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Dive into the dramatic final days of WWII's Battle of Breslau! Discover wild stories of generals, chaos, and survival as history unfolds in unexpected ways. If you love epic war tales and untold facts, this one's for you. Subscribe for more fascinating history, and let us know in the comments what blew your mind the most! #history #WWII #Europe #documentary #war
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0:34 - Gambling and Military Leadership
1:24 - German and Soviet Military Justice
4:01 - Case of Breslau's Commanders
6:59 - Wider Context of Allied Policy and Resistance
13:43 - Encirclement and Defenders of Breslau
21:22 - Siege and Urban Battle
30:47 - Final Days and Surrender of Breslau
👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@zeitgeschichteinbildundton
0:34 - Gambling and Military Leadership
1:24 - German and Soviet Military Justice
4:01 - Case of Breslau's Commanders
6:59 - Wider Context of Allied Policy and Resistance
13:43 - Encirclement and Defenders of Breslau
21:22 - Siege and Urban Battle
30:47 - Final Days and Surrender of Breslau
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đź“š
LearningTranscript
00:00Thank you very much.
00:56Thank you very much.
03:41who defied Hitler were at most transferred to the so-called FĂĽhrer Reserve, which was the reserve
03:49of temporarily unassigned officers established within the army, or they were dismissed from the
03:56Wehrmacht while still receiving their salary or pension. After all, as reported by Major General
04:04Hans von Alphen, who was appointed as Breslau's combat commander on February 2, 1945, he had clashed
04:12so much with the constantly interfering go-lider of Lower Silesia and NSDAP Reich Defense Commissioner
04:21Karl Honka that Honka managed to have him replaced by Hitler. And this, even though von Alphen had
04:29explicitly announced Hitler's will in his daily order of February 80, anyone who abandons their
04:36position on their own authority and retreats will be sentenced to death by a summary court for
04:41cowardice. Every leader, regardless of unit, not only has the right but also the duty to enforce
04:48discipline against shirkers who abandon their position by all means, including the use of
04:54weapons if necessary. And on the 17th of the month, he also threatened civilians with the death penalty
05:01if they provided shelter or food to individual soldiers. As for von Alphen's replacement, who,
05:10after the war, wrote, among other things, a thick book about the war in Silesia. However, there are
05:16sources that attribute his replacement by the commander of Army Group Center, Colonel General Schoerner,
05:22to what he saw as Alphen's softness in dealing with Gauleiter Hanke, who, as commander of the lower
05:30Silesian Volkssturm, repeatedly interfered in military planning without von Alphen hurting him, yet still
05:38effectively reining him in. In any case, von Alphen was relieved of his duties on March 7 by the 1st.
05:47Hermann Nyehoff, who was promoted to General of the Infantry on April 1, under whom Breslau's defenses
05:55were indeed tightened noticeably. The downside was that this force, made up of exhausted and mostly
06:03hastily assembled units, held out until the surrender of Breslau on the 6th. May 1945 had to fight and die
06:13on Nyehoff's orders. After the general returned from Soviet captivity to the Federal Republic at the end of
06:2155, he lived in Riegse, Bavaria, until his death at the age of 83, in the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
06:31I can't help but, not only in the case of Breslau, accused the military leadership of continuing to go
06:39along, especially after the failed coup attempt of the 20th, July 1944, of having become largely
06:48complicit in the terrible losses and the unprecedented destruction of German cities in the months that
06:55followed until the end of the war. Speaking of July 20th, before I now devote myself to more details
07:03of the Battle of Breslau, please allow me to make a digression, which at first glance may seem to have
07:10nothing to do with Breslau, but on second glance it certainly does. Because I did not choose the title,
07:16why Breslau also had to die in 1945, for nothing. Here is my admittedly speculative answer to that.
07:26If the assassination attempt on July 20 had been successful, there would have been a good chance
07:33that Breslau, 70% destroyed, could still show its old splendor today. Even though much in Breslau was
07:42also restored by the Poles, and that much suffering would have been spared the peoples of Europe.
07:49But after U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Britain's Prime Minister Winston Churchill in January
07:561943 demanded Germany's unconditional surrender at the 1943 Casablanca Conference in Morocco,
08:05was the operation's success, for the circle around Colonel Klaus Graf von Stauffenberg,
08:11doomed from the very beginning for psychological reasons? Because after the Roosevelt-Churchill demand,
08:20also to appease Stalin, a whole series of top German officers had renounced the resistance.
