Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis (Allen Lane History)

by Ian Kershaw

  171. TBJG, II/15, 525 (17 March 1945); and see also 532–3 (18 March 1945), 634 (30 March 1945).

  172. See TBJG, II/15, 649 (31 March 1945).

  173. See Guderian, 426.

  174. See Boldt, 40–46 for the comparison (40, for the description of Keitel).

  175. TBJG, II/15, 567 (22 March 1945), 615–16 (28 March 1945).

  176. TBJG, II/15, 648 (31 March 1945). Hitler blamed Guderian, at the same time, for the winter crisis of 1941–2.

  177. Guderian, 428–9, and see, for Krebs, 415–16.

  178. TBJG, II/15, 606–7 (27 March 1945).

  179. TBJG, II/15, 614–15, 617, 622–3 (28 March 1945); also 643 (31 March 1945), 678 (4 April 1945).

  180. TBJG, II/15, 648 (31 March 1945).

  181. TBJG, II/15, 616 (28 March 1945).

  182. TBJG, II/15, 621 (28 March 1945).

  183. Bormann Letters, 177–8 (7 February 1945).

  184. See Rebentisch, 530.

  185. TBJG, II/15, 613 (28 March 1945).

  186. Orlow, ii.479–80.

  187. TBJG, II/15,677 (4 April 1945).

  188. Rebentisch, 529; Longerich, Hitlers Stellvertreter, 201–2.

  189. Cit. Kurt Pätzold and Manfred Weißbecker, Geschichte der NSDAP 1920–1945, Cologne, 1981, 379.

  190. Benz, Graml, and Weiß, Enzyklopädie, 802–4. For Goebbels’s criticism of both ‘Werwolf’ and ‘Freikorps Adolf Hitler’ – a brainchild of Robert Ley – see TBJG, II/15, 637–8 (30 March 1945).

  191. Cit. Longerich, Hitlers Stellvertreter, 202.

  192. See Pätzold/Weißbecker, 377; Orlow, ii.482.

  193. TBJG, II/15, 672 (4 April 1945).

  194. Trevor-Roper, 140–43.

  195. TBJG, II/15, 638–9 (30 March 1945).

  196. Speer, 467.

  197. Trevor-Roper, 140–42; Speer, 467.

  198. Below, 408.

  199. Kesselring, 265.

  200. Gruchmann, Der Zweite Weltkrieq, 429; Ludewig, 383–4.

  201. See Gruchmann, Der Zweite Weltkrieg, 433; Parker, Struggle for Survival, 221; Weinberg III, 820–21; Irving, HW, 790; Boldt, 113. As a consequence, Hitler had removed a number of divisions from Army Group Vistula and transferred them to Army Group Centre and Army Group South.

  202. Weisungen, 355–6.

  203. Weisungen, 357–8.

  204. Gruchmann, Der Zweite Weltkrieg, 436; DZW, vi.696–7; Irving, HW, 801–2.

  205. KTB OKW, iv/2, 1438–9.

  206. DZW, vi.686–703; Gruchmann, Der Zweite Weltkrieg, 435–7; see Below, 409–10.

  207. Schroeder, 200; IfZ, ED 100, Irving-Sammlung, Traudl Junge Memoirs, Fol.126; Galante, 14 (Junge).

  CHAPTER 17: EXTINCTION

  1. Below, 407–8, refers to Eva Braun’s return in late March. Schroeder, 168, has February, as does (without any precise indication of the date) Gun, Eva Braun-Hitler, 181. Speer noted (Speer, 468) that she came to Berlin ‘surprisingly and without being summoned’ in the first half of April. Irving, HW, 793 (without source reference) gives a specific date, 15 April. Joachimsthaler, 472 n.23 (also without source reference), provides an equally specific – but different – date: 7 March.

  2. Based on Linge, Bis zum Untergang, 270–72; and also IfZ, ZS 194, the post-war recollections of Hitler’s Munich housekeeper, Anni Winter, Fol.4, noting what she had been told by the wife of Hitler’s major-domo, Arthur Kannenberg. According to this account, Hitler had needed assistance in walking when leaving his room to meet his staff.

