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Soldiers On Hitler's Balcony

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Soldiers On Hitler's Balcony

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Allied soldiers mock Hitler atop his balcony at the Reich Chancellery, 1945

The Russians were coming from the East, the Brits and Americans from the West, all with the objective of taking the Chancellery, knowing that would signal the end

So, when they both finally met there, and the Nazis were irrefutably vanquished, they must have felt ecstatic. You can barely imagine what those men have gone through, and

how many times they have nearly been killed or had to kill others to get there. Just think of the relief they must feel to be standing there knowing that it is over

The picture depicts Corporal Russell M. Ochwad, of Chicago, playing the part of Hitler on the famous balcony of the Chancellery, in Berlin, from which the former Nazi leader

had proclaimed his 1,000-year empire. A British and Russian soldier stand on each side of Cpl. Ochwad, while American and Russian soldiers cheer at the little get-together.

The soldiers on the bottom are mostly Americans, the round helmets and M1A carbines are enough for that. There are three Russians as well, in the high boots and pilotka

caps. The “A” on the shoulders on the right (two soldiers) is a shoulder patch which indicates they are a soldier of the U.S. First Army.

The photo was taken by Fred Ramage on 6th July, 1945 (about 2 months after Germany’s surrender, 1 month before Hiroshima and the day after the Philippines were liberated).

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The building itself was called the “neue Reichskanzlei” (New Chancellery). In late January 1938, Adolf Hitler officially assigned his favorite architect Albert Speer to build the

New Reich Chancellery. Hitler commented that Bismarck’s Old Chancellery was “fit for a soap company” but not suitable as headquarters of a Greater German Reich.

Fred Ramage

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Portrait of Keystone War Correspondent and photographer Fred Ramage in action with his camera, 1946.

Keystone Press, one of the original and most respected of the numerous ‘Fleet Street’ press agencies, rose to prominence soon after the First World War and soon became one of leading press agencies of the era.

Amongst many other famous and respected Keystone photographers is Fred Ramage, who started taking pictures in 1917 at the age of 16, and whom Garai made manager of the Keystone View Company. Ramage was known for his initiative in taking pictures and once amazed his rivals by getting a picture of a Derby winner in the papers within 30 minutes of the race.

He had many overseas assignments and covered Mussolini during his rise to power in Rome. Ramage was assigned to the American Army during Second World War and was in the front line with them throughout their campaign in France. Keystone Press (together with Keystone Featuers) were eventually acquired by PhotoSource in the mid-1980s and closed their doors for the last time in 1987 after nearly 70 years in existence. Photo Source were, in turn, acquired by The Hulton-Deutsch Collection, now a part of Getty Images and some 12 million negatives, prints and transparencies are still accessible at what is known as the Hulton Archive, an archive of some 80 million images in all based in West London, UK.

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4 hours ago, Tech 425 said:

Everytime I see or hear about WWII I want to Cry :(

i agree with u firmly on that.. :unsure:

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15 hours ago, uk666 said:

The Russians were coming from the East, the Brits and Americans from the West, all with the objective of taking the Chancellery, knowing that would signal the end So, when they both finally met there, and the Nazis were irrefutably vanquished, they must have felt ecstatic. You can barely imagine what those men have gone through, and how many times they have nearly been killed or had to kill others to get there. Just think of the relief they must feel to be standing there knowing that it is over

True heroes.

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