping them from writing their own take to the best of my knowledge.
Germany was better than today's Germanistan, the Germans i met told me they feel confused and lost sometimes. Gods...please help them
I'm so tired of this brain dead quote.
Most genocides commited by victors and we steel know they happened. Like native americans genocide, armenian genocide, pontic greek genocide, kongolese genocide, great irish famine, holodomor, etc.
It's not how public perception of history works.
Looks like a great documentary👍
Wow this is a very great documentary
The devastation is tragic and heartbreaking. It's commendable how Germany recovered from war and blossomed into a great country. I pray for all who lost their lives in WW II. May their souls rest in peace.
Well at the time half of it recovered. The other half, under Soviet Russia, continued to suffer
@@gabriel_swift8847 This is a very interesting perspective. But, why did Hitler commit those atrocities to the Jews then? Could Germany have done things differently after WWI or was it to late for Germany to reestablish itself and an other war was the only way?
@@gabriel_swift8847 XDDDDD Tell the milions of people murdered by germans in racist exterminations that it is their fault for existing and giving germany a bad name
@@gabriel_swift8847 Thank you for this perspective. I have often wondered about the heartbreaking existance after, especially for anyone who was decieved, or an ordinary person living maybe an already difficult life who didn't agree, but got swept away in the hatred of the time, being dragged thru the mud of their own government. This is why we must not hate the people of Russia, and of course many other citizens of aggressive countries. We don't choose where we are born, and as much as we want the pride of good things we didn't really do ourselves to be attributed to us, we don't want the condemnation of things that aren't our fault. I pray we treat each other as human beings, and not a label preattached to us.
@@gabriel_swift8847 BS. The mistake of Germans was to allow a racist and vindictive Austrian to destroy them from within feeding them racist ideology that they promptly and willingly swallowed.
So as long as some Germans do not blame their propaganda prone brains, Germany will always be subject to falling for narcissistic propaganda narratives.
The next person to control their minds and destroy their country and all they have work so hard to achieve is around the corner and is most likely am American "with strong Germanic Roots" looking to "avenge the German people".
My dad was in Vienna Austria as part of the post war occupation. As a Sergeant he was placed in charge of work crews assigned to look for bodies still buried in the rubble. What was unique was that his crews were US prisoners in trouble for very serious crimes - rape, murder etc. He was told to shoot to kill if these prisoners tried to run. I guess in that environment, you had to be very harsh..
Have you seen the movie 'The Third Man'? Shot in Vienna during the occupation.
How old are you? My dad was 3 when the 2nd world war ended, my grandfather fought in the pacific with the US Marines.
@@scottfuller1711 so what?
@@susannabonke8552 If Tom Richter's dad fought in WW2 he must be approaching 100.
Any relation to Andy Richter, the Swedish German?
After the leveling of cities like Dresden and Hamburg beyond any strategic means, for which the British were in part responsible, they involuntary helped the Germans. They created the label “Made in Germany”. What was supposed to keep British buyers from buying German goods, which, because of their quality were in high demand, they made it easier for the consumer to identify such products. And the people kept buying them. Up to this day, “Made in Germany” serves as a sales argument and contributed to the economical success of Germany.
I'm a German, my grand dad was in Stalingrad enclosed, and he escaped, and reached by foot germany. I remember of the thick furcoat he wear
"the new German policeman has to understand that he is a servant of the public and not its master"
I'm interested in seeing a docu about the Germans who were kicked out of Czechoslovakia, Poland and other parts of eastern Europe after the war. Those countries were going to make damn sure than Germany never had an excuse to invade them again; in the process a lot of innocent people suffered and died.
My mother was a young teenager and worked during the war in a command center. My older uncle was a U-Boat commander. My younger uncle was a waffen SS officer killed in Ukraine. Some of my family lived on the outskirts of Dresden. Mom tried to go to the US but was denied. So she went to England. A year later she got sponsored and went to Chicago. I lived in Dresden a month after the border fell. I remember it was like moving thru a time warp at the Erfurt crossing. Decades after the war, I had to schedule hot water one day a week to shower. Trabbies were everywhere. The East German cars. The new police were stasi. I knew a couple and bribed them with western marks. Black market was a way of life. And I remember the ruble piles. Fenced in with chain linked fence. I remember auntie going out in the morning. Buying brodchen at the baker and fresh eggs from another vender. A dog house made of corrugated sheet metal. The butcher shop was awsome. I always got my smoked dried ham there. In Dresden, I had an old old cherrie tree outside my window. I would eat cherries until I got sick. Germany today is not what we remember from the Cold War.
