Was Hitler's Escape from Berlin? Conspiracy Theory: Hitler's Life After the War
In April 1945, the Red Army fought fierce battles on the streets of Berlin, conquering the capital of the Reich meter by meter. It was obvious who would win the war in Europe.
Hundreds of thousands died in the battles for the capital, including the unrecorded civilian casualties. Countless people are left homeless. But the end of the Third Reich came on April 30, 1945 with the death of two people: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun.
Shortly after the completion of the two-week siege, 33-year-old LIFE photographer William Wandaivert arrived in Berlin. In this collection - his previously unpublished photos from Hitler's bunker and destroyed Berlin.
1. Oberwalstrasse, center of Berlin. Here in the spring of 1945 the fiercest battles took place. (William Vandivert / TIME & LIFE Pictures)
2. Wandaivert was the first Western photographer to gain access to Hitler's Führerbunker. Some of the photographs he took were published by LIFE in July 1945, but most of the photographs in this collection have never been published. In the photo: one of the rooms in the command bunker, burned down by the retreating Germans and cleared of the surviving valuables by the advancing Red Army. (William Vandivert / TIME & LIFE Pictures)
3. Painting of the 16th century, taken by the Germans from a museum in Milan. Wandaivert wrote to the editor about this: “I had to take pictures in the dark, using one candle for illumination - there was no light in the rooms. Our group was ahead of everyone else who came only forty minutes later. ” (William Vandivert / TIME & LIFE Pictures)
4. The first of 20 pages of Wandyvert's notes made for the New York editorial office. The photographer described not only the footage captured on each film, but also the mood and atmosphere in the bunker of Hitler and the Reich Chancellery ("view of the Chancellery ... it was bombed, burned and shot to hell"). (William Vandivert / TIME & LIFE Pictures)
5. Lighting up the dark corridors with candles, the correspondents examine the sofa, covered with blood stains. Wandaivert writes: “Photos of correspondents looking at the sofa on which Hitler and Eva Braun shot themselves. Eve sat at the far end, and Hitler in the middle. Then Hitler fell to the floor. " This turned out to be only half true. Historians believe that Eva Braun committed suicide with cyanide, not with a pistol, so the blood on the couch was not Eve's. (William Vandivert / TIME & LIFE Pictures)
6. Correspondent Percy Knout examines the dirt and debris at the bottom of a trench in the garden of the Reich Chancellery, where the bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun are believed to have been burned after the suicide. Wandaivert's notes: “A battered bird feeder in a tree ... these were hung everywhere in Berchtesgaden (Hitler's estate in the Bavarian Alps). Probably meant a lot to him. " (William Vandivert / TIME & LIFE Pictures)
7. The famous "death's head" - the emblem of the SS - is barely visible under a layer of mold. The cap lies on the floor of the bunker, flooded with water. (William Vandivert / TIME & LIFE Pictures)
8. The phrase “violence and looting” sounds medieval, but perfectly describes the actions of the Soviet troops in the conquered Berlin. It is foolish to deny this, because no army in the history of war has been completely sinless in this sense. It is not surprising that the Soviet troops cleared the bunker of what the Germans did not take with them and did not burn during the retreat. (William Vandivert / TIME & LIFE Pictures)
9. Wandaivert writes: “Almost all of Berlin's famous buildings lie in ruins. In the center of the city, soldiers could walk several blocks and not meet a single living soul, feeling only the smell of death. " In the photo: a view of the bombed-out area of Schöneberg in Berlin. From August 1940 to March 1945, American, British and Soviet bombers carried out a total of more than 350 air raids on the city. Tens of thousands of civilians were killed. (William Vandivert / TIME & LIFE Pictures)
10. Allied troops (British, American, French and Soviet) gained control of Berlin, but this does not mean that they were resting on their laurels. Hard work was carried out to restore order in the ruined city. The troubles of a whole people fell on the shoulders of the soldiers who wanted to return home. In the photo: Private First Class Douglas Page at the Berlin Sports Palace stands in the place where Hitler used to deliver his speeches. The building was destroyed in a bombing raid on January 30, 1944. (William Vandivert / TIME & LIFE Pictures)
11. Soviet soldiers and an unknown civilian are moving a huge eagle that used to hang over the entrance to the Reich Chancellery. Wandaivert: "They put him on a car to take away as a trophy." (William Vandivert / TIME & LIFE Pictures)
12. The columns at the entrance to the Reich Chancellery and the entire lower part of the building are inscribed with the names of the dead and survivors, who, like all soldiers at all times, wanted to shame the enemy, honor their fallen comrades, or simply testify: I was here. I survived. (William Vandivert / TIME & LIFE Pictures)
13. Broken globe and a bust of Hitler among the rubble in front of the Reich Chancellery. This picture perfectly illustrates the state of Berlin in April 1945 on the eve of the Potsdam Conference. It was at this time that the song “Berlin Kommt Wieder” (Berlin will be back) was becoming more and more popular in the city. And it was considered “dangerous” not so much because of the lyrics, but because of the way the Berliners sang it. (William Vandivert / TIME & LIFE Pictures)
14. William Wandyvert filmed for LIFE from the late 1930s to 1948. In 1947, together with Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson and David Seymour, he created the Magnum Photo agency (where he worked for only a year). Wandaivert died in 1992.
“In 1943, a plan was drawn up for the evacuation of human, technical and scientific resources from Germany. It was designed very carefully, and very few people were familiar with this plan in its entirety. Each performer knew only his area of responsibility. Hitler's escape from Berlin in 1945 was part of this evacuation plan. "
The statement of the American scientist Nicholas Bellantoni that the fragment of Hitler's skull stored in the State Archives of the Russian Federation, in fact, does not belong to the Fuhrer, caused a new wave of interest in the topic of the life and death of the chapter III Reich. As soon as Bellantoni's statement was thrown into the public agenda, there were numerous comments, including sharply critical ones. Supporters of the official version of the death of Adolf Hitler say that rumors about his rescue from Berlin besieged by Soviet troops may be beneficial, first of all, to the US leadership.
For example, the writer, historian, author of a cycle of novels about the leaders of the Third Reich, Elena Syanova, is sure that Hitler committed suicide, and all other versions are just propaganda. Moreover, this propaganda was largely inspired by the leadership of the United States of America: “For the last 20 years, America has been rewriting the history of the 20th century and its key event - World War II. America won this war - this is how 99 percent of those Americans who, of course, have heard of it at all, will answer you.
Now we need to convince the rest of humanity of this. If it is impossible to directly prove that the Americans, if they did not take, then at least were in Berlin in the first half of May, then we must try to shake the generally accepted truths. "
COULD HITLER ESCAPE BERLIN?
According to supporters of the official version of Hitler's death, he could not leave the surrounded Berlin in any way, since the soldiers of the 1st Belorussian Front, in fact, locked the Fuhrer in the capital of Germany. He could leave, they say, only under or above the ground. There was no underground passage. He also could not break through the ground. The allies would not have been able to miss the plane either.
Opponents of the official version have an objection to this. As you know, in 1945, until the last days, the representative of Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, Hans-Friedrich Voss, was constantly present at Hitler's headquarters. About Dönitz it is necessary to say a little more in detail.
Karl Dönitz (1891-1980), as you know, in June 1935 was appointed commander of the 1st submarine flotilla of the III Reich. Dönitz was an outstanding naval commander. By 1938, he had developed a fundamentally new tactics of submarine operations in combat conditions - the so-called "tactics of wolf packs", and a year later he successfully applied it in action. Dönitz's authority among the rank and file and officers of the German submarine fleet was indisputable (he was even nicknamed "Pope Karl" and "Leo"). Dönitz took an active part in organizing the German expedition to Antarctica in 1938-1939.
In January 1943, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Third Reich Navy. Having retained the direct leadership of the submarine fleet, Dönitz treated surface warships with considerable distrust, believing that their century had passed. It was Karl Dönitz, in his "Political Testament" of April 29, 1945, that Hitler appointed his successor to the post of President of Germany and Supreme Commander-in-Chief.
Realizing the inevitability of the military defeat of the Third Reich, Dönitz in May 1945 intensified negotiations with the Americans and the British, hoping to withdraw the military and civilian population from the territories that would be occupied by the Soviet Army, but his plans were not destined to come true. On May 23, the new German government was arrested by American counterintelligence. Karl Dönitz, along with other leaders of Nazi Germany, appeared before the International Tribunal in Nuremberg (November 1945 - October 1946).
Independently, without the help of lawyers, he defended himself and convincingly proved that his actions during the military campaign were similar to those of the American and Soviet military leaders. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in Spandau. Completely served his term. In October 1956 he was released, lived in the West German city of Aumüle, received an admiral's pension, wrote a number of books on the history of the world war, the submarine fleet and memoirs.
It is believed that it was Karl Dönitz and his representative at the Fuehrer's headquarters in 1945, Hans-Friedrich Voss, who were participants in the plan to evacuate a number of leaders of the Third Reich using small submarines. Say, along the Spree, through Havel and Elbe, boats could go to the North Sea. Such assumptions, I note, belong to the category of hypotheses that make historians and the military only smile. However, it is not an assumption that Hitler and his inner circle understand that the war is lost. Moreover, this understanding came much earlier than the winter-spring of 1945.
