Berlin 1945 (2020) User Reviews

Life in the ruins

[paul2001sw-1 · 7/10 · 15 November 2020]

This documentary series uses archive footagae coupled with contemporaneous ddiary entries to give us a flavour of life in bombed-out Berlin in 1945. It must have been an extraordinary time to live through, as residents faced with physical and economic ruin, national defeat and the collapse of the ideology that had driven the war. The pictures are amazing; the diary excerpts are all (in the English version) read in uniform flat monotone (I understand the choice not to over-dramatise, but it does flatten the effect). An interesting question is how Berliners were coming to terms with their own involvement with Nazism; mainly, one senses, though denial (few loved Hitler once he had destroyed the country, but this is of course missing the point). Reflections with perspective have their own problems, of course, but they can provide insight that a terse journal can not. The program is still worth watching, however, especially for those of us sufficiently fortnate not to have to have witnessed anything like the scences that it depicts.

A different look at WW2

[rednebmb · 8/10 · 10 September 2021]

Pieced together from diaries of those who survived in Berlin from late 1944 through the end of 1945. This documentary shows how the war affected the German civilians. It also covers the allied occupation. Lots of actual black and white film and some in color. It is well done and I definitely recommend it for any fan of history. The only downside is there are some scenes in spoken German that are not translated - not even with subtitles. I saw this as a 3 part series on Amazon Prime. Each part was about 50 mins.

A first-person look at a war-torn city

[ArtVandelayImporterExporter · 9/10 · 16 August 2023]

This is so much different from most war documentaries. Instead of focusing on the psychopathic war criminals who fed their young boys into the meat grinder and managed to get millions of women and children pointlessly killed in the bargain, this series presents the perspective of people who were living in Berlin and the foreign armies who conquered the city.

The narrative is created out of the personal journal entries of Berliners, army vets and others. Read by voice actors. And matched up with some amazing film footage that are, at times, frank and disturbing, but always fascinating.

It's like a ''Rubble Film" shot in real time.

I couldn't recommend this highly enough. I guarantee most people have never seen anything like it.

Incredible Historical Documentary

[[e-mail] · 10/10 · 7 May 2020]

I certainly hope that this 2 part documentary will find a larger audience as it was a simply stunning document in a critical year of a city as told (via voice actors) of first person accounts of what happened in and around Berlin in 1945. This was not a paint-by-numbers documentary - it could be put up against any of the best historical works in documentary by such notables as Ken Burns. So glad I had a chance to see this on Germany television (on ARTE) - again this will hopefully receive a wider release as many would undoubtedly enjoy the thoroughness and artistry on display.

Superb & Important Work

[chrischapman-47545 · 10/10 · 9 November 2020]

Shown in the UK as 3 x 1 hour episodes with English dubbing and titles, this mini series contains much footage not previously seen in similar documentaries. This and the style of commentary of characters reading from real diaries brings home what life was like at the end of WW2 in Europe. I found it fascinating. My only minor quibble would be a voiceover by a USAAF American airman over some footage of British RAF Lancaster bombers.

Berlin decimated

[S3pt3m63r · 8 January 2023]

During 1945 we see through the eyes of the Berliners the reduction of their city through aerial bombardment to a city reduced in the end rubble. Told by us by its people, it's conquerors and those who were sequestered it's an incredible story of a year in which the Third Reich falls and the WWII comes to an end. Russia invades closely followed by by the UK and USA and Allies. The experiences of the people are are explained through their diaries and we live them through their experiences with Russian soldier rapes. I suppose it's women who most often keep diaries, and it's they who we know and follow the stories. The mother who doesn't know what happened to her husband and daughters, who we found where murdered in Auschwitz. This is the most upsetting part of the story.

We heard from other people who had prominent roles in the military, and from the Nuremberg trials. We saw excerpt from when the BBC correspondent first encountered the horrific events at the concentration camps and saw corpses and living skeletons, evidence of what the Nazis had been doing to the Jewish people.

The story depicted life during this year and how it was received by the people. For them it wasn't too bad, for the Jews, it can't be recorded. As for Hitler, he took the cowards way out. After subjecting his people to unmitigated air bombardment, the city was reduced to rubble and the people virtually destroyed. Russian troops invaded and raped the civilians and destroyed the city, the Americans and Allies split Berlin and Germany for many decades after the war. It is for myself, from the UK, not easy to watch. I was born 11 years after the war.

It's resonates now, with the war in Ukrainian, which is so unnecessary. All wars are pointless.