  3. Linge, Bis zum Untergang, 272.

  4. IfZ, ED 100, Irving-Sammlung, Traudl Junge Memoirs, Fol.126: ‘20.April 1945 – Hitlers Geburtstag!… Die ersten russischen Panzer standen vor Berlin. Der Donner der Infanteriegeschütze drang bis in das Gebiet der Reicbskanzlei. Der Fübrer empfing die Glückwünscbe seiner Getreuen. Alle kamen, drückten ihm die Hand, gelobten Treue, und versuchten, ihn zum Verlassen der Stadt zu bewegen…. Draussen im Park dekorierte er Hitlerjungen. Kinder waren es, die sich ausgezeichnet batten im Kampf gegen russische Panzer. Wollte er sich auf diese Verteidigung verlassen?…’ (‘20 April 1945 – Hitler’s birthday. The first Russian tanks were on the approaches to Berlin. The thunder of infantry guns could even be heard in the Reich Chancellery. The Führer received the congratulations of his loyal supporters. All came, shook his hand, vowed loyalty, and tried to persuade him to leave the city… Outside in the park, he decorated boys from the Hitler Youth. They were children who had distinguished themselves in the fight against Russian tanks. Did he want to depend upon this defence?…)’ See also Galante, 141 (Junge), with some inaccuracy in translation; and Joachimsthaler, 141.

  5. Linge, Bis zum Untergang, 273–4; Speer, 477; Keitel, 342; Joachimsthaler, 139–41.

  6. Schroeder, 200.

  7. Speer, 477; Linge, Bis zum Untergang, 274.

  8. Karl Koller, Der letzte Monat. Die Tagebucbaufzeichnungen des ehemaligen Chefs des Genetalstabes der deutschen Luftwaffe vom 14. April bis 27. Mai 1945, Mannheim, 1949, 16–17.

  9. Keitel, 343.

  10. Speer, 477; Below, 410–11; Boldt, 116.

  11. Irving, Goring, 452–9; for Carinhall’s fate after the end of the war, see Knopf and Martens, Görings Reich, 145ff

  12. Speer, 477–8; Below, 410; Linge, Bis zum Untergang, 274; Koller, 18; Irving, Göring, 459–60.

  13. Joachimsthaler, 140–41. Weisungen, 357, does not make clear that this additional order followed five days after the initial directive.

  14. Cit. Joachimsthaler, 140.

  15. Michael A. Musmanno Collection, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, interview with Admiral Karl-Jesko von Puttkamer, 3 April 1948, FF53, Fols.8–10; Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York, Toland Tapes, V/8/3; Below, 410–11; Speer, 478; Joachimsthaler, 139.

  16. Schroeder, 200.

  17. Schroeder, 203.

  18. Joachimsthaler, 143. One plane, carrying Wilhelm Arndt, one of his servants, and remaining personal possessions of Hitler and Eva Braun, crashed near Börnersdorf in Saxony. See also Robert Harris, Selling Hitler, London, 1986, 29–32.

  19. Below, 411.

  20. IfZ, ED 100, Irving-Sammlung, Traudl Junge Memoirs, Fols. 126–8; Galante, 141–2 (Junge). Traudl Junge vigorously defended her version long after the war against those who denied that there had been any such jollifications (Library of Congress, Toland Tapes, C-86). Gerda Daranowski Christian (Tape C-64) stated that there had been no parties in the bunker itself, which was in any case too cramped for such events; but Junge had described a gathering above ground, in the partly ruined Reich Chancellery.

  21. This was the news that he promptly imparted to Luftwaffe Chief of Staff Karl Koller: ‘Early in the morning Hitler rang. “Do you know that Berlin is under artillery fire? The city centre.” (‘Am frühen Morgen ruft Hitler an. “Wissen Sie, daβ Berlin unter Artilleriefeuer liegt? Das Stadtzentrum.”)’ (Koller, 20; also KTB OKW, iv.2, 1685 (entry of 21 April 1945)).

  22. Koller, 20–21.

  23. Koller, 21.

  24. Koller, 22–3, 26.

  25. Koller, 23.

  26. Cit. DZW, vi.705; Joachimsthaler, 146.

  27. DZW, vi.705; Joachimsthaler, 146; Boldt, 117–18.

  28. Keitel, 344–5.

  29. DZW, vi.705.

  30. Speer, 471, 479.

  31. ‘Die Vernehmung des Generaloberst Jodl durch die Sowjets’, Wehrwissenschaftliche Rundschau, 11 (1966), 534–42, here 535: ‘Ich werde so lange kämpfen, solange ich noch einen Soldaten habe. Wenn mich der letzte Soldat verläßt, werde ich mich erschießen.’

