April 1945

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This article covers current news and events back then - April 1945 .

Continuous month: the Second World War ; In April 1945 the advance of the Red Army (Soviet Union) in the east and the Western Allies on the centers of Germany continued. In the so-called final phase crimes , thousands of the prisoners of the Nazi regime from concentration and forced labor camps are driven through the country on death marches in front of the population and hundreds of them are murdered. If soldiers from the Wehrmacht have discovered individual escape attempts (often in the case of an unauthorized extension of a home leave or so-called desertion ; often in the direction of their home town), death sentences are very often imposed by improvised courts of the Nazi party or Wehrmacht and carried out immediately.

Daily events

Sunday April 1, 1945

• Berlin :
  • First proclamation of the " Werwolf radio station " about the resistance of the population against an occupation of Germany by the Allies (under Propagandamin. Goebbels ). The programs will be broadcast until the end of April.
• US troops land on the Japanese island of Okinawa Hontō , the beginning of the Battle of Okinawa . (The fights last until the end of June)

Monday April 2, 1945

• The operation Roast ends (northeast Italy on Reno , British victory)
• Vienna: Beginning of the battle for Vienna
• German submarine U 321 southwest of Ireland lost after being shot at by Polish fighter aircraft

Born:

Jürgen Drews

Tuesday April 3, 1945

• Capture of Munster , attack on the Ruhr basin
• Buchenwald Concentration Camp : Beginning of the Death Marches - From April 7 to 10, 1945, 28,000 people from the main camp and at least 10,000 prisoners from the satellite camps were driven on about 60 routes towards the Dachau , Flossenbürg and Theresienstadt concentration camps . On these death marches and in so-called “evacuation trains” , 12,000 - 15,000 people died / were murdered.
• Nordhausen : Two British air strikes destroy 74% of the city, killing around 8,800 people and leaving another 20,000 homeless.

Wednesday April 4, 1945

• The Red Army wins the Battle of East Pomerania (near Stettin, Danzig)
• Hungary : After the failure of the German Balaton offensive , Hungary is completely conquered by the Red Army. High death rates among Hungarian civilians.
• Kassel is taken

Thursday April 5, 1945

• Weimar :
  • The Lieutenant Colonel Josef v. Gadolla is murdered in Gotha (surrender of the city) for refusing to give orders
• Beginning of the Battle of Crailsheim (duration until April 21)

Friday April 6, 1945

• Vienna :
  • Soviet troops reach the outskirts
• Königsberg is conquered by the Soviet troops.

Saturday 7 April 1945

• The battleship Yamato , for Operation Ten-gō , is sunk
• Weimar: The so-called evacuation train from Buchenwald (prisoner transport from the concentration camp ) leaves the city initially with the destination of the Flossenbürg concentration camp (Bavaria; a final phase crime ). Several thousand prisoners died during the journey, which ended on the night of April 28 in the Dachau concentration camp .

Monday April 9, 1945

• Georg Elser , who attempted to assassinate Hitler in Munich's Bürgerbräukeller, is murdered in the Dachau concentration camp .
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer , Wilhelm Canaris , Hans von Dohnanyi , Ludwig Gehre , Hans Oster , Karl Sack , Theodor Strünck , all of whom were involved in the resistance, were murdered in the Flossenbürg concentration camp .

Tuesday April 10, 1945

Wednesday April 11, 1945

• Buchenwald concentration camp is liberated by US Army units

Thursday April 12, 1945

• Warm Springs , Georgia, USA: President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies ; According to the constitution, Harry S. Truman will succeed him as the 33rd President of the USA
• Handover of the city of Braunschweig to the US Army
• After a long house-to-house battle, Heilbronn is taken by the Americans (with the participation of French units)

Friday April 13, 1945

• Vienna: End of the battle for Vienna (since April 6th)
• Soviet troops conquer Lower Austria , Burgenland and Styria at the same time

Saturday April 14, 1945

• The Soviet Academy of Sciences founds the Botanical Garden in Moscow .
• Albert Vögler dies by suicide.

Sunday April 15, 1945

• The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated by British troops.

Monday April 16, 1945

• Beginning of the battle for the Seelow Heights off Berlin
• Wroclaw : around the same time a siege ring is closed in the Lower Silesian operation around this city

Tuesday April 17, 1945

Wednesday April 18, 1945

Thursday April 19, 1945

• End of the battle for the Seelow heights

Friday April 20, 1945

• Adolf Hitler awards some Hitler Youth with the Iron Cross, it is his last public appearance.

Saturday April 21, 1945

Sunday April 22, 1945

• Southern Germany :
  • the French army penetrates to Vorarlberg ago

Monday April 23, 1945

• Berlin is completely enclosed; Beginning of the battle for Berlin

Tuesday April 24, 1945

• Liberation of the Flossenbürg concentration camp by US troops. Approx. 1,700 survivors were found seriously ill. The days before, the SS attempted to transport over 20,000 prisoners to the Dachau concentration camp on death marches .

Wednesday April 25, 1945

• Beginning of the Halbe Kesselschlacht south of Berlin

Thursday April 26, 1945

Friday, April 27, 1945

• The Renner Provisional State Government was formed in Vienna in 1945 , and on the same day it declared Austria's independence from the German Reich. This day is considered to be the founding day of the Second Republic .

Saturday April 28, 1945

• Augsburg is handed over to US troops without a fight

Sunday April 29, 1945

• American troops liberate the Dachau concentration camp near Munich
• Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun get married.

Monday April 30, 1945

• Berlin
  • the Red Army hoists a Soviet flag on the largely destroyed Reichstag building
  • Adolf Hitler and his wife Eva Braun commit suicide in the Führerbunker under the New Reich Chancellery.

• The cities of Munich and Stuttgart are largely occupied without a fight

See also

• April (for month name)
• Chronology of the Second World War, April 1945
• Nekrolog April 1945 for deaths that month
• List of annually recurring days of remembrance and action in April
• Category for commemorative days, public holidays or days of action in April

Web links

Commons : April 1945  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

• Chronicle 1945 (Living virtual museum online at dhm.de)
• Digitized newspapers from 1945 in the newspaper information system (ZEFYS) of the Berlin State Library