biography on hitler's final days

Life in the Führerbunker: Hitler's final days

‘It never entered my mind, even then, as the bombs rained down, that we would lose.’

Those were the words of Armin Lehmann, a fanatical, sixteen-year-old member of the Hitler Youth who, along with thousands of teenagers, had been transported to Berlin in early April 1945 to defend the city against the rapidly advancing Red Army. Lehmann was chosen as a courier, running messages backwards and forwards from the radio room of the Reich Chancellery to and from the diminishing figure of Adolf Hitler . By April, Hitler had permanently retired to an underground bomb shelter located close to the Chancellery known as the Führerbunker. Lehmann was to witness firsthand the final days of the man who had brought Germany to its knees.

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The bunker, which consisted of two connected shelters, was completed in stages between 1936 and 1944. Hitler took up residence in the lower bunker with his long-term partner, Eva Braun, and various staff members on the 16th of January 1945. Expensive carpets and rugs covered the floors and artworks taken from the Chancellery lined the walls, including Hitler’s favourite painting of Frederick the Great, which hung on the wall above his desk in his comfortable private quarters.

Hitler would spend a total of 105 days living in the bunker. As the net closed in on his regime, life for the staff in both the Chancellery and the bunker descended into drunkenness and decadence. Officers, among them Martin Bormann, Hitler’s unpopular brute of a private secretary, often laid into the Chancellery’s extensive wine cellar early in the day. A notorious womanizer, Bormann found plenty of takers in the increasingly cavalier atmosphere that took hold as the Soviets closed in.’

Hitler, meanwhile, took daily strolls around the elegant gardens of the Chancellery with his beloved German Shepherd dog, Blondi. It was one of his last remaining pleasures. However, as the Red Army began its final advance on the capital and shells began to rain down on the Chancellery and its gardens, even this was denied him.

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The last day Hitler ventured outside was on the morning of April the 20th. It was his 56th birthday. By this stage, he cut a very different figure from the triumphant conqueror of just five years before. Addicted to powerful opiates prescribed to him by his personal physician, Dr. Theodor Morell, visibly shaking from Parkinson’s Disease and looking much older than his age, the Führer made his way out to the now ruined Chancellery garden to hand out medals to children of the Hitler Youth.

As his previously loyal commanders began to desert him, Hitler realised the end of his rule was nigh

Amongst those meeting Hitler that day was Armin Lehmann. He received an Iron Cross from the Führer for bravery during a battle in which he had saved two of his comrades in early January. The boy couldn’t believe it when Hitler grabbed him by the cheek and gave his face a playful shake. ‘We all idolised Hitler,’ he later recalled. “We were dedicated to following his path unerringly even though we were dodging Allied bullets.’

6 times Hitler was almost assassinated

After his brief time outside, Hitler returned to his bunker and never came out again. The following day, he ordered what remained of his forces to attack the advancing Soviets, but his orders were ignored. On hearing this, Hitler flew into a rage and for the first time he acknowledged the war was lost. It was now only a matter of time before Berlin was overrun and the Soviets reached the Führerbunker.

Six days after realising the war was lost, Hitler received the news that Heinrich Himmler was trying to negotiate Germany’s surrender with the Americans. Apoplectic with rage over this betrayal, Hitler declared Himmler a traitor and had his SS representative, the loathsome Hermann Fegelein, taken out and shot. That Fegelein happened to be Eva Braun’s brother-in-law made no difference to the furious dictator.

As his previously loyal commanders began to desert him, Hitler realised the end of his rule was nigh. News reached him that Benito Mussolini had been captured, executed and his body hanged upside down from a lamppost in Milan. Determined not to share the same humiliation, Hitler decided to end his life. Eva Braun told Hitler she would die alongside him. For her unerring loyalty, Hitler finally decided to marry her.

The couple were married just after midnight on the 29th of April in a civil ceremony that involved both parties swearing they were of pure Aryan blood. A rather muted wedding reception was held after the ceremony while Hitler retired to his study with his secretary, Traudl Junge, to dictate his last will and testament. In it, he once again blamed the Jews for his and Germany’s ills.

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The following day, Hitler received word that the troops defending Berlin were rapidly running out of ammunition and it was only a matter of time before the encircling Soviet forces overran the bunker. Hitler realised his time had run out.

‘He was like a ghost - he didn't seem to see me or anyone,’ Lehmann later recalled. ‘He just stared ahead, lost in thought. At that moment, the bunker was shaken by a strong tremor as a bomb hit. Dirt and mortar trickled down on us, but he made no attempt to brush it off. He looked so much more unhealthy than 10 days earlier at his birthday reception when I had first met him. It looked like he was suffering from jaundice. His face was sallow.’

The lives of Hitler and Stalin: Two sides of the same coin

After instructing his physician to poison his dog Blondi to test the effectiveness of the cyanide capsules he and Eva intended to take, Hitler and his new bride said their goodbyes to the bunker staff and retired to their private quarters. There, Braun killed herself with cyanide and Hitler shot himself. As per his instructions, Hitler and Braun’s bodies were taken out into the Chancellery garden and burned. Because the grounds of the Chancellery were being almost constantly shelled by this stage, the guard charged with the hasty cremation dashed to the bunker entrance and tossed a lighter at the petrol-soaked bodies. As a result, The couple were married just after midnight on the 29th of April in a civil ceremony that involved both parties swearing they were of pure Aryan blood. A rather muted wedding reception was held after the ceremony while Hitler retired to his study with his secretary, Traudl Junge, to dictate his last will and testament. In it, he once again blamed the Jews for his and Germany’s ills.

