Defeat of Hitler (1945). Last days and death

Chapter 30

"WE SHOULD NOT GIVE UP FIVE MINUTES BEFORE MIDNIGHT" (January 17 - April 20, 1945)

By January 17, the Red Army had defeated or bypassed the German troops on the Baltic coast and crossed the Vistula in a huge section from Warsaw to Lower Silesia. Soviet troops were so close to Auschwitz that the prisoners could hear the rumble of artillery fire. In recent weeks, SS guards have burned warehouses of shoes, clothes and hair in an attempt to cover up the mass destruction. The camp staff fled. The guards lined up 58,000 trembling, emaciated people and drove them west, leaving only 6,000 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, almost 5,000 prisoners remained in the camp, so exhausted that they could not utter a word of greeting. The gas chambers and five crematoria were blown up. No matter how hard the Nazis tried to cover up the traces of their crimes, they left irrefutable evidence - mountains of toothbrushes, glasses, shoes, artificial limbs and mass graves of hundreds of thousands of people ... Despite arson and explosions, the purpose of which was to hide the ends in the water, representatives of the international Red Cross found 368,820 men's suits, 836,255 women's coats, 13,694 carpets and 7 tons of human hair.

In Berlin on that day, General Guderian and his adjutants entered through the main entrance to the Reich Chancellery to attend a military conference with the Fuhrer. They had to take a detour to Hitler's office due to the damage caused by the Allied bombing. There were guards with machine guns in the waiting room. The SS officer asked to leave personal weapons and carefully examined the briefcases. This rule, introduced after July 20, made no exceptions even for the chief of staff.

At 4:20 p.m., a hunched-over Fuhrer entered with a shuffling gait, his left arm dangling lifelessly. The meeting began with a report by Guderian, who impartially described the catastrophe in the East. Hitler listened indifferently, but as soon as the conversation turned to Western front, he perked up and began to remember 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 repulse the main attack of the advancing Soviet grouping under the command of Marshal Zhukov. To Guderian, this appointment seemed idiotic, but Hitler claimed that the Reichsführer was the only person capable of forming a large unit overnight. His name alone, the Fuhrer believed, would inspire the soldiers to fight to the end. Bormann supported the appointment, but people close to Himmler were secretly convinced that this was a plot to kill their boss. Himmler's direction to the East, in their opinion, would not only remove him from the Fuhrer's headquarters and allow Bormann to strengthen his growing influence on Hitler, but would also inevitably prove the failure of the Reichsfuehrer SS as a commander.

Himmler, a former military school cadet who secretly dreamed of someday leading troops into battle, fell for this bait, though after some hesitation. Although he was afraid of Bormann, it never occurred to him that he was preparing his deposition. Himmler traveled to the East on a special train with a few staff officers, an outdated map, and the name for his unit, 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 west, 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 again spoke of the specter of international Jewry and Asiatic Bolshevism and called on all Germans to do their duty to the end. “No matter how serious the crisis at the moment,” said the Führer in conclusion, “it will, in spite of everything, be overcome by our unbending will, our readiness for sacrifice and our skill. In the end, Europe will win, not Central Asia, and it will be led by a country that has 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 dinner, Bormann found 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 must never fall into the hands of these wild beasts,” the Deputy Fuhrer warned his loved ones.

Despite the bad news, Hitler was in a good mood. After the evening meeting, he spoke about the political situation of the Reich, explaining that he had launched Operation Autumn Mist to split the Allies. They want the battle to be lost, the Americans and the British quarreled, and the split between the allies is close.

Guderian glanced impatiently at his watch, but the young officers seemed mesmerized by the Führer when he predicted that the West would soon realize that Bolshevism was its true enemy and would unite with Germany in a common crusade against the Red Peril. Churchill, like him, knows that if the Red Army captures Berlin, half of Europe will immediately become communist. Time is our ally, declared Hitler. Therefore, we must defend ourselves to the last. Is it not clear, the Führer asked pathetically, that every fortress we hold will eventually become a springboard in a German-American-British 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 capitulated prematurely, Germany would have achieved an honorable peace, and there would have been no post-war chaos, no communist attempts to take over the country, no inflation and depression. “This time we must not surrender 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 subjected to the heaviest air raid of the entire war. Almost a thousand American bombers razed the central part of the city to the ground. The chairman of the "people's court" Roland Freisler also died. The news of his death was greeted with rejoicing by the surviving participants in the 20 July 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 also received serious damage. Communications were interrupted, 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 kind of 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 in early 1941. "But this was never wanted by the Jews, and their lackeys Churchill and Roosevelt prevented it." Such a peace, the Führer continued, would keep America from interfering in European affairs, and under German leadership, Europe would quickly be united. After the liquidation 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 broadcast, “are gathering all their forces for the last attack. We have against us a motley coalition, held together by hatred, envy and the fear that the National Socialist doctrine inspires in this low, motley bunch. His desire to destroy the Third Reich leaves no alternative but to fight to the end. We can still win the final push!”

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 order of the world. The communiqué delighted Goebbels. Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin's decision to dismember Germany and pay her unsustainable reparations, he argued, would force Germany to fight with redoubled energy 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 declared that Himmler had neither the experience nor the staff specialists to organize a counteroffensive. “How dare you criticize the Reichsfuehrer?” Hitler was indignant. But Guderian did not yield and insisted that his deputy Wenck lead the operation. Hitler flew into a rage, and both began to argue so fiercely that the participants in the meeting, one by one, left the room. Only Himmler, Wenck and a few imperturbable adjutants remained. The argument went on for about two hours. Hitler exclaimed again and again: "How dare you?" – and breathed heavily from indignation. Guderian continued to push for Wenck's appointment. Finally, Hitler stopped pacing back and forth, went up to Himmler and, with a doomed sigh, said: "Well, Reichsfuhrer, 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, smiling sourly, remarked to Guderian: “Mr. Colonel General, today the army headquarters won the battle.”

On February 14, Hitler continued dictating a political testament. National Socialism, he told Bormann, had cleansed the German world of the "Jewish contagion" in deeds, not in words. "For us it was important process disinfection, without which we ourselves would have been strangled and destroyed.” The Fuhrer stressed that the elimination of the Jews had become 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 clutching at something. Hitler seemed distracted 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 Western 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 atomic bomb and which he will apply "even if the white rocks of England disappear 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 in 1945. Burnt corpses of residents

In the newspapers of neutral countries in February there were reports of peace talks allegedly conducted through unofficial channels. The basis for them was the contacts of Peter Kleist. In Stockholm, he met with the representative of the World Jewish Congress, Hillel Storch, who suggested discussing the release of 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 was positive about the possibility of such a deal and spoke with American diplomat Ivor Olson.

After meeting with Olson, Storch excitedly informed Kleist that President Roosevelt was prepared to buy 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 had received to Kaltenbrunner. Upon his return to Berlin, Kleist was placed under house arrest. A few days later, Kaltenbrunner informed him that Himmler was interested in "this possibility" and ordered Kleist to go to Stockholm with the promise of freeing 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 Reichsführer was encouraged by his massage therapist, a native of Estonia, Felix Kersten, and the head of the foreign intelligence service, Walter Schellenberg, who was convinced that Hitler was leading Germany to destruction. This was not an easy task, given that the Führer forbade any foreign policy sounding without his knowledge, especially since Kaltenbrunner remained loyal to Hitler and harbored a deep dislike for Schellenberg. But Kaltenbrunner believed Kleist, and Himmler decided to take a chance.

However, Kleist never left for Stockholm. Kaltenbrunner summoned him and said that he was no longer interested in the matter. He did not explain that his enemy Schellenberg persuaded Himmler not to share the glory with the diplomat, and that instead of Kleist he sent his massage therapist to Stockholm. Kersten began negotiations with Swedish diplomats about the release of citizens of the Scandinavian countries 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 about this. However, the Swedish ambassador in Berlin, who did not understand the intricacies of power in the Nazi hierarchy, unwittingly betrayed Himmler: through the office of Ribbentrop, as expected, the ambassador sent a message to the Reichsführer with a request to organize a meeting between Bernadotte and Ribbentrop. He realized that the opponent was conducting separate negotiations behind his back. The Foreign Secretary summoned Fritz Hesse, an expert on England, and asked him if Bernadotte would be a suitable figure for peaceful sounding. Hesse, in turn, asked if the Fuhrer agreed to such sounding. 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 make contact with the West to ascertain the terms of a peace agreement. Hitler expressed doubt that anything good would come of it, but did not object to "building bridges".

Himmler, to Ribbentrop's surprise, expressed his readiness to cooperate with him: he was afraid that the Führer might find out that Bernadotte's mission was not only about humanitarian issues. The Minister of Foreign Affairs joyfully informed Hesse of this and ordered him on February 17 to go to Stockholm.

