A look at the final 100 days of the Second World War.

A look at the final 100 days of the Second World War.

Ch1. Breakthrough in the East
The total war, propagated by Goebbels, strikes back at the Fatherland and reaches its climax on German soil. It is the beginning of a hundred days of horror and death.

Ch2. Germany in Ruins
In the last months of the Second World War, Cologne was the first major German city to fall to the Allies. Stalin planned to conquer Berlin before the Western Allies arrived. To encourage the Germans to persevere, the Wochenschau stoked up fear of the Red Army. Hitler had hundreds of opponents of the regime murdered and gave orders to leave behind nothing but "scorched earth". Thankfully, only a few fanatical Nazis complied.

Ch3. Downfall and Liberation
In the spring of 1945, the Red Army began its offensive on Berlin. The first concentration camps were liberated by British and US forces, who discovered emaciated prisoners and mounds of corpses. Churchill wanted to avoid leaving Berlin to Stalin, but Eisenhower feared that German units could form a national redoubt in the Alps. After Hitler's suicide, it was left to administrators under Grand Admiral Doenitz to declare unconditional surrender.

Produced by Spiegel TV for ZDF 2020.