08:27Because they saw better and more clearly than people in Washington and London could or wanted to see at the
08:35time.
08:35that through an unconditional surrender of Germany, the Soviet Union would advance deep into the heart of Europe.
08:44A strong advocate of the demand for unconditional surrender was Roosevelt here on the 11th, December 1941,
08:52during the signing of the declaration of war against Germany, which had previously declared war on the USA.
08:59His ancestors, von Rosenfeld, had come from the Netherlands to New Amsterdam between 1638 and 1649,
09:10which has been called New York since 1664.
09:15As for the lifelong negative image of Germany that shaped him,
09:19This was the case for the millionaire's son, born in 1882, and otherwise he was taught at home by private
09:28tutors.
09:29It arose during a three-month spa stay of his parents in 1891 in the elegant Hessian town of Bad
09:37Nauheim,
09:38where the nine-year-old attended the local elementary school for six weeks.
09:43However, I assume that the negative image of Germany was actually awakened and fueled more by his openly anti-German
09:52father,
09:53James Roosevelt I.
09:55In 1913, Franklin, who had since been trained as a lawyer, served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy
10:03in the administration of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson of the Democratic Party.
10:09Continuing in this role throughout the First World War, which began in 1914.
10:16Wilson is well known for his 14 points announced in 1917, which were believed by naive German politicians,
10:25but later not upheld, promising a just peace and a future world without wars.
10:33From August 1921, Roosevelt was gradually paralyzed by an illness
10:38to the point that he eventually ended up in a wheelchair.
10:42However, his illness had been kept secret from the public for many years.
10:47He then won the 1933 presidential election against the Republican incumbent, Hoover.
10:54He held the office until his death on the 12th.
10:58He served until April 1945,
11:01and to this day he is the only U.S. President who served three terms,
11:06even though the Constitution limits the term to two.
11:11Anyway, Roosevelt's almost unconditional friendship with Stalin also led,
11:16among other things, to the demand for unconditional surrender.
11:21Anyway, when someone who knew history better than Roosevelt
11:26occasionally pointed out Stalin's lust for power to him,
11:30Roosevelt replied to him,
11:33I have the feeling that Stalin is not that kind of man.
11:36I think that if I give him everything I can and ask for nothing in return, he, noblesse oblige,
11:45will not try to annex anything else and will work with me for a world of democracy and peace.
11:51It's well known that some high-ranking German officers,
11:55after the demands from Casablanca became known,
12:00repeatedly asked the Western allies to pay their price for their participation in overthrowing Hitler,
12:07in the form of giving up the demand for unconditional surrender in the East,
12:12and, as they argued, the then still intact German Eastern Front in the overall European interest,
12:20to be able to hold it better, but their demand was met with sharp rejection by all the Western allies.
12:28These generals may have been wrong time and again in their, to us today, unimaginable loyalty to Hitler,
12:36but in this case they were proven right.
12:40Nevertheless, it is a fact that the Western powers had no interest whatsoever in supporting the German resistance in any
12:48way,
12:48and they even went so far as to generally doubt the existence of a German opposition,
12:55because what could not be, must not be.
12:58But of course, Germany's wartime enemies cannot be blamed for the fact that the attempted coup in July 1944
13:06failed after just a few hours, just as they cannot be blamed for generally wrong German behavior,
13:13since they did what they thought was best for their peoples from an official standpoint.
13:18This also applies to Roosevelt, who, in addition to his strong affinity for the Soviet Union,
13:24which he described as another kind of democracy,
13:28despite all contrary statements from the White House, was also in very poor health,
13:34and because of his numerous extramarital affairs, he had in fact been abandoned by his wife Eleanor early on.
13:43When I now come to the siege and battle of Breslau, I've already discussed it in my video about the
13:49battle.
13:49In the course of the Soviet Lower Silesian operation, I briefly addressed the fate of the Lower Silesian capital,
13:57which the Poles have called Wortschlag since 1945.
14:03Because around the end of February, beginning of March 1945, the top leadership wanted to put their plan into action,
14:11which was that, about 130 kilometers east of Lauban, since the 13th.
14:16Breslau, which had been encircled since February 13th and declared a fortress, was to be liberated.
14:22But for this, Lauban had to be recaptured for various reasons.
14:25However, Soviet counterattacks and the rapidly decreasing German combat strength prevented that.
14:32After that, Breslau, similar to the earlier battles of Stalingrad, at the turn of 42 to 43,
14:41saw a merciless street and house-to-house combat, which brought death to tens of thousands of civilians,
14:50in addition to the thousands killed on both sides.