Himmler, obviously, very soon began to doubt: what if the Fuhrer misunderstands 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 Himmler's residence. He received the guest very kindly. The Swede offered to release Norwegians and Danes from concentration camps and transfer them under the care of his country. This simple request provoked a flood of reproaches from Himmler against the Swedes. But in the end, he agreed to fulfill it on the condition that Sweden and the allies give assurances that acts of sabotage against the occupying forces will 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 it was possible for Swedish women who were married to Germans to 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 are right,” replied Himmler, “but you do not 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 the requests of Bernadotte even before his return to Sweden. Then the Swede visited Ribbentrop again. He was kind but didn't 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 suggested that they probe for peace in the East. “Stalin,” he remarked, “is not bound by obligations to the West.” A few days later, Hesse saw in the Swedish newspapers a picture of Brother Wallenberg with the Soviet ambassador Alexandra Kollontai at the entrance to the embassy. Perhaps this was a signal that the Kremlin was dissatisfied with the West and was ready for contacts with Hitler. Encouraged, Hesse 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 Fuhrer's spirits rose when Eva Braun returned to Berlin. In early February, Hitler ordered Eva to move to Munich, which was less exposed to air raids than other German cities. But two weeks later, she declared that she must return to the Führer, no matter what happened. She must share the fate of the man she loves. Hitler pretended to be angry and even scolded her, but all evening he repeated how proud he was of Fräulein Braun's devotion.

At the end of February, Hitler called the last meeting of the Gauleiters. The audience was struck by his painful appearance. The Fuhrer walked leaning on the elbow of the adjutant, his left hand trembled violently. Everyone was expecting a sensational announcement, but he delivered a sermon that was both inspiring and depressing. The Führer assured the Gauleiters that although no miracle weapon would save the Reich, the war could still be won, provided that the "Teutonic fury" could be instilled into the German people. If a country is not capable of this, it means that it has morally fallen and deserves to be destroyed. Hitler thanked the Gauleiters for their work and loyalty, and then did something completely unexpected: he frankly told them about his deteriorating health. The trembling in his left leg spread to his left hand, and the Fuhrer jokingly expressed the hope that this ailment would not go to his head ...

Hitler stubbornly refused to acknowledge the inevitability of the impending disaster. He angrily lashed out at the enemy airmen who had killed half a million civilians, and vilified those Germans who greeted the Americans as liberators. On March 7, his fury knew no bounds: the Americans seized the railway bridge over the Rhine at Remagen, despite orders 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 explosive packages, but was 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 were pushed back beyond the Rhine. Further south, Hausser's Army Group G was pressed against the west 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 captured, 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 associates behind the Fuhrer's back were looking for contacts with the enemy. He was aware, for example, of Ribbentrop's negotiations in Sweden and of Himmler's attempts to "trade" Jews, but the Fuhrer did not take drastic 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 take credit for them.

However, it is doubtful whether Hitler knew that his loyal Minister for Armaments, Speer, urged commanders such as Manteuffel not to carry out orders to destroy bridges, dams and factories. On March 18, Speer protested the scorched earth policy to the Fuhrer 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 told Speer, with difficulty restraining his anger: “If the war is lost, then the people will be lost. There is nothing 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, only the weak will remain after this struggle, because the strong have already been killed.”

In 900, the borders of Germany passed along the Oder and the Rhine. By the beginning of March 1945, Hitler's Great Germany was sandwiched between these same rivers. And his "thousand-year" Reich was approaching its demise. Opponents attacked both from the west and from the east. On the morning of March 3, the troops of Montgomery and Patton crossed the Rhine, and this caused confusion at the Fuhrer's headquarters. On the morning of March 28, Guderian arrived in Berlin for a decisive talk with Hitler. He was worried about the fate of 200,000 German soldiers, left unnecessarily in a trap 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 a corridor that was ankle-deep in water, then descended the floor below and entered the central lobby, which also served as a dining room. Guderian and the adjutant passed the vestibule, then a spiral staircase led them to the lower floor. Here, in the Fuhrer's bunker, there were eighteen tiny rooms, separated by a hall that served as both a reception room and a meeting room. Further back, in a small vestibule, was an emergency exit leading up the stairs to the garden. To the left of the hall was a small room with maps, a guard room, and the six-room apartments of Hitler and Eva Braun. It was stuffy, despite the monotonous noise of the ventilation system that permeated every room in the bunker. The structure was protected by a ceiling three and a half meters thick, and a ten-meter layer of concrete lay on top.

Hitler shuffled out of his apartment, and the afternoon meeting opened with General Busse's report on the unsuccessful attempts to alleviate the situation on the east bank of the Oder. Hitler attacked the speaker, accusing him of defeatist moods, but he was interrupted by Guderian, who resolutely stood up for the general. The wounded Hitler jumped up from his seat so quickly that he surprised everyone present. But Guderian was hard to intimidate. He boldly raised the question on which he and Hitler had been arguing for weeks: was the Fuehrer going to evacuate the Courland army? "Never!" exclaimed Hitler, waving his hand. Large red spots appeared on his deathly pale face. Guderian moved towards Hitler with a determined look. Jodl and his deputy stopped the general, who had lost his temper, but he continued to protest loudly until the adjutant carried him away, asking him to go to the reception to the telephone. When Guderian returned, he was already in control of himself.

Hitler sat with a tense face, his hands were trembling. He calmly invited everyone to leave, asking only Keitel and Guderian to linger. Left alone with them, the Fuhrer said: "General Guderian, the state of your 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 continued for several more hours. After the meeting, they were left alone. "Have a good rest," Hitler said solicitously to Guderian. In six weeks the situation will become critical. Then I need you urgently."

At 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 Fuhrer dictated to Bormann: “The laws of history and geography will lead these two powers to a fight - 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 that sooner or later they will find 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 it was not an empty phrase. The Big Three were on the verge of strife. The meeting of representatives of the allied powers in Moscow on the question of the formation of the Polish cabinet reached an impasse. Molotov declared that the Lublin government was the true representative of the people of Poland, while Harriman and English 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, Himmler's former personal adjutant and now chief of the SS in Italy, negotiated with the Americans through agent Allen Dulles, the representative of the US Office of Strategic Services in Switzerland. Wolf had the Fuhrer's agreement in principle to carry out the 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 the knowledge of Hitler.

From the very beginning, the Allies kept Stalin informed about Operation Sunrise, as these contacts were called, and from the very beginning he insisted that a Soviet representative take part in the negotiations. The Allies reasonably explained that in this case Wolff would never show up for the meeting, but this only increased Stalin's suspicions. Upon learning of the meeting in Ancona, he reacted violently, accusing the Allies of conspiring with Germany "behind Soviet Union bearing the brunt of the war with Germany," and described the whole affair not as a "misunderstanding," but as "something more."

By the end of March, Stalin accused the Allies of the fact that, because of the negotiations in Ancona, the Germans were able to transfer three divisions from Italy to the Eastern Front. He further lamented that the Yalta agreement to strike Hitler simultaneously from the east, west and south was not respected by the Allies. 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 so outraged Roosevelt that on April 5 he sent Stalin the most aggressive and harsh message he had ever sent to an ally: “Frankly, I cannot avoid feeling deep indignation towards your informants, whoever they may be, for distortion of my actions and the actions of my subordinates. Stalin hastily replied that he never doubted the honesty and decency of Roosevelt. 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 camp, but he knew that there was alienation and he predicted it. This fueled his faint hope for a miracle, so the Fuhrer listened with such attention to Goebbels, who read to him an excerpt from the book of the English historian Carlyle about the difficult days of the Seven Years' War: Frederick the Great, being in despair over the defeat of Prussia, said that if the situation by 15 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 aroused Hitler's interest in his own horoscopes, and two of them were brought to him from Himmler's safe. Both predicted victories until 1941, then a series of setbacks and disaster in April 1945. But in the second half of this month there should have been a temporary success, then until August there will be a lull, and in August - peace. Germany will go through difficult times until 1948, and then it will again restore its greatness.

A skeptic by nature, Goebbels nevertheless grasped at straws. He was so impressed by the historical parallel that he repeated the story when he visited General Busse's headquarters on the Oder on 12 April. One officer asked sarcastically, “Which Empress died this time?” “I don’t know, but fate holds many possibilities,” Goebbels replied.

Around the same time on the opposite side Atlantic Ocean, in Warm Springs (Georgia), President Roosevelt said: "A terrible headache" - and lost consciousness. He died two hours and twenty minutes later. Goebbels found out about this upon arrival at the ministry. “This is a turning point!” he exclaimed and telephoned Hitler. “My Fuhrer,” the Reich’s chief propagandist shouted into the phone, choking with excitement. - My congratulations! Roosevelt is dead. 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 shone, he delivered an impassioned speech to his subordinates, as if the war had ended in victory...

Ribbentrop did not share his enthusiasm. 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 turnaround. What nonsense, it's just criminal! How can the death of Roosevelt change anything in our favor?

Goebbels instructed the press to write about Truman, avoid anything that might irritate the new president, and not be too open about Roosevelt's death.

But after dinner, the excitement of the Minister of Propaganda began to subside. When General Busse called and asked if Roosevelt's death had changed the situation, as Goebbels hinted at yesterday, he replied: “I don't know. We'll see". Reports from the fronts indicated that the change of president did not affect the military operations of the enemy, and by the end of the day Goebbels admitted: “Perhaps fate again treated us cruelly and fooled us. Perhaps we began to count chickens until autumn.

