Laue, Gerhard Besiegt - Befreit - Gebüßt

Das ereignisreiche Jahr 1945. Die letzten Kriegstage in Erfurt. Amerikaner und Russen in Thüringen

This book provides an insight into living conditions in 1945, primarily in Erfurt and Thuringia. The author's detailed diary entries from those days were an invaluable source of information. He was 17 years old at the time and had experienced the Nazi regime from its inception to its bitter end. At the age of 14, he sympathised with the resistance against Adolf Hitler and was punished with expulsion from school. The eventful year 1945 was particularly painful for the Germans. They suffered under the bloody terror of the Nazis and the Allied bombing raids. Hitler's senseless orders to hold out drove hundreds of thousands of innocent people to their deaths. Even after the war, the killing did not end. For millions of soldiers, the road to captivity began. Most did not survive forced labour, hunger, cold and inhumane treatment. Millions of Germans starved and froze to death while fleeing. They were tortured, raped and brutally murdered. Prisoners of war and displaced persons were the ones who had to pay bitterly for Hitler's crimes for years to come. The people of Thuringia experienced liberation from the Nazis by the Americans and the subsequent Soviet occupation. The author has recorded the thoughts and feelings of those days in this book. In his old age, he felt compelled to use his own experiences to bring the events of that time, which have since been forgotten or are now partly romanticised, closer to future generations. Committed solely to the truth, he wants to call war crimes by their name regardless of which side committed them.