Berlin was under constant bombing by the British and Americans. As the Soviet ring around Berlin closed, Hitler realized all was lost. He blamed the German people for the loss, not his mismanagement of the war. On April 29 he married his long-time mistress, Eva Braun, and the two of them committed suicide in the Fuhrer Bunker on April 30th. Before he died he named Adm. Karl Doenitz as the new leader of Germany.
 Hitler and Eva Braun
 Goebbels Family Photo
Berlin surrendered to the Soviets on May 2, 1945.
Five days later a German delegation met with Allied delegates, led by Eisenhower’s Chief of Staff Bedell Smith. The official surrender was to take place the next day May 8, 1945. V-E Day was celebrated in the U.S. and Europe.
General Alfred Jodl, Chief of the Operations Staff in the German High Command, signs the document of unconditional German surrender at General Eisenhower's Headquarters in Reims, France, May 7, 1945. On Jodl's left is Admiral Von Friedeburg of the German Navy, and on his right is Major Wilhelm Oxenius of the German General Staff. Below: German Field Marshall Wilhelm Keitel signs a surrender document at Soviet headquarters in Berlin, May 9, 1945. The Soviets had insisted that a second ceremonial signing take place in Soviet-occupied Berlin.
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