Hitler urgently convened another meeting and outlined a fantastic plan for saving Berlin. The German troops retreating to the capital form a solid core of defense. The Russians will concentrate the main forces here. This will relieve pressure on other German troops and give them the opportunity to attack the attackers from the rear. A decisive victory would be won in Berlin, the Fuhrer told an astonished audience: he himself would remain in the city and 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 obliged to remain in the capital. Hitler drafted an eight-page proclamation and sent it to Goebbels. But the Minister of Propaganda did not like her too pompous style, and he took the liberty of changing a few phrases. On April 15, Goebbels distributed a proclamation along the entire front - this was Hitler's last appeal to the troops. If every soldier on the Eastern Front, it said, did their duty, Asia's final attack would fail. For fate has eliminated the greatest criminal of all times, Roosevelt, and now a decisive turning point must come in the war.

Unbelievable but true: many soldiers were inspired by Hitler's words. Almost the majority of the German population still retained faith in their leader, despite the fierce bombing and the rapidly shrinking borders of the Reich. For the average German, the Führer was more than human. 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 photo with a dedication inscription of his longtime love Lida Baarova. He looked at the portrait for a long time, then nevertheless tore it up and threw it into the fire.

Meanwhile, two stunning events occurred: in the west, German troops capitulated, falling into 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. Only 70 kilometers separated them from Hitler's bunker. Although the Führer was still talking about victory, he was preparing for the worst, giving two tasks to one party leader: to take Germany's gold reserves to the salt mines of Thuringia and to 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 Fuhrer gave the order to appoint the legendary Hans Ulrich Rudel as commander of jet aircraft, who sank a Soviet battleship and destroyed 500 Russian tanks in his dive bomber. A few months ago, he had lost a leg in an accident, but now he was ready to fight. Göring's chief of staff objected to this appointment on the grounds that Rudel had no knowledge of jets 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 unite their armies, Germany would be split into two parts, and the use of jet aircraft would be impossible. Why doesn'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 Fuhrer's birthday came - his 56th birthday.

How did Adolf Hitler die? Did he take poison, shoot himself, or did he die peacefully in his own bed? The answer to this question has been of concern to many people for more than sixty years. And not in vain. The version of Hitler's successful escape from the Reich Chancellery has been exaggerated from the very moment of the capture of Berlin. It has been refuted more than once, but with enviable persistence it reappears.

Incomprehensible beginning

On April 30, 1945, a message arrived in Moscow about Hitler's death. Stalin's reaction was restrained: "Finished, scoundrel!" Then came the business question: "Where is the body?" In Berlin, the question was forwarded to the parliamentarian, German General Hans Kreb. He replied that Hitler's corpse was burned at the stake ... Apparently, Stalin did not believe the words of the German, and in early May a TASS message appeared in the newspapers: "Hitler's death is a new fascist trick ..."

By that time, groups to search for and capture Hitler had already been formed in all the armies storming Berlin. And on May 2, two dead doubles of Hitler were discovered by Soviet officers on the territory of the Reich Chancellery. One of them was found in an underground bomb shelter, the second - in a fire pool in the yard. Both were shot in the face.

On July 17, 1945, during a dinner in Potsdam, Stalin announced to Truman that Hitler had escaped. On that day, 78 days had passed since his "death".

The captured Vice-Admiral Hans Voss, who was brought in for identification, looked at one of the discovered "Fuhrer" and said: "This is Hitler, and no one else." And only when he noticed that the “Reich Chancellor” had darned socks on his feet, Voss began to doubt ...

charred remains

The next corpses of unknown men and women were discovered on May 4 in a crater from an air bomb in the garden of the Reich Chancellery. The burnt bodies could not be identified. Therefore, the remains were ordered to be buried. This find was not given any importance, because on that day the corpse of the second double was identified. But soon an SS man from Hitler's guard said that he personally observed the removal of the bodies of "Hitler and his wife" and their "burial" in the garden ... The remains were dug up again, and on May 8 a forensic medical examination took place in the hospital. The conclusion read: “No characteristic signs were found on the body changed by fire ...” So by May 9, the detectives had no evidence that the charred body was the ruler of the Third Reich. Only the jaw of the "Hitler" was well preserved, but there was nothing to compare it with.

LIFE correspondent inspects the place where the "remains of Hitler" were buried.

"Unexpected Luck"

The investigators went in search of the dental clinic of Professor Blaschke, who served Hitler. And then the officers began to get lucky. They found the professor's assistant, Fraulein Heuserman, and she described from memory all the "repair work" of the Fuhrer. Moreover, she told the Russian officers where to look for Adolf's medical history. As if by magic, X-rays and even gold crowns were found in the bunker of the Reich Chancellery, which Blaschke never had time to put on Hitler's teeth. Soon, the scouts also found a dental technician who accurately described the prostheses he made for the Fuhrer and Eva Braun, and then identified them.

However, at the beginning of June 1945, for some reason, Stalin issued a strange order: all information about the “unknown man (presumably Hitler)” was declared a state secret.

New consequence

And yet, it was not possible to silence the story of the death of the Fuhrer. At the end of 1945, the British and Americans proposed that the Soviet government conduct a joint investigation. The Soviet side accepted the offer, but did not share information with anyone. Perhaps because the new investigation has given more questions than answers.

It all started with the fact that the NKVD specialists again began to verify the results of the previous investigation, since most of the witnesses to Hitler's death were at hand - in Soviet prisons. According to the testimony of the prisoners, the picture of Hitler's suicide looked as follows.

On April 30, at 15.30, the Fuhrer closed himself in the office, and after a while the Fuhrer's valet Heinz Linge and Bormann entered the office and saw the Fuhrer and Eva Braun sitting on the sofa with no signs of life. On Hitler's left temple, Linge noticed the entrance hole of a bullet.

True, Linge confessed to his cellmate informer: “I don’t know if this is really a bullet wound - they could have drawn this red spot ...”

One of Hitler's doubles was his driver (in the photo he is to the left of (Hitler). The driver very often replaced Hitler at various events. According to one version, it was he who was "killed by Hitler" ...

oddities

Then the SS men doused the corpses of Hitler and Eva Braun with gasoline and set them on fire.

Shortly before his death, Hitler and Eva Braun got married.

Moreover, only Bormann and Linge saw the dead Hitler. The rest of the witnesses saw the Hitler couple already wrapped in gray blankets. The act of investigation also noted the presence of spots of "red-brown" color on the armrest of the sofa. The upholstery elements were sent to the Moscow forensic laboratory for blood type determination. Express analysis gave a stunning result: the substance under study is not blood!..

Well, the English doctor Hugh Thomas, having gained access to the State Archives of the USSR, subjected the examination of photographs of the jaws of the “alleged Hitler” and an x-ray of Hitler’s oral cavity, which was stored in the US National Archives. As a result, a sensational conclusion: the bridge put into the mouth of the “Hitler” found in the funnel does not correspond to the curvature of his jaw! The bridge was clearly a part of the wrong person.

random victim

The corpse of Eva Braun also "gave surprises." According to the medical examination, the Eva found in the funnel had only 11 teeth of her own. Moreover, the teeth of the found woman were in poor condition - they turned yellow and contained many fillings and crowns. But Eva Braun touchingly cared about her appearance all her life. She had 24 of her teeth, of which only three were sealed.

Most likely, the unknown woman, whose body they tried to pass off as the body of Eva Braun, was an accidental victim of shelling and picked her up somewhere on the adjacent street.

Ready

Needless to say, the Fuhrer had a chance to escape, and not bad. For higher ranks At the turn of 1944-1945, the SS created the secret evacuation route "Rat Path", which led through Austria to Rome, where one of the highest hierarchs of the Catholic Church provided the fugitives with false documents. From Rome, the Nazis went to Spain, Argentina, Ecuador ...

And starting in March 1945, ten submarine captains based in Hamburg were ordered to maintain a constant readiness for the evacuation of members of the Reich government ...

Calm old age

So over the years after the war, the aspen stake was never driven into Hitler's grave. Moreover, in the recently published book of the Argentine writer Abel Basti "Hitler in Argentina" it is said that the Fuhrer, together with Eva Braun, fled to Argentina, where he lived until 1964. The author of the sensational study relies on declassified FBI archives.

- In particular, - the author comments, - in the book I publish a secret report dated August 1945, which refers to the possibility of the Fuhrer's arrival to the shores of Patagonia. Most likely, Hitler and seven other Nazi leaders landed from a German submarine off the coast of Caleta de los Loros, in the southern province of Rio Negro, in July-August 1945. Hitler's submarine was escorted by two more submarines, and all of them were flooded after the passengers disembarked, and this is a proven fact: at a depth of 30 meters, three German submarines really rest at the site of Hitler's alleged landing. Unfortunately, we still have not been able to fully explore what is inside the submarines - this is too expensive an expedition.

In the book, I also published the story of a woman, Catalina Gamero, who served Hitler during his stay at the Eichhorn family's villa - these are famous in South America financial agents Nazi Germany. This woman is still alive, she is in her right mind and remembers such details that cannot be imagined.

Adolf Hitler died, according to the publicist, in 1964.

Photo of a man who died in 1964 in South America. According to a number of researchers, this was Adolf Hitler

But what about the remains of Hitler stored in Moscow, you ask?