The man who didn't shoot Hitler

After instructing his physician to poison his dog Blondi to test the effectiveness of the cyanide capsules he and Eva intended to take, Hitler and his new bride said their goodbyes to the bunker staff and retired to their private quarters. There, Braun killed herself with cyanide and Hitler shot himself. As per his instructions, Hitler and Braun’s bodies were taken out into the Chancellery garden and burned. Because the grounds of the Chancellery were being almost constantly shelled by this stage, the guard charged with the hasty cremation dashed to the bunker entrance and tossed a lighter at the petrol-soaked bodies. As a result, another guard who had not witnessed this dash to the door thought the bodies had spontaneously combusted.

History of the Berlin Wall

The following day, Magda Goebbels – who along with her husband Joseph and her six children had moved into the bunker April 22 – killed her children with the aid of an SS dentist. Goebbels and his wife then ascended into the gardens where they were shot dead or committed suicide (reports vary) and their bodies were burned. Their bodies were not buried, but instead left out on the crater-pitted ground to be discovered by Soviet troops two days later.

The remaining staff either committed suicide or made several bloody attempts to break out of the bunker and through the Soviet lines. Some made it out, many others did not. Armin Lehmann managed to evade capture by the Red Army. He was shot during his escape and later captured by American troops who treated his wounds. Martin Bormann was not so lucky. He managed to cross the river Spree, but his body was later seen lying dead on the ground by Hitler Youth leader Artur Axmann as he also made his escape.

The bunker was finally captured by Soviet forces on May 2. Inside, they found the six bodies of Magda Goebbels ’ murdered children. The bodies of Hitler and Braun were dug up and Hitler was later identified by his dental records. The bodies of Hitler, Braun, Hitler’s dogs and the Goebbels family were buried and exhumed several times before finally being crushed into dust and tossed into the river Elbe in 1970. Nothing now remains of Hitler save for a small section of his jaw and part of his skull.

The bunker was dynamited as part of the demolition of the Reich Chancellery between 1945 and 1949. The dynamite caused some damage, but most of the structure remained intact. Parts of the bunker were demolished when the area was developed in the 1990s, but quite a lot remains and there is now an ongoing debate in Germany over whether it should be opened up to tourists. In the meantime, all that now indicates that this was once the final bolt hole of a grotesque tyrant is a small information board next to a bare patch of ground.

And what of Armin Lehmann, the fanatically loyal teenager who was one of the last people to see Hitler alive? He was forced to witness for himself the monstrousness of the regime he supported when the Americans took him to see the horrors of a Nazi death camp. He renounced his Nazi faith that very same day and decided to become a peace activist. He spent the rest of his life travelling around the world promoting peace, tolerance and non-violence at events held in over 150 countries. He died in Coos Bay, Oregon on the 10th of October 2008.

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The last days Adolf Hitler and the controversial stories of his death

On April 30, 1945, as the final sounds of World War II echoing through the bomb-shattered streets of Berlin, Adolf Hitler, the infamous leader of Nazi Germany, met his end.

Hidden deep within the bowels of the Fuhrerbunker, a subterranean fortress, Hitler's final act closed a dark chapter in human history.

But, what do we know about what happened within those bleak, concrete walls?

Is there a chance that Hitler secretly escaped?

And what can the forensic and historical evidence tell us about the truth behind the dictator's death?

Hitler's desperate situation

As the Second World War neared its tumultuous conclusion, Adolf Hitler, once the unchallenged leader of Nazi Germany, faced his final days in a rapidly diminishing realm of power and influence.

By April 1945, the Allies had significantly weakened the German military, and Soviet forces were closing in on Berlin.

Amidst this backdrop, Hitler , along with a group of loyalists and officials, retreated to the Fuhrerbunker, a bunker complex beneath the Reich Chancellery in Berlin.

What was the Fuhrerbunker?

Constructed in two phases, with the first part completed in 1936 and the second, deeper section added in 1944, this subterranean fortress was designed to withstand the most severe bombings.

By April 1945, as the Allies closed in on Berlin, it became the epicenter of the Nazi regime's final chapter.

This bunker, with its air filtration system, walls up to 3.5 meters thick, and self-sufficient utilities, was a marvel of wartime engineering.

It consisted of approximately 30 small rooms, including Hitler's private quarters, conference rooms, and accommodations for staff and high-ranking officials.

Despite its fortifications, the bunker's atmosphere was claustrophobic, with low ceilings and narrow corridors.

The electric lights, necessary due to the lack of natural light, cast a harsh glow over its inhabitants, contributing to a pervasive sense of doom.

Who was in the Fuhrerbunker with Hitler?

As Adolf Hitler faced the inevitable collapse of the Third Reich, a select group of loyalists, officials, and personal staff accompanied him into the Fuhrerbunker.

This group comprised individuals who were either fiercely loyal to Hitler or who had nowhere else to turn as the Allies closed in on Berlin in April 1945.

Among the key figures who joined Hitler in the bunker was Eva Braun, his long-time companion, who had been a part of Hitler's private life for many years but had largely remained out of the public eye.

Braun's decision to stay with Hitler until the end was a testament to her loyalty to him.

Joseph Goebbels, the Reich Minister of Propaganda, was another prominent Nazi official in the bunker.

A fanatical supporter of Hitler, Goebbels was accompanied by his wife, Magda, and their six children.

