Christmas in the United States was a humble but joyous celebration in 1945. Although resources were incredibly limited due to the entire nation being mobilized for war, the troops were coming home. There may not have been as many presents under the tree that year but husbands and sons who had survived the frontlines were being rushed home in time for Christmas Eve. In Germany, Christmas was a bit more somber, to put it mildly.
Germany had been devastated by the war with entire cities reduced to little more than rubble. Orphaned children wandered the streets of Berlin. With their parents killed in the war, they struggled to survive while dealing with starvation and psychological trauma. While leaders were quickly removed from governmental departments as a part of the Allied de-Nazification program, those employees left at the Magistrate building in Berlin attempted to put something together for the war orphans. A man dressed as Santa Claus met with a long line of children, each getting a brief visit. This year, Santa wasn't taking requests from the children because there was no chance of any of them getting what they asked for. However, he did hand out small toys, some warmer clothing, and cookies which was the best the employees at the Magistrate building could manage wrote Matthew Litt in his book "Christmas 1945."
A journalist from the Brainerd Daily Dispatch, trying to make sense of what he was seeing, wrote, "Christmas in Berlin—once a proud, gay capital echoing with merriment and goose-stepping Nazi legions on parade—is a sordid, depressing sight of incredible ruins, of shivering, sunken-eyed people thankful for peace but overwhelmed with the emptiness of the future."
It was. Goering was convicted of war crimes at Nuremberg and sentenced to death by hanging. He committed suicide the day before his sentence was to be carried out by ingesting cyanide.