  32. Koller, 25. See also the telegram sent to Mussolini on 21 April, speaking of ‘the spirit of dogged contempt of death’, in which the German people would halt the assault of ‘Bolshevism and the troop of Jewry’ set upon ‘plunging our continent into chaos’ (Domarus, 2226).

  33. Cit. Irving, Doctor, 219. See also IfZ, ED 100, Irving-Sammlung, Traudl Junge Memoirs, Fol. 143.

  34. Keitel, 346.

  35. Koller, 27–8.

&nb
sp; 36. Below, 411.

  37. Koller, 29, comments of Eckhard Christian.

  38. Joachimsthaler, 150–51 (photocopy of a report – ‘Meldung über Führerlage am 22.4.1945’ – by Oberleutnant Hans Volck, adjutant of Major-General Eckhard Christian, from 25 April 1945, containing an extract from notes of General Karl Koller’s discussion with Jodl of 23 April 1945, dated 25 April 1945), and 148–54 (post-war accounts); Koller, 28–33; Keitel, 346–8; and ‘Die Vernehmung von Generalfeldmarschall Keitel durch die Sowjets’, Wehrwissenschaftliche Rundschau, 11 (1966), 651–62, here 656 (for Hitler’s angry ejection of Keitel from the room, and Keitel’s remark to Jodl: ‘That’s the collapse’ (‘Das ist der Zusammenbruch’); IfZ, ED 100, Irving-Sammlung, Traudl Junge Memoirs, Fols.130–32; Galante, 2–3 (Junge); Boldt, 121–3. See also Trevor-Roper, 157ff.

  39. Joachimsthaler, 152 (account of Schaub); IfZ, ED 100, Irving-Sammlung, Traudl Junge Memoirs, Fols.131–2, describes Hitler standing in the small ante-chamber to his room ‘motionless. His face has lost all expression, his eyes are dim. He looks like his own death-mask.’ [‘In dem kleinen Vorraum vor seinem Zimmer steht Hitler regungslos. Sein Gesicht hat jeden Ausdruckverloren, die Augen sind erloschen. Er sieht aus wie seine eigene Totenmaske.’)

  40. IfZ, ED 100, Irving-Sammlung, Traudl Junge Memoirs, Fols.131–2, 137 (slightly revised text); Galante, 2–3 (Junge, with inaccurate translation). In a letter to her sister, Gretl Braun-Fegelein, the next day, 23 April, Eva stated that Hitler had ‘lost all hope of a desirable conclusion (Der Führer selbst hat jeden Glauben an einen glücklichen Ausgang verloren)’, and that they would not let themselves be captured alive. She made arrangements to pass some of her jewellery to Gretl, and also asked her to destroy some private letters, including an envelope addressed to the Führer. (NA, Washington, NND 901065, Folder 5, text and translation of letter from Eva Braun to Gretl Braun Fegelein, 23 April 1945.)

  41. Joachimsthaler, 150 (Volck report).

  42. Reuth, Goebbels, 599–600.

  43. See Linge, Bis zum Untergang; 275.

  44. Koller, 29–30.

  45. Koller, 29.

  46. Linge, Bis zum Untergang, 275.

  47. KTB OKW, iv/2, 1454.

  48. Joachimsthaler, 156.

  49. DZW, vi.711.

  50. This idea was in any case already next day given up by Keitel, after speaking to Jodl, as impractical (Keitel, 352).

  51. Keitel, 348; KTB OKW, iv/2, 1454.

  52. Michael A. Musmanno Collection, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, interview with Julius Schaub (March, 1948), FF39a, Fols.2–3, 7; Amtsgericht Laufen, Verfahren des Amtsgerichts Berchtesgaden zur Todeserklärung bzw. Feststellung der Todeszeit von Adolf Hitler, testimony of Otto Günsche, 19–21.6.56, Bl.9; Joachimsthaler, 157 (testimony of Günsche and Schaub); Below, 411; Michael A. Musmanno, Ten Days to Die, London, 1951, 32. Traudl Junge (IfZ, ED 100, Irving-Sammlung, Traudl Junge Memoirs, Fol.139; Galante, 3 (Junge)), stated that Schaub flew out that day (22 April). (Earlier in her text (Fol.133), Junge had ‘am nächsten Morgen’ (i.e. 23 April) for packing a chest with documents and Schaub reluctantly leaving to fly south.) Schaub repeated in his Musmanno interview that he left on 25 April.

