Chapter 53: Apr 1945 Hitler Commits Suicide

“I die with a happy heart, aware of the immeasurable deeds and achievements of our soldiers at the front, our women at home, the achievements of our farmers and workers and the work, unique in history, of our youth who bear my name.

That from the bottom of my heart I express my thanks to you all, is just as self-evident as my wish that you should, because of that, on no account give up the struggle, but rather continue it against the enemies of the Fatherland, no matter where, true to the creed of a great Clausewitz. From the sacrifice of our soldiers and from my own unity with them unto death, will in any case spring up in the history of Germany, the seed of a radiant renaissance of the National Socialist movement and thus of the realization of a true community of nations.”

An excerpt from the last words of Adolph Hitler shortly before his death in an underground bunker in Berlin Apr 1945

Those last days of Hitler in the underground bunker below Berlin were like a funeral for the living. Some of the members of his inner circle were gathered with him waiting for the end and the curtain to fall on the Thousand Year Reich which had only managed to last a single decade.

The wails of the war dead were pestering the ears of the “True Believer” Nazis with increasing pressure in the full knowledge of their total defeat at the hands of the surrounding allies seeking final justice from the Fuhrer and his devoted followers.

He had already made arrangements for the cremation of his body and had requisitioned the petrol for the fire pit that would cremate his body and those of his closest beloved. Others in his inner circle took poison pills for themselves and their families. The pills for the children were coated in sugar to disguise their deadly contents. Some of the entourage in the bunker managed to escape to unknown futures after the clean-up was complete.

The “Fuhrerbunker” was designed by Albert Speer who was Hitler’s primary Architect for the Third Reich.

Hitler moved into the bunker in January 1945 and it was where he died in April 1945 and his body as well as his new bride Eva Braun’s body was burned in a fire-pit filled with petrol.

The bunker was designed as an air-raid shelter due to the increased bombing of the city of Berlin by the allies during World War Two. Hitler didn’t spend much time in Berlin during the war years except in the year 1945 when he moved into the fuhrerbunker in 1945. It has been sealed off after the war to prevent it being made into a shine for the dead Fuhrer.

The bunker was built below the already existing bunker built in the 1930s and had thirty private rooms for operations and sleeping quarters.

High quality furniture was moved into the bunker as well as fine paintings for the Fuhrer’s personal use. He had a sitting room and a bedroom as well as a bedroom for Eva Braun right next to him.

A door attached to his personal quarters led to the briefing room with the maps and that is where he received the most recent reports about the conduct of the war. As the situation deteriorated in 1945, he received most of his latest news about the war from the BBC radio broadcasts giving him the news in a mostly unbiased point of view and it was primarily the bad news from every front that put him into a state of mind that led to his eventual suicide by gunshot.

Hitler moved into the bunker in January 1945 along with his senior staff including his second –in-command Martin Bormann. His close female friend Eva Braun joined him in April along with Joseph Goebbels and his entire family, his wife and six children. There was approximately twenty to thirty support staff billeted in the upper bunker that included administrative, medical and other support staff. His long-time personal secretary Trudi Junge slept there with another secretary just recently assigned. A nurse called Ema Flegel also slept there as well. In the beginning they would have conferences in the building above and have tea in the afternoon. The accelerated bombing prevented them from continuing that routine as the enemy drew ever closer to the gates of Berlin.

Things changed for the worst when the Russian Army began the Battle for Berlin on 16 April 1945. The ring of steel around the city drew closer to the bunker every day.

Hitler made his last trip up to the surface on 20 April and after that date, he stayed hidden inside the bunker.

On 21 April, he ordered his Waffen SS General Steiner to attack the Russian invaders on their flank and when he was informed that his forces had not ventured forth from their defensive positions, he fell into a convulsive rage and blamed his generals for losing the war.

Hitler announced to those in the bunker that he would stay in the bunker until the very end and then commit suicide.

On 25 April, he sent for General Von Greim from Munich to Berlin to take over command of the Luftwaffe from Herman Goring. General Von Greim arrived at the bunker on 26 April along with his mistress test pilot Hanna Reitsch.

SS commander Monkhe informed the bunker that he would only be able to hold off the Russians for two more days as they were almost out of ammo.

In mid-afternoon of 30 April, Hitler shot himself in the head committing suicide.

Eva swallowed the poison her husband had given her prior to his suicide.

The propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels had his wife administer poison to all six of their children and then he shot her in the head and committed suicide with the same pistol. Their bodies were taken outside to be burned but they ran out of petrol and it was not fully accomplished like with Hitler and his new wife Eva Braun.

Most of the support staff fled the bunker with the females in civilian clothes and the men shedding their SS uniforms for ordinary Wehrmacht uniforms for the lower ranks. Some of them made it out of the Russian Army circle and were able to surrender to American or British forces.