80th anniversary of the end of World War II

The city of Dresden is commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII by presenting Yevgeny Khaldey's photographs in a photo exhibition in "Orangerie" Galerie am Herzogin Garten in Dresden. The exhibited images span from battlefields in the occupied Soviet Union to the legal processing of German crimes in Nuremberg.

The exhibition was created in cooperation between the city of Dresden and the German-Russian Cultural Institute and was curated by the Orangerie Galerie am Herzogin Garten. Special thanks for their trust and support to the lender and daughter of the photographer, Anna Y. Khaldey, as well as her supporter Denis Puchkov. The exhibition features photographs from Anna E. Khaldey's personal collection.

"Signing of the Act of Unconditional Surrender of Nazi Germany’s Forces". Marshal Georgy Zhukov represents the Soviet Union at the signing of the Act of Surrender of Nazi Germany. The first signing took place on 7 May in Reims, the second, at Stalin's insistence, on 8-9 May in Karlshorst. These dates became Victory Days in Europe (8 May) and the USSR (9 May). Germany, Karlshorst, May 7, 1945

"A sailor from the cruiser 'Red Caucasus' - Nikita Gudkov”. Sevastopol, May 1944

“Night-time reconnaissance mission”. Murmansk, late June 1941. Following the German attack on this crucial Arctic port and naval base, sailors of the Soviet Northern Fleet patrol their area. A reconnaissance patrol of seven men resulted in only four returning to their unit. Murmansk, late June 1941

“Silence from now on”. Soviet troops occupied the Reichstag on 30 April 1945. That same day, Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his “Führer bunker” in Berlin. The Reichstag was a central symbol of the Nazi dictatorship. Yevgeny Khaldey later described how he made this photomontage out of his photographs of Soviet bombers and the destroyed Reichstag. Berlin, May 1945

"A concert troupe performing in front of sailors from the Northern Fleet". Many groups of artists and musicians were engaged to keep the troops' spirits up. Murmansk, August 1941"

"Bulgarian partisans greet Soviet liberators". The commander is Kocha Karadjev. After the war he became director of a poultry farm. Bulgaria, Lovech, September 1944.

"Soviet tanks roll into Berlin" Following the Soviet offensive that began on April 16th, Soviet and Polish soldiers engaged in intense combat in the ruined city. Even in the war's final days, thousands of Soviet and allied soldiers were killed. Simultaneously, many Germans, including child soldiers of the Volkssturm and civilians accused of doubting the "final victory," faced violence and execution. Berlin, May 1945.

"Soldiers of the Soviet army knock down a fascist swastika from the gates of the Voikov Metallurgical Factory". Kerch, 1943

"Traffic policewoman Nadya Yegina". Berlin, July 1945

"Joseph Stalin, Harry Truman and Winston Churchill". The leaders of the Allied powers met in Potsdam from 17 July to 2 August 1945 to decide the post-war re-ordering of Germany and Europe. As Soviet correspondent, Yevgeny Khaldey photographed the leaders of the Soviet Union, the United States and Great Britain: Joseph Stalin, Harry S. Truman and Winston Churchill (l. to r.). Potsdam, July 1945

"Raising a Flag over the Reichstag". On 2 May 1945 Yevgeny Khaldey climbed up onto the roof of the Reichstag together with three soldiers Alexey Kovalev, Abdulkhakim Ismailov, and Leonid Gorychev. His photo of the raising of the Soviet flag above the Reichstag became an iconic image of the end of World War II. In the picture Capitan Ismailov is captured with two wristwatches, one on each arm. From an ideological point of view, it was not permitted to show this so the second wristwatch was edited out. To this day, there is disagreement about whether the second watch had been looted or was actually a military compass. For the next 50 years only the edited version of the photo was published worldwide. Shortly after the Battle of Berlin, during the night of 8/9 May 1945, Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of Armed Forces High Command, signed the unconditional surrender of the German Reich in Berlin-Karlshorst. The war in Europe was over.

