All language subtitles for WWII.Battles.In.Color.S01E06.Berlin.720p.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-squalor

[tanker engine roaring]

[canon banging]

[Narrator] April 1945,

[canon banging]

the Soviets launch the
greatest artillery barrage in
history,

[rockets blaring]

as they blast their
way towards Berlin.

[bomb blasting]

Cameras follow the steps

of over a million
Red Army troops.

Thousands of tanks.

[canons banging]

And a wall of heavy guns.

[canon blasting]

As The Germans draft in
the young and the old

in a desperate defense of the
capital of the Third Reich.

[tense music]

[rocket blaring]

This is one of the bloodiest
battles in World War II.

[guns banging]

Rare footage,
newly colorized,

goes inside the
crumbling Nazi empire.

[guns banging]

And onto the front
lines of the firefight

for the streets
of Berlin.

[guns banging]

One that will determine
the fate of Europe

and the future
course of history.

[tense music]

[gentle music]

It's June 3rd, 1944.

Gretl Braun, the sister
of Adolf Hitler's mistress

Eva Braun,

celebrates her wedding to SS
General Hermann Fegelein.

The reception is in the
Eagle's Nest above the
Berghof,

Hitler's alpine retreat.

Here Gretl is greeted
by her sister Eva.

Hitler is the
guest of honor.

It's his last stay
in Berchtesgaden.

Three days later the
Allies land at Normandy.

He returns to Berlin to
reverse the tide of war.

Hitler's priority
is in the East.

In August 1944,
the Soviet army

has reached the gates
of the Nazi occupied

Polish capital Warsaw.

[bomb blasting]

The Polish
Resistance's Home Army

lead a revolt against
their German occupiers.

Polish Resistance
cameraman Stefan Baginksi

shoots over his
comrades shoulders

during the
Warsaw Uprising.

[tense music]

It is the largest
military operation

by a resistance force
in World War II.

The Poles hope
their Allies,

the Soviets will
aid the uprising.

So Bagkinski highlights
their fighting spirit.

17-year old Wanda
Traczyk Stawska,

wearing a pilot's
helmet volunteers.

And learns how to use
a sub-machine gun.

[canon bangs]

In intense
street fighting

the Home Army regains control
of most of the central city.

[canon bangs]

Baginski films as they
round up German POWs.

Patriotic elation briefly
floods the streets

as they destroy
Nazi symbols.

But Hitler is determined
to keep control of the city

and halt the Soviets
advance on Germany.

He sends in
reinforcements.

[jets engine roaring]

Unfortunately for the Polish
fighters of the Warsaw
Rising,

the Red Army refuses
to come to their aid.

[Robert] Stalin has no
interest whatsoever

in seeing the Poles
liberate themselves.

He wants to do it with his army

and thus, be in a
position to dictate

what sort of government Poland
has in the post-war era.

[plane engine roaring]

[Narrator] The Germans
recapture the city

district by district.

They kill 200,000
civilians in reprisal.

Again, Baginski is there
to film the carnage,

before escaping to
survive the war.

By October 2nd the
uprising has failed.

It's a lesson to the world
that Germany isn't beaten
yet.

The Nazis destroy nearly 90%
of the city in retaliation.

[canon bangs]

[tanker tracks rattling]

Eventually, on
January 14th, 1945

the Red Army
makes its move.

They force the Germans
out of the Polish capital

in just three days.

Warsaw's survivors greet
their new occupiers.

By the end of January the
Soviets control Poland.

Now they can move
on towards Germany.

[gentle music]

On February 4th news
cameras set the scene

at the Crimean seaside
resort of Yalta.

Long disputed the Crimea
is now Soviet turf,

taken from the Germans
the previous spring.

Their propaganda crews
film at the airport

as the Kremlin Guard
form a Guard of Honor

for President Roosevelt
and Winston Churchill.

[tense music]

They're meeting with Stalin
at the beautiful Livadia
Palace

once the summer home
of Czar Nicholas II.

Churchill arrives suitably
dressed in a fur hat

for the occasion.

But Roosevelt
looks haggard.

The aim of the Big
Three is to plan

for the final defeat
of Nazi Germany

and the post war
reorganization of Europe.

The plan is to divide Germany
into four occupied zones,

administered by
American, British, French

As will the
capital Berlin.

It's an agreement that sows
the seeds of further
conflict

between the Soviets
and the West.

[Robert] Stalin gets his
control of Eastern Europe

confirmed at Yalta.