  53. Below, 412; IfZ, ED 100, Irving-Sammlung, Traudl Junge Memoirs, Fol.133; Galante, 3 (Junge); Joachimsthaler, 158.

  54. Michael A. Musmanno Collection, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, testimony of Major Bernd von Loringhoven, 14 March 1948, FF51, Fol.41 (quotations in English); Joachimsthaler, 152. See also Koller, 29.

  55. KTB OKW, iv/2, 1454; Boldt, 123; Domarus, 2228; Joachimsthaler, 160–61.

  56. ’ “… warum dann überhaupt noch leben!” Hitlers Lagebesprechungen am 23., 25. und 27. April 1945’, Der Spiegel, 10 January 1966, 32–46, here 32–3. The typescripts of the briefings (Lagebesprechungen) are contained in PRO, WO208/3791, Fols.89–111.

  57. The initiative for this had come from Goebbels in mid-March. (LB Darmstadt, 343–5 (23 March 1945).)

  58. Speer, 479–81. And see Sereny, Albert Speer, 517–19, 523–33; Fest, Speer, 360–65.

  59. Speer, 482–3.

  60. Once Keitel had departed, only General Krebs, Chief of the General Staff, supported by his junior officers Major Bernd Freiherr von Freytag-Loringhoven and Captain of Cavalry Gerhard Boldt, and Wehrmacht adjutant General Burgdorf remained of the military advisers. Liaison with Dönitz continued to be maintained through Admiral Voß; Below provided the links with the Luftwaffe. (Keitel, 348–9; Below, 412. See also Trevor-Roper, 181, for the personnel remaining in the bunker after 25 April.)

  61. Speer, 483–4.

  62. Koller, 35–40. Text: Below, 412; Domarus, 2228 n.165; Joachimsthaler, 162.

  63. Speer, 485–6; Lang, Der Sekretär, 329–30.

  64. Koller, 42–3; Schroeder, 210–11.

  65. Speer, 487–8.

  66. Keitel, 366; Irving, HW, 803.

  67. Joachimsthaler, 163–4; Irving, HW 811–12. For Weidling’s account of his meeting with Hitler, see ‘Der Endkampf in Berlin (23.4–2.5.1945)’, Wehrwissenschaftliche Rundschau, 12/I (1962), 40–52, 111–18, 169–74, here 43. He found Hitler, face like a ‘smiling mask (gleich einer lächelnden Maske)’, both hands and one of his legs constantly trembling, hardly able to rise from his seat.

  68. Joachimsthaler, 164–7; Boldt, 142–5. Towards the end of March, Eisenhower had changed the strategic plan of the western Allies. Concerned about the possibility of prolonged fighting even once the war had ended, centred on notions of a ‘National Redoubt’ in the Alps, probably with its headquarters at the Berghof, he made no attempt to advance on Berlin but, instead, directed US forces to the south of the capital into Saxony, into what had been foreseen as the Soviet zone after the war. It was as part of this advance that soldiers from the 1st US Army met Konev’s troops on 25 April at Torgau.

  69. For a description, see Schroeder, 211–12; also Koller, 49, 51.

  70. ‘Hitlers Lagebesprechungen’, Der Spiegel, 1966, 34.

  71. Keitel, 356.

  72. ‘Hitlers Lagebesprechungen’, Der Spiegel, 1966, 34 (and 37–8 for similar comments). See also Boldt, 145–6 for Hitler’s reaction to news of what turned out to be minor disagreements between Soviet and American commanders when they met at Torgau.

  73. ‘Hitlers Lagebesprechungen’, Der Spiegel, 1966, 37.

  74. ‘Hitlers Lagebesprechungen’, Der Spiegel, 1966, 34.

  75. ‘Hitlers Lagebesprechungen’, Der Spiegel, 1966, 37–9.

  76. Boldt, 150.

  77. Boldt, 149.

  78. Boldt, 157.

  79. Joachimsthaler, 168.

  80. Boldt, 153.

  81. Koller, 48; Hanna Reitsch, Fliegen – Mein Leben, Stuttgart, 1951, 292ff. (and for the following); also NA, Washington, NND 901065, Folder, 2, US interrogation of Hanna Reitsch, 8 October 1945, Fols. 1–14; and PRO, London, WO208/4475, Fols.7–8 of undated (1945?) intelligence report on Hanna Reitsch.

