The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany

by William L. Shirer

34. Zeller, op. cit., p. 372, n.10, quotes an officer who was present.

  35. The account of the executions was later related by the prison warder, Hans Hoffmann, a second warden and the photographer, and is given in Wheeler-Bennett, Nemesis, pp. 683–84, among others.

  36. Wilfred von Oven, Mit Goebbels bis zum Ende, II, p. 118.

  37. Ritter, op. cit., pp. 419–29, gives the details of this interesting sidelight.

  38. This figure is given in a commentary in the records of the Fuehrer’s conferences on naval affairs (FCNA, 1944, p. 46) and is accepted by Zeller, op. cit., p. 283. Pechel, op. cit., who found the official “Execution Register,” says, p. 327, there were 3,427 executions recorded in 1944, though a few of these probably were not connected with the July 20 plot.

  39. Schlabrendorff, op. cit., pp. 119–20. I have altered the English text here given to make it conform more to the original German.

  40. Gen. Blumentritt gave this account to Liddell Hart (The German Generals Talk, pp. 217–23).

  41. Ibid., There is considerable source material on the Paris end of the plot, including the account given by Speidel in his book and numerous articles in German magazines by eyewitnesses. The best over-all account has been rendered by Wilhelm von Schramm, an Army archivist stationed in the West: Der 20 Juli in Paris.

  42. Felix Gilbert, op. cit., p. 101.

  43. Speidel, op. cit., p. 152. My account of the death of Rommel is based on, besides Speidel, who questioned Frau Rommel and other witnesses, the following sources: two reports written by the Field Marshal’s son, Manfred, the first for British intelligence, quoted by Shulman, op. cit., pp. 138–39, the second for The Rommel Papers, ed. by Liddell Hart, pp. 495505; and Gen. Keitel’s interrogation by Col. John H. Amen on Sept. 28, 1945, at Nuremberg (NCA, Suppl. B, pp. 1256–71). Desmond Young, op. cit., has also given a full account, based on talks with the Rommel family and friends and on Gen. Maisel’s denazification trial after the war.

  44. TMWC, XXI, p. 47.

  45. Speidel, op. cit., pp. 155,172.

  46. Goerlitz, History of the German General Staff, p. 477.

  47. Guderian, op. cit., p. 273.

  48. Ibid., p. 276.

  49. Liddell Hart, The German Generals Talk, pp. 222–23.

  CHAPTER 30

  1. Speidel, op. cit., p. 147.

  2. British War Office interrogation, cited by Shulman, op. cit., p. 206.

  3. Fuehrer conference, Aug. 31,1944. Felix Gilbert, op. cit., p. 106.

  4. Fuehrer conference, March 13, 1943.

  5. United States Strategic Bombing Survey, Economic Report, Appendix, Table 15.

  6. From U.S. First Army G-2 reports, quoted by Shulman, op. cit., pp. 215–19.

  7. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe, p. 312.

  8. Rundstedt to Liddell Hart, The German Generals Talk, p. 229.

  9. Guderian, op. cit., pp. 305–6, 310.

  10. Manteuffel, in Freidin and Richardson (eds.), op. cit., p. 266.

  11. Fuehrer conference, Dec. 12,1944.

  12. Guderian, op. cit., p. 315.

  13. Ibid., p. 334.

  14. Albert Speer to Hitler, Jan. 30, 1945, TMWC, XLI.

  15. Guderian, op. cit., p. 336.

  16. Fuehrer conference, Jan. 27, 1945. This is included in Felix Gilbert, op. cit., pp. 111–32. I have slightly altered the sequence of the text.

  17. Fuehrer conference, undated, but probably on Feb. 19, 1945, since Adm. Doenitz notes the discussion in his record of that date. See FCNA, 1945, p. 49. Gilbert, op. cit., gives the Hitler quotation, p. 179.

  18. FCNA, 1945, pp. 50–51.

  19. Fuehrer conference, March 23, 1945. This is the last transcript preserved. Gilbert, op. cit., gives it in full, pp. 141–74.

