The capture of Berlin (1945)

Berlin garrison soldiers run out of basements and ruined buildings with their hands raised, surrendering to Soviet soldiers.

Berlin residents cut pieces of meat from the carcasses of horses killed during street fights.

A panorama of a line for drinking water.

Berliners draw water from an iron barrel.

A woman stands by an empty barrel.

Crashed German planes at Tempelhof Airfield.

Damaged fighters in a hangar (panorama).

Soviet Il-2 attack aircraft land at Tempelhof Airfield.

A machine gunner fires during a battle on a Berlin street in late April 1945. Street fighting in Berlin (a map of the city's districts occupied by the Red Army periodically appears).

German soldiers abandon their positions and surrender.

Residents of one of the Berlin districts occupied by the Red Army read a notice on a billboard.

City residents read orders from the Soviet commander of the Berlin garrison, posted on the walls of their buildings.

The text of the order is in Russian and German.

Berlin residents clear the sidewalk of broken bricks next to the burning entrance of an apartment building.

Berlin residents clear construction debris from the sidewalk.

A line for a Soviet military truck.

Bread is distributed to Berlin residents; people push each other.

Hot food is distributed to city residents near a Soviet field kitchen.

A military cook ladle-pours soup into buckets provided by Berliners.

A sign on the wall in German reads: "Capitulation?

No." Women with white armbands walk past, a panorama up to a balcony with a white flag.

White flags in the windows of a building (panorama).

White flags of surrender on the walls of Berlin buildings.

People with buckets in their hands stand in line for water.

Berliners collect water from a street pump.

People draw water with buckets from a surviving fountain.

A man and a woman carry a pot of water along the street.

A traffic jam on a Berlin street.

Trucks with cannons on trailers line the city streets.

The commander of one of the units storming the Reichstag walks to headquarters, accompanied by officers.

A column of German prisoners crosses piles of broken bricks past a firing battery of rocket launchers.

Street fighting amidst the ruins, a map of the occupation of Berlin's districts by Soviet troops.

A tanker carries a wounded comrade.

A burning tank.

A wounded tanker's head is bandaged.

A woman walks on an empty, ruined street.

A Soviet soldier helps an elderly man cross piles of broken bricks.

A medical orderly wipes the face of a wounded soldier.

A wounded man is evacuated on a stretcher from the battlefield.

A Soviet machine gunner pulls a captured German soldier by the scruff of the neck from a manhole; both lie down against the wall of a building.

Artillerymen roll a gun up the stairs of an apartment building.

Views of the square in front of the Brandenburg Gate, the remains of barricades burning.

Heavy artillery and tanks fire at the center of Berlin.

A wounded man is carried on a stretcher.

A trench on Unter den Linden.

Street signs punctured by bullets and shrapnel.

A rocket launcher crew places a rocket on a rail to fire at the Reichstag.

Soviet artillery fires on the streets of Berlin, a map of the city's occupation is shown against the background of newsreel footage.

Soviet soldiers fire rifles.

An officer at a stereoscopic telescope.

A panorama of part of burning Berlin.

Artillerymen fire at the Reichstag with direct fire.

Soviet soldiers with a red banner rush toward the Reichstag.

A squad with a banner runs up the steps of the Reichstag.

The raising of the Victory Banner over the Reichstag, the faces of tank crews and infantrymen tying the staff.

The Victory Banner over the Reichstag.

A gun salute at the Victory Banner.

Soviet soldiers and officers at the entrance to the Reichstag after its capture.

A photograph of the raising of the Victory Banner over Berlin.

Soviet soldiers rest on the steps of the building after the end of street fighting.

Tanks lined up on a city street (above).

Personnel of a tank unit in formation on a Berlin street during the reading of the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief.

An officer reads the order to the formation.

An artilleryman sticks the text of the order with a portrait of Stalin on the inside of a splinter shield.

A photograph of Walter Ulbricht among German communists.

Tanks and artillery during street fighting in Berlin.

A signalman at a field telephone.

Infantry fighting in a building.

Faces of Soviet tank crews and infantrymen.

The Victory Column in Berlin.

Interrogation of the surrendered commander of the Berlin defense, Artillery General G. Weidling.

Weidling shows the main defensive nodes on a map.

Columns of captured German soldiers march through the streets of Berlin; officers led by Weidling look at one of the passing columns.

Faces of captured German soldiers.

General Weidling and his staff officers emerge from the basement to surrender to Soviet troops.

Faces of German prisoners of war marching in columns.

Photographs of captured German soldiers and Hitler Youth teenagers.

Small arms and helmets abandoned by German soldiers upon surrender.

Photograph of German officer uniforms and caps discarded on the asphalt.

The identification procedure for Goebbels' body on May 3, 1945. Part of Goebbels' charred body.

A panorama of part of the Propaganda Ministry courtyard (top), with scattered literature.

A photograph of Goebbels with his wife and children.

A photograph of the descent into Hitler's underground bunker.

A protocol on the destruction of the bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun.

A photograph of Hitler and Eva Braun.