“All these remains are pure farce,” says Abel Basti. There is no evidence of Hitler's death. The fact that Hitler managed to escape was unbearable for the USSR - so they created the myth of his suicide in the bunker ...

Declassified Archives

Be that as it may, the Russian secret services continue to claim that Hitler committed suicide in 1945. So, in April 2000, at the exhibition "The Collapse of the Third Reich", organized by the Museum Russian army and the FSB, were presented truly sensational materials on this topic. Judging by these documents, the remains of the dictator were "burnt completely" in 1970, and the ashes were scattered. It happened at the tank range of one of the units of the Western Group of Forces.

According to a declassified criminal case, on June 3, 1945, the charred remains of Hitler and Eva Braun were taken to the Rathenow area, where they were buried.

For a quarter of a century, the USSR kept all this in absolute secrecy. And so, in 1970, the decision was made to "finish forever" the story of Hitler's death.

This dramatic and dark epilogue to World War II was directed by Yuri Andropov, then head of the KGB. The operation was codenamed "Archive".

The task force of the KGB arrived in Magdeburg, at the location of the Soviet military camp. The remains of Hitler and Braun were brought there after being removed from the ground. Then they were burned and thrown into the Elbe ...

P. S.

The only thing left of the “supposed Hitler” is a fragment of the parietal bone, stored in State Archive RF. Possibly subjecting it genetic research, in the case of the disappearance of Adolf Hitler, it will be possible to put an end to it. Or again dots.

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 civilian casualties that have not been accurately recorded by anyone. Countless people were 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 end of the two-week siege, 33-year-old LIFE photographer William Vandivert arrived in Berlin. This collection contains his previously unpublished photos from Hitler's bunker and destroyed Berlin.

1. Oberwalstrasse, the center of Berlin. Here in the spring of 1945 the fiercest battles took place. (William Vandivert/TIME & LIFE Pictures)

2. Vandivert was the first Western photographer to gain access to Hitler's Fuhrerbunker. Some of his photographs 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 by the retreating Germans and cleared of the surviving valuables by the advancing Red Army soldiers. (William Vandivert/TIME & LIFE Pictures)

3. Painting of the 16th century, taken by the Germans from the museum in Milan. Vandivert wrote to the editor about this: "We had to take pictures in the dark, using one candle for illumination - there was no light in the rooms. Our group was ahead of all the others, who came only forty minutes later." (William Vandivert/TIME & LIFE Pictures)

4. The first of 20 pages of Vandivert's notes made for the New York editorial office. The photographer described not only the shots captured on each film, but also the mood and atmosphere in Hitler's bunker and the Reich Chancellery ("a view of the Chancellery ... it was bombed, burned and shot to hell"). (William Vandivert/TIME & LIFE Pictures)

5. Illuminating the dark corridors with candles, correspondents examine the sofa, covered with blood stains. Vandivert writes: "Photographs of correspondents looking at the couch on which Hitler and Eva Braun shot themselves. Eva 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 are certain that Eva Braun committed suicide with cyanide, not a gun, so the blood on the couch was not Eve's. (William Vandivert/TIME & LIFE Pictures)

6. Correspondent Percy Knaut examines the dirt and debris at the bottom of the trench in the garden of the Reich Chancellery, where, it is believed, the bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun were burned after suicide. Vandivert's notes: "a broken-down bird feeder on 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, filled with water. (William Vandivert/TIME & LIFE Pictures)

8. The phrase "violence and looting" sounds medieval, but perfectly describes the actions of Soviet troops in conquered Berlin. It is foolish to deny this, because no army in the wars was 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. Vandivert writes: "almost all the famous buildings of Berlin lie in ruins. In the city center, soldiers could walk for several blocks and not meet a single living soul, smelling only the smell of death." In the photo: view of the bombed Schöneberg district in Berlin. From August 1940 to March 1945, American, British and Soviet bombers made 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 rested on their laurels. Hard work was carried out to restore order in the ruined city. The troubles of an entire people fell on the shoulders of soldiers who wanted to return home. In the photo: Private First Class Douglas Page in the Berlin Sports Palace stands on the spot where Hitler usually delivered his speeches. The building was destroyed during the bombing 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. Vandivert: "He was loaded onto a car to be taken 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 fallen comrades, or simply testify: I was here. I survived. (William Vandivert/TIME & LIFE Pictures)

13. A broken globe and a bust of Hitler among the wreckage in front of the Reich Chancellery. This picture perfectly illustrates the state of Berlin in April 1945 on the eve of the Potsdam Conference. Just at this time, the song "Berlin Kommt Wieder" (Berlin will return) became more and more popular in the city. And it was considered "dangerous" not so much because of the lyrics, but because of the way Berliners sang it. (William Vandivert/TIME & LIFE Pictures)

14. William Vandivert 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). Vandivert died in 1992.

During the first months of 1945 , despite the loss of strategic initiative, the dying Nazi Third Reich demonstrated a very purposeful, organized and meaningful resistance. The thesis that in 1945 the German Wehrmacht was completely incompetent and therefore "finishing off" it was not particularly difficult for the Red Army and the Anglo-American allies, completely not true . When it came to the very existence of Germany, both old and young were put under arms, and they defended themselves with fanatical tenacity. The same persistence can be seen in the operations carried out by the German command. At the same time, the commanders of the Wehrmacht and the SS troops had extensive experience in military operations, which allowed them to launch counterattacks and break through the encirclement.

However, just a week after the onset February 14 - 15, 1945 offensive of the Red Army in the German front in the east formed 500 km gap , into which, without visible effect, like coal in a locomotive furnace, the German command threw its last reserves. The Red Army was inexorably approaching the capital of Germany. In the face of the numerical superiority of the Soviet troops and their possession of a strategic initiative German command was looking for the key to salvation in improving the tactics of withdrawing the defending troops from under the powerful blow of Soviet artillery.

March 30, 1945 Fuhrer and Supreme Commander Adolf Gitler signed the order which said : "I demand that the entire army group, from the commander to the last soldier, understand that success in the coming battle for berlin can be secured by a spirit of vigorous defense and fatal perseverance. Battle for Berlin must and will be a decisive victory in the defense ... "

Spring 1945 year physical condition Adolf Hitler was very bad. His arms and one leg were constantly shaking. The face was deathly pale. He moved with difficulty. He sat vacantly on his couch with a puppy from the latest litter of his beloved German Shepherd, Blondie. He called the puppy Wolf and trained him himself.

"Most of the day he lay in deep apathy - recalled one of his secretaries , - occupied with only one thought - chocolate and cakes. His passion for cakes took on a downright morbid character. If before he ate no more than three pieces of cakes, now he was served a plate filled to the brim three times.

In the last days of April 1945 in the empty bunker next to Hitler, only the SS doctor remained Ludwig Stumpfegger . On the day of the unsuccessful attempt on the Fuhrer, July 20, 1944, Himmler sent him to the Fuhrer as a reliable National Socialist. But he could hardly help the Fuhrer, since he was an orthopedic surgeon. After Hitler's suicide, Stumpfegger tried to break out of Berlin, but was killed.

Fuhrer made nasty jokes. At dinner, having told that the doctor bleeds him, he promised his companions, who, unlike Hitler, were not vegetarians: “I will order blood sausages to be prepared for you from the surplus of my blood as additional food. Why not? You love meat so much! In the bunker itself, discipline had weakened. When Hitler entered the meeting room, few people interrupted the conversation and got up to greet the Fuhrer. They began to smoke in the bunker - although Hitler could not stand it. They drank a lot - there were large reserves for receiving foreign guests.

Under the blows of the Soviet troops, the Eastern Front collapsed . Attempts to restore the defense systems were suppressed by the advancing units of the Red Army. The remnants of the German troops retreated in disorder. The Americans and the British bombed with impunity for two hours in a row center of Berlin . Their planes dropped bomb cargo from a great height, inaccessible to anti-aircraft artillery.

Hitler appealed to the German people March 19, 1945 by signing Order about total destruction German economy, according to which it was necessary to destroy all industrial enterprises, power plants, hydroelectric power plants, oil refineries, bridges, ships, locomotives, food, creating a "desert" on the path of the allies.

Albert Speer , head of the Armaments Ministry, petitioned Hitler. “We have no right at this stage of the war to call for destruction, because this will affect people's lives,” he wrote. But Hitler, whose fate was already decided, was not interested in the continued existence of the German people. "If the war is lost, - he told Speer - then the nation will also perish. It is better to destroy all these things ourselves, because this nation has proved that it is the weakest.

The end of the Third Reich was approaching . British and Canadian armies commanded by a field marshal Montgomery broke through to Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck on the Baltic Sea. US 9th Army Simpson bypassed the Ruhr region from the north, and the 1st Army Hodges - from South. On April 1, they linked up near Lippstadt, locking up 250,000 soldiers from Field Marshal's Army Group B Walter Model in the Ruhr cauldron. The Germans held out until April 18, 1945, and then surrendered. Model there were no prisoners - he shot himself in despair.

April 12, 1945 President of the United States died unexpectedly Franklin Delano Roosevelt . This awakened in Hitler hopes for a miracle, similar to the one that once saved the king of Prussia. Frederick the Great from defeat in the Seven Years' War. The day before the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, advanced units 9th Army reached Elbe river near Magdeburg - a city in the heart of Germany. From here to Berlin remained only 60 miles the roads to it were open.