Martin Bormann, Hitler's private secretary and head of the Party Chancellery, was also present.

Bormann was a powerful figure within the Nazi hierarchy and one of Hitler's closest confidants.

His presence in the bunker was indicative of his unwavering allegiance to Hitler.

Several military officers were also in the bunker, including General Wilhelm Burgdorf, General Hans Krebs, and SS-Brigadeführer Wilhelm Mohnke.

These men were responsible for various military aspects of the bunker's operation and defense of Berlin.

Other notable figures included Otto Günsche, Hitler's personal adjutant, and Heinz Linge, his valet.

Traudl Junge, one of Hitler's secretaries, was also present; she later provided detailed accounts of the final days in the bunker.

Rochus Misch, who served as a courier and telephone operator, provided additional eyewitness accounts of the atmosphere and events inside the bunker.

What was life like in the bunker?

As the sound of artillery grew louder each day, those inside lived in an increasingly isolated world.

Officers and staff tried to maintain a semblance of normalcy, with daily briefings and meals, but the reality of the impending defeat of the Third Reich was inescapable.

Despair was palpable among its occupants, many of whom would choose suicide in the bunker or shortly after leaving it.

Hitler's presence dominated the bunker. His daily routines, already unusual, became increasingly erratic as he grappled with the inevitability of defeat.

Meetings with generals and advisors often turned to delusional planning for a counter-offensive that would never materialize.

In contrast, Eva Braun, Hitler's companion, tried to maintain a cheerful demeanor, hosting small gatherings and maintaining her daily routines, even as the situation outside deteriorated.

The dramatic decline in Hitler's mental state

By April 22, following a briefing that revealed the encirclement of Berlin was complete and no military relief was in sight, Hitler suffered a complete emotional breakdown.

He acknowledged for the first time that the war was truly lost, and spoke openly of suicide.

In these last days, his health visibly deteriorated; he exhibited symptoms of Parkinson's disease, and his mental state was unstable.

April 28 brought another blow to Hitler's crumbling regime. News arrived that Benito Mussolini , the Fascist leader of Italy and Hitler's ally, had been executed by Italian partisans.

This event profoundly impacted Hitler, reinforcing his resolve not to be captured alive.

On April 29, as Soviet forces fought within a few blocks of the Chancellery, Hitler married his long-time companion Eva Braun in a brief midnight ceremony in the bunker.

Immediately after, he dictated his last will and testament, a document filled with defiance and delusion.

On April 30, with the Red Army less than 500 meters from the bunker, Hitler and Braun retired to a private room.

Sometime in the afternoon, they committed suicide—Hitler by a gunshot to his head and Braun by ingesting cyanide.

Their bodies were carried outside, doused in petrol, and set on fire, as per Hitler's instructions to prevent his remains from being paraded by the victors.

Did Hitler secretly escape the bunker?

While the predominant and widely accepted account is that Hitler committed suicide in his bunker on April 30, 1945, alternative theories have persisted over the years, fueling controversies and debates among historians and conspiracy theorists alike.

One of the most persistent alternative theories suggests that Hitler did not die in the bunker but instead escaped to South America, particularly Argentina, where a substantial German community existed.

Proponents of this theory argue that the lack of definitive forensic evidence and the chaos surrounding the fall of Berlin provided an opportunity for escape.

Despite its popularity in popular media, this theory lacks substantial evidence and is generally dismissed by mainstream historians.

Another theory posits that the bodies found and identified as Hitler and Eva Braun were actually doubles, used as decoys to facilitate their escape.

This theory also hinges on the assertion of inadequate forensic analysis, suggesting that the Soviets, who recovered the bodies, either deliberately propagated misinformation or made errors in their identification process.

However, this theory is undermined by testimonies from those inside the bunker, who confirmed Hitler's and Braun's deaths, as well as subsequent forensic analyses.

The controversy was further fueled by the Soviet Union 's initial secrecy and later contradictory statements about Hitler's death.

For a time, the Soviets neither confirmed nor denied Hitler's suicide, leading to speculation about his fate. It was not until years later that they publicly stated Hitler had died by suicide in the bunker.

Who were the eyewitnesses of Hitler's death?

Among the most notable eyewitnesses were Traudl Junge, Hitler's personal secretary; Otto Günsche, Hitler's SS adjutant; Heinz Linge, his valet; and Rochus Misch, a telephonist and courier.

Their accounts, given post-war, offer a harrowing glimpse into the bunker's claustrophobic world as the Third Reich crumbled.

Traudl Junge, who had worked for Hitler since 1942, provided detailed descriptions of the atmosphere within the bunker.

She recounted the daily routines and the palpable sense of despair as the Red Army encircled Berlin.

Junge described Hitler's mood swings, his decline in physical and mental health, and the strange normalcy that some tried to maintain, even as the end neared.

She was also a witness to Hitler's marriage to Eva Braun and was tasked with transcribing his last will and political testament.

Otto Günsche, who was responsible for guarding Hitler, offered insights into the Führer's final decisions and his state of mind.

Günsche was one of the last people to see Hitler and Braun alive before their suicides and was involved in the subsequent handling of their bodies, as per Hitler's instructions.

His testimony helped corroborate the method and timing of Hitler's death.

Heinz Linge, who served as Hitler's valet, provided a unique perspective on the personal aspects of Hitler's life during those last days.

Linge was responsible for maintaining Hitler's daily routine and was among those who first discovered the bodies of Hitler and Braun.

His account detailed the grim and chaotic aftermath within the bunker following their suicides.

