Battle of Berlin (1945)

112

Товарищу СТАЛИНУ.

  1. Сегодня, 1 мая в 4 часа, на участок 8-й гвардейской армии явился начальник генштаба сухопутных войск немецкой армии генерал инфантерии КРЕБС, который передал ЧУЙКОВУ для передачи Верховному Советскому командованию письменное заявление за подписью ГЕББЕЛЬСА и БОРМАНА следующего содержания:

Берлин, 30 апреля 1945 г.
Имперская канцелярия.

Сообщение.

Мы уполномочиваем начальника генерального штаба сухопутной армии генерала пехоты Ганса КРЕБС для передачи следующего сообщения: Я сообщаю вождю Советских народов, как первому из не немцев, что сегодня 30 апреля 1945 г. в 15.50 вождь немецкого народа Адольф ГИТЛЕР покончил жизнь самоубийством.

Соответственно законно отданных им распоряжений (завещания), он передал свою власть и ответственность гросс-адмиралу ДЕНИЦ, как президенту империи и министру доктору ГЕББЕЛЬС, как Имперскому канцлеру, а также назначил исполнителем своего завещания своего секретаря Рейхсляйтера Мартина БОРМАН.

Я уполномочен новым Имперским канцлером и секретарем Адольфа ГИТЛЕРА Мартином БОРМАН, установить непосредственный контакт с вождем Советских народов. Этот контакт имеет целью выяснить в какой мере существует возможность установить основы для мира между немецким народом и Советским Союзом, которые будут служить для блага и будущего обоих народов, понесших наибольшие потери в войне.

Доктор ГЕББЕЛЬС
БОРМАН

ПРИМЕЧАНИЕ К СООБЩЕНИЮ:

  1. Причина смерти Адольфа ГИТЛЕРА - военное поражение в войне, надежда освободить для немецкого народа дорогу для нового будущего, для которого он сам более не может создать достаточные предпосылки.

  2. Состав единственного легального правительства в Германии назначенного фюрером:

Имперский президент - Гросс Адмирал ДЕНИЦ;
Имперский канцлер - доктор ГЕББЕЛЬС;
Министр иностранных дел - доктор ЗЕЙССС-ИНКВАРТ;
Министр по делам партии Мартин БОРМАН;
Главнокомандующий сухопутной армией - генерал-фельдмаршал ШЕРНЕР;
Главнокомандующий ВВС - фельдмаршал фон-ГРЕЙМ;
Главнокомандующий морским флотом - Гросс-Адмирал ДЕНИЦ;
Министр внутренних дел - гауляйтер ГИСЛЕР;
Командующий войсками СС и начальник немецкой полиции - гауляйтер ХАНКЕ.

  1. На наши вопросы:

а) Где застрелился Гитлер и где находится сейчас его труп?

Кребс ответил -
Что Гитлер застрелился в Берлине, а труп сожжен согласно завещания 30.4.45 г.

б) Когда Геббельс и Борман будут объявлять народу о самоубийстве Гитлера и о его завещании?

Кребс ответил -
Объявлять о самоубийстве Гитлера и его завещании мы не будем, т.к. об этом узнает Гимлер и воспользуется этим для создания своего правительства.

Кроме того у нас в Берлине нет средств связи для объявления. Мы думаем объявить о смерти Гитлера и о создании нового правительства после перемирия и открытия переговоров о мире.

в) Знает ли Геббельс, Борман и другие о том, что Гимлер обращался к англичанам и американцам с предложением о безоговорочной капитуляции?

Кребс ответил -
Что об этом ему стало известно только от Советского Командования и что Геббельс, Борман и другие об этом, якобы, не знают. Насчет Гимлера, Кребс добавил, что Гимлер - это предатель, он очень нечестно относился к Гитлеру, обманывал его, не выполнил приказа о снятии войск с западного фронта на защиту Берлина и за это исключен из партии.

г) Будет ли объявлено Гимлеру, армии и народу о том, что Гимлер оказался предателем и что он исключен из партии?

Кребс ответил -
У нас нет связи для передачи и это будет сделано тогда, когда будут налицо условия перемирия и когда будет легализовано новое правительство.

На вопрос, не лучше ли это сделать сейчас, чтобы знали армия и народ о Гимлере, как о предателе, Кребс ответил - это должен сделать Геббельс.

