German-Russian Museum

There cannot be many museums with these exhibits, unlike the major museums with their masterpieces or Egyptian or Greek sculptures.

It is tucked away in a quiet suburban setting in the former East Berlin (of course).

The museum is the actual building where the formal surrender of WW2 was signed.

In this room.

There was also a complementary signing in Rheims (a city in eastern France in the Champagne Department).

 

Land mine clearing at a river crossing.

No need for fancy equipment, there are plenty of Jewish women.

There is a pair of sculptures like this in the large Soviet memorial garden.

An artists impression of the storming of the Brandenburg Gate in the final days of the War.

The retreating Germans had a scorched earth policy as they left Russia and Poland on their way back to Germany and Berlin. Towns were burnt and the railway tracks ripped.

 

Only the historians have a clear understanding of the casualties sustained in the war. This graphic quickly brings it into focus in Europe.


The major losses were the Soviets by far, with civilian losses more than the military.

The Polish civilian losses were also huge being similar to the German military losses.

The Yugoslav losses also included many civilians (I guess they were mostly Roma as the total number of Roma exterminated across Europe and the USSR was comparable to the Jews at about 6 million for each group)