LIBERATION

In April 1945, the Soviet Army entered Berlin, ending the 13-year reign of the Third Reich. Hitler’s regime had declared that the Aryan race was superior to all other ‘subhuman’ peoples and started the most terrible war in human history. The Nazis built 1,634 concentration camps in the centre of Europe, where more than 11 million prisoners were put to death. In the Soviet Union alone, they killed 15 million civilians. Eight million more were taken to Germany for slave labour. They stole valuable items from 427 museums, 2,500 churches and 10,000 libraries, and burned down or blew up unique palaces and buildings. In 1945, the whole world knew who free Europe from the plague of fascism.