Very high quality colour video of Germany in ‘45

CdnGS

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Hope it’s OK posting this link here

https://youtu.be/Hwy8SzVmWGc

Great short high quality colour video of German cities in 1945 depicting both the damage and civilian occupants left living there. The lack of German men in Berlin is especially telling - probably either dead or in Soviet captivity.

For those that have travelled to these cities, it gives you a perspective of what they looked like 70+ years ago in the aftermath of WW2.

It is also a reminder of the resilience of mankind and our ability to rebuild and carry on.
 
What surprises me is how quickly the debris was removed from the main streets. I have seen the row of low hills outside of Berlin (high enough to hang glide from) that were created from the tons of masonry. The debris of London was used to fill in marsh land (what are now the famous Hackney Marshes football pitches) and part to extend Regent’s Park. Tons more besides from the UK was shipped to New York in barges, to reclaim land and extend Manhattan Island.

What also strikes me is how smartly dressed a lot of the people are, despite the ravages of war and now occupation. Different times, I guess, when people really didn’t go out without making a big effort to look reasonably decently turned out. I can remember my maternal grandfather (born at turn of the last century) cutting the grass at his home with a lawnmower, dressed in a shirt and tie, with polished shoes.
 
My dad joined the RAF just before the war ended and he was posted to Berlin a few years later as he took part in he Berlin airlift. He will enjoy watching this , thanks for sharing :thumb2
 
Fascinating, indeed how well turned out people are, and how young some of the captured German soldiers are.
 
My father, just too young for WW2, flew over one of the larger German cities towards the end of 1945, working for de Havilland. I can remember him telling me you could smell the burnt timbers and masonry dust from several thousand feet, months after the war ended. My grandfather, who was an officer in a Dutch squadron during the war, took my mother (as quite a young girl) on his motorbike and sidecar to see his former comrades and bring them some tins of food. They were, she recalls, in a pitiful state, the families having been amongst the last to be liberated, the Germans (having been bypassed by the allied advance) seeking to starve them to death.

By chance, we moved to Holland in the late 50’s when I was a youngish toddler. Having just arrived, my mother chatted to a pleasant Dutch girl, about the same age who lived across the street, also with a young baby. Mum’s next door neighbour came out and forcibly dragged her away, saying in a strong voice: “You must NOT speak to her!”. Taken aback, mum asked why? She was clearly told “Her mother was friendly with the Germans!”. 14 years after 1945 and old enmities died hard.
 
What also strikes me is how smartly dressed a lot of the people are, despite the ravages of war and now occupation.

I suspect if it's all the clothes you had and you may not have a house, so you'd have to carry'em about you'd look after'em..?

in the later stages of the war, my aunt was in berlin as teenager starting work. At the sametime my dad was in an "internat" (nazi boarding school) aged 12... once that place got bombed out he had to travel about 100 miles on foot back to the farm, to then go back and collect his stuff...

the posh kids got rail tickets, he was on a scholarship got told to do one...! the year above him got mobilised to the eastern front ages 13-upwards

for him it was simple no phone, no money as such, no way to contact family, get walking all pretty chaotic times...
 
What surprises me is how quickly the debris was removed from the main streets. I have seen the row of low hills outside of Berlin (high enough to hang glide from) that were created from the tons of masonry. The debris of London was used to fill in marsh land (what are now the famous Hackney Marshes football pitches) and part to extend Regent’s Park. Tons more besides from the UK was shipped to New York in barges, to reclaim land and extend Manhattan Island.

What also strikes me is how smartly dressed a lot of the people are, despite the ravages of war and now occupation. Different times, I guess, when people really didn’t go out without making a big effort to look reasonably decently turned out. I can remember my maternal grandfather (born at turn of the last century) cutting the grass at his home with a lawnmower, dressed in a shirt and tie, with polished shoes.

Remember the kid on Gloucester in his school uniform on a match day? If you only have one set of clothes you don't have much choice. Not that I'm equating post-war Germany with modern day downtown Gloucester. That would be very unfair.