Rochus Misch, who operated the telephones and served as a courier, offered a different angle, focusing on the communications and the mood among the staff.

Misch described the bunker as a place of uncertainty, fear, and resignation, witnessing the final breakdown of the Nazi hierarchy.

What the forensic evidence found

In the immediate aftermath of the war, the Allied forces, particularly the Soviets who had captured Berlin, were primarily responsible for investigating Hitler's death.

Their findings, along with later analyses, have played a significant role in piecing together the final moments of the Nazi leader.

Initially, the Soviet authorities were secretive about the details they uncovered.

It was only in the years following the war that they released information about the findings in the Fuhrerbunker.

The Soviets claimed to have found the partially burned remains of Hitler and Eva Braun near the bunker.

These remains were said to include a fragment of a skull with a gunshot wound and a fragment of a jaw, identified as Hitler's through dental records provided by his personal dentist, Hugo Blaschke, and his assistant.

This dental evidence became a cornerstone in confirming Hitler's identity, as the dental work matched records and descriptions provided by those who knew him.

In 2009, a study conducted by American researchers on the skull fragment held by the Russians revealed that it likely belonged to a woman under 40, not Hitler.

This revelation cast doubt on some aspects of the earlier Soviet findings but did not discount other evidence supporting Hitler's suicide.

Additionally, there were reports of the Soviets conducting autopsies on the supposed remains of Hitler and Braun, though detailed results of these autopsies were not widely disseminated and the remains were reportedly later destroyed.

This lack of transparency and the eventual destruction of physical evidence have been sources of skepticism and conspiracy theories.

Despite the questions raised by the 2009 study, the convergence of other forensic evidence, particularly the dental records, and eyewitness accounts have led most historians to continue to accept the conclusion that Hitler died by suicide in the bunker.

The dental records were extensively cross-examined with the accounts of his dentist and assistants, who were captured by the Americans and provided detailed descriptions of Hitler's dental work.

How the world reacted to news of Hitler's death

Hitler's suicide in the Fuhrerbunker occurred against the backdrop of the Battle of Berlin, one of the war's final and most brutal conflicts.

Just a week later, on May 7, 1945, Germany offered an unconditional surrender, effectively ending the war in Europe, a formal declaration of which was made on May 8, 1945, known as Victory in Europe (VE) Day.

The news of Hitler's death was met with a mix of reactions around the world.

For the Allies and those who had suffered under Nazi occupation, it was a moment of deep relief and a signal that the war's end was near.

Among the German populace and Nazi loyalists, it marked the definitive collapse of the regime they had followed, often with fanatical devotion.

In the immediate aftermath, there was chaos and a power vacuum in Germany, leading to internal struggles among Nazi officials and commanders.

Hitler's death paved the way for the Potsdam Conference in July-August 1945, where the leaders of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union made crucial decisions about the post-war order, the division of Germany, and the onset of the Cold War dynamics that would define global politics for decades.

Furthermore, the end of the war did not immediately alleviate the suffering of millions in Europe.

The continent was left ravaged by years of conflict, with countless cities in ruins, economies destroyed, and populations displaced.

The task of rebuilding was immense and led to significant political and social changes, including the establishment of the United Nations in October 1945 and the initiation of the Marshall Plan in 1948 to rebuild European economies.

In Germany, Hitler's death marked the beginning of a long process of denazification and coming to terms with the horrors of the Holocaust and the war.

The Nuremberg Trials , which began in November 1945, were a crucial step in holding leading Nazis accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

These trials were seminal in the establishment of international law and the principle of accountability for such crimes.

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Revisiting Hitler’s Final Days in the Bunker

By Alex Ross

The Hitler parody videos began proliferating around 2006, a couple of years after the release of “Downfall,” Oliver Hirschbiegel’s film about Hitler’s final days in Berlin. In the movie’s climactic scene, Hitler rants in his bunker while generals and adjutants look on in horror. In the parodies, alternate subtitles were inserted, to absurd effect. Amy Davidson Sorkin surveyed the genre in a 2010 New Yorker piece , and the meme is still going strong a decade later. Recent contributions include “Hitler Reacts to the iPhone 12 Pro,” “Hitler Reacts to the NVIDIA GeForce,” “Hitler Reacts to Being in Quarantine,” and, in recent days, a series of videos in which Hitler reacts to the 2020 Presidential election, spouting Trumpian lines. In one , the Führer screams, “Count all the votes? How dare they to do this to me. Of course I can’t win if they count all the votes.” When a secretary in the corridor outside comforts her distressed colleague, she says, “Don’t cry, Jared. Dictators still love him.”

Comparisons between Trump and Hitler ring false on many levels, as I argued at the end of a 2018 article about recent biographies of the dictator. Although the soon-to-be-ex-President has done staggering damage to American institutions, he has failed to bring about the kind of wholesale destruction of democratic process that Hitler accomplished in a few weeks in 1933, not to mention the immeasurable horrors that followed. Nevertheless, the occasion of Trump’s defeat permits a certain amount of historical license. It might be argued that, although Hitler at the height of his power was a phenomenon without parallel in modern history, what he became—the cornered man in the bunker—was a psychologically commonplace creature. The spectacle of a power-hungry narcissist receiving his comeuppance is irresistible, and it has played out innumerable times in history and fiction.