But, overcoming violent objections Winston Churchill and British commanders who wanted to get ahead of the Russians and be the first to enter Berlin, the American commander Dwight Eisenhower stopped the western allies on the Elbe , since the Red Army began to move from the Oder shortly after the Americans reached the Elbe. For Eisenhower, this meant that they would reach Berlin. before the British or Americans .

Besides, Eisenhower and his staff it was very feared that the Nazis were implementing plans to build "National Redoubt" in the mountains of southern Germany, where they would wage guerrilla warfare for many years. In addition, Eisenhower was afraid that the Nazis would organize an underground army from "werewolves" - loyal followers of Hitler who will commit murders and terrorist acts.

AND " national redoubt ", and the organization "Werewolf" existed only in the propaganda leaflets of Dr. Joseph Goebbels . But Eisenhower and his staff got caught the American armies were sent to this bait to the southern mountains , and as quickly as possible. American troops reached Nuremberg April 15, 1945, before Munich - April 30 and May 3 joined with the troops of the American 5th Army, moving from the Apennines, in the area Brenner Gorges between Austria and Italy. German resistance in Italy ceased, and April 29, 1945 The Instrument of Surrender was signed.

Hitler planned to leave Berlin April 20, 1945 , on the day of his 56th anniversary , and go to Obersalzberg, in the Bavarian Alps. Many members of the Hitlerite leadership had already moved south, as did the Fuhrer's personal headquarters. But Hitler remained in Berlin, convinced that Russians will suffer a grand defeat trying to capture the German capital. but Himmler, Goering And Ribbentrop fled the city. Hitler called on the troops to go on a counteroffensive, which never took place, and, in fact, its possibility existed only in the imagination of the Nazi dictator. Hitler lived mostly in a world of illusions these days.

April 16 1945 started Berlin operation Soviet troops. Its goal is to complete the defeat of Germany, to seize Berlin and connect with allies. The infantry and tanks of the 1st Belorussian Front launched an attack before dawn under the illumination of anti-aircraft searchlights and advanced 1.5-2 km . But with the onset of dawn on the well-fortified Seelow Heights, the Germans came to their senses and began to fight fiercely. Marshal Georgy Zhukov had to bring their tank armies into battle. On the same day, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front Marshal Ivan Konev , encountering less resistance on the way of their offensive, immediately forced Neisse river . Nazi Fuhrer Adolf Gitler was locked up in Berlin. The agony of the Third Reich began.

April 17, 1945 Marshal Ivan Konev, commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, ordered the commanders of his tank armies Pavel Rybalko And Dmitry Lelyushenko advance to Berlin . Konev demanded that Rybalko and Lelyushenko not get involved in protracted and head-on battles, but boldly move forward towards Berlin. In the battles for Berlin, twice a Hero of the Soviet Union, commander of a tank battalion of Guards. mr S.Khokhryakov

April 18, 1945 the 2nd Belorussian Front of Marshal joined the Berlin operation, covering the right flank Konstantin Rokossovsky . By the end of the day, the front of Marshal Konev completed the breakthrough of the Neissen line of defense, crossed the Spree River and provided the conditions for the encirclement of Berlin from the south. Troops of the 1st Belorussian Front of Marshal Zhukov, carrying big losses, all day they broke the 3rd lane of enemy defense on the Oder - on the Seelow Heights.

April 19, 1945 , by the end of the day, the troops of Marshal Zhukov completed the breakthrough of the 3rd lane of the Oder line at the Seelow Heights. Favorable conditions have been created on the left wing of the front of Marshal Zhukov for clipping Frankfurt-Guben grouping of the Wehrmacht from the Berlin area.

April 20, 1945 The Directive of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command was issued by the commander of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts, requiring Soviet soldiers to "treat the Germans better." Another directive of the Stavka - about identification marks and signals at the meeting of the Soviet armies and the troops of the allies. At 13.50 long-range artillery 79 rifle corps 3rd shock army first opened fire on berlin , marking the beginning of the assault on the imperial capital itself. Marshals Konev and Zhukov sent almost identical orders to the troops of their fronts: “Be the first to break into Berlin!”

On the same day, the German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler turned 56 years old . Propaganda Minister Dr. Joseph Goebbels for the last time congratulated him on his birthday on the Berlin Radio: "I can only say that our century, in all its gloomy grandeur, has managed to acquire the only worthy representative in the face of the Fuhrer."

April 21, 1945 , By evening, formations of the 2nd Guards Tank, 3rd and 5th Shock Armies of the 1st Belorussian Front reached the northeastern outskirts of Berlin. The 8th Guards and 1st Guards Tank Armies wedged into the city defensive bypass of Berlin in the districts of Petershagen and Erkner.

Adolf Gitler ordered to turn the 12th Army, previously aimed against the Americans, against the 1st Ukrainian Front. She now had the goal of linking up with the remnants of the 9th and 4th tank armies, making their way south of Berlin to the west.

April 22, 1945 The 3rd Guards Tank Army of Pavel Rybalko broke into southern part Berlin and by 17.30 fought for Teltow (as it was said in the telegram of Marshal Konev to Comrade Stalin). In the same day assault flags were awarded by the Military Council of the 3rd Shock Army to the divisions storming Berlin. Among them - the flag, which became the banner of victory - assault flag of the 150th infantry division .

When Yodel And Keitel reported that the Russians had broken through in the north, and their tanks had entered the city, Hitler completely lost control of himself. He decided to stay in Berlin and personally take over the defense of the city. Three defensive lines surrounded Berlin, the latter was a narrow ring around Reich Chancellery and other major state buildings in the center of Berlin. The German grouping included units of the 9th Army, parts of the 3rd and 4th Panzer Divisions and Volkssturm units, consisting of untrained people and teenagers from the Hitler Youth. Hitler for the last time refused to leave Berlin while there was such an opportunity. Goebbels moved with his family to a bunker under the Reich Chancellery ("Fuhrer's bunker").

April 23, 1945 in the Berlin suburbs Spremberg Soviet troops liquidated the encircled group of Germans. Among the destroyed units was the Fuhrer's Guard Panzer Division. Troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front fought in the south of Berlin. At the same time, they reached the Elbe River northwest Dresden .

Goering , who left Berlin, turned to Hitler on the radio, asking him to approve him at the head of the Government, however, he was refused, and Martin Borman ordered the arrest of Goering "for high treason."

April 24, 1945 Reichsführer SS, Reichsminister of the Interior of Germany, Reichsleiter, Chief of the RSHA Heinrich Himmler - one of the main political and military figures of the Third Reich, unsuccessfully tried through the Swedish diplomat Count Bernadotte invite allies capitulation on the Western Front.

On this day, shock formations of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts in the area Brandenburg closed the encirclement ring of German troops in Berlin. The forces of the German 9th and 4th tank armies were surrounded in the forests southeast of Berlin. Parts of the 1st Ukrainian Front successfully repulsed the counterattacks of the 12th German Army.

April 25, 1945 in the city area Torgau on the Elbe, Soviet troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front met with the troops of the 12th American Army Group General Bradley. Crossing the river spree, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front of Marshal Konev and the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front of Marshal Zhukov rushed to the center of Berlin. The Germans had nothing to stop the impulse of Soviet soldiers in Berlin.

April 26, 1945 the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front in Berlin occupied the Gartenstadt area and the Gerlitsky railway station, and the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front - the Dahlem area. Soviet troops have occupied three quarters territory of Greater Berlin.

But Hitler was still hoping for something. He was in a two-story bunker at a depth of 60 meters under the courtyard of the Imperial Chancellery, anxiously waiting for news. By evening, however, it became clear that the 9th and 12th armies not capable liberate the capital. Together with Hitler in the bunker were his mistress Eva Brown , doctor Goebbels with family, boss general staff general Krebs, secretaries, adjutants, guards. In the evening, one of the best female pilots in Germany arrived at the bunker Hanna Reitsch , fanatically devoted to Hitler, who offered to take him out of the surrounded capital of Germany, but the Fuhrer refused, saying that he decided to die in Berlin.

April 27, 1945 , in the morning, the divisions of the 12th Rifle Corps of the Red Army cleared the quarters southeast of the enemy Simmenstadt and went to the banks of the river Spree. The 171st Rifle Division crossed Verbindungs-channel and took up the starting position for the assault on the area Moabit . Parts of the 1st mechanized corps repelled German counterattacks on bridgeheads on the southern bank of the Spree River. At the end of the day, the 12th Panzer Corps penetrated deeply into one of the central regions of Berlin - Charlottenburg . Rifle units of the 8th Guards Army went to Landwehr Canal and the station Anhalt , southeast of the Reich Chancellery. Parts of the 9th mechanized corps remained before the Reichstag less than 8 kilometers .

On this day Adolf Gitler learned that Soviet troops had infiltrated the Berlin metro and gave the order to open gateways on the river Spree to flood its stations. The execution of the order led to the death of thousands of people in the metro - wounded German soldiers, women and children.

