Girls from the League of German Girls (BDM) present flowers to officers of the Condor Legion in Hamburg on May 31, 1939 .

In the photo, German soldiers are ready to open fire with an MG-34 machine gun mounted on a BMW R-75 motorcycle .

Soldiers of the $$ buy ice cream in the warm and sunny center of Amsterdam (June 1940).

The photo shows the fuselage of a Heinkel He-111 bomber flying through the village of Loye in France (1939).

The photo shows a German soldier on a BMW R-75 motorcycle.

The photo shows German paratroopers on a BMW R-75 motorcycle.

In the photo, German paratroopers pose with a small baby eagle owl , presumably the mascot of their unit.

The photo shows Gerardus Mooyman , the first foreign volunteer to be awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross – this is also shown by the child pointing at the medal.

He received the award for the destruction of 13 enemy tanks at Krasny Bor . Mooyman survived the war, was arrested several times, and escaped before being sentenced to six years in prison in 1946 and released in 1949.

Later, he led a quiet life as a businessman, husband, and father. In an interview in the 1960s, he distanced himself from National Socialism and stated that he had given his Knight’s Cross to a collector.

In the photo, Colonel General Ernst Busch inspects an anti-aircraft gun position .

Two German soldiers resting in front of the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille (early June 1940).

Stalingrad is hell on earth, it is Verdun, the red Verdun, with new weapons.

We attack every day. If we advance 20 meters in the morning, the Russians drive us back by the afternoon.

• Letter from Corporal Walter Oppermann.

The photo shows German soldiers on a BMW R12 motorcycle .

The photo shows a German machine gunner with an MG-34 machine gun on the outskirts of Stalingrad (December 22, 1942).

Army Group Don , under the command of General Erich von Manstein , launched an offensive to liberate the encircled 6th Army at Stalingrad. Despite its incomplete strength, the army group showed remarkable fighting spirit and broke through the Soviet siege network on December 20 , advancing 62 kilometers from Stalingrad.

The 4th Panzer Army under General Hermann Hoth managed to get within 35 kilometers of the city, but further advance was hardly possible.

Manstein urged General Friedrich Paulus , commander of the 6th Army, to attempt a breakout from Stalingrad. Paulus, however, hesitated, declaring that he could not retreat without a direct order from Hitler . This indecision led to the failure of Army Group Don’s rescue efforts.

In the end, Army Group Don had no choice but to retreat 100 kilometers .

The photo shows Corporal Gerhard Paul Kurt Stendke together with his wife Martha Pauline Auguste Stendke and their little daughter in a field hospital (February 28, 1943).

In the photo, Joseph Goebbels awards the Iron Cross to 16-year-old Willi Hübner in Luban, Silesia on March 9, 1945 .

Willi served as a messenger during the battle to recapture the region from the Soviet Army . He survived the war and later became a politician in the former GDR .