Hitler's last photograph
On April 30, 1945, Hitler committed suicide by shooting himself, shattering his dream of invincibility. On 7 May, Germany signed an unconditional surrender agreement. The victors and losers held a signing ceremony at a military school on the eastern outskirts of Berlin, presided over by Soviet Marshal Zhukov.
At midnight that day, the Allied representatives, led by Zhukov, entered the hall in turn and sat down: general Francie, the representative of France, General Spartz of the United States, and General Ted of Britain. Subsequently, the German commander, Marshal Keitel, led his subordinates into the conference room, their faces full of uneasiness.
A Soviet soldier waving a victory flag in Berlin
Keitel sat up straight in his chair, clenching his fists. Behind him stood a tall German staff officer. Marshal Zhukov stood up and asked the Germans to sign the surrender agreement. Keitel gestured impatiently to send the documents over. Who was Zhukov? He enjoyed the reputation of the "god of war" in World War II, how could he tolerate the arrogance of the Germans? He took a tough attitude and shouted angrily, "Come here and sign!" ”
Keitel reluctantly got up, walked over, and took off his gloves. Before he was ready to sign, Zhukov sneered: "Do you have the right to sign?" The sentence was visibly humiliating, and Keitel was expressionless, nodding and signing.
After signing the letter, Keitel did not turn his head back to leave, and Marshal Zhukov shook hands with the representatives of the other allies warmly and hugged. And this arrogant Keitel faces charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. In October 1946, he was convicted and hanged. Like other Germans sentenced to hanging, Keitel hung on the strands for 24 minutes.
After the defeat of the war, Germany became a lamb and was slaughtered by the United States and the Soviet Union. The two major powers also tried every possible means to poach missile technology experts from Germany after the defeat of the war, which had a major impact on the development of missile technology between the two countries.
As early as October 1944, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill asked Stalin to allow British experts to enter the area occupied by the Red Army in order to gather intelligence on German V-2 missiles. Stalin was greatly inspired when he received the letter: it turned out that there was still this matter! He immediately ordered the authorities to make sure to find the technical information of the mysterious missile before the British.
When Germany's defeat was a foregone conclusion, many allies sent secret forces to the front in search of Germany's advanced military technology and military experts. The United States occupied Germany's largest missile factory before the Soviet Union, transported most of its valuable military equipment, and took with it Germany's "military treasure", the famous rocket expert von Braun. It was thanks to Braun's addition that NASA accelerated its development of rocket technology, successfully completing the feat of the first human landing on the moon in July 1969. The Soviets, who arrived a little later, found that the missile factory people had gone to the empty building and were angry. Marshal Zhukov then decided to use the grain to recruit other missile technicians who could work for the Soviet Union. By the time of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union had many German experts, and the weapons they had created also had a large number of German factors, so there was a joke: weapons on both sides of the United States and the Soviet Union could be greeted in German.
After the end of World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union had huge differences in the division of Germany, and the earliest Cold War situation was formed. After 11 months of struggle, the two sides finally reached an agreement on May 5, 1949, and the "Berlin Crisis" was temporarily alleviated. It was not until the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall that Germany was truly unified.