Argentine writer and journalist Abel Basti has recently published the acclaimed books "The Nazis in Bariloche" ("Bariloche Nazi", 2004) and "Hitler in Argentina" ("Hitler en Argentina", 2006). Now Basti is working on the third book - "The Real Death of Hitler", in which the author promises to tell about the details of the last years of the Fuhrer's life. Working with archival documents from different countries, including the American FBI, Abel Basti claims that Hitler successfully left the burning Berlin and lived in Argentina at least until 1964, and later, after the death of Stressnes, he moved to Paraguay.
At the end of September 2009, as soon as it became known about the sensational statements of Nick Bellantoni, the Argentine newspaper La Capital took another interview with Basti. In the text titled "Hitler fled to the United States with the consent of the United States," the journalist and writer, in particular, states that the leaders of the Third Reich "knew that they were losing the war, and two years earlier had developed a plan to evacuate human, technical and scientific resources. The plan was developed very carefully, and very few people were familiar with it in its entirety. The organization was top notch. Everything was done with great anticipation. Each performer knew only his area of responsibility. Hitler's escape was part of this evacuation plan. "
Abel Basti is sure that several planes were able to escape from Berlin, flew to Kiel, where the passengers and crew were waiting for submarines. On these boats in the summer of 1945, Hitler and his associates landed on the shores of Patagonia (Argentina), where everything was prepared for the arrival of the Fuhrer and his companions. The secret plan to safely move Hitler out of besieged Berlin was codenamed Operation Seraglio.
Opponents of this point of view criticize Basti, pointing out the obvious inaccuracies and ignorance of the technical features of the aircraft, on which, according to the writer, Hitler and his companions, allegedly, could leave Berlin. In fact, there is no end to these disputes: advanced users of Internet forums and thoughtful scientists provide a lot of arguments and counterarguments as to whether the planes could or could not escape from Berlin surrounded by Soviet troops.
Perhaps they couldn't. Perhaps they could. Unless, of course, we do not take into account the quite admissible fact that Hitler was evacuated from Berlin with the help of fundamentally different aircraft, which by the spring of 1945 were already actively exploited in the Third Reich.
TALK ABOUT "HITLER-WILDER"
The aforementioned writer and historian Yelena Syanova notes: “The“ late ”Hitler did not look like a ceremonial one. The fact is that the rogue Morell, who kept Hitler on strong stimulants all the time after the 1944 assassination attempt, fled, and Hitler very quickly turned into a physical ruin. Goebbels, and his wife Magda, and even Bormann wrote about this with bitterness.
Why did Hitler have to flee Berlin? To lead a guerrilla movement in Europe or the Fourth Reich with its capital in Argentina?
For some abstract Hitler, it might be tempting. And for the real one - physical ruins, with impaired vision and hearing, semi-paralyzed, with wild pains in the stomach, with memory lapses ?! At the same time, who is still in permanent hysterics from hatred for the betrayed Himmler, the rubbing generals, for the people who did not live up to his expectations ... ".
Indeed, it is known from the official version of the history of the Second World War: as a result of the terrorist act against Adolf Hitler, committed by the conspirators on July 20, 1944 at the Wolfschanze headquarters, the Fuhrer, who was not physically injured by the bomb explosion, experienced severe nervous stress. In his article “Adolf Hitler on the Eve and After Death,” a specialist of the Central Archives of the FSB of Russia, Alexander Kalganov, describes the subsequent period of the Fuhrer’s life as follows: “Professor Theodor Morell, who was described by his contemporaries as a charlatan, completely far from any scientific ideas, was treating the consequences of Hitler’s nervous shock about medicine.
He actively regaled the Fuhrer with healers and medicines of his own invention, composed on the basis of strychnine, hormones, belladonna, morphine and other narcotic substances. The secret of Morell's success and indisputable authority was due to the quick effect of his drugs, taking which, Hitler immediately felt a huge surge of strength. During 1944-1945 he was injected daily with Morellian "miracle drugs".
As a result, all witnesses of Hitler's last days noted his swollen face, graying, hunched over, trembling hands and feet, hoarse, choppy voice and dull eyes. In such a physical condition, the fascist Fuhrer met the middle of April 1945, when the Soviet Army launched a decisive spring offensive. "
All this is true, if you do not take into account the hypothesis that this kind of evidence was part of a two-year cover plan to move people, specialists and technologies of the Third Reich to other territories on Earth, as the Argentine writer and journalist Abel Basti says. However, for those who prefer not to trust the Argentine author's investigation, conflicting evidence from completely official sources can be offered.
In 2000, an extremely curious book "The Agony and Death of Adolf Hitler" was published in Russia (compiled by V.K. Vinogradov, J.F. Pogoniy and N.V. Teptsov). The book was based on documents from the Central Archive of the FSB of Russia, many of which began to be declassified only in 1996 and were first published in this particular edition (a preface, which sets out the essence of the book, is possible).
From the declassified materials stored in the archives of the FSB, it became known that in January 1946, the head of the Main Directorate for Prisoners of War and Internees (GUPVI) of the NKVD of the USSR, Lieutenant General A.Z. Kobulov signed an analytical report on the version of Hitler's suicide. It notes some doubts based on individual contradictions in the testimony of witnesses. In particular, a number of fundamental questions were raised.
Why does not one of the German sources say what happened to the remains of Hitler in the future after they were burned?
Why in the testimony of the inhabitants of the Hitler bunker in April 1945, interrogated by the Chekists, there is no information about calling a doctor to state death?
Why are there differences in the testimony about taking the bodies to the garden of the Reich Chancellery and about the participants in this procedure (who carried it out and who only accompanied it)?
Why are the opinions of witnesses different about the appearance of the removed remains?
Were the corpses of the main Nazis burned to the end?
Why were the remains found by the soldiers of the SMERSH platoon before Harry Mengeshausen, the guard of the Reich Chancellery, showed this place? Etc…
In fact, maybe it was Gustav Weller (or another Hitler's double) who had been stuffed with drugs by Theodor Morell since the summer of 1944? Perhaps, as part of the implementation of the secret plan for the evacuation of people and technologies of the Third Reich from Germany, it was Hitler's double (doubles?) That was presented to the uninitiated service personnel as the Fuhrer-ruins, so that when the time comes, they will give exhaustive evidence of his physical and mental state?
ANOTHER THERE OF DOUBT
However, this is not all. The block of official documents from the declassified archives of the FSB gives rise to new and new doubts that Adolf Hitler actually committed suicide.
Personal testimonies of the leaders of the Third Reich were of great importance for establishing many facts of the last days of Nazi Germany. In particular, the diary of Obergruppenführer SA and SS Martin Bormann, entries in which were made in the period from January 1 to May 1, 1945. The story of Bormann's Diary is a true detective novel.
It is known that "Bormann's diary" on June 4, 1945 was handed over to the army chekists from the Military Council of the army. Counterintelligence conducted an investigation into the circumstances of the document's appearance and established that the records of the head of the Reich Chancellery on May 18 were taken by the master of the Berlin car factory, Ernst Otto, from a French citizen, a worker named Andre. The Frenchman repatriated home shortly thereafter.
According to the story of the Germans who handed over the diary to the city commandant's office, Andre allegedly found the document in the pocket of a leather coat he received from Soviet soldiers in the central district of Berlin. SMERShevtsy, just in case, interrogated the captured Germans from the Sonderkommando to escort and guard Hitler, who showed that Bormann was in the bunker until April 30 and was wearing a gray overalls, that is, he was not wearing any leather coat.
In other words, the investigation did not clarify any circumstances as to how the diary was taken out of the bomb shelter, and its further wanderings were not established by the Chekists. It is also surprising that the authorship of the diary is currently not disputed by anyone, although it was written by Bormann as if from a third person (? - Consp.).
As a result of operational-search activities in May-June 1945, Soviet intelligence officers identified the connections of Hitler's personal photographer - Heinrich Hoffmann (1885-1957). However, neither himself nor his archive (! - Consp.) then could not be found.
However, later there were reports that Hoffmann was arrested by the British occupation authorities. After imprisonment, in 1955, he was released, returning to the profession of a photographer, and died in Munich. When a German court sentenced Hoffmann to prison in 1947, his personal property was confiscated. It would be curious to know where is the Hoffmann photo archive of the III Reich period now? And was it fully confiscated in 1947?
On June 9, 1945, a press conference of Marshal G.K. Zhukov and prosecutor A.Ya. Vyshinsky, as reported by the Pravda newspaper the next day. Then Georgy Zhukov was asked a question: "Do you have any idea or opinion about what happened to Hitler?"... Zhukov replied: “The situation is very mysterious. From the diaries of the adjutants of the German commander-in-chief we found that two days before the fall of Berlin, Hitler married the film actress Eva Braun. We did not find the identified body of Hitler. I cannot say anything in the affirmative about the fate of Hitler. At the very last minute, he was able to fly out of Berlin, as the runways allowed him to do this. "
According to domestic researchers, Georgy Zhukov clearly repeated the point of view of Joseph Stalin at the press conference. And Stalin himself, on May 26, 1945, at a meeting with the representative of the American President Harry L. Hopkins, said that "Bormann, Goebbels, Hitler and probably Krebs fled and are currently hiding.".