Hirschbiegel’s film is based on a 2002 book by Joachim Fest, and both works have the same title in German: “Der Untergang.” That word has long been commonplace in literature about Hitler’s final days. The second volume of Volker Ullrich’s biography of Hitler, which has just been translated into English , is subtitled “Die Jahre des Untergangs, 1939–1945.” The usual translation is “downfall,” although the various implications of the word—literally, “going-under”—are difficult to capture in English. In some contexts, Untergang simply means descent: a sunset is a Sonnenuntergang . But it carries connotations of decline, dissolution, or destruction. Oswald Spengler’s famous book about the decline of the West is titled “ Der Untergang des Abendlandes .” Richard Wagner’s anti-Semitic essay “Jewishness in Music” ends with the word Untergang —the composer’s dream of a day when Jews will disappear from the earth, whether through assimilation or through some other means. Untergang can also be a state of transition or of spiritual transformation. In Nietzsche’s “ Thus Spoke Zarathustra ,” the title character undertakes an Untergang , a going-under into the worldly realm.

New Yorker writers reflect on the year’s highs and lows.

In the context of Hitler, the scene of Untergang gives comforting moral closure to a story of limitless horror. No matter how high the dictator might have risen, the fable suggests, he was destined to fall in the end. History supplies no such neat ending in the case of other genocidal dictators, such as Stalin and Mao, both of whom died of natural causes. The endless fixation on Hitler’s last days therefore offers a too-easy narrative gratification: the devil is dispatched to hell, as in “Don Giovanni.” Moreover, the replaying of Hitler’s Untergang compensates for the fetishistic fascination with Nazi iconography that is present all through contemporary culture. The publishing industry continues to exploit Hitler’s design aesthetic—Gothic type, black-white-red color schemes, swastikas—to sell books. (Knopf’s edition of the Ullrich biography, expertly translated by Jefferson Chase, departs from the pattern, going for hazard yellow.)

It is widely assumed that Hirschbiegel gives a reasonably faithful idea of what life in the bunker was like. Indeed, the art direction for “Downfall” was meticulously researched, and Bruno Ganz’s performance as Hitler may be the most eerily believable portrayal of the dictator on film: spittle-spewing rants are balanced against superficially courtly gestures and a show of soldierly devotion to the task at hand. But the scene that spawned a thousand YouTube parodies—one in which the dictator screams at his military leaders, denounces the entire German nation as a pack of cowards, and announces that he will commit suicide rather than flee Berlin—is based, in part, on problematic sources.

The occasion was a three-hour briefing that took place in the map room at the bunker on the afternoon of April 22nd, eight days before Hitler’s suicide. The Red Army had reached the outskirts of Berlin, and Hitler was clinging to the idea that a mostly fictional combat group under the command of the S.S. general Felix Steiner could push the Russians back. When Hitler was told that no counterattack had taken place, he apparently exploded in rage, firing accusations in every direction and announcing that the war was lost. Hugh Trevor-Roper, in his 1947 book, “ The Last Days of Hitler ,” wove together various first-hand testimonies, making clear that they contradict one another to some degree. Ian Kershaw, in the second volume of his near-definitive Hitler biography, is similarly cautious, employing an even wider range of sources.

Fest’s “Der Untergang”—translated as “ Inside Hitler’s Bunker ”—draws on material that began emerging from Soviet archives in the nineteen-nineties, and that eventually received international publication in a curious document known as “ The Hitler Book .” Researchers for the Soviet secret police prepared this narrative of Hitler’s collapse in the late nineteen-forties, interweaving the testimony of two Hitler adjutants, Otto Günsche and Heinz Linge, who had been captured by the Red Army and interrogated at length. Much of what they recalled can be corroborated, but some of the quotations attributed to Hitler smack of a nineteenth-century novel: “The war is lost! But, gentlemen, if you believe that I will leave Berlin, you are sorely mistaken! I’d rather put a bullet through my head.” Fittingly, that dialogue went straight into Hirschbiegel’s film, along with a theatrical detail about Hitler throwing colored pencils across a map.

The most curious thing about “The Hitler Book” is that it was intended for a single reader: Joseph Stalin. The Soviet leader had ordered the N.K.V.D. to gather as much information as it could about Hitler’s last days, partly in order to make sure that the Führer was actually dead, although Stalin was generally fascinated by his most powerful and ruthless rival. “The Hitler Book” allowed Stalin to enjoy his own private staging of the Untergang —a lavishly detailed chronicle of Hitler’s psychological implosion, under the pressure of the invincible Red Army.

Other accounts convey a more complex picture of that April 22nd meeting. Gerhard Herrgesell, a stenographer, told American interrogators that Hitler was “generally composed,” even if his face became flushed and he paced about. In Herrgesell’s telling, it was the generals, especially Wilhelm Keitel and Alfred Jodl, who grew most heated, as they declared themselves “violently opposed” to Hitler’s plan to perish in Berlin, preferring that he go elsewhere and continue the fight. “Keitel spoke to him in really sharp terms,” Herrgesell recalled. These efforts at persuasion had some effect. Another military officer, Bernd von Loringhoven, reported that by the end of the day Hitler had overcome a condition of “temporary weakness” and committed himself again to the defense of Berlin.

The sequence of events that emerges from Kershaw’s meticulous reconstruction—elaborated in his book “ The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler’s Germany, 1944–1945 ”—is, in a way, even more unsettling than that of an all-powerful dictator plunging into dejection as his followers watch aghast. Here, the faltering dictator is propped up and reinvigorated by his underlings. A crucial component of Kershaw’s portrait of Nazi Germany is his concept of “working toward the Führer,” which describes how members of the Nazi hierarchy vied with each other to realize Hitler’s vision, even in the absence of detailed orders. At the end, “working toward the Führer” involved manhandling the Führer himself back into his mythic role. One can hardly ask for a clearer demonstration of how cults of personality feed as much upon the aspirations of their members as upon the ambitions of their leaders.

