The End of the War in Colour: Episode IV – Unconditional Surrender

On 6 May 1945, Major Kirke B. Lawton is granted special permission for a special ceremony: at Allied headquarters JAVA2836in Reims, the Wehrmacht signs the unconditional surrender on all fronts. The Second World War in Europe ends two days later. In London people are celebrating in the streets – just like in the Netherlands and Czechoslovakia. In Augsburg, a team of the “Special Film Project 186” films the defeated, among them Hitler’s second man, Hermann Göring. At the beginning of July the American camera teams are also allowed to shoot in Berlin. They succeed in taking unique colour pictures of the destroyed capital and its inhabitants. While George Stevens does not get permission to film the Potsdam Conference, Major Lawton is at least allowed to be present at the first meeting of the new US President Harry Truman with Kremlin ruler Josef Stalin.

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