General Hans Krebs, born in 1898, was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Ground Forces of the Third Reich in March 1945 and led operations on the Soviet-German front (including on the approaches to the German capital). General Krebs is believed to have committed suicide on May 1, 1945. However, his body was not found.
In those days, all kinds of rumors about the fate of Hitler and his inner circle were spreading around the world. The most common was the version about Hitler's escape from the besieged Berlin, and that he took refuge somewhere in Paraguay or Argentina. The versions of how they managed to escape were quite seriously discussed: by plane or by submarine.
This is why today's statements by supporters of the official history of World War II that the spread of rumors about Hitler's escape was inspired by the US leadership has at least one flaw. These rumors are already nearly 64 years old. Therefore, at least, it is not entirely correct to say that it is precisely in our days that versions of Hitler's salvation are thrown into the world public agenda by the US leadership.
BERLIN - ANTARCTISA - ARGENTINA - PARAGUAY?
In the aforementioned interview with Abel Basti to the newspaper La Capital, the Argentine writer and journalist answered the question: why, in the presence of serious doubts about the fact of Hitler's suicide, did the USSR leadership nevertheless agree with this version? - recalls a fact half-forgotten now in Russia: “With the death of Stalin in 1953, there were changes in Soviet policy, and Moscow began to support the version of Hitler's suicide. But before that, they talked openly about the Fuhrer's flight. One Soviet general said that "Hitler fled" (Basti apparently means Marshal Zhukov - Consp . ). He heard this phrase from Stalin, which he threw to the Americans, and Eisenhower agreed with her.[…].
In 1945, official historiography focused on the escape theory, but witnesses disappeared in Soviet prisons, and survivors claimed that Hitler had committed suicide. But there is no one who would have seen how he put a bullet in his forehead, or how Eva Braun took cyanide. "
There are many confirmations of this in the FSB archives. For example, on June 21, 1945, the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) reported that journalists from a number of newspapers in the USSR's allies had interviewed two Germans who claim to have seen Hitler's corpse. One of them is Erich Kempka (Hitler's driver), the second is Hermann Kernau (the Fuhrer's personal security officer). Both claim to have seen two corpses burned in the courtyard of the Reich Chancellery - Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. Both stories generally coincide with each other, however ...
The TASS report, stored in the Central Archives of the FSB (F. K-1 os, op. 4, d. 17, l. 11, typewritten copy) reads: “None of these Germans saw Hitler die, moreover, their the testimony regarding the cause of death is diverging. Kempka's chauffeur says that Hitler and Eva Braun shot themselves, and Kernau said that they were poisoned. "
Another curious document is stored in the Central Archives of the FSB (F. K-1 os, op. 4, d. 17, l. 14-16, typewritten copy), which is a TASS report dated July 17-18, 1945, entitled so : "Foreign press reports on the landing of Hitler in Argentina."
One of these messages contains the following: “As the Buenos Aires-based Reuters correspondent reports, the Argentine evening newspaper La Critic, speaking of the mystery surrounding submarine 530, which surrendered to Argentina 7 days ago, suggests that Adolf Hitler and his wife Eva Braun disembarked from a submarine on Queen Maud Island in Antarctica, near the South Pole. The newspaper claims that the second "Berchtesgaden" was created on the island during the German expedition to Antarctica in 1938-39 (apparently, this refers to the analogue of Adolf Hitler's estate "Berghof" ; of the 13 floors of the estate, only one, consisting of six huge rooms, was above the surface of the earth - Consp.). The newspaper adds that submarine 530 is possibly one of a group of submarines that left German ports on their way to Antarctica. "
Another report from the same case reads: “Reuters adds: After reports were published in the newspaper La Critic in Buenos Aires that Hitler and Eva Braun may have landed in Antarctica from a submarine arriving at Mar del Plata 6 days ago, another report appeared that Hitler and Eva Braun had landed in Argentina.
The newspaper El Tribuno, published in the city of Dolores, located between Mar del Plata and Buenos Aires, published an unconfirmed report that two more submarines had been hijacked off the Argentine coast. The newspaper adds that Argentine naval aircraft were escorting submarines. "
Abel Basti also mentions the arrival of three German submarines to the shores of Argentina in the second half of the summer of 1945 in his book "Hitler in Argentina". All three boats are now flooded in the bay of Caleta de los Loros, located in the Argentine province of Rio Negro. In an interview with the newspaper Argumenty i Fakty, published on November 8, 2006, Abel Basti notes: “I was based on the testimony of witnesses who, after the war, observed the arrival of three submarines with a swastika in the tiny bay of Caleta de los Loros [...] . You say: Argentina was formally at war with Germany since March 27, 1945 - maybe these are traces of past sea battles?
However, in the archives of the Argentine Ministry of Defense there is not a single word about the sinking of any German submarines. Then where did these sunken ships lying on the ground come from? I have made a request that the submarines should be brought to the surface and thoroughly investigated. German submarines sailed to Argentina several times after the war - for example, the U-977 submarine arrived in the country on August 17, 1945: it is assumed that its commander Heinz Schaeffer transported gold and other valuables of the Third Reich (the same Heinz Schaeffer, who in 1938-1939 participated in the Antarctic expedition of the III Reich - Consp . )» .
HITLER IN SOUTH AMERICA: ABEL BASTI'S VERSION
In total, according to Abel Basti's calculations, up to 500 thousand Nazis moved to Argentina, a significant part of whom settled in the country already under President Peron. Juan Domingo Peron (1895-1974) served as President of Argentina three times: in 1946-1955, and also in 1973-1974; a professional military man - at the age of 16 he entered a military school, and in fascist Italy he served as a military observer. Peron, Basti believes, took in Nazi refugees with the consent of the British and Americans. And in the United States, in total, more than 300 thousand German fugitives went.
Adolf Hitler, together with Eva Braun, settled in the town of San Carlos de Bariloche. Abel Basti claims that Hitler and Eva Braun formed a strong marital union. He is convinced that Hitler not only lived to see 1964, but also had offspring. Moreover, their children lived separately from their parents so as not to attract attention.
As proof, Abel Basti cites eyewitness accounts. According to one of them, he even knows the point where Hitler landed, accompanied by several men and a woman. According to another eyewitness who worked as a servant in the house of one of the German colonists in Argentina, Eicchorn, Hitler visited his boss several times in the post-war period.
In her research, Basti cites the testimony of the servant Katalina Gomero from their estate, who herself saw a "cousin," as her masters called the Nazi leader. According to Basti, a woman is still alive who in 1949 helped the family of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun around the house. Ida Eikhorn, as eyewitnesses told Abel Basti, treated the Fuhrer as her “nephew”. There are even footage of them together in Berlin.
Finally, there is an FBI report dated September 1945, which says that everything was prepared for Hitler's arrival in July 1945: the Eikhorn gardener, who worked for the FBI, also reported about the stay of the leader of the Third Reich in Argentina. His recently declassified report was found by Basti.
In November 2006, as already mentioned, Abel Basti gave a detailed interview to the Russian weekly Argumenty i Fakty. Basti, in particular, was asked the question: how reliable are the reports of the gardener Eichorns, in which he reported that his owners, who live near San Carlos de Bariloche in the village of La Falda, had been preparing for Hitler's arrival since June?
“This is a very strange question.- the Argentine writer and journalist was sincerely surprised, - because I legally received this document after it was declassified from the FBI archives: dossier number 65-53615. And this is far from the only documentary evidence of Hitler's flight. There are several other secret reports from the FBI, CIA and MI5 about the living Fuhrer. But, unfortunately, the United States, Britain and Russia have not yet fully declassified all materials related to this topic.
For example, there are three shorthand recordings of Joseph Stalin's conversation (one of them with US Secretary of State Byrnes): there the USSR leader openly says that the Fuhrer managed to escape. For fifteen years I have conducted hundreds of interviews with direct witnesses of Hitler's presence in Argentina. Most of them began to speak only now - many Nazis in Argentina have died, they have nothing to be afraid of, although not all of them are still making contact. A letter from the Nazi general Seydlitz, dated 1956, has also survived: he says that he is going to attend a meeting in Argentina between Hitler and the Croatian “Fuhrer” Pavelic. ”
She crossed the Oder and captured the famous Kustrin bridgehead. The front line in the east then began to pass only 62 kilometers from Berlin. In addition, on February 13, 1945, Budapest fell - Hitler's last hope for pulling off significant forces of the Red Army from the Berlin direction. In a hurry, the Germans tried to carry out the East Pomeranian operation, which also ended in defeat by April 4, 1945.
Hitler in the Fuehrerbunker
According to eyewitnesses, Hitler looked terrible (see Hitler's Diseases). Initially, he located his headquarters in the center of Berlin, in the building of the Reich Chancellery at Wilhelmstrasse 77.
Until mid-March 1945, Hitler periodically leaves his headquarters, going upstairs to the building of the Reich Chancellery. However, the last time Hitler visits it is March 15, 1945, then, due to the start of an allied air raid, Hitler barely has time to go back into the bunker, and from that day, according to eyewitnesses, he decides not to leave the bunker anymore.