Ullrich, in the newly translated second volume of his Hitler biography, includes the debatable “bullet in the head” quotation but otherwise does justice to the tensions of the scene. Although Kershaw’s two volumes are probably destined to remain the definitive work on Hitler, Ullrich delivers a persuasive, all-too-timely portrait of a man whose undeniable political charisma was inseparable from his instinct for domination and destruction. The final paragraph contains a dark assessment of Hitler’s legacy: “If his life and career teaches us anything, it is how quickly democracy can be prised from its hinges when political institutions fail and civilizing forces in society are too weak to combat the lure of authoritarianism.”

Clear-eyed American readers may conclude that all those swastika-emblazoned, Gothic-type, black-white-and-red books have taught us exactly nothing about the fragility of democracy. Indeed, the pervasiveness of the Sonderweg school of storytelling—the idea that Germany was somehow genetically predisposed to follow a “special path” toward Nazism, dictatorship, and genocide—may have blinded us to our own anti-democratic drift. In 1935, Sinclair Lewis imagined a form of American Fascism in his novel “ It Can’t Happen Here .” Crucial to the delusion that it can’t happen here is the conviction that it could only have happened there . Now German historians are ending their books on Nazism with thinly veiled references to an American Untergang .

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The Last Days of Hitler Paperback – October 15, 1992

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• Print length 288 pages
• Language English
• Publisher University of Chicago Press
• Publication date October 15, 1992
• Dimensions 8.46 x 5.56 x 0.69 inches
• ISBN-10 0226812243
• ISBN-13 978-0226812243
• See all details

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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Chicago Press; Reprint edition (October 15, 1992)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0226812243
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0226812243
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.46 x 5.56 x 0.69 inches
• #2,152 in WWII Biographies
• #2,963 in German History (Books)
• #10,349 in World War II History (Books)

About the author

Hugh trevor-roper.

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The Final Days of The Third Reich and The Death of Adolf Hitler

Written by Tom Matthews

Last Updated on 12th November 2020

On the 12th April 1945 , President Franklin Roosevelt died at his home in Warm Springs, Georgia. Upon hearing the news, the German hierarchy celebrated, with Joseph Goebbels commenting, “ This is the turning point. ” The following day, Hitler himself was said to have reassured his nation’s battered troops on the Eastern Front that relief was imminent. Berlin, he assured them, would remain German. And Vienna – which the Russians had seized only that day – would soon be part of the Fatherland again…

In reality, however, this perfectly illustrated the delusion with which the war effort continued to be held by the Nazi high command. Indeed, in the last 24 hours alone, American troops had captured two heavy-water piles at Stadtilm on the river Ilm, which put pay to any chance of the  Germans developing an atomic bomb  in the immediate months ahead.

Two days later, on the 15th April, the German Army launched a counterattack against the Americans near Uelzen, in an effort to link up with their compatriots in the battle for Berlin. The operation failed and the Americans, who had revealingly named the battle  Operation Kaput , repelled Hitler’s army with a brutal combination of artillery, tanks and phosphorus weapons.

The end of World War Two was nigh, and so began the final days of the Nazis . In the early hours of the very next day, the 16th April 1945, the message was delivered in no uncertain terms. At 3am, the Soviets began their offensive against Berlin, with no fewer than 20 armies, 2.5 million soldiers and 40,000 mortars and field guns.  Hitler’s position was hopeless . And now, finally, he realized it.

Image: Wikipedia

Hitler’s Last Birthday – 20th April 1945

Inside the Führer’s headquarters – a deep bunker buried 50 feet below the Reich Chancellery – the attack was met with an air of resignation. Nothing could be done to prevent the Soviet advance and so it was, four days later, on the 20th April, that the leaders of Hitler’s regime met for the last time, among naked light bulbs, a failing water supply and the rancid smell of human waste. It was Hitler’s birthday.

The ‘celebration’ was moved from the bunker to the larger rooms of the New Reich Chancellery, where most of the guests were anxious for the gathering to end. Indeed,  the Red Army was on the verge of encircling Berlin  and escape routes were shrinking by the hour. Yet Hitler appeared determined to drag out the ceremony. He even emerged into the daylight to encourage and decorate a collection of battle-weary soldiers and members of the Hitler Youth. With all his strength, he concluded with an, “Heil euch!” There was no response, bar the rumbling of not-so-distant artillery.

It should be noted, however, that Hitler’s lethargy was nothing new. In fact, he wasn’t a well man. His pasty complexion was now combined with puffy features. Heavy bags weighed down on his bloodshot eyes, while his unsteady gait and the permanent trembling of his left hand almost gave the impression that the frailties were for dramatic effect. This wasn’t the case. Indeed, contemporary analysis suggests  he was likely to be suffering from Parkinson’s Disease .

The following morning, the 21st, Hitler was informed that Russian artillery was now being fired into the center of Berlin. Despite the inevitability of it all, Hitler still couldn’t believe the Red Army had arrived so quickly and his reaction was typical of the preceding days, with the blame for Nazi failings being placed squarely at the feet of his cowardly generals. He frequently became indignant, while claiming he had been betrayed by those in whom he had placed his trust.

