Defeat
Allied forces established a bridgehead on the Rhine in March 1945, the Battle of Berlin began on 16 April. A planned last defense from the Alpenfestung ("Alpine Fortress") never happened. Hitler's demolitions on Reich Territory order was largely ignored. He shot himself and ordered his assistant to burn his body, he also appointed Karl Dönitz as his successor. Berlin surrendered on the night of May 2–3, the German Instrument of Surrender was signed on May 7. The members of the provisional government were arrested on May 23 and subsequently found guilty of war crimes at Nuremberg.
Read more about this topic: Military History Of Germany During World War II
Famous quotes containing the word defeat:
“Love your enemies. I saw this admonition now as simple, sensible advice. I knew I could face an angry, murderous mob without even the beginning of fear if I could love them. Like a flame, love consumes fear, and thus make true defeat impossible.”
—Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 2, ch. 2 (1962)
“In defeat unbeatable: in victory unbearable.”
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965)
“A self-denial, no less austere than the saint’s, is demanded of the scholar. He must worship truth, and forgo all things for that, and choose defeat and pain, so that his treasure in thought is thereby augmented.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)