  20. Testimony of Albert Speer at Nuremberg, TMWC, XVI, p. 492.

  21. Guderian, op. cit., pp. 341, 43.

  22. Text of Hitler’s order, FCNA, 1945, p. 90.

  23. Speer, TMWC, XVI, pp. 497–98. This section, including the quotations from Hitler and Speer, is taken from the letter’s testimony on the stand at Nuremberg on June 20, 1946, the text of which is given in TMWC, XVI; and from the documents which he presented in his defense, which are given in Vol. XLI.

  24. SHAEF intelligence summary, March 11, 1945. Quoted by Wilmot, op. cit., p. 690.

  CHAPTER 31

  1. Count Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk’s unpublished diary. I have given the essential extracts in End of a Berlin Diary, pp. 190–205.

  Trevor-Roper, in The Last Days of Hitler, also quotes from it. Trevor-Roper, the historian, who was a British intelligence officer during the war, was assigned the task of investigating the circumstances of Hitler’s end. The results are given in his brilliant book, to which all who attempt to write this final chapter of the Third Reich are indebted. I have availed myself of a number of other sources, especially the firsthand accounts of eyewitnesses such as Speer, Keitel, Jodl, Gen. Karl Koller, Doenitz, Krosigk, Hanna Reitsch, Capt. Gerhardt Boldt and Capt. Joachim Schultz, as well as one of Hitler’s women secretaries and his chauffeur.

  2. Gerhardt Boldt, In the Shelter with Hitler, Ch. 1. Capt. Boldt was A.D.C. to Guderian and then to Gen. Krebs, the last Chief of the Army General Staff, and spent the final days in the bunker.

  3. Albert Zoller, Hitler Privat, pp. 203–5. According to the French edition (Douze Ans auprès d’Hitler) Zoller was a captain in the French Army attached as interrogation officer to the U.S. Seventh Army and in this capacity questioned one of Hitler’s four women secretaries; later, in 1947, he collaborated with her in the writing of this book of recollections of the Fuehrer. She is probably Christa Schroeder, who served Hitler as stenographer from 1933 to a week before his end.

  4. Krosigk’s diary.

  5. Ibid.

  6. Quoted by Wilmot, op. cit., p. 699.

  7. Trevor-Roper, op. cit., p. 100. The account was given by one of Goebbels’ secretaries, Frau Inge Haberzettel.

  8. Michael A. Musmanno, Ten Days to Die, p. 92. Judge Musmanno, a U.S. Navy intelligence officer during the war, personally interrogated the survivors who had been with Hitler during his last days.

  9. Keitel interrogation, NCA, Suppl. B, p. 1294.

  10. NCA, VI, p. 561 (N.D. 3734–PS). This is a lengthy summary of a U.S. Army interrogation of Hanna Reitsch on the last days of Hitler in the bunker. She later repudiated parts of her statement, but Army authorities have confirmed its substantial accuracy as containing what she said during the interrogation on Oct. 8, 1945. Though Frl. Reitsch is a highly hysterical person, or was during the months that followed her harrowing experience in the bunker, her account, when checked against the evidence of the others, is a valuable record of Hitler’s very last days.

  11. Gen. Karl Koller, Der letzte Monat, p. 23. This is Roller’s diary covering the period from April 14 to May 27, 1945, and is an invaluable source for the last days of the Third Reich.

  12. Keitel in his interrogation at Nuremberg, NCA, Suppl. B, pp. 1275–79. Jodl’s account was given to Gen. Koller the same night and recorded in the latter’s diary of April 22–23. See Koller, op. cit., pp. 30–32.

  13. Trevor-Roper, op. cit., pp. 124, 126–27. The author gives Berger’s account, he says, “with some reservations.”

  14. Keitel recalled the remark in his interrogation, loc. cit., p. 1277. Jodl’s version is in Koller’s diary, op. cit., p. 31.

  15. Bernadotte, The Curtain Falls, p. 114; Schellenberg, op. cit., pp. 399–400. They agree substantially in their versions of the meeting.

  16. Speer on the stand at Nuremberg, TMWC, XVI, pp. 554–55.

  17. Hanna Reitsch interrogation, loc. cit., pp. 554–55.

  18. Ibid., All the subsequent quotations and the events described by Hanna Reitsch are taken from this interrogation and are found in NCA, VI, pp. 551–71 (N.D. 3734–PS). They will not therefore be cited in each case.