According to eyewitnesses, when on February 13, 1945, Hitler was informed of the fall of Budapest in the Führerbunker, he became enraged, accusing his military of treason. According to eyewitnesses, Hitler still does not lose hope for a "miraculous salvation", but sometimes phrases about his imminent end slip through in his speech. According to eyewitnesses, Hitler begins to compare himself with Frederick II, saying that he, like Frederick, will no doubt be able to defeat the enemy first in the East and then in the West. On the same days, he orders to deliver to his room in the bunker a large portrait of Frederick, as well as the work of the 19th century British historian Thomas Carlyle "The History of Frederick the Great."
The last days and death
At 14:00 in the conference room in the Führerbunker, a major meeting began with the participation of Hermann Goering, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Karl Dönitz, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Albert Speer, Wilhelm Keitel and Hans Krebs. At the meeting, after discussing the current situation, Hitler vehemently rejects all offers to hide in Bavaria or in northern Germany under SS guard, saying that he will fight "until his last breath in Berlin" and will go to northern Germany only after the defeat of the Red Army at its walls ... After that, Hitler ordered Dönitz to start organizing resistance in northern Germany, he sent Goering to organize defense in Bavaria.
Kaltenbrunner, Goering and Ribbentrop, under various pretexts, leave the meeting room ahead of time. According to the latter: "By this time it became clear to us that Hitler had practically lost all understanding of reality and was already living only by his own fantasies."
The last order given at the meeting was an order for Krebs to follow the preparations for the offensive of the 4th Panzer Army with the support of the 3rd Panzer Army at the position of the Red Army, for its "complete and final flight and defeat." All those present understood that the order was impracticable, since both armies barely held their own defenses, but they did not object to Hitler.
At about 4:30 pm Hitler is informed that Army Group B, under the command of Walter Model, in its entirety (375,000 men) has ceased its resistance to the Allies and laid down its arms in the Ruhr area. Enraged, Hitler announces all soldiers and officers "Cowards and traitors to the motherland", and Walter Model is sentenced to death in absentia. The next day, upon learning of this, Model shot himself.
At about 17:00 Hitler retired to his quarters, where he went to bed at about 18:00.
April 21, 1945
At 9:30 in the morning, Soviet artillery again strikes Berlin with a powerful blow. The explosions of shells wake up Hitler, and he learns from General Karl Koller by telephone from the government that the Soviet artillery is hitting the city center with direct fire from a distance of 15 km from the Fuehrerbunker. Hitler again enrages, shouting that "he is surrounded by mediocre traitors who should have been hanged long ago!" At the afternoon meeting, he orders to contact the general of the SS troops Felix Steiner, who, according to Hitler's plan, should "immediately begin an energetic and unrelenting offensive against the positions of the Red Army, in order to break through its defenses and save Berlin!" According to Hitler, if the order is not followed, "Steiner should be executed as a traitor!"
At the same meeting, Hitler sent Robert Leigh to Bavaria to "help organize a defense there."
Towards evening, Hitler orders his personal doctor, Theodor Morel, to transfer all powers to Werner Haase. Morel left Berlin on the morning of April 23, 1945.
April 22, 1945
Hitler got up at about 9:00 am. After listening to the report on the situation, he, to the surprise of the participants in the meeting, remains absolutely calm, saying that "Steiner's offensive can stabilize the front!"... However, after a long pause, General Krebs hesitantly takes the floor, who informs him that "Steiner refuses to go on the offensive, referring to the fact that his troops are barely holding the defense!" After a few seconds of pause, Hitler literally explodes in a flash of anger. According to eyewitnesses, he shouted "Steiner's offensive was an order!", throws the pointer, which he usually used to drive on the operational map, onto the table so hard that it breaks. Then Hitler falls into uncontrollable anger, screaming to a hoarse voice that his "Surrounded by a bunch of despicable liars and traitors!" who, moreover, also "dare to violate his orders!" At the end of his speech, having calmed down a little, Hitler for the first time, according to eyewitnesses, says that the war is lost, since "It is impossible to command in such an environment!", after which he declares that from now on everyone can do "what they want", and he "would rather stay in Berlin and shoot himself than run away!"
Almost immediately after the end of the meeting, at about 15:00, Joseph and Magda Goebbels arrive at the bunker with their six children. Upon learning of Hitler's outburst of anger, Goebbels once again sluggishly tries to persuade him to hide in his residence in Berchtesgaden. Having received a categorical refusal from the Fuehrer, he announces to everyone present that "for a while" together with his family he will settle in the Fuehrerbunker at the request of Hitler.
Soon, Hitler again, thanks to Dr. Morel, comes to his senses and orders Field Marshal Keitel to personally arrive at the headquarters of the 12th Army and hand over to its commander Walter Wenck the plan for a counter-offensive against the Soviet troops, which was to be carried out with the support of Steiner's 9th Army ... He also orders Colonel General Jodl to move the headquarters of the Supreme Command 20 kilometers northwest of Berlin to Potsdam, citing the proximity of the front line. In addition, he gives the order to "collect all the forces available in Potsdam and break through to Berlin."
At about 17:00 Hitler retires to his chambers, accompanied by Eva Braun, his personal chef Constance Manziarli, Martin Bormann, and secretaries Traudel Junge and Gerda Christian, who, during a private conversation, invites them to immediately (within an hour) leave Berlin on the remaining plane, referring to on the speedy encirclement of the city by Soviet troops. However, everyone refuses, and Eva Braun declares in the presence of everyone that she will remain with Hitler until the end and, if necessary, die with him, after which, to the surprise of everyone present, Hitler publicly hugs her for the first time and kisses her on the lips. Then he opens the drawer of the table and takes out several ampoules of cyanide and, with their consent, distributes poison to those present.
At about 6:00 pm, Hitler issues the last order of that day, appointing Erich Behrenfenger as commander of the Berlin defense.
April 23, 1945
Between 1.00 and 1:30 a.m. Hitler received a telegram from Hermann Goering, who was in Berchtesgaden, where he had previously sent:
Then Hitler receives Joachim von Ribbentrop, who with absolute indifference is removed from office with the wording "Due to loss of confidence"(this removal took place only in words and in fact Ribbentrop remained in his post until Hitler's death). After this, Ribbentrop leaves Berlin for Hamburg.
April 24, 1945
At about 10:00 am Hitler sends a telegram to Air Colonel General Robert von Graim with an order "Arrive immediately at the building of the Reich Chancellery".
At 12:00 at a scheduled meeting on the military situation, after a report on the successful attack by German troops on the flank of the 1st Belorussian Front in the Görlitz area, the hope for a "miraculous salvation" is reawakened in Hitler. Encouraged, he orders the immediate counterattack of Soviet troops from the north to "By the evening, liberate Berlin from the Bolshevik hordes"... He rejects any objections sharply.
Investigation
The burnt remains of Hitler were brought in boxes to the Berlin district of Buch, where authoritative Soviet specialists studied them in the basement at the local clinic-hospital. The forensic medical examination was supervised by the chief forensic medical expert of the 1st Belorussian Front, Lieutenant Colonel Faust Shkaravsky. Lieutenant Elena Rzhevskaya, who participated in the identification, left witness memories of this.
In 2009, Vasily Khristoforov, the head of the Department of Registration and Archival Funds of the FSB of Russia, said that in 1946 a special commission created at the initiative of the GUPVI with the aim of "thoroughly and rigidly rechecking the entire group of facts" conducted additional excavations at the site of the discovery of the corpses of Hitler and Eva Braun. At the same time, "the left parietal part of the skull with a bullet outlet" was found. In 1948, the "finds" from Hitler's bunker (several burnt objects, as well as fragments of jaws and teeth, which were used to identify the corpses of Hitler, Eva Braun and Goebbels) were sent to Moscow, to the investigation department of the 2nd Main Directorate of the USSR Ministry of State Security. Since 1954, by order of Serov, chairman of the KGB under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, all these items and materials were stored in a special order in a special room of the departmental archive. For 2009, Hitler's jaws are kept in the FSB archives, and fragments of Hitler's skull are in the State Archives.
Sources give different information about the cause of death: some claim that Hitler died of poison, others - that death came from a shot fired by Hitler at the time of biting through an ampoule with cyanide. A number of modern historians reject this information as "Soviet propaganda", or they are trying to find a compromise to reconcile various conclusions. One eyewitness testified that Hitler's corpse showed signs of suicide by being shot in the mouth, but it was later concluded that this was unlikely. There are also controversies regarding the authenticity of the found fragments of the jaw and skull, allegedly belonging to Hitler.
Reburial
Then, in connection with the relocation of the SMERSH counterintelligence department, the bodies were seized and transported first to the region of the mountains. Finov, and then - mountains. Rathenov, where they were finally buried. “The corpses are in wooden boxes in a hole at a depth of 1.7 meters and are placed in the following order (from east to west) Hitler, Eva Braun, Goebbels, Magda Goebbels, Krebs, Goebbels' children ... planted from small trees number - 111 ",- so it was reported in the report.
