Documentary titled 'Deutschland Erwache' recounts Germany's wartime experiences. Explosion seen as the Nazi Swastika emblem is blown up on top of the Zeppelintribüne (at Zeppelinfeld) at the Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg in 1945 by the U.S. Army. Following explosion, the pieces from the destroyed emblem fall from the sky. Montage shows: German Prisoners Of War (POWs) marching; Ratification of the German surrender documents (from surrender two days earlier at Reims) held at Soviet headquarters in Karlshorst, Berlin, Germany on May 9, 1945. German officers present include Colonel-General Hans-Jürgen Stumpff from the Luftwaffe, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel as Chief of Staff of OKW, and Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg as Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine. They are seen entering room and signing documents. View of Keitel signing the surrender document. Soviet Russian General looking at surrender documents. General Eisenhower, General Montgomery and others shown in brief glimpses. Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill at Yalta. Aerial views of heavily bomb-damaged cities in Germany, including wrecked German cities of Cologne, Nuremberg, Hamburg, and Berlin. View of Brandenburg gate in background and rubble of bombing in foreground as two people carry a stretcher down the street. A wrecked street sign for the Unter Den Linden lies on the ground partially covered in mud. Ground level views of smoking ruined buildings in Berlin and a few German citizens walking on the streets following Battle of Berlin. Views of dead German soldiers on a battlefield. German soldiers helping to carry and tend to wounded and bandaged German soldiers. Large group of German citizens gathered in a public square.
6th Nazi Party Congress at Nuremberg, in 1934, featuring a "Totenehrung" ceremony, honouring dead. Nazi SA ( Sturmabteilung) and SS (Schutzstaffel) troops in precise formations fill the Zeppelin Field Luitpold Arena, leaving only a wide pathway to the Ehrenhalle war memorial. View from behind honor guard standing at the Ahrenhalle, as Adolf Hitler, flanked by SS leader, Heinrich Himmler (in Black) and Viktor Lutze, head of the Sturmabteilung (SA), approach. Three huge banners with swastikas are seen in the far background. Scene shifts to 1945. American troops are now assembled at the main grandstand (Ehrentribüne) of Zeppelin Field. The American flag covers the wreathed swastika sculpture at the top of the Grandstand. View of German soldiers, who have been mustered out, mingling with civilians in a town. Some speak with an American soldier, who is part of the U.S. occupying force. Scene shifts to the Yalta conference in February, 1945. Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin are seen seated while their most senior military staff members stand in the background. Allied leaders sit around a large conference table. U.S. Secretary of State James F. Byrnes, sits near Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Scene shifts back to Nazi era. Joseph Goebbels, Reichminister of Propaganda is speaking and haranguing a crowd. In contrast, German soldiers are seen conversing with occupying American soldiers. This is contrasted with more scenes of Nazi leaders giving impassioned speeches to a hall filled with Nazi faithful. German soldiers, prisoners of war are seen directed by U.S. military police, behind a barbed wire enclosure. Large numbers of German prisoners of war in an open holding area. Closeups of some. Bucolic scenes of farmers working in fields and herds of sheep and cattle. Hitler speaking in a forceful, animated way and haranguing an audience of rapt listeners. German civilians standing quietly in a group. (Narrator refers them being the people of Beethoven, Goethe, and Martin Luther, as statues of those iconic Germans are shown.) In dramatic contrast, numerous dead bodies of victims are being shown to German citizens by American troops, at Nordhausen, Buchenwald, and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps. This is contrasted against views of German people folk dancing in traditional costumes, German contributions to science (view of Albert Einstein speaking) and industry (view of professional glass blowers at work). Glaring contrast shows German civilians moving the body of a concentration camp victim; several civilians being shot dead by a firing squad (unseen); Rudolf Himmler; and an image Germany being destroyed, as result of the Nazis. American soldiers are loosely assembled in an open field. by the Elbe River at Torgau, Germany on 26 April 1945. American and Russian officers greet each other at the site, where their armies have met in World War 2. American and Russian soldiers mingle and greet one another. Views of Allied forces entering Germany. Another scene of victims' bodies stacked at a concentration camp. French soldiers examine stake where prisoners were tied and executed in the Gestapo headquarters on Paris France. Other views of the Gestapo prison, where victims were buried. Examples of torture devices used to coerce information from prisoners. More views of stacked bodies of victims. Germans carrying bodies from a concentration camp. General Dwight Eisenhower and General George Patton visiting the Ohrdruf Concentration Camp. Burned remains of victims. Closeup of General Patton. German officials and citizens confronting horror as they are compelled to walk through the camp. A huge wagon loaded with bodies of the dead. German women appalled and repelled by the sights. Countless numbers of dead victims covering a large courtyard. German citizens compelled to carry body of a victim from the yard. Others carrying bodies of victims. Large numbers of German citizens, seemingly shamed and remorseful at the revelations. A group of German men carrying shovels and others carrying crosses to commence burying the victims appropriately. Men carrying victims bodies in open wooden caskets along a road lined with spectators. Coffins of victims laid out in a cemetery. (Narrator alludes to them never forgetting.) German men gently place covered coffins in a long mass grave.
Motorcade of Allied heroes during World War 2, escorted by royal guards and troops, parade down the streets of New York. Ticker tapes are showered over the parade. Thousands of people gather at the City Hall Plaza to get a glimpse of the war heroes from different countries. The U.S. and British flag on buildings. The procession moves uptown. Heroes include men of the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and men of American armed forces. The men are honored at a ceremony in front of the City Hall in New York.
Motorcycle road test in United States. American motorcycle dispatch riders drive their bikes on extremely rough and rugged terrain through cross country United States. Riders take several bumps and some of them tumble off their bikes.
View of the Ford Willow Run Bomber Plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Henry Ford in conversation with the British and American supply heads, Oliver Littleton and Donald Nelson. A B-24 bomber in the background. The touring party visits assembly line of the Ford Tank Plant. Several tanks roll out of the plant. In Washington DC China's Foreign Minister TV Soong concludes a land lease agreement with the U.S. Secretary of the State, Hall. On the Pacific Coast workers of a bomber plant are visited by the American Hero of War, General James Doolittle. General addresses the workers. The workers applaud and cheer. General Doolittle smiles and poses.
View of a large ship building yard in New York, USA during World War 2. Engineers and workers at work. Cranes handle large ship parts. Workers weld ship parts. Large cranes in operations. America celebrates Maritime Day with mass decoration of merchant seamen. New York's Mayor La Guardia awards medal to victims of German submarine raids. U.S. Navy sailors aboard a ship wave and cheer. Sign on the bow of the Victory Ship has a giant "V" symbol and reads 'Ships for victory'. The American flag on the bow. Several large Victory ships are launched from the shipyard, including the SS Irving S. Olds. Ships get underway in the harbor.
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