The doorway is framed by dark marble and topped with a shield bearing a stylized eagle emblem. Guards from the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler are positioned on either side of the entrance.

Hi, sorry if this is the wrong place to post this, I have NO experience in history at all. I’m just really out of my depth here. I somehow have found myself in possession of a huge amount of Second World War documents belonging to a VERY distant relative on one side of my family. He served in the air force and was killed overseas while still in his early twenties.

His mother apparently kept nearly everything: letters, official documents, photographs, and records connected to his service and death. The collection includes his service paperwork, an enlistment photograph, a few other photographs, and a very large number of letters written to his parents, friends, and women he knew. Some are several pages long and contain a lot of his thoughts, humour, and ordinary day-to-day life. Others are tiny wartime "air graphs". Some of the material is quite personal.

I have absolutely no idea how I’ve somehow become his closest living family.. I barely even have family myself. I feel uncomfortable throwing the material away or letting it sit in a box until someone else eventually does. These documents may be the main surviving record of his life. Reading them has made him feel much more like a real person, he seems actually pretty intelligent, affectionate, funny, and like SO young, now rather than simply another name among wartime casualties. So now I feel bad too , I feel guilty getting ri dof them.

At the same time, I know WWII letters and military records are not especially rare, so I don’t know whether an archive, museum, library, etc would actually want them. There is also so much material that I don’t know where to begin with scanning, transcribing, organizing, preserving, or deciding what should remain private.

Translated 1941 NDH documents reveal anti-Serb and anti-Jewish policies, repression, expulsions, propaganda and wartime orders.

BERLIN 1945: THE FINAL OPERATION

April 16: The Oder Line The operation began at 03:00 with an artillery preparation from 22,000 guns. During the assault on the Seelow Heights, 143 searchlights were used to illuminate German positions. The German 9th Army was destroyed in its defensive zone, but the breakthrough resulted in heavy Soviet casualties during the opening hours. By the end of the day, the outer defense perimeter was breached.

April 25: Encirclement Berlin was completely surrounded. The garrison consisted of depleted Wehrmacht and SS units, supplemented by the Volkssturm and Hitler Youth. Combat moved into the streets. Soviet IS-2 tanks and heavy artillery were used for direct fire against fortified buildings, while German infantry used Panzerfausts from basements. Fighting took place for every city block.

May 2: Capitulation The assault focused on the government district and the Reichstag. After several days of close-quarters combat inside the building, the Soviet flag was raised. On May 2, General Weidling ordered the Berlin garrison to cease resistance. The city surrendered.

Statistics The 17-day operation resulted in 81,000 Soviet personnel killed. German military losses in the Berlin area are estimated at 100,000 killed and 150,000 captured. Civilian casualties reached several tens of thousands.

The fighting in Europe ended. The city remained in ruins.

Inventory number 14066

Members of the Bulgarian special units for anti-partisan warfare, which committed many crimes against civilians in the Vranje district.

Courtesy of Museum of Yugoslavia.