14:54It all began on the 25th, July 44, just five days after the failed assassination attempt on Hitler,
15:02when he declared Breslau, which had been predominantly German for about 700 years of fortress,
15:09and the galleiter of Lower Silesia since 1941, and Reich Defense Commissioner Karl Henke,
15:17had received the order to defend the city at all costs.
15:22This meant the city, located about 350 kilometers southeast of Berlin,
15:29was supposed to act as a kind of breakwater, holding up any possible advance of the Red Army
15:36toward the Reich capital for as long as possible.
15:39Then, under the coordination of, starting from the 25th September, Major General Johannes Krause,
15:47who came from the artillery and was appointed fortress commander, found a completely unprepared city,
15:54and under his coordination, the fortification work began.
15:58Bunkers were built, and livestock was driven into the city to supply the population.
16:04From a military perspective, the city itself was ideally situated, because as early as the 13th century,
16:12most recently in the years 1850-1890 to 1914, a belt of fortifications had been built around Breslau.
16:21In addition, the city was surrounded by tank-unfriendly canals and marshes, shown in blue.
16:29Fortifications had also been built away from Breslau, intended to protect the city from artillery fire.
16:36But in reality, of course, in the 20th century, in the 20th century, no matter how fortified,
16:42a city was no longer a fortress, which was also true for the capital of Lower Silesia.
16:48Apart from a few Soviet air raids in October, 44, Breslau was, at the beginning of 45 alongside Dresden,
16:57the only major German city that was still largely intact.
17:01And arrogantly, on January 15th, Gauleiter Hanke boasted about the future of Breslau.
17:08The Russians will never take the city. I would rather burn it down.
17:13When, on January 12th, the Red Army broke through the German lines in their Vistula Odor operation,
17:20with Breslau encircled in red, Gauleiter Hanke, on the 20th, on January 20th,
17:27handed over sole command authority to General Kraus in his bunker. And then, far too late for an
17:35orderly process, ordered the immediate evacuation of women and children by rail transport.
17:41However, at that time, Breslau was already overcrowded with tens of thousands of refugees from the east,
17:48so that the operations at the main train station and the Freiburger Bahnhof collapsed within a very
17:55short time. And in the panic, children and the elderly were trampled to death.
18:02Hanke then, on the 26th, ordered the march out of the city in a southwesterly direction,
18:09which, due to the freezing temperatures and snow, led to thousands of deaths,
18:15mainly among small children and the elderly. When this tragedy became known in the city,
18:22many of those ordered to evacuate refused to leave the city, which still had 200,000 people and 40,000
18:31soldiers, the rest being civilians. In this unimaginable chaos, tank trenches and barricades were built,
18:40with thousands of civilians also being used for digging and fortification work. Squares and streets
18:47were abandoned or turned into strongpoints, and by demolishing entire rows of houses, fields of fire
18:55were created. Even a swath near Kaiserstrasse had been blown up, including the Martin Luther Church,
19:03for an alternative aircraft takeoff and landing strip 1,300 meters long and 300 meters wide, which,
19:11however, was never used. Major General Kraus had set up his command post. In the casemates of the Belvedere,
19:19Liebig Shoah, until 1807, part of the Breslau city fortifications, and called the Taschenbastian,
19:27at the site where, since 1936, a monument commemorated the Germans who fell in the former colonies,
19:35which, however, like around 70 other German monuments in Breslau, was destroyed by the Poles in 1945.
19:44In addition to the civilian hospitals, there were field hospitals, for example, under the main train
19:50station and Stiegauer Square. When General Kraus then fell ill, he was on the 2nd. On February 2nd, 1945,
19:59he was replaced by the already mentioned Major General von Alphen, who came from the Engineering
20:06Corps and, as one of his first measures, ordered the demolition of 40 of the 66 bridges in and around
20:14Breslau. The higher command authority was Army Group Center under Colonel General Ferdinand Schörner,
20:20who, as late as the 5th, was appointed the last German Field Marshal on April 5, 1945.
20:26The units deployed in Breslau were commanded by the 17th Army, first under General of the Infantry
20:34Friedrich Schulz, then under General of the Infantry Wilhelm Hasse.