Notes (edit)
- Fischer (2008) p. 47. “... Gunsche said that he entered the office to examine the consequences, and noted that Hitler was dripping blood from his right temple. He shot himself with his pistol, PPK 7.65. "
- Kershaw (2008) p. 955. "... Blood dripped from a bullet hole in the right temple ..."
On March 19, 1945, Hitler issued an order called "Plan Nero". It meant the destruction of strategic objects, food warehouses, cultural values on the territory of the Reich. The further existence of the German nation was called into question.
Death sentence for the nation
On March 15, 1945, Reich Minister Steer handed Hitler a report entitled "The Economic Situation in March - April 1945 and Its Consequences", in which he succinctly described what actions should be taken to ensure, "albeit in a primitive form", the basis of life for the people. On March 19, the "response" to Steer's note was an order from the Fuehrer, code-named "Nero", which would later go down in history as Hitler's most unpopular plan among his compatriots. "Nero" signed a death warrant to the people: "All military installations, transport, communications, industry and supply structures, food warehouses, as well as material values on the territory of the Reich must be destroyed." The failed plan, which Hitler at the beginning of the war was going to carry out in Moscow and Leningrad (the so-called tactics of "scorched earth"), he decided to apply to Germany. His biographers say that at that moment he himself had already decided his fate and did not see any more sense to support the German people: “If the war is lost, the nation will also perish. This is her inevitable destiny. There is no need to deal with the basis that the people need to continue the most primitive existence. " These words of the Fuhrer were recorded from the words of Steer during the trial of the Nazis.
In the footsteps of Nero
The name of the plan was not chosen by chance. In it, Hitler likened himself to the famous Roman tyrant theater-goer Nero, who in 64 ordered the burning of Rome. By the way, not because of strategic motives, but to make his debut as a tragic actor. Suetonius in his writings said that Nero, watching the conflagration in the capital, was dressed in a theatrical costume, played the lyre and recited a poem about the fall of Troy of his own composition. The fact that Hitler had a special passion for sonorous names is not a secret, but why did he take the image of Nero as the basis? The arson in Germany, which the Soviet soldiers are accused of, is also questionable. As you know, the main version about the fire of Rome in 64 says that the arson was committed by order of the emperor, who was going to rebuild the eternal city according to his idea of the "artist". Christians were accused of arson. The parallel suggests itself. But let's leave behind the personal parallels and recall the famous work of Erich Fromm: "Adolf Hitler: a clinical case of necrophilia", where the sociologist gives an example of personalities with special character traits and psychological problems that give rise to tyrants. According to this work, the features of Hitler and Nero are almost identical in detail.
Destruction of the people
At the Nuremberg trials, Albert Speer noted that if all the other orders of Hitler and Bormann were carried out, millions of Germans who were still alive by that time would certainly have perished. Indeed, all the latest orders from Hitler and his entourage were aimed at destroying the nation. An addition to the Nero plan was Martin Bormann's decree of March 23, which ordered the entire population from the West and East of Germany, including foreign workers and prisoners of war, to concentrate in the center of the Reich. At first glance, in the conditions of "Nero", the decree seems quite logical - to destroy all food in the border and front areas, and to provide its own population on a separate territory, concentrating all reserves there. Nevertheless, the "Wanderers" were not provided with either food or necessities. The resettlement itself was arranged in such a way that it was not possible to take anything with you. "The result of all this could be a terrible famine, the consequences of which are difficult to imagine," - said Speer.
Speer's party
The execution of the "Nero" plan and the "scorched earth" tactics were entrusted to the Reichminister of Armaments and War Production Albert Speer, Hitler's personal architect, who, according to the plans of 1941, was to create a new kind of Germany. By the end of the war, he became disillusioned with the Fuhrer's policies and pursued, in fact, his own policy aimed at saving the cities and inhabitants of Germany as much as possible. He showed this with his already mentioned "economic situation", in which he proposed concrete ways to put the life of the people at a low level, but sufficient for life.
It is not surprising that the order of the Fuehrer to organize the destruction of Germany irrevocably discouraged Speer from Hitler. In his reply letter, he wrote to the Fuehrer: “I am an artist, and therefore the task set before me turned out to be completely alien and difficult to me. I have done a lot for Germany. However, in the evening you turned to me with words from which, if I understood you correctly, it clearly and unequivocally followed: if the war is lost, let the people also perish! This fate, you said, is inevitable. There is nothing to reckon with the foundations that people need for their most primitive further life. On the contrary, they say, it is better to destroy them ourselves. After all, the people have shown themselves to be weaker, and therefore the future belongs exclusively to the stronger people of the East. I can no longer believe in the success of our good deed, if at the same time at this decisive moment we are systematically destroying the basis of our people's life. "
Albert Speer was one of the few close associates of Hitler who got to the Nuremberg trials alive and voluntarily pleaded guilty. Information about "Nero's plan" was received from him.
Forged document
The Nero plan and the scorched earth doctrine reached the public, thanks to Albert Speer. He told about many details of the last directives of the Reichstag in his "Memoirs" and the work "The Third Reich from within. Memoirs of the Reich Minister of War Industry ", where he portrayed himself as an apolitical intellectual who knew almost nothing about the crimes of the regime and was only" doing his duty. " This position of Albert, which manifested itself at the Nuremberg trials, became one of the reasons that gave rise to the theory that the "Nero" plan was a fiction, Speer's invention for his own justification, his hope of avoiding the death penalty. By the way, the highest degree of punishment for Speer was replaced by twenty years' imprisonment. Nevertheless, the question of the forgery of the document is controversial, since the analysis of the source, which is currently stored in the archives of the Nuremberg Trials, did not reveal any falsification.
This beautiful Paris
The "Nero" plan was not Hitler's first attempt to destroy what belonged to him, and most importantly, what he loved. Shortly after the liberation of Paris from the German occupation, he ordered the mining of most of the strategic and symbolic objects of Paris, including the Eiffel Tower.
The first trip of Adolf Hitler to Paris took place on June 23, 1940 after the occupation: “To see Paris was the dream of my whole life. I cannot express how happy I am that this dream has come true today! " The Louvre, Versailles and, finally, the House of Invalids, where Napoleon, whom Hitler revered so much, was buried - all of this was to be destroyed according to the principle "So don't get anyone else." "The city should not fall into the hands of enemies, except perhaps in ruins," Hitler said on August 9, 1944.
Nevertheless, Paris was lucky. Dietrich von Scholtz, who was the head of Paris since August 7, 1944, refused to obey Hitler's order and surrendered, for which he went down in history as a kind of "savior of Paris".
Treasure hunters
Nero's plan also meant the destruction of all cultural property on the territory of the Reich, including numerous stolen art collections taken from all the occupied territories. This decree logically gave rise to a whole movement of "treasure hunters" (Monuments Men), who, unlike looters, were representatives of the cultural intelligentsia - museum workers, art historians, historians, archivists. The group was formed on the initiative of Roosevelt and American Army General David Eisenhower. They were not only engaged in the restoration and return of values to the owner-countries, but also worked in the military-diplomatic field, negotiating with bombers (mostly allied) on the preservation of cultural objects.
Chapter 30
"WE SHOULD NOT GIVE UP IN FIVE MINUTES BEFORE MIDNIGHT" (January 17 - April 20, 1945)
By January 17, the Red Army had defeated or outflanked German forces on the Baltic coast and crossed the Vistula over a vast stretch from Warsaw to Lower Silesia. Soviet troops were so close to Auschwitz that the prisoners heard the rumble of artillery cannonade. In recent weeks, SS guards have burned down warehouses of shoes, clothing and hair in an attempt to cover up traces of the massacre. The camp personnel fled. The guards lined up 58 thousand, shivering from the cold, emaciated people and drove them westward, leaving only 6 thousand sick prisoners unable to walk in the hope that they would die under Soviet bombs. When the Red Army broke into Auschwitz on January 27, there were still almost 5,000 prisoners in the camp, so exhausted that they could not utter a word of greeting. Gas chambers and five crematoria were blown up. No matter how the Nazis tried to cover up the traces of their crimes, they left irrefutable evidence - mountains of toothbrushes, glasses, shoes, prostheses and mass graves of hundreds of thousands of people ... found 368,820 men's suits, 836,255 women's coats, 13,694 carpets and 7 tons of human hair.
In Berlin that day, General Guderian and his adjutants entered through the main entrance to the Reich Chancellery to attend a military conference with the Fuehrer. They had to take a detour to Hitler's office because of the damage caused by the Allied bombing. There were guards with machine guns in the waiting room. The SS officer asked to leave his personal weapons and carefully examined the portfolios. This rule, introduced after July 20, made no exceptions even for the chief of staff.
At 4:20 pm, the hunched-over Fuhrer entered with a shuffling gait with a lifelessly dangling left hand. The meeting began with a speech by Guderian, who described the disaster in the East impartially. Hitler listened impassively, but as soon as the discussion began about the Western Front, he revived and began to recall the First World War: "In 1915 and 1916 we had such norms of ammunition that your hair would stand on end ..." The meeting ended at 18.50 , and Guderian left for Zossen. He was outraged. We talked for two and a half hours, but no concrete decision was made on any issue related to the critical situation on the Eastern Front.