д) Где сейчас находятся: Геринг, Гимлер, Риббентроп, Гудериан и какую роль они будут играть в проектируемом правительстве?

Кребс ответил -
Что завещанием Гитлера в правительство эти лица не включены. Геринг находится в Баварии на территории, уже оккупированной союзниками. Риббентроп и Гимлер находятся в Меклебурге.

Гудериан болен и с 15 марта освобожден от должности начальника Имперского штаба, а вместо него Гитлером на эту должность назначен я - Кребс.

е) Кто сейчас является Верховным Главнокомандующим, кто начальником штаба Ставки?

Кребс ответил -
Верховным главнокомандующим будет Гросс адмирал ДЕНИЦ, сейчас он находится в Меклебурге. Там же находится и Ставка.

ж) На наш вопрос, не думает ли Геббельс сдать Берлин в виду безнадежного положения гарнизона?

Кребс ответил -
Что Геббельс без Деница не может принять решения о капитуляции и сдачи Берлина, но так как Дениц находится в Меклебурге, то Кребс просил разрешения послать своего офицера на машине через линию нашего фронта за получением указаний.

  1. Из разговоров с Кребсом, я сделал вывод, что главной целью Геббельса является прощупать возможность признания со стороны Советского Правительства проектируемого правительства Германии (составленного по указанию Гитлера) и прощупать возможность начать переговоры о перемирии.

Сдавать Берлин на условиях безоговорочной капитуляции до получения гарантии о перемирии Геббельс и Борман не считают возможным. Посылку немецкого офицера в Меклебург к Деницу через линию нашего фронта, я не разрешил.

Примечание: Подлинные документы за подписью Геббельса и Бормана хранятся в штабе фронта.

п.п. Г. ЖУКОВ

Передано по телефону ВЧ в 10.35 1.5.45 г.

Принял дежурный Генерал Генерального Штаба Красной Армии - Генерал-Майор СОКОЛОВ.
Передал генерал-лейтенант И. БОЙКОВ

снята копия в 2 экз. мл.

верно: СТАРШ. ПОМ. НАЧ. ОТДЕЛА ПО ИСПОЛЬЗОВАНИЮ ОПЫТА ВОЙНЫ ОПЕРУПРАВЛЕНИЯ ПОДПОЛКОВОНИК ПАВЛОВСКИЙ.
113

The Pittsburgh Press (May 1, 1945)

Berlin gasps in last throes before death

Russian flag waves over main buildings

LONDON, England (UP) – A Moscow broadcast said today that the Russians expected the Red Army to announce tonight the capture of Berlin, where the Hammer and Sickle already flew triumphant over the Reichstag and a dozen other administrative buildings.

Russian and German reports alike indicated an imminent decision amidst the blood-soaked rubble of Berlin, where the Red Army was hewing out its greatest symbolic victory of the war.

Insist Hitler in Berlin

The German High Command joined the chorus of Nazi claims that Adolf Hitler was in Berlin. Its communiqué said that “in the heart of Berlin the gallant garrison, gathered closely around the Fuehrer, is defending itself against superior Soviet forces.” If Hitler were there, he appeared doomed to certain death or capture by the Russians.

All Moscow broadcasts and dispatches reflected confident expectation that Marshal Stalin would cap Moscow’s first glittering May Day celebration of the war with an announcement that Berlin had fallen.

Reports lagging well behind the course of the struggle in the heart of Berlin said the Russians had battled onto Unter den Linden against faltering resistance. The Russian flag had been hoisted over the Reichstag, the main post office and the Interior Ministry.

The battle raged within a stone’s throw of Hitler’s one-time ornate Reich Chancellery, and the Tiergarten, where the Nazis were reported to have established a fort for a last-ditch stand.

Victory in air

Victory was already in the air over the Red Square in Moscow, where 100,000 Red Army men paraded before Marshal Stalin and Russia’s top military and political leaders.

Moscow dispatches said Soviet assault units broke through in Berlin to the vicinity of the Brandenburg Gate, and that storm units were converging on the Wilhelmstrasse, Friedrichstrasse and Unter den Linden from the east, north and south.

Germans in frenzy

Red Star, the Russian Army organ, said the night sky was as dazzling as the midday sun over Berlin, with flames from thousands of Katusha rocket guns enveloping the whole German-held area.

