… In April 1945, the Allied troops finished the defeat of Germany. The idea of Hitler's life collapsed - the idea of world domination of the Aryan nation. Albert Speer, head of war production in Nazi Germany, says that a few days before his death, Hitler shouted: “If the war is lost, the German people should not exist. There is no need to worry about this nation surviving its defeat. Destroy all factories, bridges, food. This nation turned out to be weak, and, therefore, the future belongs to the Eastern nation, which has shown itself to be stronger.
Here is a brief chronicle of the last days of the Fuehrer.
26 April
… Soviet troops occupied three quarters of Berlin, but Hitler still hopes for something … He is in a two-story bunker at a depth of 8 meters under the courtyard of the Reich Chancellery, anxiously awaiting news. By evening, however, it becomes clear that the 9th and 12th armies are unable to liberate the capital. Together with Hitler in the bunker are his mistress Eva Braun, Goebbels with his family, chief of the general staff Krebs, secretaries, adjutants, guards. According to an officer of the General Staff, at this time “physically Hitler presented a terrible picture: he moved with difficulty and awkwardly, throwing his upper body forward, dragging his legs … With difficulty he could maintain balance. The left hand did not obey him, and the right one constantly trembled … Hitler's eyes were bloodshot …"
… In the evening, one of the best female pilots in Germany, Hanna Reitsch, who was fanatically devoted to Hitler, arrived at the bunker. According to the story of the pilot, the Fuhrer invited her to his place and quietly said:
“Hannah, you belong to those who will die with me. Each of us has an ampoule of poison.”He handed the ampoule to Hannah.“I don’t want any of us to fall into the hands of the Russians, and I don’t want the Russians to get our bodies. Eve's bodies and mine will be burned …
… Hanna Reitsch testifies that during the conversation Hitler presented a tragicomic picture: almost blindly rushing from wall to wall with paper in trembling hands; then he would suddenly stop, sit down at the table, move flags on the map indicating nonexistent armies. "A completely disintegrated person," Reitsch stated.
Promotional video:
April 27
… The disintegration of personality and insanity did not prevent Hitler from ordering the opening of the locks on the Spree River and the flooding of the metro station when he learned that Soviet troops had infiltrated the Berlin metro. The execution of the order led to the deaths of thousands of people in the metro: wounded German soldiers, old people, women and children.
April 29
… Goebbels and Bormann are witnesses at the marriage of Hitler and Eva Braun. The process takes place in accordance with the law: a marriage contract is drawn up and a wedding ceremony is performed. The witnesses, as well as Krebs, Goebbels' wife, Hitler's adjutants General Burgdorf and Colonel Belov, the secretaries and the cook are invited to the wedding celebration. After a small feast, Hitler retires to make a will.
April 30
… The last day of the Fuhrer is coming. After lunch, on the orders of Hitler, his personal chauffeur, SS Standartenfuehrer Kempka, delivers cans with 200 liters of gasoline to the garden of the Reich Chancellery. In the conference room, Hitler and Eva Braun say goodbye to Bormann, Goebbels, Burgdorf, Krebs, Axman, who came here, and to the Fuehrer's secretaries Junge and Weichelt. Then everyone, except for Hitler and his wife, goes out into the corridor. Further events are presented in two main versions.
… According to the first version, based on the testimony of Hitler's personal valet Linge, the Fuhrer and Eva Braun shot themselves at 15.30. When Linge and Bormann entered the room, Hitler was allegedly sitting on a sofa in the corner, a revolver was lying on the table in front of him, blood was flowing from his right temple. Dead Eva Braun, who was in another corner, dropped her revolver to the floor.
… Another version (accepted by almost all historians) reads: Hitler and Eva Braun were poisoned with potassium cyanide. Before his death, Hitler also poisoned two beloved shepherd dogs. By order of Bormann, the bodies of the deceased were wrapped in blankets, carried out into the yard, doused with gasoline and burned in a shell crater. True, they burned badly, and, in the end, the SS men buried the half-burnt corpses in the ground. The bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun were discovered by the Red Army soldier Churakov on May 4, but for some reason they lay for 4 whole days without being examined. They were taken for inspection and identification in one of the Berlin morgues on 8 May. External examination gave grounds to assume that the charred corpses of a man and a woman are the remains of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. But, as you know, the Fuhrer and his mistress had several doubles,therefore the Soviet military authorities wanted to conduct a thorough investigation.
… The question of whether the person brought to the morgue was really Hitler still worries researchers. Here is what one language tells about the circumstances of the case:
… The man's corpse was in a wooden box 163 cm long, 55 and 53 cm wide and respectively high. A piece of yellowish knitwear, similar to a shirt, burned along the edges, was found on the corpse. In view of the fact that the corpse was charred to a large extent, to judge about age and height it was possible only presumably: about 50-60. Height - 165 cm During his life Hitler repeatedly consulted his dentist, as evidenced by a large number of fillings and golden cows on the preserved parts of the jaws. They were seized and transferred to the department SMERSH-3 of the Shock Army.
From the protocol of the interrogation of the dentist K. Gaiserman, it was seen that the jaws belonged to the Fuhrer. On May 11, 1945, Gaizerman described in detail the anatomical data of Hitler's mouth, which matched the results of the May 8 study. But still, in our opinion, it is impossible to completely exclude deliberate play on the part of those who could stand behind it. No visible signs of serious fatal injury or illness were found on the body significantly altered by fire. But a crushed glass ampoule was found in the mouth. The smell of bitter almonds emanated from the corpse. The same ampoules were found during the autopsy of 10 more corpses of Hitler's close associates. It was found that death was due to cyanide poisoning. On the same day, an autopsy was performed on the woman's corpse, "presumably", as stated in the acts,owned by Hitler's wife Eva Braun. It was also difficult to establish the age: between 30 and 40 years. Height is about 150 cm.
The corpse could also be identified only by the golden bridge of the lower jaw. But other, apparently, were the causes of death: despite the fact that there was a broken glass ampoule in the mouth and the smell of bitter almonds also emanated from the corpse, traces of shrapnel wound and 6 small metal fragments were found in the chest."
Examination of the remains of Hitler and Brown was carried out by Soviet military forensic experts and pathologists; today they have all died, and therefore it is difficult (almost impossible) to know the fate of Hitler's remains. The writer Elena Rzhevskaya, who during the war was the translator of the 1st Belorussian Front, writes in the book "There was a war …" that these remains were sent to Moscow. However, no one managed to find their traces in the former USSR …