Chapter Twenty-Two - Escape

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Chapter Twenty-Two
Escape
3 April 1945
Maria Theresa Barracks
Vienna Offensive
 
In this chapter, Bekka receives word from Otto to get out of Austria and go to Berlin, and tells Hilda to meet her at the Zoo at midnight. On the way from the Gestapo headquarters, she meets Sepp and Ursula; he gives her Rudi's Iron Cross First Class and tells her to go to Berlin. The girls walk from Vienna northwards to across the Danube, revealing the extent of their work with the resistance at last. They reach a farm where they stay in the barn, until disturbed by an escaped POW, a boy. Hiding in the woods nearby, they witness the takeover of the farm by Soviet troops. In Vienna, O5 resistance members are hung from lampposts with signs that they collaborated with the Bolsheviks. Von Shirach escapes the city and ends up with Sepp's army. The girls are barely keeping ahead of the Soviets as they move north towrds Berlin and Sepp moves his troops across the Danube. After two weeks, the girls reach Prague, where they stay with Sophie and Fritz, until the Soviets close in. The Soviets begin to encircle Berlin. After Wolf's birthday, Himmler arranges to meet with the British, and releases twenty-thousand concentration camp inmates in a goodwill gesture. Wolf has a nervous breakdown, and Göring offers to take up the slack, which is used against him by Wolf's secretary, who also spins Himmler's negotiations as treason. Sepp surrenders to Patton's 3rd Army.
 
The Wandervögel  comes in useful:
The fate of the resistance in Vienna:
The Soviets in Austria and Vienna:
Sophie, Fritz, Alois, and Sopherl in Prague:
Schloss Nostitz-Rieneck:
The Disappearance of Ernst Kaltenbrunner's Network a very detailed and important look at the secret actions of The Reich Security Main Office, involving false papers, stashing of loot, and destruction of documents during and at the end of the war.
German War Damage - Refugees (1945) - British Pathé
Refugees (1945) -British Pathé
P.O.W.'s (1945) -British Pathé
Prague Liberated (1945)  -British Pathé. 'Liberated.'
The Fall of the 9th Army - The 9th Army, southeast of Berlin, were trapped in a pocket and could not be rescued.
That Downfall Scene Explained - What Is Hitler Freaking Out About? I 16 Days In Berlin - the much-parodied scene, explained. Despite what the narrator says, this whole film was based on memoirs of those who were there.

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