The Death of Adolf Hitler summary

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The Death of Adolf Hitler summary

The Death of Adolf Hitler
Slowly but surely the forces of the Red Army moved through Berlin in the spring of 1945. The German Army did not have the means to halt Marshall Zhukov’s troops – they were outnumbered 15 to 1 and the Red Army’s ability to call on mechanised armour seemed unlimited. Civilian and military casualties in Berlin were appalling. Regardless of this, Adolf Hitler clung to his belief that the German Army would defeat Zhukov’s eight armies in Berlin. Any signs of surrender were dealt with harshly by the SS. In the Kurfürstendamm Boulevard, SS squads shot any householder who put a white flag outside of their house.
Adolf Hitler was based in his bunker underneath the Reich Chancellery building. Bomb proof and with its own air recycling plant, the complex had been built without a proper communication system. The only way staff officers could know about the extent of the Red Army’s movement into Berlin was to phone civilians at random (if their phones worked) to ascertain if the Red Army was in their vicinity.
Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels, had brought his wife and six children to the apparent safety of the bunker. The Goebbels children were to be poisoned by their parents within the bunker, who, in turn, committed suicide.
On April 28th, Hitler received a report that Himmler, head of the SS, had been in touch with the Allies regarding a surrender. Adolf Hitler had always considered Himmler to be the most loyal of his men. When he received a Reuter’s confirmation of the report, witnesses said that he exploded with rage.
Around midnight on April 28th, Adolf Hitler married Eva Braun. The wedding service was held in Hitler’s private sitting room. After the service, the newly married couple received the congratulations of generals and others in the bunker’s conference room. From here they went to Hitler’s sitting room for breakfast with champagne. They were joined by Joseph and Magda Goebbels, Bormann and by two secretaries, Gerda Christian and Traudl Junge.
Hitler took Junge away to dictate his last political testament. It was full of recriminations on those who had betrayed him; the war being caused by international Jewish interests etc. Hitler claimed that, “in spite of all setbacks”; the war “will one day go down in history as the most glorious and heroic manifestation of a people’s will to live.” Junge’s task finished at about 04.00 on Sunday, April 29th. On this day, Hitler had ordered that cyanide capsules intended for him, should be tested on his dog Blondi. The cyanide capsules were tested and Blondi was killed along with her puppies.
On the night of April 29th, Hitler received news from Field Marshall Keitel that Berlin would receive no more troops and that the city would be lost to the Russians.
Though there seems little doubt that Adolf Hitler had already decided that suicide was his only option, and also that of Eva Braun’s, it is probable that these two pieces of information moved that nearer. Hitler had also received confirmation that Mussolini had been caught in Italy, shot and his body, along with that of his mistress, Clara Pettachi, had been hung upside down in a square in Milan. Above all else, Adolf Hitler had decided that such humiliation would not happen to him as he ordered that his body should be burned.
On April 30th, Hitler gave very clear instructions to his personal adjunct, Otto Gunsche, that both his and his wife’s body should be burned. After lunch, both Hitler and Eva Hitler (as she wanted to be called) met his inner circle in the ante-room chamber of the bunker. Here Hitler said his farewells.
None of the bunker’s survivors heard the shot that killed Hitler. At 15.15 on April 30th, Bormann, Goebbels, Heinz Linge, Hitler’s valet, Otto Gunshce and Artur Axmann, Head of the Hitler Youth, entered Hitler’s sitting room. Gunsche and Linge wrapped the body of Hitler in a blanket and carried it to the Reich Chancellery garden. Eva Braun’s body was also carried up and laid next to Hitler’s. Both bodies were laid near to the bunker’s exit. The bodies were drenched in petrol and set alight. Goebbels later committed suicide. Bormann disappeared and his body was never found, sparking off rumours that he managed somehow to flee to South America.

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