April 28, 1945 Marshal Konev turned to Marshal Zhukov with a proposal to change dividing line between their fronts in Berlin and the city center to transfer it to the front, but Zhukov asked Joseph Stalin give the right to take the center of Berlin to the troops of his front, replacing Konev's troops in the south of the city. In this regard, the Soviet General Staff ordered the troops of Marshal Konev, who had already reached Tiergarten , that is, they almost came close to the Reichstag, to transfer their offensive line to Zhukov's troops.

As the Soviet troops advanced to the center of Berlin , enemy resistance intensified. Remains of the Berlin garrison stubbornly defended using water lines and defensive structures. The fighting was no longer for streets and quarters, but for individual buildings and street intersections. German "faustniks", using shelters in stone buildings, they disabled Soviet tanks and self-propelled guns, inflicted losses on the attackers, acting even in the rear.

On this day was published Order No. 1 military commandant of Berlin, Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel General Nikolai Berzarin on the transfer of full power in Berlin into the hands of the Soviet military commandant's office. It was announced to the population of the city that the National Socialist Party of Germany ( NSDAP ) and its organizations are dissolved and their activities are prohibited. The order established the order of behavior of the German population and determined the main provisions necessary for the normalization of life in the city.

April 29, 1945 started battles for the Reichstag , the mastery of which was entrusted to the 79th rifle corps of the 3rd shock army of the 1st Belorussian Front. On this day, the front command appointed general assault encircled Berlin grouping of the enemy, who settled in the park area Tiergarten , northeast and southwest of it. has been undertaken first assault on the Reichstag , which ended in failure, as the Germans delivered a powerful fire strike from the side crawl operas . The Soviet units captured the "Himmler's house" - the building of the German Ministry of Internal Affairs.

When breaking through the barriers on the Berlin Kaiserallee, the tank N. Shendrikova received 2 holes, caught fire, the crew failed. The mortally wounded commander, having gathered his last strength, sat down at the controls and threw the flaming tank at the enemy cannon

This day took place marriage Adolf Hitler with Eva Brown in a bunker under the Reich Chancellery. The witness was Dr. Joseph Goebbels. In his political testament Hitler expelled Goering from the NSDAP and officially named Grand Admiral as his successor Dönitz . Meanwhile, Soviet units were fighting for the Berlin metro.

April 30, 1945 a new assault on the Reichstag building itself began, which was defended by more than 1000 Germans and several hundred SS men from different countries. In different places of the Reichstag, several Red assault banners were fixed - from regimental and divisional to home-made ones. Scouts of the 150th Infantry Division Mikhail Egorov And Melitonu Kantaria was ordered to hoist the Red Banner over the Reichstag. Lieutenant Alexey Berest from the battalion Stepan Neustroev led the combat mission to install the Banner over the Reichstag.

As soon as the scouts with the deployed Red Banner appeared on the roof of the Reichstag , they were immediately noticed by the Nazis from the Brandenburg Gate area and from buildings east of the Reichstag. They opened this strong fire that it was impossible to take a single step. Enemy bullets whistled around, one of them pierced the Banner's pole, splitting it. Yegorov's trousers were shot through, and Kantaria's forage cap. But even at that moment they did not flinch, did not retreat, courageously passed last meters and fulfilled their duty. Red Banner of Victory was installed at the Reichstag around 3.00, May 1, 1945. In the night sky of Berlin, thickly infused with gunpowder smoke, the spring wind slowly unfolded and swayed the red banner Banner of Victory .

At noon, news came that the Italian partisans had shot the Duce Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci near Lake Como, and their corpses were hung upside down on lampposts in Milan. Soon after that Hitler poisoned his beloved dog, the Alsatian Shepherd Blondie, and gave the two secretaries who remained with him capsules of poison, which they could choose to take when the Russians broke into the bunker.

On this day Nazi Fuhrer of the Third Reich Adolf Gitler committed suicide suicide in the bunker of the Reich Chancellery, having taken poison and shot himself in the temple with a pistol. Hitler's corpse was burned in the courtyard of the Reich Chancellery. As Chancellor of the Reich, Hitler left Joseph Goebbels who committed suicide the next day. Before his death, Hitler appointed Martin Bormann Reich Minister for Party Affairs (previously there was no such post in the NSDAP).

At the end of the battle arrived in Berlin allies Red Army. To assist the 2nd Guards Tank Army was sent 1st Polish Infantry division. In the face of a lack of Soviet motorized infantry, the Polish infantry proved to be most welcome. On the evening of that day, Soviet tankers and Polish infantry jointly stormed the Tiergarten station.

May 1, 1945 at 3.00 Chief of the German General Staff General of the Infantry Krebs accompanied by the Chief of Staff of the LVI Panzer Corps Colonel von Dufwing arrived at the headquarters of the 35th guards division, where they were met by the deputy commander of the army, lieutenant general Dukhanov and head of the intelligence department of the headquarters, Colonel Smooth .

The Germans handed over to the Soviet command dated April 30, 1945 "Appeal of Dr. Goebbels and Martin Bormann to the leader of the Soviet peoples Marshal Stalin" , in which it was said: “... today, at 15 hours 30 minutes, the Fuhrer arbitrarily passed away. On the basis of his legal right, the Führer transferred all power in his will to Dönitz, me And Bormann . I am authorized by Bormann to establish contact with the leader of the Soviet people. This connection is necessary for peace negotiations between the powers that have the greatest losses. Goebbels ».

Soviet command, as directed Joseph Stalin , rejected attempts German command start negotiation for a temporary ceasefire, demanding a complete and unconditional surrender Berlin garrison. Troops of the 1st Belorussian Front captured Brandenburg , in Berlin, the areas of Charlottenburg, Schöneberg and 100 quarters were cleared. After the failure of negotiations with Stalin, in Berlin committed suicide Goebbels and his wife Magda , having previously killed his 6 children.

Stalin confirmed the categorical requirement unconditional surrender in Berlin. At 18 o'clock the Germans rejected. At 18.30, in connection with the rejection of the surrender, a powerful fire strike was dealt to the Berlin garrison, after which the mass surrender Germans captured.

Around 9 p.m. May 1, 1945 approximately 500 military survivors from Hitler's headquarters, mostly SS men , tried to get out, moving along the underground passages from the Wilhelmplatz metro station, opposite the Reich Chancellery, to the Friedrichstrasse station, then crossed the Spree River and leaked through the Russian positions to the north. Many of them managed to escape, but not Martin Bormann . He was either shot or took poison to avoid capture. His body, however, was not found and his fate is unknown.

May 2, 1945 at 0100, the radios of the 1st Belorussian Front received a message in Russian: “Please cease fire. We are sending parliamentarians to the Potsdam Bridge.”

German officer on behalf of the commander of the defense of Berlin Weidling announced the readiness of the Berlin garrison to stop resistance. At 6:00 General Weidling surrendered and signed an hour later Surrender order Berlin garrison. Enemy resistance in Berlin completely stopped . The remnants of the garrison began to surrender en masse. In Berlin, Goebbels's deputy for propaganda and press, Dr. Fritsche who testified during interrogation that Hitler Goebbels and Chief of the General Staff General Krebs committed suicide. By 21.00 already surrendered 70 thousand Germans. Soviet field kitchens were deployed everywhere in Berlin, from which Soviet soldiers began to feed the hungry Berliners.

In the newspaper "Pravda" On May 2, 1945, it was said: “Last night, the German Radio circulated a message from the so-called “Führer’s Headquarters”, which states that on May 1, in the afternoon Hitler died . The report indicates that on April 30, Hitler appointed Admiral Doenitz. .. The reports of German Radio appear to be new fascist trick : By spreading the allegation of Hitler's death, the German fascists are obviously hoping to give Hitler the opportunity to leave the stage and go underground.

Recently in England records of British Cabinet discussions have been declassified. July 6, 1942 the government discussed the agreed in general terms with the American president Roosevelt a proposal to create a commission to collect information about Nazi crimes. Churchill firmly said: "We proceed from the fact that if Hitler falls into our hands, we will definitely we execute. He is not a monarch who can justify himself by saying that ministers are responsible for everything, as the Kaiser claimed. William . This man is the epitome of evil. How to execute? In the electric chair like a gangster We can get an electric chair from the Americans under Lend-Lease.

Former corporal who became the Nazi Fuhrer of Germany, Adolf Gitler during his 59-year life, he became the most terrible person in the history of mankind. For 12 years old Hitler turned Germany into a structure completely oriented towards him. The "Fuhrer", as he was called, was the very last resort in the country where his cult reigned. On April 30, 1945, it all ended. Today this day is called decisive.

May 4, 1945 The German High Command surrendered its troops to Montgomery's divisions in northeastern Germany, in Denmark and in Holland. The next day, Kesselring's Army Group G, which included the armies north of the Alps, also capitulated.

May 5, 1945 admiral Hans von Friedeburg , now commander navy arrived at headquarters Eisenhower in Reims, France, to negotiate a surrender. Arrived next day General Jodl , hoping to drag out the negotiations so that hundreds of thousands of German soldiers and refugees would go far enough to the west and surrender to the Western Allies, and not to the Russians. But Eisenhower did not suffer any delay, and in 2.41 morning May 7, 1945 Friedenburg and Jodl signed Who unconditional surrender Germany , which took effect at midnight May 8, 1945. On the part of the command of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe, the act was witnessed by General Beddel Smith .

