A contrast between East Berlin and West Berlin in Germany. The "Berlin wall" which separates East and West Germany with a wire fence on its top built by the Soviets. Workers in East Berlin constructing the wall. The streets of West Berlin and several dilapidated buildings in East Berlin, still not repaired following bombing during World War II, showing the contrast. Bernd Luenser who was shot down as he reached West Berlin after swimming across a canal from East Berlin. His body is hauled out by the West German guards. Wreaths laid in memoriam for Germans killed trying to escape to West Berlin. U.S. Air Force C-54 aircraft taking off from an airfield, connecting East and West Berlin. Bricked windows sealed over completely on buildings along the Berlin Wall. Khrushchev speaking at the UN, standing and waving his finger emphatically as he speaks.
Changes in Germany before during Adolf Hitler's leadership. View of German youth idle and in poor slum housing areas during great depression years of hyperinflation between the wars, and before Hitler's rise to power. German boy children stand outside their houses and are seen idle. They run in an abandoned warehouse. Scene shifts to Hitler youth marching in front of a camp in 1935, holding Nazi flags. Adolf Hitler speaks to a crowd in an outdoor mass meeting (likely 7th Party Congress in September 1935). A large crowd assembles at a stadium. Sign for a Adolf Hitler Jugendherberge (youth hostel). Girls and young women of Hitler youth dance in pairs in traditional German clothing. Tents in the background for the girls camping. Views of a boys encampment for Hitler Youth with tents in the background. Boys in uniform gathering in camp, shining shoes, and working. Children work seated on ground. Workers enter industrial factories. Young men working in a factory producing goods in Germany using machines. Young men of the Reich Labour Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst or RAD) march in formation carrying shovels.
Allied forces advance deeper into Germany after crossing the Rhine. Bergen-Belsen Nazi concentration camp in Germany during World War II. Allied planes in sky. Allied troops advance in Germany after crossing Rhine River. U.S. soldiers held prisoners by Germany are liberated from a POW camp by British forces. Scenes of jubilant freed American prisoners cheering their British rescuers and having food and drink. Some of the freed prisoners hold a newspaper announcing the death of U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt. Displaced civilian persons walk on roadways as refugees carrying few possessions. They had been slave laborers for the Germans. Some walk along slowly with no shoes. Prisoners freed from Belsen concentration camp by the British 11th Armored Division. The German prison Camp Commandant, Josef Kramer, seen under guard by British soldiers. Emaciated and unburied corpses on the grounds of Bergen-Belsen camp. Emaciated man seated. Emaciated corpses being thrown into a mass grave. German women made to view the atrocities are seen crying and weeping. Prisoners behind barbed wire. Medics tend to a prisoner. Various views of different concentration camp victims. U.S. planes in flight.
Mix of actor portrayals and actual footage: Church, homes and schools of America. Various United States soldiers. Views of German soldiers. German soldiers marching in a parade ground. Rulers and dictators of Germany: Adolf Hitler (World War II), Kaiser Wilhelm II, Otto Von Bismarck who laid identity of Germany as Nazi, Huns, and Prussians respectively. Historic overview of Germany. Princes and feudalistic rulers of the states. In contrast the US, French and British parliamentary system. King Frederick, the Great of Prussia with his cavalry and in his court. Prussian war against Austria, Russia, Sweden, France. German women wave for victorious troops. Portraits of Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. Dictums of Clausewitz, crushing of the 1848 revolt in Prussia. Germans emigrate to the U.S. Otto Von Bismarck addresses the ministry his policies of blood and iron.
A film titled ' Airborne armies join big attack on Germany' shows Allied airborne troops getting into planes to join the attack on Germany during World War II. Planes take off and paratroopers land in Germany while in mid air to reinforce Army units in field.
Displaced civilians and prisoners of war in Germany near end of World War 2. Displaced persons get off the trucks at a German non-com school in Bergzabern, Germany where they will be housed. People stand in a line. Refugees prepare their meal over an open stove. Displaced persons receive food at Red Cross portable kitchen. 2200 American prisoners of war after being liberated from stalag 9-B in Breslau, Germany. Prisoners being addressed by an American officer at the camp area. A soldier with a tin stands in a line. A soldier with a chunk of bread. Released prisoners receive coffee in mugs and they drink it. Medics carry a man on a litter out of a building. Soldiers receive cigarettes and rations.
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