Red Star said:

The Germans frenziedly did their utmost to defend the last strongholds of resistance.

On the banks of the Spree, two mighty forces locked in combat for several hours. Passage appeared impossible. Live men replaced the dead ones, the wounded remained in their places. Finally the passage was forced. On narrow bridges and in rowboats, tommy gunners and sappers swarmed across and stormed the Reichstag.

The Ministry of the Interior, where only a few weeks ago Gestapo Chief Heinrich Himmler maintained an office, was in Soviet hands.

Paratroops used

Another fierce battle raged in the Tiergarten, Berlin’s central park, just west of Unter den Linden. It was from an underground fortress beneath the Tiergarten that the German command – reported headed by Hitler himself – was directing the fanatic Berlin garrison of SS troops, Hitler Youth and “women’s death battalions.”

The London Daily Express said the Russians were reinforcing their assault forces with paratroops dropped from planes.

The First White Russian and First Ukrainian Armies were spurred on by a May Day Order of the Day by Premier Marshal Stalin calling on them to “deal the death blow to the Fascist beast.”

Red Armies killed one million German officers and men and captured another 800,000 in their 325-mile march from the Vistula to burning Berlin in the last four months, Stalin said.

‘Germany’s doom sealed’

He said:

The world war unleashed by the German imperialists is drawing to a close. The collapse of Hitlerite Germany is a matter of the nearest future… The last storm of the Hitlerite den is on.

Germany’s doom was sealed, he said, by the junction of Russian and American forces south of Berlin. The Reich now is “completely isolated and stands alone, not to count her ally Japan,” he said.

Stalin did not elaborate on this reference to Japan, whose friendship treaty with Russia he denounced last month.

Huge Nazi losses

During the Russian march from the Vistula, Stalin said, Red Armies captured or destroyed 6,000 enemy aircraft, up to 12,000 tanks and self-propelled guns, more than 23,000 field guns and “enormous quantities of other armaments and equipment.”

He ridiculed “absurd tales” that the United Nations wished to exterminate the German people.

He said:

The United Nations will destroy Fascism and German militarism, will severely punish criminals, and will compel the Germans to compensate the damage they caused to other countries.

But the United Nations do not molest and will not molest Germany’s peaceful population if it honestly fulfills demands of Allied military authorities.

Other advances

North of Berlin, the Russians advanced west on a 90-mile front. The Second White Russian Army broke through to the Baltic at Greifswald, 64 miles northwest of Stettin, in a 20-mile advance. Isolated by the thrust were the Swinemuende naval base at the entrance to Stettin Bay and the German V-bomb experimental station at Peenemuende.

The Second Army also drove to within 40 miles of American positions on the Elbe River around Wittenberg.

In the south, the Fourth Ukrainian Army forced the Moravian Gap and captured the Czechoslovak steel and manufacturing center of Moravska-Ostrava, the last important German-held point in the Silesian Basin.

114

Führer HQ (May 1, 1945)

Kommuniqué

Broadcast audio (RRG):

Unser Führer Adolf Hitler ist heute nachmittags in seinem Befehlsstand in der Reichskanzlei, bis zum letzten Atemzuge gegen den Bolschewismus kämpfend, für Deutschland gefallen.

Am 30. April hat der Führer den Großadmiral Dönitz zu seinem Nachfolger ernannt.

Der Großadmiral ist der Nachfolger des Führers.

115

Address by Reich President Doenitz to the German People
May 1, 1945

Dönitz

Broadcast audio (RRG):

Deutsche Männer und Frauen! Soldaten der deutschen Wehrmacht!

Der Führer Adolf Hitler ist gefallen. In tiefster Trauer und Ehrfurcht verneigt sich das deutsche Volk. Frühzeitig hatte Adolf Hitler die furchtbare Gefahr des Bolschewismus erkannt und diesem Ringen fein Dasein geweiht. Am Ende dieses seines Kampfes und seines unbeirrbar geraden Weges steht sein Heldentod in der Hauptstadt des Deutschen Reiches. Sein Leben war ein einziger Dienst für Deutschland. Sein Einsatz im Kampfe gegen die bolschewistische Sturmflut galt darüber hinaus Europa und der gesamten Kulturwelt.