Himmler had just been appointed commander of an army group formed to repel the main blow of the advancing Soviet group under the command of Marshal Zhukov. Guderian found this appointment idiotic, but Hitler argued that the Reichsfuehrer was the only person capable of forming a large formation overnight. His name alone, the Fuehrer believed, would inspire the soldiers to fight to the end. Bormann supported the appointment, but people close to Himmler secretly believed that this was a conspiracy to destroy their boss. The direction of Himmler to the East, in their opinion, will not only remove him from the Fuehrer's headquarters and allow Bormann to strengthen his growing influence on Hitler, but will inevitably prove the military leadership of the Reichsfuehrer SS.
Himmler, a former military school cadet who secretly dreamed of someday leading his troops into battle, took the bait, albeit after some hesitation. Although he feared Bormann, it never occurred to him that he was preparing his deposition. Himmler set off for the East in a special train, carrying several staff officers, one outdated map and the name for his formation - Army Group Vistula. Determined to stop the Russians on the Vistula, Himmler began to create a line of defense from east to west - from the Vistula to the Oder. In other words, he barricaded the side door, protecting Pomerania, and at the same time opened the front door wide.
Zhukov simply bypassed this line of defense and continued to move westward, meeting scattered resistance from isolated groups. On January 27, his troops were already at a distance of 160 kilometers from Berlin. Ahead lay the Oder, the last major water obstacle ...
Three days later, Hitler delivered a speech to the country. He spoke again about the specter of international Jewry and Asian Bolshevism and called on all Germans to fulfill their duty to the end. “No matter how serious the crisis is at the moment,” said the Fuehrer in conclusion, “it will, in spite of everything, be overcome by our unbending will, our willingness to sacrifice and our skill. Ultimately, Europe will win, not Central Asia, and it will be headed by the country that represented Europe in the struggle against the East for 1500 years and will represent it at all times - our great German Reich, the German nation. "
After lunch, Bormann took the time to write a letter to his "beloved mother" with advice to stock up on dried fruit and fifty kilograms of honey. He wrote to her about the atrocities in the East, where the Bolsheviks devastate every village. “You and your children should never fall into the hands of these wild animals,” the Deputy Fuhrer warned his loved ones.
Despite the bad news, Hitler was in good spirits. After the evening conference, he spoke about the political situation of the Reich, explaining that he had launched Operation Autumn Mist with the aim of splitting the Allies. They want the battle to be lost, the Americans and the British have quarreled, and the split between the allies is close.
Guderian glanced impatiently at his watch, but the young officers seemed to be mesmerized by the Fuehrer when he predicted that the West would soon realize that Bolshevism was its true enemy and unite with Germany in a common crusade against the red danger. Churchill, like him, knows that if the Red Army captures Berlin, half of Europe will immediately become communist. Time is our ally, Hitler said. Therefore, we must defend ourselves to the last. Is it not clear, the Fuehrer asked pathetically, that every fortress we hold will ultimately become a springboard in the German-American-English crusade against Jewish Bolshevism? He reminded the audience that in 1918 Germany was stabbed in the back by the General Staff. If he had not surrendered prematurely, Germany would have achieved an honorable peace, and there would have been no post-war chaos, no attempts by the communists to take over the country, there would be no inflation and depression. “This time we must not give up five minutes before midnight!” Hitler concluded.
On the last day of January, he was awakened in the middle of the night: enemy tanks had just crossed the Oder. Three days later, Berlin was hit by the worst air raid of the entire war. Nearly 1,000 American bombers razed the center of the city to the ground. The chairman of the "people's court" Roland Freisler was also killed. The news of his death was greeted with glee by the survivors of the July 20 conspiracy. Their prison was bombed, and the prisoners were urgently transported to the Gestapo casemate, the underground part of which survived. Among the prisoners was Admiral Canaris.
Hitler's headquarters was also seriously damaged. The connection was broken, the supply of electricity and water was cut off. “There is a cistern in front of the Reich Chancellery, and this is the only source of water for cooking and washing!” Bormann wrote to his wife.
On February 4, when the advanced units of the Red Army were already at the gates of Berlin, the Fuhrer began to dictate his political testament to Bormann. Hitler still had a faint hope for some miracle, he wanted to capture for history how close he came to achieving his magnificent dream, and explain the reasons for his failures. The British, Hitler argued, could have ended the war early in 1941. "But the Jews never wanted this, and their lackeys Churchill and Roosevelt prevented it." Such a peace, the Fuehrer continued, would keep America from interfering in European affairs, and under German leadership, Europe would quickly unite. After the elimination of the “Jewish contagion”, unification would be a simple matter, and Germany, having a secure rear, could achieve “the dream of my life and the goal of National Socialism - the destruction of Bolshevism”.
Two days later, he resumed dictation. “Our enemies,” Hitler announced, “are gathering all their forces for a final attack. We have against us a motley coalition, sealed with hatred, envy and fear that the National Socialist doctrine instills in this low, motley gathering. His desire to destroy the Third Reich leaves no alternative but to fight to the end. We can still win the last dash! "
On February 12, the Big Three announced that the meeting in Yalta ended with a unanimous decision on the defeat of the Axis and the post-war structure of the world. The communique delighted Goebbels. The decision of Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin to dismember Germany and pay her unbearable reparations, he argued, would force Germany to fight with renewed vigor or perish.
Hitler approved of this propaganda move and even cheered up. But the next day, there was another conflict with Guderian. The general openly stated that Himmler had neither the experience nor the staff specialists to organize a counteroffensive. “How dare you criticize the Reichsfuehrer?” Hitler protested. But Guderian did not give in and insisted that his deputy Wenck lead the operation. Hitler flew into a rage, and both began to argue so bitterly that the participants in the meeting, one after the other, left the room. Only Himmler, Wenck and a few imperturbable adjutants remained. The dispute lasted for about two hours. Hitler exclaimed over and over again: "How dare you?" - and breathed heavily with indignation. Guderian continued to insist on the appointment of Wenck. Finally Hitler stopped striding back and forth, went up to Himmler and, with a resigned sigh, said: "Well, Reichsfuehrer, General Wenck will go to Army Group Vistula today and head the headquarters." "Let's resume the meeting," he muttered after a short silence and, with a sour smile, remarked, turning to Guderian: "Mr. Colonel General, today the army headquarters won the battle."
On February 14, Hitler continued to dictate the political will. National Socialism, he said to Bormann, cleared the German world of the "Jewish contagion" in deed, not in words. "For us, it was an important disinfection process, without which we ourselves would have been strangled and destroyed." The Fuehrer emphasized that the liquidation of the Jews became the most important goal of the war.
On the evening of the next day, Dr. Giesing met Hitler by chance in the bomb shelter of the Reich Chancellery. The Fuhrer was pale, his right hand was trembling, he could not walk without support and was constantly grabbing at something. Hitler seemed absent-minded and asked the same question several times: “Where are you from, Doctor? Oh yes, from Krefeld ... ”He began to assure Giesing that the Americans would never break through the West Wall. Then he declared that if Germany was destined to lose the war, he would die along with his soldiers, and finally boasted of a new weapon, called the atomic bomb, which he would use “even if the white cliffs of England disappeared into the water”.
On February 13, the Allies bombed Dresden. The old city was almost completely destroyed, a terrible firestorm devastated 650 hectares - almost three times more than in London during the entire war. According to preliminary data, at least 100 thousand people died.
Dresden after the bombing of 1945. Burnt corpses of residents
In February, newspapers of neutral countries reported about peace talks, which were allegedly being conducted through unofficial channels. They were based on the contacts of Peter Kleist. In Stockholm, he met with the representative of the World Jewish Congress, Hillel Storch, who proposed to discuss the issue of releasing 4,300 Jews from concentration camps. Kleist put the question more broadly: to discuss not only the "salvation of the Jews", but also the "salvation of Europe." Storch reacted positively to the possibility of such a deal and spoke with the American diplomat Ivor Olson.
After meeting with Olson, Storch excitedly informed Kleist that President Roosevelt was ready to buy out the lives of one and a half million Jews in concentration camps in exchange for "political concessions." This was what Kleist needed, and he decided to report the information he received to Kaltenbrunner. On his return to Berlin, Kleist was placed under house arrest. A few days later, Kaltenbrunner informed him that Himmler was interested in “this opportunity,” and ordered Kleist to travel to Stockholm with the promise to free 2,000 Jews.
Such a deal was not new to Himmler. He had previously tried to use the "Jewish question" as blackmail in order to achieve a profitable peace. In this the Reichsfuehrer was encouraged by his masseur, a native of Estonia Felix Kersten, and the head of the foreign intelligence service Walter Schellenberg, convinced that Hitler was leading Germany to death. It was not an easy task, given that the Fuehrer had forbidden any foreign policy sounding without his knowledge, especially since Kaltenbrunner remained loyal to Hitler and had a deep dislike for Schellenberg. But Kaltenbrunner believed Kleist, and Himmler decided to take the risk.
