The sad remains of Rotterdam after the destructive German bombardement on 14 May 1940 AI enhanced

On the 10th of May 1940 the German army invaded The Netherlands. During four days the Dutch military heavy resisted the onslaught. A German ultimatum to surrender was ignored by the Dutch government after which Hitler decided to heavily bombard Rotterdam. Almost the entire old city was destroyed and more than 800 people lost their lives. Tens of thousands inhabitants became homeless. The attack only lasted just over 15 minutes. This film shows the sad aftermath of the attack. I was able to find three almost identical shots of Rotterdam from the 1930s as well as after the attack which are shown sidebyside for comparison at the end of this film. After the war, the city council of Rotterdam in its wisdom decided to construct an entire new city. What had not been destroyed by the bombardement was torn down by bulldozers. Even remarkable historic buildings, like the Stadsschouwburg, were demolished although some had only suffered relatively minor damage. As a result, Rotterdam has one o