  82. Koller, 60–61; Trevor-Roper, 186–91; Below, 413–14; ΝA, Washington, NND 901065, Folder, 2, US interrogation of Hanna Reitsch, 8 October 1945, Fol. 4.

  83. ‘Hitlers Lagebesprechungen’, Der Spiegel, 1966, 40–2.

  84. KTB OKW, iv/2, 1460; Joachimsthaler, 171–2.

  85. Lew Besymenski, Die letzten Notizen von Martin Bormann. Ein Dokument und sein Verfasser, Stuttgart, 1974, 230–31.

  86. ‘Hitlers Lagebesprechungen’, Der Spiegel, 1966, 42–4.

  87. Boldt, 160.

  88. Below, 414.

  89. ‘Hitlers Lagebesprechungen’, Der Spiegel, 1966, 44–5.

  90. Linge, Bis zum Untergang, 277.

  91. Joachimsthaler, 442ff., especially 464ff.; Schroeder, 167–9.

  92. Joachimsthaler, 464–5; Trevor-Roper, 191–5; Boldt, 167.

  93. KTB OKW, iv/2, 1461–2 (quotation 1462).

  94. Cit. Trevor-Roper, 198; Lang, Der Sekretär, 334; Olaf Groehler, Das Ende der Reichskanzlei, East Berlin, 1974, 29 (none with source reference). See also Bormann’s entry for 28 April in his
desk diary: ‘Our Reich Chancellery is turned into a heap of ruins (Unsere RK [Reichskanzlei] wird zum Trümmerhaufen)’ (Besymenski, Die letzten Notizen, 230–1). Trevor-Roper noted that Bormann sent the message to Puttkamer at Munich. But Puttkamer’s own later accounts give no indication that he flew to Munich, and suggest that his destination was Salzburg, before travelling to Berchtesgaden. (Michael A. Musmanno Collection, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, interview with Admiral Karl-Jesko von Puttkamer, 3 April 1948; FF53, Fols.8–10; Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York, Toland Tapes, V/8/3.) If indeed the message was sent to Munich, it must have sent on the Party’s telegraph line and been relayed from Munich – presumably from a Party Headquarters on its last legs – to Puttkamer in Berchtesgaden.

  95. Besymenski, Die letzten Notizen, 230–3.

  96. Below, 415.

  97. KTB OKW, iv/2, 1463. Domarus, 2232 appears to conflate the two separate reports, that of the afternoon and that of the evening.

  98. Below, 415. Below is confused in the chronology of Fegelein’s escapade in connection with the news of Himmler’s behaviour, but his comments otherwise fit the differing responses to the afternoon and evening reports.

  99. Cit. Joachimsthaler, 182–3; and Groehler, Das Ende der Reichskanzlei, 30. See also Trevor-Roper, 198, 202; Boldt, 169; Below, 415.

  100. This was the trigger to Hitler’s explosion. See the letter to Wenck (though never reaching him) from Bormann, referring to Himmler’s ‘proposal to the Anglo-Americans which delivers our people unconditionally to the plutocrats. A change can only by brought about by the Führer himself, and only by him.’ (‘… hat der Reichsführer SS Himmler den Anglo-Amerikanern einen Vorschlag gemacht, der unser Volk bedingungslos den Plutokraten ausliefert. Eine Wende kann nur vom Führer selbst herbeigeführt werden und nur von ihm!’) Cit. Groehler, Das Ende der Reich skanzlei, 31; Joachimsthaler, 185; and Olaf Groehler, Die Neue Reichskanzlei. Das Ende, Berlin, 1995, 60 (where it is referred to as a cable from Krebs and Bormann to Wenck, dispatched in the evening, not in the early hours).

  101. See Below, 406.

  102. The main first-hand accounts are Schellenberg, 170–87 (though touched up from the original diary; see Irving, HW, 610 n.4); and Graf Folke Bernadotte, Das Ende. Meine Verhandlungen in Deutschland im Fruhjahr 45 und ihre politischen Folgen, Zurich/New York, 1945. See also, for the Bernadotte dealings, Hesse, Das Spiel um Deutschland, 384–5, 429; Kleist, Die europäische Tragödie, 247–52; Kersten, 14–19 (introduction by H. R. Trevor-Roper) and 272–90; Trevor-Roper, 144–7, 155–6, 162–4, 170–3, 199–202; Padfield, Himmler, 565–96.