However, Kleist never left for Stockholm. Kaltenbrunner summoned him and said that he was no longer interested in this matter. He did not explain that his enemy Schellenberg convinced Himmler not to share glory with the diplomat, and that instead of Kleist he sent his massage therapist to Stockholm. Kersten began negotiations with Swedish diplomats on the release of Scandinavian citizens from the camps; as a result, the Swedes decided to send Count Bernadotte to Berlin to negotiate with Himmler.
Since Kleist was ordered to keep his mouth shut, his boss Ribbentrop knew nothing of this. However, the Swedish ambassador in Berlin, who did not understand the intricacies of power in the Nazi hierarchy, unwittingly betrayed Himmler: through the Ribbentrop department, as expected, the ambassador sent a message to the Reichsfuehrer asking him to arrange a meeting between Bernadotte and Ribbentrop. He realized that the rival was conducting separate negotiations behind him. The Foreign Minister summoned Fritz Hesse, a specialist on England, and asked him if Bernadotte would be a suitable figure for a peaceful probe. Hesse, in turn, asked if the Fuhrer agreed to such a probe. Ribbentrop replied in the negative, but expressed the hope that such consent would be obtained. Together they drew up a memorandum and presented it to Hitler with a proposal to enter into contact with the West to clarify the terms of the peace agreement. Hitler expressed doubt that anything worthwhile would come of this, but did not mind "building bridges."
Himmler, to Ribbentrop's surprise, expressed his readiness to cooperate with him: he was afraid that the Fuhrer would suddenly find out that Bernadotte's mission concerned not only humanitarian issues. The Foreign Minister happily informed Hesse of this and ordered him to leave for Stockholm on 17 February.
Himmler, obviously, very soon began to doubt: what if the Fuhrer will not understand his actions? Therefore, when Bernadotte arrived in Berlin, he insisted that he be received first by Kaltenbrunner and Ribbentrop. Conversations with them were limited to the access of representatives of the Swedish Red Cross to concentration camps.
The next day, the count was taken to the residence of Himmler. He received the guest very kindly. The Swede offered to release the Norwegians and Danes from the concentration camps and hand them over to the care of his country. This simple request caused a flood of reproaches from Himmler against the Swedes. But in the end he agreed to carry it out on condition that Sweden and the allies gave assurances that sabotage against the occupying forces would stop in Norway. Of course, Bernadotte could not give such assurances and asked for other, smaller concessions, to which he received consent. Encouraged, he asked if Swedish women who were married to Germans could return to their homeland. This time he received a categorical refusal. Himmler's mood changed dramatically. He began to rant about his loyalty to the Fuhrer, about the "Bolshevik threat", about the glorious days of the Nazi movement ...
Bernadotte seized the moment and asked about the fate of the Jews, exclaiming: "After all, there are many decent people among them!" "You're right," Himmler replied, "but you don't have a Jewish problem in Sweden, and therefore you cannot understand the German point of view." At the end of the conversation, he promised to give a definite answer to all Bernadotte's requests even before his return to Sweden. Then the Swede visited Ribbentrop again. He was kind, but did not say anything specific.
Ribbentrop's representative in Stockholm, Hesse, heard from the Swedish banker Wallenberg that Roosevelt and Churchill were determined to destroy Germany, and proposed to probe the possibilities of concluding peace in the East. "Stalin," he said, "is not bound by obligations to the West." A few days later, Hesse saw in Swedish newspapers a photograph of Brother Wallenberg with the Soviet ambassador, Alexandra Kollontai, at the entrance to the embassy. Perhaps this was a signal that the Kremlin is dissatisfied with the West and is ready for contacts with Hitler. Inspired by Hesse, he returned to Berlin, but Ribbentrop listened to his story with complete indifference. He lay in bed, sick and depressed. All in vain, he said in an indifferent tone, there is no chance of negotiations with the West.
In mid-February, Hitler complained to Fraulein Schroeder: "Everyone is deceiving me ..." He cannot rely on anyone, the Fuhrer lamented. Goering has lost the confidence of the people, Himmler will be rejected by the party. He apologized for talking about politics at dinner and then said, “Break your head and tell me who should be my successor. I constantly think about this question and do not find an answer. "
A week later, the Fuehrer's spirits improved when Eva Braun returned to Berlin. In early February, Hitler ordered Eve to move to Munich, which is less exposed to air raids than other German cities. But two weeks later, she announced that she must return to the Fuehrer, no matter what happened. She must share the fate of the person she loves. Hitler feigned anger and even scolded her, but throughout the evening he repeated how proud he was of Fraulein Braun's loyalty.
At the end of February, Hitler called the last meeting of the Gauleiters. The audience was struck by his sick appearance. The Fuhrer walked leaning on the adjutant's elbow, his left hand trembling violently. Everyone expected a sensational announcement, but he delivered a sermon that was both inspiring and depressing. The Fuehrer assured the Gauleiters that although no miracle weapon would save the Reich, the war could still be won if the German people could be instilled with "Teutonic rage." If the country is not capable of this, it means that it has fallen morally and deserves destruction. Hitler thanked the Gauleiters for their work and loyalty, and then did something completely unexpected: he frankly told them about his deteriorating health. A tremor in his left leg spread to his left arm, and the Fuhrer jokingly expressed the hope that this ailment would not spread to his head ...
Hitler stubbornly refused to admit the inevitability of the impending catastrophe. He angrily lashed out at enemy pilots who killed half a million civilians, and vilified those Germans who greeted the Americans as liberators. On March 7, his rage knew no bounds: the Americans seized the railway bridge over the Rhine at Remagen, despite the order to blow it up. For Hitler, this was another betrayal and gave him an excuse to get rid of Rundstedt, who had long annoyed the Fuhrer with his constant readiness to retreat. He ordered his pet Otto Skorzeny to destroy the bridge. A group of underwater saboteurs managed to get close to him with packages of explosives, but were discovered by the Americans and neutralized.
By this time, the entire German defense system was practically destroyed. Army Group B under the command of Model was defeated, its remnants pushed back beyond the Rhine. To the south, Hausser's Army Group G was pressed against the western bank of the river and threatened with encirclement. The situation in the East was no better, and in those desperate days of mid-March Hitler decided to visit the front. The generals warned him that the situation was so unpredictable that he could be killed or taken prisoner, but the Fuhrer did not want to listen to anyone. He made only one concession: he drove an inconspicuous Volkswagen, not his luxurious Mercedes. Hitler arrived at a castle near the Oder, where he called on the generals of the 9th Army to stop the Russian advance towards Berlin. Every day, every hour is important, he said, a new miracle weapon will soon be ready. On the way back, Hitler sat next to the driver Kempka, deep in thought ...
Hitler knew that his recent comrades-in-arms were looking for contacts with the enemy behind the back of the Fuehrer. He knew, for example, about Ribbentrop's negotiations in Sweden and about Himmler's attempts to "trade" Jews, but the Fuehrer did not take decisive measures against this, although he declared that all negotiations were in vain. If they fail, he will deny that he knew about them, if they lead to success, he will attribute the credit to himself.
However, it is doubtful whether Hitler knew that his loyal minister of armaments, Speer, had urged commanders such as Manteuffel not to follow orders to destroy bridges, dams and factories. On March 18, Speer protested against the "scorched earth" policy to the Fuehrer himself. In his memorandum, he pointed out that such a policy is disastrous for the country. This document infuriated Hitler. After reading the memorandum, he coldly said to Speer, with difficulty restraining his anger: “If the war is lost, then the people will be lost. There is no need to worry about what the German people need to survive. On the contrary, it is necessary to destroy all these things, because the nation turned out to be weak, and the future belongs to a stronger East. In any case, after this struggle only the weak will remain, because the strong have already been killed. "
In 900, Germany's borders ran along the Oder and Rhine. By early March 1945, Hitler's Great Germany found itself sandwiched between the same rivers. And his "thousand-year" Reich was approaching its end. Opponents were advancing from both the west and east. On the morning of March 3, the troops of Montgomery and Patton crossed the Rhine, and this caused confusion at the Fuehrer's headquarters. On the morning of March 28, Guderian arrived in Berlin for a decisive conversation with Hitler. He was worried about the fate of 200 thousand German soldiers, left unnecessarily trapped behind the front line in Courland.
Entering the dilapidated Reich Chancellery, Guderian and his adjutant, accompanied by a guard, proceeded to Hitler's new residence - a huge bunker deep underground. They walked down the corridor ankle-deep in water, then descended one floor below and ended up in the central lobby, which also served as a dining room. Guderian and the adjutant passed the vestibule, then a spiral staircase led to the lower floor. Here, in the Fuehrer's bunker, there were eighteen tiny rooms separated by a hall that served as both a reception and a meeting room. Farther away, in the small lobby, was an emergency exit leading up the stairs to the garden. To the left of the hall was a small room with maps, a guardhouse and six-room apartments of Hitler and Eva Braun. It was stuffy, despite the monotonous noise of the ventilation system penetrating all the rooms of the bunker. The structure was protected by a three and a half meter thick ceiling, and a 10 meter layer of concrete lay on top.