20:40The units just mentioned, with a strength of up to 40,000 men, including the Army Fortress Grenadiers
20:47named after their commanders, Army Fortress Grenadier Regiments Sauer, Hanf, and Moore,
20:54here Lieutenant Colonel Moore awarding soldiers, were often mixed with training units, police companies,
21:00officer cadets, and non-commissioned officer training courses, driving schools, convalescents,
21:06soldiers picked up by the field military police, who were then assembled into emergency units,
21:13but also able-bodied male civilians. So, all in all, the picture of a defeated army nearing its end.
21:22As was also true of the, just like the Division ZBV-609 formed on January 26, 1945, which consisted of
21:33four regiments named after their commanders, Regiments Reinkober, Kerstin, Schulz, and Seibold.
21:39The commander of the 609th was General Siegfried Ruff, who, along with other generals,
21:46was sentenced to death in Soviet captivity in Riga and on the 3rd. A February 1946 was hanged in Riga.
21:56In addition, there were a total of 38 Volkssturm battalions under S.A. ObergruppenfĂĽhrer Otto Herzberg,
22:02who on the 6th of May died by suicide.
22:08There were also light and heavy anti-aircraft guns under Colonel Joachim Kurtbach,
22:14an Air Force regiment composed of members of the Luftwaffe, mechanics, and former flight personnel
22:21under Lieutenant Colonel Ockham Veil with four to six battalions and a combat group of the 269th.
22:30Infantry Division under General Hans Wagner, units with Hitler Youth and the Fire Protection Police
22:36Regiment Breslau, that is, the fire brigade under Colonel Chief of Fire Protection Police.
22:43Engineer Richard Grebo, the anti-tank battalion Breslau under Reserve Lieutenant.
22:49Leo Hartmann, here later in Bundeswehr uniform, with a few Jagdpanzer IV, SturmgeschĂĽtz III and IV,
22:57flak panzers and self-propelled guns with Panzerschreck, and finally an armored battalion with Panzer IV.
23:05The artillery had 32 batteries under Colonel Urbatas. The most important were six fortress batteries.
23:13Finally, the Breslau Engineer Regiment under Major Hamister with a larger number of radio-controlled
23:20demolition vehicles, the so-called Goliaths. In addition to the 2nd, which was flown in at the
23:26beginning of March, battalion of the 26th Parachute Regiment under Captain Herman Trotz and under the command of
23:34Captain Scow, the units of the Paratrooper Regiment ZBV Schacht, named after its commander Major Gern,
23:43Gerhard Schacht, which was renamed Paratrooper Battalion 67 in Breslau, was the most combat-effective
23:51formation. The ad hoc SS Fortress Grenadier Regiment 1, consisting of many Dutch and French volunteers,
24:00with four battalions under SS Obersturmbannfuhrer, just like Lieutenant Colonel Georg Robert Beslein,
24:07who from early February until the surrender of the city was continuously engaged in heavy street and
24:15house-to-house fighting, with the Soviet units, for which four of his soldiers were awarded the
24:21Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. On the night of January 30th to 31st, Breslau was shelled
24:29by Soviet artillery for the first time, resulting in many civilian casualties. After the ground war had
24:36thus become directly visible in the city, the pressure on the soldiers and able-bodied men in
24:43the city was also increased. I have already mentioned the daily order of the combat commander von Alphen
24:50from February 8th. So anyone who, as a soldier, no longer had a marching order, now risked being
24:58sentenced to death and shot by a quickly convened court-martial. In this case, just like in Breslau,
25:05the Gauleiter as a political authority was also allowed to pass such sentences.
25:10The most prominent victim was Dr. Wolfgang Spielhagen, who had served as the second mayor
25:17since 1941 and was a critic of the persistent, defiant Hanka. When, on January 20th, he had a travel
25:26permit from Ernst Leiftenstern, who was entrusted with running the affairs of the mayor of Breslau,
25:33he brought his wife and two children to what was believed to be the safe city of Berlin.
25:39After his return on the 26th, he was, by order of the person in charge, since the 30th,
25:45Hanka, who had been appointed SS ObergruppenfĂĽhrer on January 30th, 1944, on the 27th, arrested and on
25:54the 28th shot in front of the town hall for extreme cowardice and for looking for a new position in
26:01Berlin and his body was thrown into the Oder River. Without getting ahead of myself, while it is
26:09certain that Mayor Leiftenstern was on the 2nd, April 1945 lost his life in the fighting. The further
26:17fate of the bloodthirsty Gauleiter Hanka is not certain. Hanka, who was born in 1903 in Lauban,
26:27Silesia, had an affair in 1938 with the wife of the man who at that time was deeply in love
26:35with
26:35the Czech actress Lida Barowa. Propaganda minister Goebbels was on the 29th. On April 29th, after
26:43Hitler had accused the Reichsfuhrer SS and chief of German police Himmler of treason,
26:48he was appointed as his successor. When Hanka's glory in Breslau came to an end,
26:55it is reported that on the 5th. On May 5th, he escaped to the west from the makeshift airstrip on
27:02Kaiserstrasse using the combat commander's Fieseler Storch. Then, about 120 kilometers away from Breslau,
27:11in the area of Lower Silesian Leuwenberg, Polish Loek Szlaki, to the 18th unit stationed there.