General Eisenhower proposed from the Soviet side to witness the act to Major General I.A. Susloparov , representative VGK rates Red Army under the command of the allies. Susloparov reported this to Moscow and requested instructions on how to proceed, but by the time the Act of Surrender was signed, a response from Moscow did not enter . The situation developed in such a way that there might not have been a signature of the Soviet representative on the Act at all, so Susloparov achieved inclusion into it notes about the possibility - at the request of one of the allied states - to conduct new signing of the Act if there are objective reasons for this. Only after that did he agree to put his signature under the act, although he understood that he was extremely risky.

Already after this from Moscow came belated Susloparov's ban participate in the signing of this Act. Stalin insisted on the signing of the Instrument of Surrender of Germany in Berlin , and required a significant raising the level of persons who will sign it. Organize a new signing of the Act Stalin instructed the marshal Zhukov . The note, which was included at the request of Susloparov in the signed document, allowed this to be done. Sometimes second the signing of the Act is called ratification that was signed the day before. There are legal grounds for this, since on May 7, 1945 G.K. Zhukov received an official order from Moscow: “The Headquarters of the Supreme High Command authorizes you ratify Protocol on the unconditional surrender of the German Armed Forces.

To resolve the issue about the new signing of the Act , but for more high level, connected Stalin who applied to Churchill and the new President of the United States Truman : "Treaty signed at Reims, cannot be canceled, but it cannot be recognized . Surrender must be committed as the most important historical act and adopted not on the territory of the victors, but where the fascist aggression came from, in Berlin, and not unilaterally, but necessarily by the high command all countries anti-Hitler coalition.

As a result US and UK agreed carry out a new signing of the Act, and the document signed in Reims, to consider " Preliminary German surrender protocol.

While Churchill and Truman refused postpone announcement of the signing of the Act for a day , as Stalin asked, arguing that heavy fighting is still going on on the Soviet-German front, and therefore we must wait before the entry into force of the surrender , that is, until 23 hours on May 8, 1945. In England and the United States, the signing of the Act and the surrender of Germany to the Western Allies was officially announced May 8 did it Churchill And Truman personally, addressing the people on the radio. In the USSR, the text of their appeals was published in newspapers , but for obvious reasons only on May 10, 1945.

The signing of the Act ended in 22 hours 43 minutes according to Central European time. In Moscow it was already May 9, 1945 (0 hours 43 minutes). On the German side, the act was signed by the Chief of Staff of the Supreme High Command of the German Armed Forces, Field Marshal Wilhelm Bodevin Johann Gustav Keitel , Chief of the General Staff of the Luftwaffe Colonel-General of Aviation Hans Jurgen Stumpf and, after the appointment of Dönitz as Reich President of Germany, Commander-in-Chief of the German Navy, Admiral General Hans Georg von Friedeburg .

unconditional surrender accepted marshal Georgy Zhukov (from the Soviet side) and Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Expeditionary Force Marshal Arthur Tedder . As witnesses, General Karl Spaats (USA) and General Jean de Latre de Tassigny (France). By agreement between the governments of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain, an agreement was reached to consider the procedure in Reims preliminary . However, in Western historiography, the signing of the surrender of the German armed forces usually associated with a procedure in Reims , and the signing of the act of surrender in Berlin is called its "ratification"

Soon a solemn voice sounded from radios throughout the Soviet country. Yuri Levitan : “On May 8, 1945, in Berlin, representatives of the German High Command signed the Act of Unconditional Surrender of the German Armed Forces. Great Patriotic War waged Soviet people against the Nazi invaders, victoriously completed . Germany is completely destroyed. Comrades of the Red Army, Red Navy, sergeants, foremen, officers of the army and navy, generals, admirals and marshals, I congratulate you on the victorious end of the Great Patriotic War. Eternal glory to the heroes who fell in the battles for the freedom and independence of our Motherland!”

By order Joseph Stalin On this day, a grandiose salute from a thousand guns was given in Moscow. Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in commemoration of the victorious end of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet people against the Nazi invaders and the historic victories of the Red Army May 9 was announced Victory Day .

The Germans were expelled from all lands east of the Oder and from the Sudetes. Germany lay in ruins with no Government and virtually no economy. Hitler's dreams about world domination and "living space" collapsed. Only the generosity of the former enemies, who provided Germany with food and fuel, allowed the German people to survive that harsh summer and cruel winter. 1945–1946 years. But the most terrible war that claimed many lives was over. Peace at last got rid of Hitler , Nazism and the Third Reich.

At the Potsdam (Berlin) Conference victorious Allied Powers in July 1945, the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill asked Joseph Stalin about fate Hitler. The leader of the peoples grinned enigmatically through his mustache and evaded the answer. Apparently Sir Winston was interested where is buried Fuhrer.

May 5, 1945 the bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun were found by a piece of blanket sticking out of the ground by a group of guards of a senior lieutenant A. A. Panasova and fell into the hands of the Soviet SMERSH . General K. F. Telegin . The expert commission for the study of the remains was headed by the colonel of the medical service F. I. Shkaravsky . Hitler's body, in particular, was identified using Kete Heuserman, Hitler's dentist's assistant, who confirmed the similarity of the dentures shown to her at the identification with Hitler's dentures.

In February 1946 the remains identified by the investigation as the bodies of Hitler, Eva Braun, the Goebbels married couple - Joseph, Magda and their six children, as well as two dogs, were buried at one of the bases of the NKVD in Magdeburg .

In 1970 the territory of the military camp in Magdeburg, occupied Special department of the KGB (OO KGB) for the 3rd Army of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (GSVG) was transferred to the German authorities. In this regard, the head of the KGB Yuri Andropov sent March 13, 1970 letter to the Central Committee of the CPSU.

It stated, in particular, : “At present, the indicated military camp, based on official expediency, meeting the interests of our troops, the army command hands over to the German authorities . Given the possibility of construction and other earthworks in this area, which may entail discovered burials, I would consider it appropriate to carry out removal of the remains Hitler and their destruction by burning. This event will be carried out strictly secretly by the special group of the OO KGB of the 3rd Army of the GSVG and will be duly documented.” The letter contains the resolution “Agree. March 16" and captions: " L. Brezhnev, A. Kosygin, N. Podgorny ". The upcoming operation was given the name "Archive".

On the night of April 4-5, 1970 , according to the developed plan, the task force burned the remains of Hitler in a wasteland near the city Shensback , eleven kilometers from Magdeburg. The remains burned out, along with coal were crushed, collected and thrown into the river Bidevitz .

A couple of bones - that's it , What's left of Hitler . In addition, his books, mainly of anti-Semitic content, a first-aid kit, the Iron Cross, a cap and a uniform have been preserved. The uniform is in the funds of the Central Museum of the Russian Army and in recent years has sometimes been exhibited at open exhibitions. They are stored in the Russian archives, as are the side handles of the sofa with traces of blood on which Hitler shot himself.

In an interview, the head of the FSB Archive said that authenticity of the jaw proven by a number of international experts. Biographer of Hitler Werner Maser expresses doubts that the discovered corpse and part of the skull really belonged to Hitler. In September 2009, researchers from the University of Connecticut, based on the results of their DNA analysis, stated that the skull belonged to a woman less than 40 years old, but representatives of the FSB of the Russian Federation denied this.

The fate of the military-political elite of the Third Reich very revealing to all who wants to arrange a "New World Order" on the planet. Many of them at the end of the war completely lost their human appearance and mind, including the leader - Adolf Hitler.

Three days in April 1945

On April 20, 1945, the situation in the bunker under the Reich Chancellery in Berlin was gloomy. The Fuhrer's birthday - he was 56 years old - was celebrated without much enthusiasm. 18 very small rooms, hidden underground to a depth of 5 meters, of which 4 were reinforced concrete ceilings, little resembled the huge halls of that magnificent building that served "a symbol of the concentration of power" in the capital of the Greater Reich.

Nevertheless, from January 15, 1945, it was from here, from the bunker, that the entire territory was controlled, which is still "the power of the Fuhrer spread".

This territory was shrinking literally from hour to hour.

The encirclement of Berlin has already begun, and those leaving the Reich Chancellery should hurry. But no - they were waiting for Hitler to leave his private quarters. In fact, he had already celebrated his birthday - according to tradition, the permanent composition of the inhabitants of the bunker, whose duties included "providing assistance in the work of the Fuhrer", congratulated the chief exactly at midnight, with the first stroke of the clock.

This was done in 1945, although, of course, there was not enough joy ...

And now, on April 20, after the Fuhrer had finished his usual meager breakfast and left the bunker for the garden of the Reich Chancellery to receive a delegation from the new SS division, called "Berlin", and bypass the formation of a couple of dozen boys from the Hitler Youth who had distinguished themselves in fight against Russian tanks, more serious things and more serious visitors awaited him.

Almost everyone who was among the Fuhrer's closest associates gathered here - Goering, and Dönitz, and Keitel, and Ribbentrop, and Jodl, and Himmler, and Speer, and Kaltenbrunner, who replaced Heydrich as head of the Imperial Security Directorate, and new chief of staff ground forces Reich General Krebs.