The first such act of ‘betrayal’ began on the 22nd, when  Heinrich Himmler   attempted, unsuccessfully, to negotiate Germany’s terms of surrender with the Western Allies, excluding Russia. The second, played out on the 23rd, occurred when  Hermann Göring , Hitler’s head of the Luftwaffe, sent his Führer a telegram proposing he assume full control of Germany. “If no reply is received by ten o’clock tonight,” Göring added, “I shall take it for granted that you have lost your freedom of action.” A seething Hitler immediately dismissed his one-time confidante and ordered his arrest on the grounds of high treason.

Two days later, on the 25th, Hitler also ordered the arrest of  General Karl Weilding , a commander of a Panzer corps. Accused of desertion, Weilding was actually continuing to fight on the outskirts of Berlin. As such, and having been summoned to the bunker, Weilding quickly protested his innocence, the result of which was his appointment to  ‘Battle Commandant’ of Berlin .

It was all proof, if proof were needed, that by late April Hitler’s thought process was as confused and chaotic as Berlin itself. Indeed, each morning, makeshift units were sent out to reinforce street barricades and trenches, or build shelters. Fires glowed and factories, workshops and alike ceased operations. Using electricity was forbidden – violators were punished by death. And talk of effective suicide techniques pervaded among the people.

Unsurprisingly, this talk wasn’t limited to the general populace. Inside Hitler’s bunker, the Führer himself seemed oddly calm and melancholy, and spoke of death as a release.  All hope was gone . And following the perceived betrayal by both Göring and Himmler, Hitler’s world, his vision and his dream finally died, along with the soldiers he continued to order into futile and hopeless battles.

Adolf Hitler’s Wife

The so-called betrayals and the overall hopelessness of the situation convinced Hitler once and for all that he needed to bring things to an end.  Late in the evening of the 28th April, Hitler married his long-term mistress, Eva Braun , in a hastily prepared ceremony in a small map room, where Goebbels and Martin Bormann (head of the Party Chancellery and Hitler’s private secretary) bore witness. Having declared themselves of pure Aryan descent and free of any hereditary disease, Hitler and Braun were pronounced husband and wife. They remained so for less than 40 hours. Hitler’s last days were upon him.

On the 29th April, with the Russians no more than 24 hours from securing complete control of Berlin, Hitler ordered that his German Shephard, Blondi, be poisoned. The thought of his beloved companion falling into Russian hands was insufferable, but it was also important to test the effectiveness of the cyanide capsules that had been distributed around the bunker. Upon consumption, Blondi died instantly. Her five puppies were also shot.

At 5am on the 30th April, the bunker residents were woken by artillery fire. Within the hour, Hitler, who was sat bleary eyed in a dressing gown and slippers, was informed they were just a few hours from defeat. At around 2pm, Hitler had his last meal.  “ The time has come, ”  he said as he rose,  “ it’s all over. ”  Goebbels, who had long insisted Hitler remain in Berlin, now tried to convince his Führer to leave the city. Hitler refused, before bidding him farewell.

Adolf Hitler with wife Eva Braun Image: Wikipedia

The Death of Adolf Hitler

Further goodbyes followed, until Hitler finally returned to his private rooms. A short while later he walked into the large conference room wearing a uniform jacket and his Iron Cross. Braun was at his side. A congregation had gathered, with whom Hitler exchanged a few words. A tearful  Magda Goebbels pleaded with him to flee the city , but her Führer refused. This rebuttal, when coupled with her husband’s refusal to leave Hitler’s side, ensured the wife of the Nazi’s brilliant propaganda minister would soon write her own chapter in the regime’s deplorable legacy.

But for now, it was only Hitler and Braun who retired to his quarters. At this point accounts vary, but the general consensus is that one shot was fired at about 3:30am. Shortly afterwards, Heinz Linge, Hitler’s aide, went into the room to the smell of gunpowder, smoke and bitter almonds (often associated with the scent of cyanide). Bormann and Otto Günche, a Major in the SS, also entered.  They found Hitler slumped on his sofa with his eyes open and a coin-sized hole in his right temple . Blood ran down his cheek and a Walther pistol lay on the floor. Eva Braun was next to him. Wearing a blue dress, her knees were drawn into her chest and her lips were pressed tightly together. Her pistol, which hadn’t been fired, sat on the table in front of them.

It has since been theorized that Hitler also bit into a cyanide capsule at the exact moment he pulled the trigger. It’s also been suggested that, in fact, he shot himself in the mouth. There’s even an account that claims he took the poison before a third person, acting on orders, shot him. We may never know beyond reasonable doubt how exactly the death of Adolf Hitler occurred.

But what is certain is that Hitler and Braun were quickly wrapped in blankets and taken outside.  It had been the Führer’s express wish to be burned  in order to avoid the posthumous indignity that befell Italy’s Benito Mussolini, whose body had been dragged through the streets, kicked and spat on, before being hung from the feet. Once outdoors and despite being under repeated gunfire, Bormann pulled the blanket from Hitler’s face. Using ten canisters of petrol, they doused the corpses before using a makeshift torch to ignite the pyre. Following one last salute, they retreated into the bunker.

Sadly, the death of Adolf Hitler did little to prevent further tragedy. On the evening of 1st May, Magda Goebbels put her six children to bed, having first given them sleeping potion and possibly morphine. Then, with the help of a doctor, she put drops of hydrogen cyanide down their throats. All died instantly, with only the eldest, 12-year old Helga, putting up a struggle. Later that day, both Joseph and Magda Goebbels took their own lives.