Now for Churchill,
who sees this entire war

as being fought over the
liberation of Poland,

this is a bitter pill indeed.

But there's very little
Western Allies can do

about Stalin at this point.

[Narrator] The
Western Allies

want to keep Soviet
ambitions in check

Two days after Yalta

they show Stalin their full
destructive capability.

This amateur color footage of
Dresden in eastern Germany

is shot four
years earlier

when a 20-year old Goetz
Hirt-Reger is on vacation.

[gentle music]

It is the only known
color footage of the city

known as the jewel box

before it is completely
destroyed by Allied bombs.

[tense music]

The raids start at night,
on February 13th, 1945.

[bombs blasting]

RAF cameraman
Robert Buckland

films from on board
a Lancaster bomber.

[tense music]

From the air, 39,000
tons of explosives

glitter like exploding
stars creating a firestorm.

Eight square miles of the
city are left in ruins.

At least 25,000 people
die in the firestorm.

Many were refugees
from the East

fleeing the
advancing Red Army.

[somber music]

[Matthias] When the Western
Allies bomb Dresden,

they don't only do it to inflict
casualties on the Germans;

they also do it
to impress Stalin.

It's a show of force to Stalin,

to show the military might
of the Western Allies.

[Narrator] The Soviets have
reached the River Oder.

It's Germany's
Eastern border

and last natural
barrier before Berlin.

Its defense is vital for the
survival of the Nazi regime.

Hitler decides that
most of his fresh troops

must be sent to reinforce
the river defenses.

The troops are still more
than willing to fight

for their Fuhrer.

[canon banging]

But their number
are thinning.

Boys in home-made
camouflage

now fill out the
German infantry.

[Robert] These
are young guys.

They're wearing
non-standard kit.

It looks like someone
raided a supply depot

and put whatever uniforms
they could find on them.

There are weapons of
different calibers and make;

foreign-manufactured
captured weapons.

There's an unserious
look in their eyes.

[Narrator]Crushing pressure
weighs on Nazi Germany

from both sides.

In the West the Rhine is
Germany's mightiest river

and a symbol of
German National pride

[tense music]

But in March 1945,

the British use Buffalo
amphibious vehicles

to prove that even a
thousand foot wide waterway

is no obstacle.

[tense music]

The supreme
Allied Commander,

US general Dwight
D. Eisenhower

orders an invasion of western
Germany on a broad front.

While the Soviet armies are
at the River Oder in the
East.

The British army
will attack

the northern German
city of Hamburg

and cut off German
troops in Denmark.

The U.S. 9th and
1st Army forces

will surround Army Group
B in the Ruhr Valley,

the German industrial
heartland.

The 6th and 7th army
head toward Bavaria,

birthplace of Nazism.

On March 28th Eisenhower
sends Stalin his plan

confirming that Berlin is no
longer an important target

for the Western Allies.

[somber music]

Eisenhower's most controversial
decision in the war

was to let the
Soviets take Berlin

and not try to take it from
the west with his own forces.

But he had said all along,

he wasn't going to
risk lives for it,

and he stuck to that
decision throughout.

[bombs blasting]

[Narrator] Stalin
has no such concerns.

The moment he receives
Eisenhower's cable

he orders Marshal Georgy
Zhukov and Marshal Ivan
Konev

to advance on the German
capital with all speed

and whatever cost.

[tense music]

He wants the
capture of Berlin

to become a global
symbol of Soviet success.

[taker engine roaring]

[Robert]Of course, Berlin is a
massive prestige target.

In modern war, taking capitals
is what it's all about,

and Berlin is the
grand-daddy of them all.

[canon bangs]

[bright music]

[Narrator] April 12th newsreels
show American in mourning.

President Franklin D.
Roosevelt has died suddenly

from a cerebral
hemorrhage.

[somber music]

In Berlin the
Nazis are ecstatic.

The propaganda chief, Joseph
Goebbels tells Hitler:

[Joseph] Mine Fuehrer,
I congratulate you!

Roosevelt is dead.

It is written in the stars
that the second half of
April

will be the turning
point for us.

[tense music]

Hitler really thinks the Allies
are going to lose all cohesion.

He thinks that Churchill,

the anti-Communist and
Stalin the Communist

are gonna be at
each other throats.

Hitler thinks that
because he is a dictator

with a cult of personality

that every leader is
a cult of personality

and that without Roosevelt
the great war leader,

America is going
to go to pieces.