Der Führer hat mich zu seinem Nachfolger bestimmt. Im Bewutztsein der Verantwortung, übernehme ich die Führung des deutschen Volkes in dieser schicksalsschweren Stunde. Meine erste Aufgabe ist es, deutsche Menschen vor der Vernichtung durch den vordringenden bolschewistischen Feind zu retten. Nur für dieses Ziel Kämpfen wir weiter. Soweit und solange die Erreichung dieses Zieles durch Briten und Amerikaner behindert wird, werden wir uns auch gegen sie weiter verteidigen und weiterkämpfen müssen. Die Anglo-Amerikaner setzen dann diesen Krieg nicht für ihre eigenen Völker, sondern allein für die Ausbreitung des Bolschewismus in Europa fort. Was das deutsche Volk im Ringen dieses Krieges kämpfend vollbracht und in der Heimat erfahren hat, ist geschichtlich einmalig.

In der kommenden Notzeit des Volkes werde ich bestrebt sein, unseren tapferen Frauen, Männern und Kindern, soweit dies in meiner Macht steht, erträgliche Lebensbedingungen zu schassen. Zu alledem brauche ich eure Hilfe. Schenkt mir euer Vertrauen, denn euer Weg ist auch mein Weg! Haltet Ordnung und Disziplin in Stadt und Land aufrecht! Tue jeder an seiner Stelle seine Pflicht! Nur so werden wir die Leiden, die die kommende Zeit jedem einzelnen von uns bringen wird, mildern und den Zusammenbruch verhindern können. Wenn wir tun, was in unseren Kräften steht, wird auch der Herrgott nach so viel Leiden und Opfern uns nicht verlassen.

116
BBC bulletin:

MBS bulletin:

NBCB bulletin:

117

The Stars and Stripes (May 2, 1945)

German radio reports:
HITLER DEAD

Wednesday, May 2, 1945

AP410805035
Adolf Hitler at his height

Adolf Hitler, for 12 years the master of Germany and the man who set out to conquer the world, died yesterday afternoon, the German radio at Hamburg announced last night.

Declaring that Grand Adm. Karl Doenitz, commander-in-chief of the German Navy, was Hitler’s successor, the radio states:

It is reported from Der Fuehrer’s headquarters that Der Fuehrer, Adolf Hitler, has fallen this afternoon at his command post in the Reich Chancellery, fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism and for Germany.

Death is not explained

The announcement did not explain how Hitler, who was 56 years old 12 days ago, had “fallen.” Russian forces in recent days have been battling toward the massive Chancellery that Hitler built in the Wilhelmstrasse, in the center of Berlin.

The broadcast reported that on April 13, Hitler named Doenitz as his successor. Then Doenitz came on the program with a fiery promise to keep up what he termed “the struggle against Bolshevism.” He said the German would fight American and British forces to the extent that they hindered his fight against Russia.

There was no indication as to the whereabouts of Heinrich Himmler, Gestapo chief and leader of the German home defense forces, who has been reported offering to surrender. Neither was there any word of Propaganda Minister Paul Joseph Goebbels or other Hitler henchmen.

The announcement of Hitler’s death was preceded by the playing of solemn Wagnerian music, including “Twilight of the Gods.” The southern German radio kept up a program of light music all through the program from the north, indicating that communication is broken down between the two German pockets.

Doenitz came on the air immediately after the brief announcement of Hitler’s death, saying:

German men and women, soldiers of the German Wehrmacht:

Our Fuehrer, Adolf Hitler, has fallen. The German people bow in deepest mourning and veneration.

My first task is to save the German people from destruction by Bolshevism. If only for this task, the struggle will continue.

Adolf Hitler recognized beforehand the terrible danger of Bolshevism and devoted his life to fighting it. At the end of this, his battle, he stands as a hero in the battle of the capital of the Reich.

‘We shall fight’

The Fuehrer has appointed me as his successor. Fully conscious of the responsibility, I take over the leadership of the German people at this fateful hour.

It is my first task to save the German people from destruction by Bolshevists, and it is only to achieve this that the fight continues.

As long as the British and the Americans hamper us from reaching this end, we shall fight to defend ourselves against them as well. The British and Americans are not fighting for their own interests, but for the spreading of Bolshevism.

