30.4. 1945 Hitler committed suicide
Categories: Personalities , Second World War , Calendar
Berlin was surrounded by the Red Army, there was no escape. Adolf Hitler therefore decided to commit suicide in his bunker. He shot himself 75 years ago, his newlywed wife Eva Braun poisoned herself.
Hitler's decision to commit suicide was reinforced by events in Italy, where the leader there, Benito Mussolini, and his mistress, Clara Petacci, were executed by partisans and hanged by their feet in Milan's Piazzale Loreto. "I will not fall into the hands of an enemy who only wants a new spectacle to entertain his deranged crowds," Hitler raged at the time. He received the news of the Italian dictator's death on the morning of 29 April, the same day he poisoned his favourite German shepherd, Blondi, in the afternoon. Two other dogs were then shot by a guardian.
Hitler then gave his secretaries cyanide capsules to use as a last resort. He expressed regret that he couldn't give them a better gift. At 2:30 a.m. on April 30, 1945, loyal servants gathered to greet Hitler as he emerged from his private apartment. He gave them a final farewell and returned. Everyone knew he was about to commit suicide. But when dawn broke, he was still alive. He was even receiving news of the situation in Berlin.
At 2:00 p.m., he had lunch with his two secretaries. "Hitler's aide, SS-Sturmbannführer Otto Günsche, ordered Hitler's driver, Erich Kempka, by telephone to procure two hundred litres of petrol in jerry cans and have them applied to the garden. Kempke rebelled. He didn't know where to get so much, there wasn't much in the garage. Günsche shouted at him on the phone to pump it out of the parked cars," Karel Richtel describes the events at the time in his book The Last 100 Days: Remarkable Events at the End of the Second World War in Europe.
When Hitler had finished eating, he came out of his apartment accompanied by his wife Eva Braun. There was another farewell party with Martin Bormann, Joseph Goebbels and others. Eva hugged Traudl Junge and told her that she would take her fur coat as a souvenir because she liked well-dressed women. "Then Hitler turned and addressed the small group one last time. He said it was over and goodbye. He led Eva into the apartment and shortly afterwards a single shot was fired," says Milton Giles in When Lenin Lost His Brain and Churchill Sacrificed a Sheep.
A group of people who had said goodbye to Hitler stood in the corridor. Only after the shot was fired did they come out into the apartment, where Hitler lay bloodied on the sofa. He had shot himself in the mouth. Eva Braun also had a revolver, but she chose cyanide poisoning. The faithful servant Heinz Linge wrapped Hitler's body in a blanket and carried it out into the courtyard. Then Eva Braun's body was carried out. Both corpses were doused with gasoline and set on fire. "A small group of mourners stood at attention and gave the Nazi salute, then retreated back to the bunker. Just outside its walls, Soviet artillery boomed, giving the whole scene an almost theatrical setting," Giles further writes.
For years, there has been speculation as to whether Hitler actually committed suicide. The conjecture was only put to rest two years ago by French pathologists who definitively confirmed that the surviving teeth and lower jaw did indeed belong to Hitler.
Sources:Karel Richter: The Last 100 Days: Remarkable Events of the End of World War II in Europe
Milton Giles: When Lenin lost his brains and Churchill sacrificed a sheep,www.n-tv.de
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