[guns firing]

[tense music]

[Narrator] But
it's the Soviets,

not the Americans
who threaten Berlin.

In April 1945, 2.5
million Red Army soldiers

camp on the bank
of the Oder.

They are loading captured
German rocket firing
mortars.

The Seelow Heights
overlook flat ground

bordering the River Oder.

They are called the
Gates of Berlin,

and are the last
major defensive line

the Germans hold
east of the capital.

To speed up his campaign,

Stalin splits the command
of the Berlin operation

between Marshall
Zukhov in the north

and Marshall Konev, pictured
here in the middle,

in the south.

[canons banging]

Their mission is
to cross the river,

advance on Berlin as
quickly as possible.

And then punch their
way to the center.

[Lynette] Stalin is very
careful to take two generals

and allow them,
in fact force them

to race each other to Berlin.

Zhukov and Konev both
want to be the ones

who win the great patriotic war

and neither one is willing to
let the other guy be first.

[Narrator] Zhukov
remembers.

[Gregory] The closer
the end of the war came,

the more Stalin played
games with his Marshals,

often making them
go head to head

sowing differences
or creating jealousy,

pushing people to seek
glory on unhealthy basis.

[canons banging]

[Narrator] On April 16,
Zhukov's 1 million strong army

launches one of
the most powerful

artillery barrages in history
firing across the Oder.

[rockets blaring]

Howitzers and Katyusha
rockets blast a path

so the tanks can
storm forward.

[rockets blaring]

1 million shells thunder
down on German positions.

They create tremors felt
60 miles away in Berlin.

[canon banging]

[Hansen] This
infernal hellish storm

continued with daybreak.

[bombs blasting]

[Narrator] The bombardment
is supposed to crush

any German resistance
onto the plains

in front of the
Seelow Heights.

But acting on
intelligence

the Germans withdraw into
the Heights themselves

out of range of
Soviet fire.

Where they prepare to
stop the Red Army advance.

Sensing opportunity
Zhukov has let the cameras

into his Command Post
overlooking the battlefield.

Now with the battle
in the balance,

he takes a decisive stance
and radically changes
tactics.

[canons banging]

He orders his tanks to
scale the Seelow Heights.

[Matthias] The terrain at
the Seelow Heights

is not suitable for
large tank operations.

First of all, the entire area

is churned up by the Soviet
artillery bombardment,

and secondly, there is only a
very limited number of roads

that the Soviet
tanks can use.

And that channels their attack,

and now makes it possible for
the German anti-tank gunners,

to shoot these
tanks as they roll

towards the German positions.

[canons banging]

[Narrator] 80,000 German
soldiers fight back bitterly.

[guns blaring]

The fight is personal.

Four years earlier, the
Germans invaded the Soviet
Union

and committed atrocities,

like the hanging of Soviet
POWs declaring they are
beasts.

[gun blaring]

Both side have seen
propaganda images like
these.

They also know that
they will be revenged.

[canons banging]

German troops also hear how
the advancing Red Army
soldiers

mass-raped German women

when they invaded East
Prussia in October 1944.

Now, they defend their
homeland fanatically.

[canons banging]

It takes three days for
Zhukov's forces and tanks

to advance across the
bloody battlefield.

And breach the
German defenses.

[tense music]

It is a brutal victory.

A German soldier crushed
under one of his own Panzers

is a grim symbol for the
impending death

of Nazi Germany.

But Soviet losses
are even heavier

over 30,000 to
12,000 Germans.

[somber music]

Zhukov's rival, Marshall
Konev, has his own
challenges.

He still needs to
cross the river Niesse,

to the south of Berlin.

[canons banging]

Artillery and aerial bombing
keep the Germans occupied.

While the advance wave cross
the river in assault boats.

[tense music]

By midday they have
bridges up and open

and the T-34 tanks are
rolling towards Berlin.

These mass-produced
Soviet tanks

have greater mobility
and better armor

than the German
Panzer IV.

An umbrella of
Ilyushin II Shturmovk,

ground attack aircraft

help Konev's men overwhelm
the defending Panzer
division.

[canons banging]

Meanwhile in the west the
Americans are also
advancing.

They capture more
than 300,000 Germans.

Hollywood director
George Stevens

who is part of the
US Army Signal Corps

films this unique color
footage of German POWs.

There are so many

the Americans have
difficulty processing them

and so have to hold them
in huge field-camps.