The position of the latter was truly unenviable.

He replaced the recently dismissed Chief of the General Staff Guderian, whom the Fuhrer honored with his trust, but he did not justify his trust - he constantly argued with the leader of the nation and argued that sending the last reserves to the West for the offensive was pure madness.

The Fuhrer had to part with him too.

In general, after the failed mutiny attempt on July 20, 1944, Hitler firmly believed that the Wehrmacht generals were the cause of all the failures. They were all traitors from the start - and it was only because of their constant sabotage of his orders that the war had gone so badly.

Of course, Roland Freisler, chairman of the People's Court of Justice, spent in this sense Good work. Hitler didn't call him "our Vyshinsky"- The trial of the conspirators was swift and merciless.

Field Marshal Witzleben, even stripped of his false teeth, was pretty humiliated before he was pulled up - Freisler yelled at him and called him names "dirty old man".

Witzleben, after hearing the verdict, promised Freisler that “in a couple of months, the crowd on the way to the gallows will drag the judge himself through the mud” but this prophecy did not come true.

The field marshal was hanged on August 8, 1944, and Freisler lived until February 3, 1945, that is, he lived not for two months, but for six. And the crowd did not drag him to the gallows - just the Americans during the next bombing of Berlin got into the courthouse, and Roland Freisler was crushed by a fallen beam.

Louise Jodl, the wife of General Jodl, recalled that in the morgue over the corpse of Freisler, someone said that this was God's judgment, and they really did not regret him and buried him without a name on the grave.

However, in February 1945 in Berlin, many were buried without a name on the grave, and often without a grave at all. The city was mercilessly bombed, and now, in April, Russian ground troops were already approaching it. And Adolf Hitler should have been thinking not about the hanged field marshal and not about his judge, but about what should be said to his faithful paladins awaiting his word.

First on the list was Hermann Goering.

Hitler said that “Goering in moments of crisis shows icy calmness”. Perhaps so. He had been out of favor for a long time, almost retired from business and lived for the most part in his residence. Carinhall, named after Goering's first wife Karin Kantsov, was more than home to him. Göring kept his art collections there, received foreign diplomats, organized hunting on a completely feudal scale in the forests around his estate, arranged a crypt there for the remains of his beloved Karin - and also played his second wedding there, with actress Emmy Sonnemann.

Now, in the face of enormous and imminent disaster, Göring woke up from his lethargy.

Carinhall was mined, the paintings were taken to the Bavarian Alps, his wife and daughter were hastily sent there, and he even took care of transferring half a million marks to the bank branch in Berchtengagen. Surprisingly, in April 1945 Goering still believed in the power of money printed in the Reich. And now he came to his Fuhrer to say goodbye. Göring was going to command the Luftwaffe from Bavaria. Of course, there were practically no planes left, but he still had people, and Goering was sure that they were ready to fight.

Hitler released the Reichsmarschall without any objection.

He didn't stop everyone else either. Dönitz, however, received special instructions: in the event that the territory of the Reich was cut in half, he would take over the high command in the northern part of Germany. Himmler, Ribbentrop and Kaltenbrunner left after Dönitz, followed by Speer - his path lay in Hamburg.

At nine in the evening, Hitler left society and went to his room. The youngest of his secretaries, Traudl Junge, was completely shocked to hear that the Führer no longer believed in victory.

But she quickly forgot about it - they started dancing in the bunker. Only one record was found - the old waltz "Red Roses Bring You Happiness" - "Blutrote Rosen erzählen Dir vom Gl?ck".

Even Bormann danced - there was champagne in the bunker. The next day, Hitler left his room quite late, at 9:30 am. He was given bad news.

Russian artillery began shelling the center of Berlin.

On April 22, during a meeting with the military - Jodl, Keitel and Krebs - Hitler had a seizure. They knew the Fuhrer for a long time, and they seemed to be used to his fits of rage, but even they considered it a flash of madness. Hitler shouted that he had been betrayed by everyone he trusted, and that even the SS units no longer wanted to fight, and that Sepp Dietrich had failed in the task entrusted to him, and that now it was all over.

Finally, when the fit of hysteria had passed, the Fuhrer said that the war was lost.

And Hitler added that he had made an unshakable decision - he would remain in Berlin and "lead the defense of the city". The Führer knows that the burden of responsibility has exhausted his physical strength and that he is no longer able to fight with weapons in his hands, so he cannot risk falling wounded into the hands of the enemy.

So at the last minute he will shoot himself.

Both Jodl and Keitel began to beg the leader to change his mind and immediately leave for Bavaria, but he was unshakable. Everything is falling apart anyway. It is no longer possible to fight, only negotiations remain - and let Goering deal with it.

What was left for his entourage to do? The situation became impossible. The head of state remained in Berlin for certain death, but did not abdicate. Consequently, Goering, who since 1941 was considered Hitler's heir, could not assume his powers. In addition, the Fuhrer could change his mind at the last minute and still leave or stay in Berlin, but name not Goering, but someone else as his successor.

Hitler rejected Himmler's candidacy - the Fuhrer found that his faithful Heinrich "lack of artistry". Another possible candidate, Goebbels, was going to stay in Berlin and share the fate of the Fuhrer.

In general, it turned out that from April 22, 1945, the Reich found itself without a leader at all. Krebs and Keitel simply did not know what they should do now. And then an unexpected guest appeared in the bunker.

As it turned out, Albert Speer returned.

It was already very difficult to get to Berlin from Hamburg - the roads were clogged with refugees trying to escape from the advancing Russian troops in the Anglo-American zone of occupation. But Speer did not even try to get to the capital of the Reich by car. Instead, he went to Mecklenburg, requisitioned the plane there, and ordered the pilot to fly to the Gatow airfield, west of Berlin.

There he took a small "Storch" - "Aist" - a light plane that can land anywhere, flew it to Berlin and managed to land on a wide boulevard leading to brandenburg gate. Speer, in fact, planned this boulevard at one time, but he, of course, did not think that he would ever use it as a landing strip. However, he used and now entered the Fuhrer's bunker.

Speer wanted to talk to him.

Their conversation really took place - this is what we know for sure. As for the content of the conversation, it is known only from the words of Speer. According to him, the conversation was about Hitler's order of March 19, 1945 on the total destruction of everything that the enemy could get.

The execution of the order was entrusted to Speer.

It was also about the complete evacuation of the German population from there. With regard to the Eastern Front, the evacuation order was redundant - everyone who could only fled from there. But to evacuate the population from the cities in the west of Germany, according to the Reich Minister of Armaments, it was possible only to sparsely populated places - for example, to the Elbe Delta.

Placing millions of people under the open sky and without any possibility of supplying them with food would be a guarantee of epidemics and mass death. Well, somewhere in April 1945, Albert Speer came to the conclusion that everything was over and we had to think about the future.

As a result of these reflections, he did the following:

1. Refused to follow orders.

2. He recorded on a disc an appeal to the German people with a call not to carry out orders on arson, explosions, flooding of mines, destruction of factories and everything else in the regions of Germany occupied by the allies. He gave this record to the Gauleiter of Hamburg with an order to put it on the air if Speer did not return from Berlin.

3. With great difficulty and risk to his life, he got from Hamburg to Berlin, appeared at the Reich Chancellery and personally reported to Hitler about what he had done.

And he even explained that there is a sense of duty and responsibility - and therefore he refused to obey the order - and there is a sense of loyalty towards a friend and patron - and therefore he appeared to his Fuhrer personally and was ready to bear the punishment assigned to him. Hitler listened to Speer, shook his hand with watery eyes, and let him out of the bunker alive.

How it really happened, we don't know.

Speer did not include this episode in his memoirs, it was only voiced in an interview with a French newspaper many years after the war, and Speer's biographer, Gitta Sereny, says that this is most likely a false memory.

Speer wanted the conversation to go that way, so he made it up.

It's hard to say, maybe she's right. But be that as it may, we have two well-established facts: Speer did indeed sabotage Hitler's order, and he did, risking his life, return to Berlin to meet with his Führer.

Perhaps this corresponded to his ideas about German loyalty.

Notes

1. The total area of ​​the bunker was only 250 square meters, and there were 30 rooms in it. But this is counting all rooms, even ventilation wells and built-in wardrobes.

2. As conceived by Hitler, the building was supposed to reflect the dominance of National Socialism and amaze with its size (length 441 m). Speer erected the building in just one year.

3. Strictly speaking, Ernst Kaltenbrunner was the third head of the RSHA - after the death of Heydrich, Himmler himself performed the duties of head of the Office for some time.

4. Paladin ( lat. palatinus, letters."palace") - the name of the highest court, military and civil ranks at the court of the Roman and Byzantine emperors; a knight from the upper class, fanatically devoted to any idea or any person.

5. Ian Kershaw. Hitler. Vol. 2. P. 801.

6. Joseph (Sepp) Dietrih ( German Josef Dietrich was an SS Oberstgruppenführer and Colonel General of the SS troops. At one time he was Hitler's personal bodyguard. In 1944 he commanded the 6th tank army SS. From March 1945 he fought in Hungary.

7. Speer's visit is described in some detail in the book: H. R. Trevor-Roper. The Last Days of Hitler. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1947. pp. 135–136.

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