Your family are responsible for the death of 60 million people!
@@tecumseh4095
Ja stimmt, die haben sie alle persönlich ermordet, was bist du denn für ein dummer Vogel? Zuviel Autoabgase inhaliert? Birne weich wie ein Keks?
Although I love these old original primary sources The music makers it imposssible!
Post-war Germany had two groups of people: those who knew or wanted order and actually showed up for work, even when the plant had been flattened or the company closed down. Then there was a smaller contingent, those who were 'unreconstructed' in spite of the war. They were called 'werewolves' and caused more trouble than is generally known.
I'm actually surprised that after the total and complete brainwashing the German people had been undergoing for so long by the Nazi regime, that the vast majority of the population were so ready and willing to 'reform'. It must have been so confusing for them, especially the young people who'd been indoctrinated from their infancy.
Any sources to back up this wild story? The were a few werwolve groups (Wehrwölfe = Goebbels dream of a kind of Guerilla war behind the line) but think of it as 15-17 years old boys with hardly any supplies and no support from other Germans, a bit of ammunition and little food trying to survive in the woods.
This was definitely NOT ONE group of people in all of Germany.
Germans wanted order, MOST of them, those who say otherwise have no clue of German work culture.
However what's not well know is the destruction and demolition wasn't as wide spread as old footage makes you believe. Germany always was and still is today not centralized at all.
An old joke: the typical German small town somewhere in the country side (far away from large cities) : a church, a townhall, a soccer field perhaps a public pool and one company often existing for many decades if not centuries being a world market leader in some specialized product, profession, or service.
The allies early on had planed or hoped to "smart bomb" industries and important infrastructure. But the technic of the time wasn't capable to do that. So, the bombing strategies adopted and switched to carpet bombing the cities.
It's propaganda, not documentary. They targetted the civilian populations primarily.
+johann sebastian bach
If it comes from America, it is at least 50% propaganda... :D It's just that they are so much better at it today... That's experience...
+johann sebastian bach Ofcourse it's propaganda , that's fucking obvious; but that's the prerogative of the victors, just as it's the prerogative of the vanquished to moan.."we were not to blame".....Anyway "civilian"....?....the nazis got back what they dished out...
That's not to say the 1918 allied conglomerate wasn't to blame for chasing the general German population into the claws of the NSDAP...which was a defacto creation of the allies....The opportunistic incompetent Nazi clowns did everything Adolf promised in his shoddy little book, and everything the allies wanted them to do; with the purpose of creating a wing clipped Germany with no pretensions.
Only positive thing is that the lesser of the two evils came out on top.....
+PAULLONDEN You're obviously a total idiot. Plain and simple.
chel3SEY How did you get here? Did someone leave your cage open?
+error4o4found Mind your fucking business.
I grew up in a military town. There were many a German bride to tell you what it was like. But the most poignant story I know is my Mother in law’s. She was raised in a Catholic orphanage during the war in Leipzig. They ate cats. She was left in a shelled out city at the end of the war and was raised under Soviet strong-armed East Germany. I believe the malnutrition she experienced was behind her dementia.
My grandma, almost 90 now. She told me she had a neighbor that moved here after the war. Neighbor was German. Met her and the first thing this neighbor tells her, I had nothing to do with the war. My grandma after telling me looks at me and says, They all said that. She like all the rest stood in Berlin and sang the Nazi theme.
Hail Germany!
They sang it as you would if you were a German in Germany at the time
You think you are different but you are not
@@sonradanfransiz And with that being said is the reason the whole world had to kick all your asses.
worthless comment
Every thing was out of order, every building was full of holes. Every road was broken and miseries everywhere but the brave Germans put every thing in order in just a short time. I salute to brave germans