27:19He joined the SS volunteer panzer grenadier division Horst Wessel on the 8th. On June 8th,
27:27after being captured near Prague by Czech partisans, he was shot while trying to escape and then beaten to
27:35death. According to another version, he was taken to Poland and executed there. Back in February,
27:41the large Soviet units of the 1st Ukrainian Front assigned to Breslau were under Marshal of the
27:49Soviet Union Ivan Stepanovich Konev, specifically the 5th Guards Army under Colonel General Alexei
27:57Shadow and the 6th Army under Lieutenant General Vladimir A. Glustowski. This army group was supported
28:05by strong air forces of the 2nd Air Army under Lieutenant General Stefan Krasovsky.
28:13After the Soviet attacks launched since the beginning of February in the outskirts of Breslau,
28:19had been repeatedly delayed and in some cases even repelled by the German units. By the middle of the
28:27month, however, they had continued to advance until they were only 10 kilometers from the city center,
28:33like here with their artillery near Hunsfeld. On February 15, Fortress Commander Von Alphen issued another appeal to hold out.
28:44At night, Ju-52 or Heinkel He-111 dropped ammunition and supplies, but they repeatedly had to overcome the strong
28:53Soviet anti-aircraft defenses,
28:55consisting of around 320 light and medium anti-aircraft guns, 150 anti-aircraft machine guns, and 80 searchlights. In total,
29:07Air Fleet 6 under the command as of the 24th suffered losses.
29:11Field Marshal Ritter Von Grimm, who took his own life by suicide on May 24, 1945, lost between October 15.
29:19February and April 25, 1945, lost 147 aircraft and 61 more were damaged. After Breslau was finally encircled by the
29:321st Ukrainian Front on February 16,
29:35the commander of the 6th Euro Army, Lieutenant General Krasovsky sent Major General Von Alphen a 24-hour ultimatum to
29:45surrender,
29:46which, however, remained unanswered, after which Breslau was now also attacked head-on between Neukirch and Bracow.
29:57To capture the heavily defended radio station, the Soviet company deployed there disguised themselves in German uniforms and posed as
30:07German soldiers.
30:08On February 27, the Breslau Front newspaper explained to the citizens how to use the Panzerfaust.
30:16If I were to describe the following days and weeks of increasingly bitter fighting now,
30:23the shelling with artillery and mortars of all calibers, the bombardments by the Red Air Force,
30:29the close combat with flamethrowers, bundle charges, hidden mines in the ruins,
30:36I still could not even begin to describe the mortal fear and agony suffered by the civilians living in the
30:43ruins,
30:44nor what the soldiers on both sides had to endure.
30:47While the Soviet soldiers had victory in sight, the Germans knew that the war had long since been lost.
30:55During the following weeks, one street after another fell victim to the fiercely fought battles.
31:02The number of dead and wounded soon reached the thousands on both sides.
31:07On March 7, as I have already mentioned, Colonel General Schoerner replaced Major General von Alphen
31:15as combat commander with Lieutenant General Hermann Neuhoff, who immediately issued new orders to hold out.
31:24Under him, even partially successful counterattacks were now carried out.
31:28The two combat groups deployed to defend Gandow airfield were supported by the two paratrooper battalions,
31:36an anti-tank company, an 8.8 cinquimipurits flak battery, and 20 aircraft cannons removed from damaged planes.
31:48During the Easter holidays of 1945, on the 1st and 2nd of April,
31:53thousands of phosphorus bombs dropped by the Red Air Force caused massive fires.
31:59In combination with a 90-minute artillery barrage, which marked the beginning of the second offensive against Breslau.
32:07In the south, the German positions could not be held and were overrun,
32:12after which the soldiers either had to surrender or retreat up to three kilometers.
32:18During the general assault on the city, the airfield was also lost, which made it impossible to fly in ammunition
32:26and supplies or to evacuate the wounded.