When I was in my mid-twenties, I recall my Gran saving suits and tweed jackets from jumble sales, M&S seconds etc for me on the basis that (a) I could wear them to work in the bank and (b) if not , I could just keep them for "gardening or the garage". Oh, how we rolled our eyes. The ironic thing is that a decent old jacket is just the thing in those circumstances - decent size pockets for tools, handy inner pocket for phone, put on or taken off in a jiffy, doesn't matter if they get dirty. When I retire I shall wear nothing but charity-shop tweed as I potter, probably with a cravat.
 
Hope it’s OK posting this link here

https://youtu.be/Hwy8SzVmWGc

Great short high quality colour video of German cities in 1945 depicting both the damage and civilian occupants left living there. The lack of German men in Berlin is especially telling - probably either dead or in Soviet captivity.

For those that have travelled to these cities, it gives you a perspective of what they looked like 70+ years ago in the aftermath of WW2.

It is also a reminder of the resilience of mankind and our ability to rebuild and carry on.

I am please to say (and very happy to acknowledge my luck) that living in such circumstances is unimaginable. Those scenes would have been replicated all over Europe. Nowadays we have complete strops if broadband drops out for an hour...

I am sure there is similar footage of Coventry. The mess, the desolation, the look of grim acceptance on the residents' faces as they try desperately to find normality in a hellish world. Things may have changed though - it's been nearly 10 years since I last went to Coventry.
 
Really enjoyed that .very humbling to watch ,the people just getting on with it . I know they were paid in food etc but still cannot imagine people doing that now , they just wait for the relief agencies to bail them out
 
Fascinating

When it jumped to Hamburg, the first shot was of Michaeliskirche, And about 8 years ago, I was on the viewing platform seen here. it was March, and so cold I stayed less than a minute.
During the first night's bombing of Hamburg, the death total matched the entire death toll in the German bombing of the UK during the war.
Another scene showed Eisenhower's D.E.F. enclosures for the German troops he was responsible for.
Eisenhower treated those in his care in a similar manner to that meted out by the Germans to those who survived in concentration camps.
Patton had a similar number of German troops to look after, but they were treated correctly as prisoners of war.
The two Generals loathed one another, and if Patten had not died the following year, it is unlikely that Eisenhower would have become President.
 
Excellent film especially as I've just finished reading Anthony Beevor's book "The Battle of Berlin". I don't know how people lived and survived those last couple of months in Berlin.
 
Here's another. Hamburg 1948. Mini-skirts at 9 mins odd! Not quite the "pelmets" of the '60s

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I agree, an excellent film, and given our troubled times in the Ukraine, very thought provoking.
I am not use we can really be proud of the damaged caused, and in that same vein of thought, neither can a certain a Mr V.Putin expect to be after this current "war" finishes.
However, no one should ever underestimate the power of that particular countries' people, they will clear up, rebuild and once again be proud of their cities and country, albeit that it will take many years. What Putin has done beggars belief, if he was so certain that there were people in the Donbas region who wanted to be Russian, why didn't he just invite them into his own back garden, or maybe that wasn't really the plan.....
Another possible so called reason for the invasion was that he didn't want NATO as a neighbour - but that reasoning can only come from someone who doesn't understand geography, because if he was to make Ukraine part of Russia, surely Poland would be a neighbour ??
Never mind now, this current situation is not going to be sorted out by me, and I can only look forward to seeing Ukraine once again restored.

PS - has anyone made a film of those same damaged areas of Germany as they are today now they have been rebuilt ?
 
i remember being told of an elderly man who was very hard up with no cash, but always dressed in a high quality suit.... i cannot afford to buy cheap clothes was his response to being asked how he could afford such a top end suit.

I recall when i was first in cadet, shirts issued were list as Shirt CA (collar attached) as most had 1 shirt and a number of collars that could be washed. the 1 shirt would last a week and be washed on a monday (clean on for church on Sunday). Nowadays people wash clothes after 5 minutes of wearing them and think they are poor with only 1 wardrobe full of tat
 
I believe at 6:50 the officer is pointing down into the pit at two Jerry cans used to burn Hitler and Eva. On Hitler's orders.
 


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