‘Salutes’ from Allied guns mark Hitler’s 56th birthday
German radio broadcasts news of defeats instead of usual speech by Fuehrer
LONDON, England (UP) – Adolf Hitler, the defeated dictator, observed his 56th, and probably last, birthday today.
There were no celebrations in his dying empire for the most hunted man in history. The only victory salutes came from the guns of Allied armies closing in on him from east and west.
Berlin, where in Hitler’s heyday the red flags with the black swastikas flew and his storm troops paraded, echoed with the artillery of the oncoming Red Army, reported only 10 miles away.
The German radio, which once boomed Hitler’s birthday speeches from Berlin, had only news of fresh defeats to offer. The re was no indication the Fuehrer would make a birthday broadcast, although a Swiss report said 21 gauleiters had asked Goebbels last week to persuade Hitler to speak for the sake of morale.
The same dispatch, quoting a Munich source, said Goebbels and Himmler had refused to act on the matter.
The Fuehrer was believed to be in his mountain retreat at Berchtesgaden, planning a “twilight of the gods” finale to his career of conquest. Some recent reports have suggested Hitler still was in Berlin, but few believed he would remain that close to the Red Army if he could help it.
A Zurich dispatch, quoting a German diplomat who supposedly left Berlin last week, said the Reich capital had been stripped for its capture. According to the report, all Nazi organizations and government offices had been evacuated to the Bavarian redoubt, where Hitler plans his last stand.
Martin Bormann, Nazi Party leader for Southern Germany including the Bavarian Alps and Berchtesgaden, warned potential deserters of sinking Germany, “whoever breaks his oath is a scoundrel. We will observe with watchful eyes.”
Expels Nazi official
Hitler himself expelled from the party a deputy gauleiter named Tesche, from the Gau area including captured Halle and Merseburg, according to a DNB report. Hitler ordered, “I degrade you and expel you from the party for the cowardly attitude expressed in your phone call. You can regain honor only by trying yourself to the utmost in immediate front service.”
In a different tone, Hitler thanked the gauleiter of Franken Province, where a few thousand Nazis made a desperate last-ditch stand in the capital of Nuremberg.
Hitler said in his message:
We are now starting a fight as fanatical as that we had in our ascent to power years ago. However great the enemy’s superiority may appear at the present moment, we will yet break it as we did in the days of old.
Split indicated
Similarly, Goebbels in his weekly article in the magazine Das Reich said, “the hour of last triumph awaits us,” but he at least tempered it by adding, “it may sound fantastic today but it is nonetheless true.”
But there were signs of a split in the propaganda line as Hitler’s henchmen made their last, desperate attempts to keep the Germans fighting. Goebbels in his article called for a “people’s war,” saying that “m the fight against the terrible aims of the enemy all means are justified and permitted.”
The German radio, on the other hand, issued what it called “important instructions” to German civilians to comply strictly with the rules of international warfare, which limit fighting only to soldiers uniformed or otherwise clearly identified.