Military Police search
the German troops

and confiscate any
weapons or trophies

the Germans may
have looted.

[Robert] The George Stevens
footage of the German

prisoners of war gives a
perfect snapshot

of the Wehrmacht in 1945.

They're young; they're old;

they're dressed out
in non-standard kit;

they're demoralized.

Anyone who thinks the Germans

have some special
genius for war,

or some special form of valor

needs to take a look at this
footage; they're human beings.

[somber music]

[canons banging]

tor]
Red Army troops
storm the suburbs of Berlin.

They are one step closer
to reaching the heart

of the Third Reich.

They pick their way
toward a ruined city.

Two years of
Allied bombing

have destroyed 50%
of Central Berlin.

And sent civilians
scrambling.

[somber music]

But the city's 3.5 million
residents are not evacuated.

[canon banging]

And there is no food.

[canons banging]

Still the Nazis refuse
to accept defeat.

And set up makeshift
defenses in the rubble.

As the Red Army
approaches

desperate German graffiti
states, Berlin stays German.

Hitler's subordinates
are entirely divorced

from the reality on the ground

because Hitler is divorced
from the reality on the ground.

Hitler does not comprehend
that two Soviet army groups

are smashing into
the center of Berlin.

[Narrator] Civilians
of all ages

are digging anti-tank
trenches around the city

and putting up
gun positions.

[somber music]

In an act of desperation
30,0000 civilians

are enrolled in
the Volksturm,

German for People's Army.

Many are old or in
the Hitler Youth.

They attend a
rally to swear

their loyalty to
the Nazi cause.

[speaking in German]

Adolf Hitler.

[Crowd] Adolf Hitler.

[Narrator] Once
they have enlisted

the Volksturm learn how
to operate a panzerfaust

[gun bangs]

a single shot
rocket-propelled anti-tank
gun.

Even women who until now

the Nazis spared
from military service

are taught how
to operate one.

[bomb blasting]

[speaking in German]

Propaganda Chief Josef
Goebbels tells this hodgebodge
army

that no man
should surrender.

[speaking in German]

But there are signs
that his rhetoric

is finally losing
it's grip.

Senior Party Members
begin to flee the city.

[tense music]

In the rubble of the
city center

Hitler is holding out in
the Reichschancellery,

his underground bunker.

His very last
appearance above ground

takes place on his 56th
Birthday on April 20th.

He awards medals to a
detachment of Hitler Youth,

boys no older than 14.

Just as he did in March
when this footage was shot.

He keeps his left hand

carefully hidden
behind his back,

it is shaking
uncontrollably.

[Lynette] Hitler clearly
shows symptoms

of what could be
Parkinson's Disease,

but Hitler is on a constant
diet of amphetamines.

Hitler is so gacked
up on whoop chicken,

you can't tell whether the
shaking in his left hand

and the paralysis in his left
leg are Parkinson's Disease

or just the effects
of all those drugs.

[somber music]

[Narrator]
While Hitler and many

of the remaining high-ranking
Nazis withdraw to the bunker

to celebrate
his birthday,

the Soviets begin
another round

of shelling on
Central Berlin.

[canon bangs]

But Hitler refuses
to leave.

[canon bangs]

He still has a loyal army
fighting outside Berlin.

[guns blaring]

He orders them to
relieve the city.

80,000 German troops regroup
in the dense forests

near the small town of
Halbe south of the capital.

Only to find
themselves surrounded

by a quarter of a Million
Russians under Konev's
command.

The Red Army attacks with its
superior numbers of tanks,

artillery and bombers.

It rapidly decimates
Hitler's ill equipped

and tired relief army.

[canon bangs]

As civilians try to
flee the carnage,

thousands are massacred
by Soviet fire.

The forest itself
becomes a death trap.

[bomb blasts]

[Robert] And there's evidence
that the Soviets

actually fired
at the trees;

every single shell
splinters the trees

and causes multiple casualties

to German soldiers
and civilians alike.

It's a bloodbath.

[tense music]

[Narrator] Over 50,000 soldiers
and local people die at Halbe.

Most are German.

The Nazis desperate
last stand has failed.

[canon bangs]

In Berlin 60,000 Nazis
prepare to fight to the
death.

[guns blaring]

Once-fashionable apartments
are now machine gun nests.

The attacking Red
Army are forced

to fight street
by street.

Against the Reichs
most fanatical troops.

