蜜芽传媒

On 8 May 1945 Britain, the US and many other countries were rejoicing. Germany had surrendered, and World War Two was over, at least in Europe.

Yet it was not a day of celebration for everyone - for the vanquished Germans, it marked the end of bombings and of Nazi rule. But it was also a time of deprivation and chaos, fear and soul-searching. Millions of ethnic Germans had fled their homes to escape the approaching Red Army.

Lore Wolfson Windemuth, whose own father grew up under Nazi rule, unearths the stories of ordinary Germans who lived through that extraordinary time. Siegbert St眉mpke was a 12-year-old schoolboy who was used as a runner by the German Wehrmacht in the final days of the war. Lore Ehrich, a young mother from East Prussia (now Poland) had to flee with two small children across a frozen lagoon. Hans Rosenthal was Jewish, and survived the Holocaust hidden in a Berlin allotment colony before very nearly getting shot by the Soviet liberators. Melita Maschmann, who got hooked on Nazi ideology aged 15, became a youth leader and took years to acknowledge her share of the responsibility for the crimes committed by the National Socialists.

Narrator: Lore Wolfson Windemuth
Producer and editor: Kristine Pommert
Research: Katie Harris

A CTVC production for the 蜜芽传媒 World Service

Image: Siegbert Stuempke and his family