A week later, in the last days of the Third Reich, on the 8th May, Germany surrendered unconditionally. Hitler’s Thousand Year Reich had lasted less than 13 years – the last six of which saw loss of life on an appalling scale. Indeed, by the end of World War Two, 60 million people had died, including 12 million innocent men, women and children who perished at the hands of Hitler’s policy of systematic extermination.

Adolf Hitler Image: Wikimedia Commons

Was Hitler Mad?

Nearly 70 years after Adolf Hitler’s death, it’s as difficult as ever to succinctly evaluate the impact of his life and reign. However,  there’s little doubt that Hitler’s vision included no civilised or humanitarian ideas . This stood in contrast to previous powers who once ruled the world. From the Roman Empire to the British, there was always some form of ideology that referenced a better, brighter, peaceful future. These ideals simply weren’t in keeping with Hitler’s thirst for power.

Instead, Hitler pursued a policy of suppression, enslavement and racial cleansing, the results of which represent one of the saddest, depraved and most horrifying chapters in human history. Yet  in Hitler’s eyes the war was solely the fault of Jewish statesmen or those who worked in Jewish interests . Even at the end he commented, “[The Jews are] the real guilty party in this murderous struggle,” before continuing, “… this time the real culprits would have to pay for their guilt even though by more humane means than war.” These ‘humane’ means were the gas chambers.

Moreover, it was the lengths he went to in order to justify his thesis that are particularly warped. Drawing on Darwin’s survival of the fittest, Hitler commented in 1942, “ Monkeys put to death any members of their community who show a desire to live apart. And what applies to apes, applies to men, too, at a higher level. ”

It’s also clear that  Hitler knew only too well that he had set in motion a series of irreversible events . His policies and decisions, as well as those of his closest confidantes, had ensured all bridges with the rest of the world had been burnt. Alarmingly, it’s generally agreed that Hitler saw the awful shock waves he had created as a positive achievement. The terrible consequences didn’t matter.

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Germany , History and facts

10 Historical Facts About Adolf Hitler’s Last Days and Death

Adolf Hitler. Photo by Bundesarchiv. Wikimedia Commons

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1. hitler’s last days were spent in his underground bunker.

Dietmar Rabich  / Wikimedia Commons  / “Dülmen, Kirchspiel, ehem. Munitionslager Visbeck, Bunker — 2020 — 8367”  /

2. Adolf Hitler committed suicide

3. hitler’s body was then taken outside and burned in the garden.

victorgrigas , CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

 4. His last meal was spaghetti with a raisin and cabbage salad

5. he tested his cyanide on his dog first , 6. hitler’s remains were discovered by the soviets.

Kentot785 , CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

7. Hitler was not alone in the bunker

Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1968-101-20A / Heinrich Hoffmann / CC-BY-SA 3.0 , CC BY-SA 3.0 DE , via Wikimedia Commons

8. After Hitler’s death other Nazi officials were left to beg for mercy

9. measures were taken to ensure that his body wouldn’t become a shrine, 10. there are different conspiracy theories that argue hitler managed to get away.

Brazilian National Archives , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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Hitler's last days : the death of the Nazi regime and the world's most notorious dictator

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War News | Military History | Military News

Hitler’s final days revealed: eyewitnesses recount the nazi’s death in unearthed footage.

• War Articles

A new documentary called The Day Hitler Died contains never-before-seen interviews with those who surrounded Hitler during his final days.

When World War Two came to an end, the Allies were still unsure as to whether or not Hitler was definitely dead. Even though reports of his suicide had spread, Soviet forces claimed that he had fled Berlin. The Soviets were convinced the Nazi leader was still alive.

In 1947, the Nuremberg trials attempted to find out once and for all whether Hitler was dead or alive. Judge and US Navy lawyer Michael Musmanno was in charge of the investigation. It two years he interviewed more than 100 people throughout Germany, many of whom were surviving members of Hitler’s inner circle and some who were with him in the final days of the war in his Berlin bunker.

In 1948, Musmanno decided to capture some of these interviews on camera. He had collected a lot of wartime memorabilia that was donated to Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University when he died in 1968. Included in the donation were the films Musmanno made of the interviews. In 2007, all of the interviews were transferred into digital format, providing never-before-seen footage of the eyewitness accounts of Hitler’s final days.

The documentary The Day Hitler Died includes a mix of actors re-enacting Hitler’s final days and the actual interviews conducted by Musmanno in 1948, providing the most detailed analysis of Hitler’s death.

The documentary begins the story on the 20 th of April 1945. Hitler was already held up in his Berlin bunker and that day emerged in public for a final time to award his last Iron Crosses to Nazi soldiers for their role in defending Berlin against the advancing Red Army. Actual footage from the scene shows Hitler shaking the boys’ hands and congratulating them.

Just a week before, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt had died, encouraging Hitler delusions that he would win the war. One of Hitler’s close aides, Baron von Loringhoven, was interviewed by Musmanno and said that no one dared to suggest to Hitler that the Nazis were being defeated.

Hitler held onto hope until the end, anticipating that the Germans would develop a secret weapon and that there would be much dissension among the Allies. However, Hitler’s secretary, Miss Traudl, says that as the Red Army got closer and closer to the centre of Berlin, talk of suicide began. She says that Hitler made plans to take both poisons and shoot himself so that there could be no room for error.

The US finally declared Hitler officially dead 11 years after the war had ended in 1956.

The documentary The Day Hitler Died aired on 16 th November 2015 on the Smithsonian Channel .