[machine gun blaring]

The Soviet tanks
enter Berlin,

one declares death
to fascism.

The Volksturm and
Hitler Youth

are finally able to put
their Panzerfaust training

to good use.

[bomb blasting]

There's no shortage
of targets.

Thin side armor makes the
T34s particularly
vulnerable.

[Matthias]
The German Panzerfaust

is an extremely
formidable weapon.

It can destroy any enemy
tank on the battlefield.

And it has a huge effect

during the Battle
of Berlin as well,

because the Germans can crawl
up in the urban environment

to the Soviet tanks, and knock
them out at very close range.

And as a consequence of this,

the Soviets lose a
high number of tanks

during the Battle of Berlin.

[bomb blasting]

[Narrator] Nevertheless
the Germans continue

to find themselves
outgunned

and outnumbered
by the Red Army.

[tense music]

[guns blaring]

By April 25th, the
Americans have advanced

so far across Germany they
meet up with Soviet troops

South West of the
capital at Torgau.

[somber music]

American news reels show
Lieutenant Alexander
Silvashko

and Second Lieutenant Bill
Robertson shaking hands.

[cheerful music]

East and west celebrate as
they link up for the first
time.

[cheerful music]

Soviet Women soldiers get the
attention of American GIs.

As well as fighting
in active combat,

women could
also be nurses,

tank crew and radio
operators in the Red Army.

Also present at the
Torgau celebrations

is American war correspondent
Virginia Irwin

from theSt Louis
Post Dispatch.

She and a colleague
talk an Army sergeant

into a daring
night-time jeep drive

through no man's land
all the way to Berlin.

[rockets blaring]

That night, they
enter the capital

without official
permission.

They are the first western
Allied journalists into
Berlin

as the Soviets are
entering the city.

[Virginia]The air
is heavy with smoke.

Everywhere around us is the
clatter of small arms fire.

Russian artillery is pouring
an almost constant barrage

into the heart
of the city.

The Russians were happy,

with an almost
indescribably wild joy.

In this German capital
lies their true revenge

for Leningrad and Stalingrad,
for Sevastapol and Moscow

[Lynette] Virginia Irwin gets
one of the great scoops

in the Second World War

because she is in
the center of Berlin

when the Soviets win the war.

[Narrator] Zhukov's army
moves to the city center

from the north and
Konev from the south.

[tense music]

The fighting is still block
by block, room by room.

[guns blaring]

[bombs blasting]

As the Soviets close in
many of Hitler's entourage

are trying to
leave the bunker.

[bomb blasting]

Only a year ago Hitler's
de facto brother-in-law

Hermann Fegelein was
celebrating his wedding

with the inner circle
at the Berghof.

[canon bangs]

Now he is caught trying
to flee the city.

He is accused of plotting
to negotiate peace

with the Allies.

Hitler has him shot.

[tense music]

May 1st 1945,

Soviet troops approach the
shell-damaged Reichstag,

the former parliament and
symbolic heart of Germany.

They're carrying the
Soviet flag with them.

Cameraman Boris Solokov
follows it closely.

He films as soldiers raise
it over the Reichstag.

[tense music]

It becomes a defining image
of the Soviet victory.

But Sokolov later
admits, he faked it.

[bright music]

[Boris] We could
not film at night

there wasn't enough light,
even despite the fires.

Therefore some
moments were staged,

shot in the daytime.

Many believe such
filming is deception,

but it is just the
restoration of the facts.

[tense music]

The Soviet Union wants anyone
who studies World War II

to remember one thing,
they were in on the kill.

[tense music]

That flag-raising over
the Reichstag building

it's equivalent to the US
flag-raising on Iwo Jima.

It's a sign to posterity of
just who won World War II.

[Narrator] The day
before Hitler marries

his long-term mistress
Eva Braun in the bunker.

Now on the same day the
Red flag is being hoisted

by jubilant Soviet troops
over the Reichstag.

Hitler and Eva Braun
kill themselves.

Hitler's remains are
buried in a shallow crater

in the Reichschancellery
Garden above his bunker

just a few hundred yards
from the Reichstag.

The Soviets recover
the remains

and many years
later destroy them

to remove any chance of them
becoming revered Nazi
relics.

[tanker engine roaring]

In a final lie
after his death

German radio reports that
Hitler has fallen in battle.

With Hitler dead and
Berlin surrounded,

German Commander finally
seek a favorable surrender.

The Russians reject it.

They issue an ultimatum.

