Areas of Amsterdam are destroyed by bombing during the Second World War.

In May 1940, air raids and bombing sorties carried out by the Luftwaffe destroy a large part of Rotterdam’s Old Town.

In 1944, the small Normandy town of Coutances is severely damaged by the Allied bombings.

View of the quays in Le Havre, a city largely destroyed by the bomb attacks during the Second World War.

In September 1944, as the Allied troops advance into Luxembourg, the retreating Nazi occupying forces blow up the bridge in Dommeldange, completely destroying the structure and causing major damage to the neighbouring residential area. Nearly 200 houses in this district of Luxembourg City are hit by the effects of the blast, and nearly 30 subsequently have to be completely demolished.

In May 1945, the Brandenburg Gate, located to the west of Berlin city centre, is surrounded by ruins and bears the scars of the final combats between the German army and the Soviet troops.

In 1945, at the end of the Second World War, the city of Berlin is a picture of desolation; destruction and ruins can be seen everywhere in the German capital.

In 1945, the German town of Wesel, located on the banks of the River Rhine, is partly destroyed by Allied bombings, giving the impression of a lunar landscape.

View of the destruction caused in the City of Dresden following the Allied bombings at the end of the Second World War.

In October 1946, Jos Schroeder, Luxembourg Commissioner General for Reconstruction, takes stock of the material destruction suffered by the Grand Duchy and explains the first measures to be taken to rebuild the country.

In this interview, Max Kohnstamm — member of a Delegation from the Dutch Reformed Church on mission in Germany during the summer of 1947 and, from May 1948, assistant to Hans Max Hirschfeld, the Netherlands Government Commissioner for the Administration of the Marshall Plan and for German Affairs — gives his impression of the economic and social situation of Germany, defeated at the end of the Second World War.