"Yevgeny Khaldei Self-portrait". Yevgeny Khaldey in front of the East Building of the Palace of Justice. In the background at the top the windows of Courtroom 600 can be seen. Nuremberg, 1945/1946

"Moscow, 25th of October Street, 12 p.m., 22 June 1941. “This is Radio Moscow". On Sunday, 22 June 1941, Muscovites were informed over loudspeakers that Germany had invaded the Soviet Union. Yevgeny Khaldey took this photo not as a part of the editor's office assignment. He captured the first day of the Great Patriotic War in one picture. Moscow, 22 June 1941

"Victory Parade". Moscow, Red Square, 24 June 1945. Victory Parade. At the end of the parade soldiers throw 200 captured German banners on the platform at the Mausoleum. The photo shows Sergeant Fyodor Legkoshkur with Hitler's personal standard, first thrown at the foot of the Mausoleum. Moscow, June 24, 1945

"Freed from the ghetto". The Budapest ghetto in Pest was liberated by Soviet troops in January 1945 while Budapest was still contested. Despite the liberation, the majority of Hungary's Jewish population had already perished in the Holocaust, with many deported to Auschwitz from 1944. Budapest, January 1945.

"In the sky above the Sapun mountains". In order to take this photo, Yevgeny Khaldey flew in a bomber plane himself. From there he photographed this sortie of Yakovlev Yak-9 Soviet fighter planes. Sevastopol, May 1944

"A prison yard in Rostov after the Nazi retreat". Following a six-month German occupation that resulted in the murder of approximately 18,000 Jewish citizens, thousands of Soviet POWs and psychiatric patients, as well as the forced labor deportation of many residents. The Red Army liberated the city in february 1943. The image depicts survivors attempting to identify the remains of their murdered relatives. Rostov on Don, February 1943.

"The flags of the nations participating in the Nuremberg trial". For the first time, state representatives faced an international court for their actions. The Nuremberg trial of leading Nazis, conducted by the US, USSR, Great Britain, and France, took place from November 20, 1945, to October 1, 1946. The flags of the four Allied powers are shown on the Palace of Justice, where the trial was held in Courtroom 600. Nuremberg, late 1945.

"The legendary Russian naval city of Sevastopol in ruins after the Nazis had been driven out" Sevastopol, May 1944. After intense fighting from October 30, 1941, to July 4, 1942, German and Romanian forces occupied Sevastopol, a key port and base of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet, aiming to advance into the Caucasus. The city was heavily destroyed, and nearly 100,000 Soviet soldiers were captured. The Red Army liberated Sevastopol in May 1944.

"A blow with this gavel signalled the start of the Nuremberg trial" Yevgeny Khaldey was clever at finding unusual perspectives for his photographs. This photo shows the judge's desk with notes, a microphone and manually adjustable headphones, which enabled the judges to hear simultaneous translations of the proceedings. Nuremberg, 1945/1946

"Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov reviews the Victory Parade" Recollections of Anna Khaldey, “For Yevgeny Khaldey, Zhukov was a hero throughout his life. During the Great Patriotic War he photographed him wherever he could and was proud of it. So, when, in 1972, shortly before his death, Zhukov phoned Khaldey and asked him to print this photo in good quality, Khaldey was overjoyed that the Marshal valued his work so highly. As a former cavalryman, Zhukov was delighted that the horse seemed to be flying—the moment the picture was taken all four hooves were off the cobblestones." Moscow, June 1945

"Yasha the reindeer" The Soviet military managed to defend Murmansk for three years. In August 1941, the British Royal Air Force began dispatching Hawker Hurricane fighter planes to Murmansk across the Barents Sea. Soldiers from a Soviet air defence unit fed this reindeer and christened it Yasha. Yevgeny Khaldey later described the photo as a composite of the Yasha and Hawker Hurricane motifs. Murmansk, September 1941

"Hermann Göring testifies" Anna Khaldey relates, “Each photographer had assigned spots from which he could shoot. Khaldey understood that he could not miss such a chance, so he worked out where he would have to stand to photograph Nazi number 2 face‑on." From the memoirs of Yevgeny Khaldey, “I wanted to photograph Göring from an unusual perspective, but that was forbidden. I came to an arrangement with the secretary of the Soviet judge Nikitchenko—he gave up his seat to me for a couple of hours in exchange for a bottle of gin." The shot was taken secretly with a camera hidden in a bag. It is unique. Nuremberg, 1945