32:31From February 15th to May 1st.
32:34In May, the Luftwaffe brought about 1,500 tons of supplies into the city in over 2,000 missions.
32:42However, after the loss of Gandow and due to heavy defensive fire, supplies had to be dropped at night.
32:49Much of it also fell into areas captured by Soviet troops.
32:54As the fighting continued, with the completely exhausted and heavily depleted German combat groups being reorganized again and again,
33:03it became increasingly clear that the end of the fighting was near.
33:08On Sunday, April 20th, Hitler's birthday, Lieutenant General Niehoff had a declaration of loyalty published.
33:16By the end of April, parts of the Soviet 6th Army were also worn out due to heavy losses.
33:23In addition, large parts of the 1st Ukrainian Front were fighting.
33:27Ukrainian Front were already fighting in the streets of Berlin.
33:31It was now only a matter of time before the Wehrmacht would surrender.
33:36After the Silesian daily newspaper reported Hitler's death on May 2,
33:41combat commander Niehoff promised in his daily order,
33:45Trust me, even in the darkest hour, you can be sure that I will lead you in a way that
33:52is best for you.
33:53Then the last days were marked by artillery fire and a propaganda offensive carried out by members of the National
34:02Committee for a Free Germany
34:04with leaflets and loudspeaker announcements.
34:07I made this video about the National Committee for a Free Germany.
34:12On May 6th, the German armed forces were also promised an honorable surrender during their capitulation,
34:19which, as in all other cases, was pure propaganda.
34:24Instead, as in other cities and villages conquered in the Eastern territories,
34:29there were looting, arrests, deportations, mass rapes, and murders.
34:35After that, from the Polish side, came the general expulsion of 3.7 million Silesians.
34:42On May 4th, Hitler had already been dead for four days.
34:47General Niehoff met in his command post at the University Library with the Protestant President of Breslau,
34:54Ernst Hornig, and City Dean Dr. Joachim Conrad,
34:59and from the Catholic side, Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Fersche and Canon Joseph Cramer,
35:06who asked him to put an end to the suffering and to surrender.
35:11On the night of May 5th to the 6th,
35:13On the night of May 5th to 6th, a sabotage unit of the National Committee for a Free Germany,
35:19consisting of 75 men made up of deserters and former German soldiers who had switched sides in captivity,
35:26entered the city.
35:27Led by former Lieutenant Horst Wieth, who had already deserted on the Eastern Front in 1941 from the rear,
35:36disguised as German soldiers to attack German units.
35:39Allegedly, this group was able to kill or capture several German soldiers,
35:45but also lost a number of its own members, including its leader, Wieth,
35:50to whom the city of Radebeul Niederloos has dedicated a street.
35:55Then, in the early morning of May 6th, the General of the Infantry, Anander Nyhoff, informed the
36:01population that he intended to offer surrender to the Soviet 6th Army that he intended to offer the
36:07surrender.
36:08After Nyhoff's representative, Lieutenant Colonel of the Reserve Kurt Teisler and Captain Von Druck,
36:17had held initial negotiations with Soviet officers, the surrender took place at the
36:22headquarters of the Soviet 22nd.
36:25Corps at the Villa Colonia on Kaiser Friedrich Street, 14.
36:30After Nyhoff signed the surrender papers at 6.20 p.m., officially ending the Battle of Breslau,
36:39the first Soviet units took possession of Breslau and inspected the spoils of war.
36:47Tens of thousands of German soldiers went into captivity with an uncertain fate, from which many
36:53never returned. Out of the 30,000 buildings, 21,600 were destroyed or heavily damaged, as well as around
37:0260 percent of the industry, 80 percent of the streetcar network and the gas supply.
37:08There are a number of widely varying figures regarding the losses on both sides.
37:14According to estimates by the Polish-British historian Norman Davies, a total of 170,000 civilians were killed,
37:23while others speak of 20,000, the Red Army suffered losses of 13,000 dead, including 760 officers.
37:33On the side of the Wehrmacht, at least 6,200 soldiers were killed, many of whom rest at the German
37:41military
37:41cemetery Grossnedlitz, located 15 kilometers east of Breslau. Others still lie in the graves hastily
37:50dug within the city during the fighting, which have not yet been found.
37:56In 1963, the two generals von Alphen and Niehoff published the book So Kempf de Breslau together,
38:04in which they placed the blame for everything on others. Everyone should form their own opinion about that.
38:25So Kempf de Breslau
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