In 1933 , Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power . NSDAP rule diminished Berlin 's Jewish community from 160,000 ( one-third of all Jews in the country ) to about 80,000 as a result of emigration between 1933 and 1939 . After Kristallnacht in 1938 , thousands of the city 's Jews were imprisoned in the nearby Sachsenhausen concentration camp . Starting in early 1943 , many were shipped to death camps , such as Auschwitz . Berlin is the most heavily bombed city in history . During World War II , large parts of Berlin were destroyed during 1943-1945 Allied air raids and the 1945 Battle of Berlin . The Allies dropped 67,607 tons of bombs on the city , destroying 6,427 acres of the built up area . Around 125,000 civilians were killed . After the end of the war in Europe in May 1945 , Berlin received large numbers of refugees from the Eastern provinces . The victorious powers divided the city into four sectors , analogous to the occupation zones into which Germany was divided . The sectors of the Western Allies ( the United States , the United Kingdom and France ) formed West Berlin , while the Soviet sector formed East Berlin
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Berlin