Doenitz, whose appointment came as a surprise, called on the German people to help him to the utmost and urged them to keep order and discipline. Only by complete fulfillment of every German’s duty, he said, could the country avoid collapse.

Issues order to troops

Doenitz also issued an order of the day to the Reich’s armed forces in which he repeated the same determination to “save” the Germans from Bolshevism. Assuming supreme command of all the armed forces, he said Germany would continue the fight to save “hundreds of thousands of German families from slavery and destruction.”

“The situation,” he added, “demands from you who have already accomplished such momentous deeds – and who are now wishing for the end of the war – unconditional exertions.” The latter was an obvious answer to the Allied demand for unconditional surrender.

He told his decimated Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe and navy:

Only by executing my orders without reserve can chaos and annihilation be avoided. The coward and traitor is he who just now shirks his duty – and who thus brings death or slavery upon German women and children.

The oath of allegiance which you have given the Fuehrer is now for every one of you immediately due to me as the successor whom the Fuehrer appointed.

German soldiers, do your duty! The very lives of our people are at stake!

The 50-year-old Doenitz, regarded as the Nazis’ top man in the navy, has always been held high in Hitler’s esteem and has been classified as a fervent party man from the outset of the Nazi movement. He led the Atlantic submarine wolfpacks before he became navy chief two years ago. He was confined in an insane asylum in Manchester, England, during the First World War.

118

Innsbrucker Nachrichten (May 2, 1945)

Unser Führer in Berlin gefallen

Aus dem Führerhauptquartier, 1. Mai – Unser Führer Adolf Hitler ist heute nachmittags in seinem Befehlsstand in der Reichskanzlei, bis zum letzten Atemzuge gegen den Bolschewismus kämpfend, für Deutschland gefallen.

Am 30. April hat der Führer den Großadmiral Dönitz zu seinem Nachfolger ernannt.

Der Großadmiral ist der Nachfolger des Führers.

119

Huh? Why did he become the Fuehrer? And not someone from the Nazis party leadership, like Speer or Ribenntrop?

1 Like
120

@rit_upy Declared Reich President April 29.

1 Like
121

FLASH: German forces surrender to Red Army in Berlin

122

What?! I was hoping for our boy Hotzendorf to come in and save it.

Why is reality so cruel?

1 Like
123

Speer MAY have told him that he sabotaged his Nero order (but that might not be true), and Ribbentrop if we go by any metric of foreign policy success, failed horribly.

124

Soviet Information Bureau (May 2, 1945)

Оперативная сводка за 2 мая

Войска 1-го БЕЛОРУССКОГО фронта под командованием Маршала Советского Союза ЖУКОВА, при содействии войск 1-го УКРАИНСКОГО фронта под командованием Маршала Советского Союза КОНЕВА, после упорных уличных боёв завершили разгром Берлинской группы немецких войск и сегодня, 2 мая, полностью овладели столицей Германии городом БЕРЛИН – центром немецкого империализма и очагом немецкой агрессии.

Берлинский гарнизон, оборонявший город, Во главе с начальником обороны БЕРЛИНА генералом от артиллерии Вейдлингом и его штабом, 2 мая в 15 часов прекратил сопротивление, сложил оружие и сдался в плен.

2 мая к 21 часу нашими войсками взято в плен в городе БЕРЛИНЕ более 70.000 немецких солдат и офицеров. В числе пленных: генералы для особых поручений при начальнике обороны БЕРЛИНА генерал-лейтенант Курт Веташ и генерал-лейтенант Вальтер Шмидт-Данкверт, представитель ставки вице-адмирал Фосс, начальник штаба обороны БЕРЛИНА полковник Ганс Рехиор, начальник штаба 56 немецкого танкового корпуса полковник Теодор фон Дифвинг. Взяты также в плен первый заместитель Геббельса по пропаганде и печати – доктор философии и истории Фриче, руководитель печати доктор философии и истории Клик, правительственный советник доктор философии и истории Хайнрихсдорф. Фриче при опросе показал, что Гитлер, Геббельс и вновь назначенный начальник Генерального штаба генерал пехоты Кребс покончили жизнь самоубийством.

Юго-восточнее БЕРЛИНА войска 1-го БЕЛОРУССКОГО и 1-го УКРАИНСКОГО фронтов завершили ликвидацию окружённой группы немецких войск.