Agree to an unconditional
surrender by 10:15pm

or the Soviets will
blast Berlin into ruins.

[canon bangs]

At 10:40 on May 1st, with no
response from the Germans

about the unconditional
surrender,

the Red Army unleashes
a hurricane of fire

on central Berlin.

[canon bangs]

The last German
resistance crumbles.

Shell-shocked troops
finally give up the fight.

As Berliners put out white
sheets as signs of
surrender.

Across the city
soldiers and civilians

emerge from cellars and
bombed out buildings.

Desperate residents try
to eke a drop of water

from broken pipes.

And the only
meat available

is what can be carved
from dead horses .

They're forced to
loot to survive.

[Helga] We are vegetating
in a ghost town,

without electric light
or gas, without water,

we are forced to think of
personal hygiene as a luxury

and hot meals as
abstract concepts.

We are living like ghosts
in a vast field of ruins

[Narrator]The Nazis
said Berlin

would be the capital of
a Thousand Year Reich.

Now locals give
it their own name,

The Reich's Funeral Pyre.

Joseph Goebbels propaganda
has lost its grip.

He is in the nearby
Fuhrerbunker

with his six
young children,

seen here in happier days
with their mother Magda.

That evening they are
poisoned by their parents

who then both
commit suicide.

Nazi Germany is
now on its knees.

A day later on May 2nd,

its leaders finally surrender
Berlin unconditionally.

Then on May 7th
General Alfred Jodl,

arrives in Reims, France.

He confirms Germany's
total defeat and surrender.

The ceremony takes
six minutes.

But Stalin is determined to
capitalize on the prestige

of capturing the
German capital.

He insists that the official
ceremony takes place in
Berlin.

[Matthias]The Second Signing
of the German Surrender

is of utmost
importance to Stalin,

because wants to
show to the world

that it was the Soviet
Union, the Red Army,

and also, Stalin himself,

who defeated Nazism and Germany
in the Second World War.

[Narrator] The
Allies agree.

On May 8th, a second
signing takes place

as Field Marshal Keitel
heads to Karlshorst,

a suburb of Berlin,

to sign the document
in front of

Soviet Marshal
Georgy Zhukov

and a small Allied
delegation.

Footage is broadcast from
Berlin across the world.

[audience cheering]

Celebrations
by the Soviets

take place all over
the capital.

Rare Soviet footage
shows Soviet soldiers

dancing in front of the
Old Museum in Berlin.

[gentle music]

One Soviet soldier is
carrying the spoils of war,

a captured German
Panzer faust.

[gentle music]

The battle for Berlin
has brought to an end

the bloodiest conflict
in European history.

[soft music]

The fight for
Berlin alone

has cost the Soviets
81,000 soldiers,

the Germans 92,000.

Hundreds of thousands of
German prisoners of war

are marched East to
camps in Siberia.

Many will perish as most
Soviet prisoners have done

in German camps.

Soviet propaganda footage
shows occupying troops

giving out bread to
starving Berliners.

But some Soviet soldiers

also commit atrocities
against civilians.

Over 100,000 Berlin
women are raped.

[Lynette]When the Red Army
comes to Berlin,

they're attacking
the nationhood

and the people hood
of Germany in kind.

They are saying to the Nazis,

where is your
racial superiority?

Where is your Aryan purity?

They are avenging the war
crimes of the Wehrmacht,

of the SS, of the
entire German people

and the women of Berlin are
the ones who are made to pay.

[tense music]

[Narrator]When
the shooting stops,

Berlin is engulfed
by an eerie silence.

[airy music]

Broken only by American
reconnaissance planes,

dispatched to film
the utter destruction

of the German capital.

Post war Berlin
is situated

in the middle of Germany's
Soviet occupied zone.

But as agreed in
Yalta the city itself

is divided into an
American, a British,

a French and a
Soviet sector.

Rare color footage
from July 1945,

shows civilians clearing
through the rubble

as they start to
rebuild the city.

Mainly women, because most
men over 18 are either dead

or in POW camps.

These scenes are filmed

by Hollywood director
George Stevens,

who arrives with
the US Army.

He makes a cameo appearance
at the Brandenburg Gate.

[bright music]

But the wartime
alliance is over.

The Americans want
Eastern Europe and Germany

to become
democratic states.

Stalin wants to keep them
in the Soviet Union's

dictatorial orbit.

From the Ashes of
the Second World War,

a new cold war is
about to take hold.