Hitler shuffled out of his apartment, and the afternoon meeting opened with a report from General Busse on unsuccessful attempts to alleviate the situation on the eastern bank of the Oder. Hitler attacked the speaker, accusing him of defeatist sentiments, but he was interrupted by Guderian, who resolutely stood up for the general. Stung Hitler jumped up from his seat so quickly that he surprised everyone present. But Guderian was difficult to intimidate. He boldly raised a question on which he and Hitler had been arguing for several weeks: Is the Führer going to evacuate the Courland army? "Never!" Hitler exclaimed with a wave of his hand. Large red spots appeared on his deathly pale face. Guderian moved with a resolute air towards Hitler. Jodl and his deputy stopped the general, who had lost his composure, but he continued to protest loudly until the adjutant carried him away, asking him to go into the waiting room for the telephone. When Guderian returned, he was in control of himself.
Hitler sat with a tense face, his hands trembling. He calmly invited everyone to leave, asking only Keitel and Guderian to stay. Left alone with them, the Fuehrer said: "General Guderian, your state of health requires that you immediately go on a six-week vacation." When he moved to the exit, Hitler ordered him to stay until the end of the meeting, which lasted several more hours. After the meeting, they were left alone. “Rest well,” Hitler said carefully, addressing Guderian. “The situation will become critical in six weeks. Then I need you urgently. "
On Easter, the defenses of the Ruhr collapsed, and Hitler faced the reality of complete defeat. The Reich was torn to pieces by the victors, the population suffered from wild excesses involving Russians and Americans. However, the Fuehrer dictated to Bormann: “The laws of history and geography will lead these two powers to a battle - either military or in the field of economics and ideology. These same laws will inevitably lead to the fact that both powers will become enemies of Europe. And it is equally obvious: sooner or later they will deem it desirable to enlist the support of the only surviving nation in Europe - the German people. ”
Despite the collapse of the fronts, Hitler still hoped for a miracle. He argued that the foundation of the new world, laid by his opponents in Yalta, was already beginning to crack. And this was not an empty phrase. The Big Three were on the verge of strife. A meeting of representatives of the Allied Powers in Moscow on the formation of a Polish cabinet came to an impasse. Molotov said that the Lublin government was the true representative of the people of Poland, while Harriman and the British ambassador believed that a more representative government should be created with the participation of Polish emigrants.
This conflict was followed by a more serious one. For several months, General Karl Wolff, former personal adjutant of Himmler and now the chief of the SS in Italy, negotiated with the Americans through agent Allen Dulles, a representative of the US Strategic Services Office in Switzerland. Wolff agreed in principle with the Fuehrer to carry out a sounding, but on his own initiative proposed the surrender of all German troops in Italy, and then secretly met in Switzerland with two allied generals to discuss how to do this without Hitler's knowledge.
From the outset, the Allies kept Stalin informed about Operation Sunrise, as the contacts were called, and from the outset he insisted that a Soviet representative take part in the negotiations. The Allies reasonably explained that in this case, Wolf would never appear at the meeting, but this only increased Stalin's suspicions. Upon learning of the meeting in Ancona, he reacted violently, accusing the Allies of collusion with Germany "behind the back of the Soviet Union, which bears the brunt of the war with Germany," and described the whole matter not as a "misunderstanding" but as "something more."
By the end of March, Stalin accused the Allies that, due to the negotiations in Ancona, the Germans were able to transfer three divisions from Italy to the Eastern Front. He further complained that the Yalta agreement on a simultaneous strike on Hitler from the east, west and south by the allies was not being respected. Roosevelt's explanation did not satisfy the Soviet leader, and he sent an angry telegram to the American president, openly accusing the allies of playing a double game. This angered Roosevelt so much that on April 5 he sent Stalin the most aggressive and harsh message he ever sent to an ally: distortion of my actions and the actions of my subordinates. " Stalin hastily replied that he never doubted Roosevelt's honesty and decency. But it was an aggressive apology: he added that a Russian should have been invited to Ancona and that his point of view was "the only correct one."
Hitler did not know the details of the discord in the enemy's camp, but he knew that there was alienation and he predicted it. This fueled his faint hope for a miracle, so the Fuehrer listened with such attention to Goebbels, who read him an excerpt from the book of the English historian Carlyle about the difficult days of the Seven Years' War: February will not change, he will take poison. And on February 12, the Russian empress died, and there was a turn in the fate of the Prussian king.
This episode piqued Hitler's interest in his own horoscopes, and two of them were brought to him from Himmler's safe. Both predicted victories until 1941, followed by a series of failures and disaster in April 1945. But in the second half of this month there should have been a temporary success, then there will be a lull until August, and in August there will be peace. Germany will go through difficult times until 1948, and then it will again regain its greatness.
A skeptic by nature, Goebbels nevertheless grabbed at straws. The historical parallel made such an impression on him that he repeated the story when visiting General Busse's headquarters on the Oder on 12 April. One officer sarcastically asked, "What kind of empress died this time?" “I don’t know, but fate is fraught with many possibilities,” Goebbels replied.
Around the same time, on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean, in Warm Springs, Georgia, President Roosevelt said, “This is a terrible headache,” and passed out. He died two hours and twenty minutes later. Goebbels found out about this on arrival at the ministry. “This is a turning point!” He exclaimed and called Hitler. “My Fuhrer,” the main propagandist of the Reich shouted into the phone, choking with excitement. - I congratulate you! Roosevelt died. And the stars predict that the second half of April will be a turning point for us. It's a miracle! " Goebbels hung up the phone, his eyes were shining, he delivered a passionate speech to his subordinates, as if the war had ended in victory ...
Ribbentrop did not share his delight. On the morning of April 13, he returned from Hitler in a gloomy mood. “The Fuhrer is in seventh heaven,” he told his advisers. “That scoundrel Goebbels convinced him that Roosevelt’s death was the beginning of a turn. What nonsense, this is simply criminal! How can Roosevelt's death change anything in our favor? "
Goebbels instructed the press by suggesting that they write about Truman, avoiding anything that might irritate the new president, and not exult too openly about Roosevelt's death.
But after lunch, the propaganda minister's excitement began to subside. When General Busse called and asked if Roosevelt's death changed the situation, as Goebbels hinted at yesterday, he replied: “I don't know. Let's see". Reports from the fronts showed that the change of the president had no effect on the enemy's military operations, and by the end of the day, Goebbels admitted: “Perhaps fate has once again treated us cruelly and fooled us. Perhaps we began to count chickens until the fall. "
Hitler urgently called another meeting and laid out a fantastic plan to save Berlin. The German troops retreating to the capital form a solid core of the defense. The Russians will concentrate their main forces here. This will ease the pressure on other German forces and give them the opportunity to attack the attacking forces from the rear. A decisive victory will be won in Berlin, the Fuhrer told the astonished audience: he himself will remain in the city and will inspire the defenders. Some advised Hitler to leave for Berchtesgaden, but he did not want to hear about it. As the supreme commander in chief and leader of the people, he considers himself obligated to remain in the capital. Hitler drew up an eight-page proclamation and sent it to Goebbels. But the propaganda minister did not like her overly pompous style and took the liberty of changing a few phrases. On April 15, Goebbels distributed a proclamation throughout the front - this was Hitler's last appeal to the troops. If every soldier on the Eastern Front, it said, did his duty, Asia's last attack would fail. For fate has eliminated the greatest criminal of all time, Roosevelt, and now a decisive turning point must come in the war.
Incredible but true: many soldiers were inspired by Hitler's words. Almost a large part of the German population still retained faith in their leader, despite the fierce bombing and rapidly shrinking borders of the Reich. For the average German, the Fuhrer was more than a man. They believed in his invulnerability, many even believed that the house with his portrait would withstand any bombing ...
However, Goebbels began to prepare for the end by burning personal papers. He hesitated for a long time before destroying a large photograph with a dedication to his longtime love Lida Baarova. He looked at the portrait for a long time, then he tore it up and threw it into the fire.
Meanwhile, two stunning events took place: in the west, German troops surrendered, trapped in the "cauldron" in the Ruhr, and in the east, Zhukov's armies broke through the fortifications on the heights west of the Oder and rushed to Berlin. They were only 70 kilometers away from Hitler's bunker. Although the Fuehrer was still talking about victory, he prepared for the worst by giving two tasks to one party leader: to take the gold reserves of Germany to the salt mines of Thuringia and hide the sealed envelope that Bormann would give him. It contained a testament to Germany and the world, which Hitler dictated to Bormann.
On the same day, the Fuehrer gave the order to appoint the legendary Hans Ulrich Rudel as commander of jet aviation, who sank a Soviet battleship in his dive bomber and destroyed 500 Russian tanks. He had lost his leg in an accident a few months ago, but now he was ready to fight. Goering's chief of staff objected to the appointment on the grounds that Rudel had no knowledge of jet aircraft at all. But Hitler dismissed all objections. Rudel himself was strongly opposed to this appointment. He told Hitler that soon the Russians and Americans would combine their armies, Germany would be split in two, and the use of jet aircraft would be impossible. Why didn't he, Hitler, make peace with the West in order to achieve victory in the East? “It's easy for you to say,” Hitler replied with a sour smile.
Rudel left Hitler's office after midnight, when the Fuehrer's birthday came - his 56th birthday.