За время боёв с 24 апреля по 2 мая в этом районе наши войска захватили в плен более 120.000 немецких солдат и офицеров. За это же время немцы потеряли только убитыми более 60.000 человек. В числе пленных заместитель командующего 9 немецкой армией генерал-лейтенант Бернгард, командир 5 немецкого корпуса СС генерал-лейтенант Эккель, командир 21 немецкой танковой дивизии СС генерал-лейтенант Маркс, командир 169 немецкой пехотной дивизии генерал-лейтенант Радчий, комендант крепости ФРАНКФУРТ-на-ОДЕРЕ генерал-майор Биль, начальник артиллерии 11 немецкого танкового корпуса СС генерал-майор Штраммер и генерал авиации Цандер. За зто же время нашими войсками захвачены следующие трофеи: танков и самоходных орудий – 304, полевых орудий – более 1.500, пулемётов – 2.180, автомашин – 17.600 и много другого вооружения и военного имущества.

Северо-западнее БЕРЛИНА войска 1-го БЕЛОРУССКОГО фронта, продолжая наступление, с боями заняли города НОЙ-РУППИН, КИРИТЦ, ВУСТЕРХАУЗЕН, НОЙШТАДТ, ФЕРБЕЛЛИН, ФРИЗАК.

Войска 2-го БЕЛОРУССКОГО фронта, развивая наступление, 2 мая овладели городами РОСТОК, ВАРНЕМЮНДЕ – крупными портами и важными военно-морскими базами немцев на Балтийском море, а также заняли города РИБНИТЦ, МАРЛОВ, ЛААГЕ, ТЕТЕРОВ, МИРОВ и крупные населённые пункты АЛЬТЕНПЛЕН, РЕХТЕНБЕРГ, ФРАНЦБУРГ, ТРИБЗЕС, ЗЮЛЬЦЕ, ДАРГУН, ТЮРКОВ, ЯБЕЛЬ, ЦЕХЛИН, ГЕРЦШПРУНГ. В боях за 1 мая войска фронта взяли в плен 5.450 немецких солдат и офицеров и захватили 78 самолётов и 178 полевых орудий.

Войска 4-го УКРАИНСКОГО фронта, продолжая наступление в полосе Западных Карпат, с боями заняли крупные населённые пункты ПАСКОВ, ОРЛОВА, ДЕМБОВЕЦ, ГОРДЗИШУВ, ТУРЗОВКА, ДЛГЕ ПОЛЕ, ВЕЛИКОЕ РОВНЕ, ШТЯВНИК, ПАПРАДНО, МОДЛАТИН. В боях за 1 мая войска фронта взяли в плен более 5.000 немецких солдат и офицеров и захватили 196 полевых орудий.

Войска 2-го УКРАИНСКОГО фронта, продолжая наступление восточнее города БРНО, с боями заняли крупные населённые пункты БРУМОВ, ВАЛАСШКЕ, КЛОБОУКИ, СЛАВИЧИН, ЛУГАЧОВИЦЕ, БРЖАЗУВКИ, УГЕРЕСКИ ГРАДИШТЕФ, НАПАЕДЛА.

На других участках фронта существенных изменений не произошло.

За 1 мая подбито и уничтожено 37 немецких танков. В воздушных боях и огнём зенитной артиллерии сбито 10 самолётов противника.

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Налёт нашей авиации на Свинемюнде

В ночь на 2 мая наши тяжёлые бомбардировщики нанесли удар по военным объектам немцев в Свинемюнде. В результате этого удара на территории судоверфей и в порту возникло много пожаров, сопровождавшихся сильными взрывами.

125

The Pittsburgh Press (May 2, 1945)

REDS CAPTURE BERLIN
Stalin tells of victory in Nazi capital

120,000 Nazis taken below German city

BULLETINS

LONDON, England (UP) – The Red Army captured Berlin today.

Marshal Stalin announced the Red Army’s greatest victory of the war, in a triumphant order of the day broadcast from Moscow.

Berlin fell after 12 days of siege.

The first reports from Moscow did not indicate whether the Soviets found evidence – positive or negative – of the accuracy of the Nazi report that Adolf Hitler had died in battle.