  19. Keitel, in his interrogation, loc. cit., pp. 1281–82, quoted the message from memory. The German naval records give a s
imilarly worded radio message from Hitler to Jodl dated 7:52 P.M., April 29 (FCNA, 1945, p. 120), and Schultz’s OKW Diary (p. 51), which gives the same text, records it as received by Jodl at 11 P.M. on April 29. This is probably an error, since by that hour of that evening Hitler, judging by his actions, no longer cared where any army was.

  20. Trevor-Roper, op. cit., p. 163, gives the first message. The second I have found in the Navy’s records, FCNA, 1945, p. 120. The further message from the naval liaison officer in the bunker, Adm. Voss, is also given in FCNA, p. 120.

  21. The text of Hitler’s Political Testament and personal will is given in N.D. 3569–PS. A copy of his marriage certificate was also presented at Nuremberg. I have given the texts of all three in End of a Berlin Diary, pp. 177–83, n. A rather hastily written English translation of the will and testament is published in NCA; VI, pp. 259–63. The original German is in TMWC, XLI, under the Speer documents.

  22. Gen. Koller, op. cit., p. 79, gives the text of Bormann’s radiogram.

  23. The text of Goebbels’ appendix was presented at the Nuremberg trial. I have given it in End of a Berlin Diary, p. 183n.

  24. Kempka’s account of the death of Hitler and his bride is given in two sworn statements published in NCA, VI, pp. 571–86 (N.D. 3735–PS).

  25. Juergen Thorwald, Das Ende an der Elbe, p. 224.

  26. This account of the death of the Goebbels family is given by Trevor-Roper, op. cit., pp. 212–14, and is based largely on the later testimony of Schwaegermann, Axmann and Kempka.

  27. Joachim Schultz, Die letzten 30 Tage, pp. 81–85. These notes are based on the OKW diaries for the last month of the war and I have used them to bolster a good many pages of this chapter. The book is one of several published under the direction of Thorwald under the general title Dokumente zur Zeitgeschichte.

  28. Eisenhower, op. cit., p. 426.

  29. End of a Berlin Diary.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Though for this book, as for all others that I have written, I have done my own research and planning, I owe a great deal to a number of persons and institutions for their generous help during the five years that this work was in the making.

  The late Jack Goodman, of Simon and Schuster, and Joseph Barnes, my editor at this publishing house, got me started and Barnes, an old friend from our days as correspondents in Europe, stuck it out over many ups and downs, offering helpful criticism at every turn. Dr. Fritz T. Epstein, of the Library of Congress, a fine scholar and an authority on the captured German documents, guided me through the mountains of German papers. A good many others also came to my aid in this. Among them were Telford Taylor, chief counsel for the prosecution at the Nuremberg war crimes trials, who already has published two volumes of a military history of the Third Reich. He loaned me documents and books from his private collection and proferred much good advice.

  Professor Oron J. Hale, of the University of Virginia, chairman of the American Committee for the Study of War Documents, American Historical Association, led me to much useful material, including the results of some of his own research, and one hot summer day in 1956 did me a signal service by yanking me out of the manuscript room of the Library of Congress and sternly advising me to get back to the writing of this book lest I spend the rest of my life peering into the German papers, which one easily could do. Dr. G. Bernard Noble, chief of the Historical Division of the State Department, and Paul R. Sweet, a Foreign Service officer in the Department, who was one of the American editors of the Documents on German Foreign Policy, also helped me through the maze of Nazi papers. At the Hoover Library at Stanford University, Mrs. Hildegard R. Boeninger, by mail, and Mrs. Agnes F. Peterson, in person, were generous of their aid. At the Department of the Army, Colonel W. Hoover, acting Chief of Military History, and Detmar Finke, of his staff, put me on the track of German military records, of which this office has a unique collection.

  Hamilton Fish Armstrong, editor of Foreign Affairs, took a personal interest in seeing me through this book, as did Walter H. Mallory, then executive director of the Council on Foreign Relations. To the Council, to Frank Altschul and to the Overbrook Foundation I am grateful for a generous grant which enabled me to devote all of my time to this book during its final year of preparation. I must also thank the staff of the Council’s excellent library, on whose members I made many wearisome demands. The staff of the New York Society Library also experienced this and, despite it, proved most patient and understanding.

