The graves of the German soldiers are not very conspicuous. You need to know what you’re looking for to recognize them.

Most are simply rectangular gravestones laid at an angle with a name, a birth date and a death date. The gravestones are laid in a row, and maybe one sticks out because a small cross is placed on it.

However, not all of the graves are those of actual fallen German soldiers.

There are sections of similar gravestones with dates of death ranging from April 16, 1945 until the weeks after the Nazi regime had surrendered. This is the time that we know today as the Battle of Berlin.

It’s graves with women, older men and young boys.

The older men and boys were part of the so-called Volksturm militia that fought to the death against the Red Army in the final weeks of the war. Some were fanatics, others were forced because the alternative was to be executed by the German secret police Gestapo.

During the same period, the women chose to die by suicide to avoid the fate that awaited them. The Soviet soldiers took brutal revenge on the women for their loyalty to the Nazi regime by sexually assaulting them.

However, many of the women were only loyal to the Nazis because resistance to a tyrannical regime means imprisonment or execution.

Ultimately, the women, the brainwashed fanatics, the older men and the younger conscripted soldiers are also victims of the tyranny and war that Germany was responsible for.

In Berlin and the surrounding area, there are approximately 170 cemeteries with around 120,000 graves with around 150,000 victims. There are graves with German soldiers as well as British and Soviet soldiers, Jews and Muslims.

Here you’ll find a map with all the gravesites of the victims buried in Berlin.