Berlin, in May 1945: World War II is over in Europe. The Soviet army has conquered Berlin, a city reduced to rubble, and now under martial law. Soldiers from America, Great Britain, and France will move in a few months later. Broken tanks and makeshift barricades are littering the streets, tenements and churches were turned into bombed-out shells, tunnels have been flooded and train tracks destroyed. German soldiers are been hauled off to POW-camps in Siberia, while old men are cutting up dead horses for food, women are trading clothing for survival, and children are left to their own devices in the ruins. And the victors, Russian soldiers of the Red Army, look as much exhausted as the defeated. These rare pictures have been taken by photographers of the Red Army and by Germans in their employ immediately after the surrender. They are published for the first time in the United States, allowing a glimpse into an era of destruction and desperation, but also survival and rebuilding.

Autorentext
Dr. Michael Brettin, born 1964, studied History, Politics and Slavistics and graduated with a PhD in History from Hamburg University. His dissertation examined the nationality question in the Soviet Union under General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. He is also a graduate of the Hamburg School of Journalism, the Henri-Nannen-Schule. Currently, he works as a managing editor of the Sunday issue of Berliner Kurier. His writings on the history of the Berlin Wall was published in twelve issues and as a magazine. He lives with his wife, his daughter and his son in Berlin.