  Lewis Galantière and Herbert Kriedman were good enough to read most of the manuscript and to offer much valuable criticism. Colonel Truman Smith, who was a U.S. military attaché in Berlin when Adolf Hitler first began his political career in the early Twenties and later after he came to power, put at my disposal some of his notebooks and reports, which shed light on the beginnings of National Socialism and on certain aspects of it later. Sam Harris, a member of the U.S. prosecution staff at Nuremberg and now an attorney in New York, made available the TMWC Nuremberg volumes and much additional unpublished material. General Franz Halder, Chief of the German Army General Staff during the first three years of the war, was most generous in answering my inquiries and in pointing the way to German sources. I have mentioned elsewhere the value to me of his unpublished diary, a copy of which I kept at my side during the writing of a large part of this book. George Kennan, who was serving in the U.S. Embassy in Berlin at the beginning of the war, has refreshed my memory on certain points of historical interest. Several old friends and colleagues from my days in Europe, John Gunther, M. W. Fodor, Kay Boyle, Sigrid Schultz, Dorothy Thompson, Whit Burnett and Newell Rogers, discussed various aspects of this work with me—to my profit. And Paul R. Reynolds, my literary agent, provided encouragement when it was most needed.

  Finally I owe a great debt to my wife, whose knowledge of foreign languages, background in Europe and experience in Germany and Austria were of great help in my research, writing and checking. Our two daughters, Inga and Linda, on vacation from college, aided in a dozen necessary chores.

  To all these and to others who have helped in one way or another, I express my gratitude. The responsibility for the book’s shortcomings and errors is, of course, exclusively my own.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  This book is based principally on the captured German documents, the interrogations and testimony of German military officers and civilian officials, the diaries and memoirs which some of them have left, and on my own experience in the Third Reich.

  Millions of words from the German archives have been published in various series of volumes, and millions more have been collected or microfilmed and deposited in libraries—in this country chiefly the Library of Congress and the Hoover Library at Stanford University—and in the National Archives at Washington. In addition, the Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, at Washington is in possession of a vast collection of German military records.

  Of the published volumes of documents the most useful for my purposes have been three series. The first is Documents on German Foreign Policy, Series D, comprising a large selection in English translation of the papers of the German Foreign Office from 1937 to the summer of 1940. Through the courtesy of the State Department I have been given access to a number of additional German Foreign Office papers, not yet translated or published, which deal primarily with Germany’s declaration of war on the United States.

  Two series of published documents dealing with the main Nuremberg trial have been invaluable in taking one behind the scenes in the Third Reich. The first is the forty-two-volume Trial of the Major War Criminals, of which the first twenty-three volumes contain the text of the testimony at the trial and the remainder the text of the documents accepted in evidence, which are published in their original language, mostly German. Additional documents, interrogations and affidavits collected for that trial and translated rather hurriedly into English are published in the ten-volume series Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression. Unfortunately, the extremely v
aluable testimony given before the commissioners of the International Military Tribunal is mostly omitted from the latter series and is available only in mimeographed form on deposit with a few leading libraries.

  There were twelve subsequent trials at Nuremberg, conducted by United States military tribunals, but the fifteen bulky published volumes of testimony and documents presented at these trials, titled Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals, contain less than one tenth of the material. However, the rest may be found in mimeograph or photostats in some libraries. Summaries of other trials which shed much light on the Third Reich may be found in Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals, published by His Majesty’s Stationery Office in London, 1947–49.

  Of the unpublished German documents other than the rich collections in the Hoover Library, the Library of Congress and the National Archives—which contain, among other things, the Himmler files and a number of Hitler’s private papers—one of the most valuable finds has been that of the so-called “Alexandria Papers,” a good proportion of which have now been microfilmed and deposited at the National Archives. Information about a number of other captured papers will be found in the notes. Among the unpublished German material, incidentally, is General Halder’s diary—seven volumes of typescript with annotations added by the General after the war to clarify certain passages—which I found to be one of the most valuable records of the Third Reich.