"Lunchbreak during the trial" During a break in the proceedings Yevgeny Khaldey photographed a group of defendants: Hermann Göring, Commander of the Luftwaffe; Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of Armed Forces High Command; Fritz Sauckel, General Plenipotentiary for Labour Deployment; Alfred Jodl, Chief of Operations Staff of the Armed Forces High Command; Alfred Rosenberg, Reich Minister of the Occupied Eastern Territories; and Hans Frank, Governor General of occupied Poland (l. to r.). All the defendants shown in the photo were sentenced to death on 30 September/1 October 1946 and executed a short time later. Göring committed suicide shortly before the execution. Nuremberg, 1946

"Why the war" Khaldey saw this pair in one of the city’s streets—a blind man and his guide. “Who are you? Where are you from?" They answered that they did not remember and did not know. “We have been walking a long time, and everywhere there is war, war. Berlin, May 1945

"Women pilots of the 46th “Taman" Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment" The 46th Guards Aviation Regiment of the Soviet Air Force was an all-female unit. The Germans nicknamed them the “night witches". The photo shows Nadya Popova (standing), Irina Sebrova and Vera Belik (right). All three were awarded the highest state honour “Hero of the Soviet Union". Belik received the award posthumously after her plane was shot down in 1944. Novorossiisk, September 1943

"Yevgeny Khaldey during his daily work at the trial." During one of the breaks in the proceedings, Yevgeny Khaldey asked an American colleague to take this photo. It shows him with his camera near the dock in Courtroom 600. Hermann Göring hid his face after he realised he was supposed to be photographed together with Khaldey. Nuremberg, 1946

“Poet Yevgeny Dolmatovsky with a sculpture of Hitler's head as a trophy" Berlin, May 1945

First Commandant of the city - Nikolai Berzarin. Berlin, 2 May 1945

On the streets of liberated Bucharest—street circus trainers with a bear. Romania, September 1944

"Defendants in the dock" Front row, left to right: Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Keitel; Second row, left to right: Karl Dönitz, Erich Raeder, Baldur von Schirach, Fritz Sauckel. On October 1, 1946, the International Military Tribunal delivered its verdicts. Sentenced to death by hanging were: Hermann Göring (who took poison before execution), Martin Bormann (in absentia), Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Rosenberg, Hans Frank, Wilhelm Frick, Julius Streicher, Fritz Sauckel, Arthur Seyss‑Inquart, and Alfred Jodl. Nuremberg, 1946

"Children's school parade - exercise". After liberation from the fascist occupiers, a schoolteacher brings her class for morning exercises at the Monument to the Fallen Sailors. Sevastopol, May 1944

"Thus a fascist pilot ended his flights forever" The Budapest Operation (29.10.1944 - 13.02.1945) was a strategic offensive of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts to defeat German troops in Hungary and withdraw the country from the war, as well as to block troops in the Balkans. Budapest, 1945

"The Soviet chief prosecutor, Lieutenant General of the Procuracy Roman A. Rudenko" Nuremberg, 1945/46

"Soviet witness for the prosecution, Director of the Hermitage Museum, Academician Iosif Orbeli" During the Great Patriotic War, while remaining in besieged Leningrad, Iosif Orbeli did extensive work to safeguard museum treasures. In 1941–1942, he directed the protection and evacuation of the Hermitage and of Leningrad institutions of the USSR Academy of Sciences. At the trial Iosif Orbeli testified about the losses of artistic valuables suffered during the war. Nuremberg, 1946

"Sevastopol. Coming back to life" After years of fighting, Sevastopol was almost completely destroyed. The survivors returned to everyday life against a backdrop of rubble and ruins. The liberation of Sevastopol also aided the Red Army's advance westwards. Sevastopol, summer 1944

Ball in honour of the opening of the first film festival after the war. Cannes, 1946

The last defenders of Berlin. Germany, May 1945