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IPTC: Caption
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Burgomeister of Leipzig committed suicide in his Rathaus (City Hall) office together with wife and daughter as 69th Infantry Division and 9th Armored Division closed on the city.
From TIME Magazine, April 30, 1945:
In his solid mayoral chair sat Oberbrgermeister Alfred Freiberg, his sightless eyes fixed on the carved ceiling. In armchairs beside him, waxen-faced in death, sat his matronly wife and bespectacled daughter. In an adjoining room Stadtkmmerer (City Treasurer) Kurt Lisso, his wife and daughter also sat in poisoned death. The rigid bodies of four Volkstrmers sprawled in other offices. Two, it was plain, had sat across a table, sipping brandy until one had drunk enough to pick up a machine pistol, shoot his comrade and then himself.
From the 777th Tank Destroyer Battalion official history:
18 April: Occupied Lieberwolkwitz with a minimum of resistance. At 1700, 1st Platoon, Company B 661st Tank Destroyer Battalion, joined the task force. Moved into Leipzig on Highway 176 with infantry on tanks at 1800. Received heavy machine-gun fire, causing severe casualties in the infantry. All vehicles began firing automatic weapons, and infantry mounted on tanks began operation of small arms. At Napoleon Platz, column was met with terrific machine-gun, small arms, panzer-faust and anti-tank fire, causing heavy infantry casualties and knocking out one tank. At this point, the light tanks were ordered to hold up, and remainder of column moved in at full speed. Heavy fire continued until the center of the city was reached. Due to the use of old maps, the objective, the city hall, was over-shot, placing the task force in a very precarious position. Tanks could not move forward or bring fire on enemy. Tanks remained in vicinity of city hall, defending themselves by fire until darkness, when they withdrew a few blocks to consolidate their position and formulate plans for assault on the garrison in the city hall the next morning.
19 April: At 0730, plans w
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IPTC: Copyright Notice
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Caption ©2007 MFA Productions LLC
Image in the Public Domain
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