LONDON, England (UP) – The Red Army captured the great Baltic port of Rostock today in a drive within 30 miles of the Allied armies sweeping eastward along the Baltic. The German radio said that the 12-day siege of Berlin was nearly over.

LONDON, England (UP) – Marshal Stalin announced tonight that Red Armies had captured more than 120,000 German prisoners in the liquidation of a pocket southeast of Berlin.

Inside Berlin, Russian forces were storming the ramparts of the Reich Chancellery, where the Nazis said Adolf Hitler died yesterday, and where evidence of the accuracy of the report might be found.

United Press writer Henry Shapiro reported from Moscow that the Soviet siege forces were now fighting for German strongpoints on the Wilhelmstrasse, Unter den Linden and Alexander Platz. Only “small remnants” of the Berlin garrison were defying the “greatest concentration of fire and metal to which any single objective has been subjected in this war,” he said.

About 8,000 of the ragtag band of mauled SS troops, women’s “death battalions” and Volkssturmers (home guards) – were killed yesterday in the heart of Berlin, Soviet reports said.

Plunging through a choking pall of smoke and flame thrown up by the ceaseless cannonading, the first Soviet assault waves stormed in from three sides to within 200 yards of the Chancellery building against maniacal enemy resistance.

An equally furious battle swirled through Berlin’s famed Tiergarten, a few hundred yards to the west, where the rest of the Nazi garrison was being cut to pieces by attacks from all directions.

The trapped Germans, apparently told by their leaders that Hitler had fallen at his command post in the Chancellery, showed no signs of quitting. They fought back with a hopeless fury behind thick stone walls and inside deep cellars, taking a bloody toll for every yard of lost ground.

But Moscow dispatches and somber enemy broadcasts made it clear that the battle of Berlin was roaring into its final hours.

The Russians captured another 100 city blocks in Berlin yesterday.

The main German force locked in the Chancellery and a cluster of adjoining streets to the east appeared to be well supplied with arms and ammunition, tanks and self-propelled guns that made the Russian onslaught a slow and costly slugging match.

Russian forces swung out north and northwest of Berlin on a 110-mile front in a new drive to link up with the British Second Army and finish off the Nazi’s northern redoubt.

Capture port

They captured the Baltic port of Stralsund and took Gnoien and Waren farther to the south, the latter town only 82 miles east of the British bridgehead across the Elbe River.

The German High Command said the whirlwind sweep of Marshal Konstantin K. Rokossovsky’s Second White Russian Army had carried to the area of Rostock, the last major Baltic port short of the neck of the Danish peninsula.

The Russians also struck out westward toward a new linkup with U.S. Ninth Army troops along the Elbe, capturing Alt-Ruppin, 27 miles northwest of Berlin and 33 miles away from the U.S. lines, and Brandenburg, capital of Brandenburg Province.

Clean up pocket

Far to the southeast, the Second and Fourth Ukrainian Armies finally joined forces in the disputed corridor on the Polish-Czechoslovak border, clearing out practically all of the enemy-held pocket there.

The Fourth Ukrainians, advancing south and west along a 60-mile front, captured the Polish cities of Bogumin and Frysztat and the Slovak towns of Skoczow, Cadca and Veika Bvtca, virtually encircling the industrial center of Teschen.

They also seized Plevnik, six miles southwest of Velka Bytca, and pushed on to join up with the Second Ukrainian Army in the Puchov sector eight miles to the south.

The Second Ukrainian Army took Puchov after wheeling back to slash 28 miles through the Nazi defenses east of Brno.

126

Brain stroke killed Hitler, Eisenhower’s evidence indicates

Wednesday, May 2, 1945

Highlights on Hitler’s ‘death’

Gen. Eisenhower doubts Nazi version that Hitler died in battle; reveals authentic Himmler report that Hitler suffered stroke and was dying eight days ago.

Surrender of Germany regarded as hastened by elevation of Adm. Doenitz and his ousting of Foreign Minister Ribbentrop.

Doubt cast on report of death by Moscow. Washington skeptical. British believe Hitler is dead; doubt Nazi version.

Goebbels’ death in Berlin regarded as highly probable by well-informed quarters in London.

LONDON, England (UP) – Gen. Dwight. D. Eisenhower said today there was some evidence that Adolf Hitler had died of a brain hemorrhage instead of a hero’s death in battle as the Nazis claimed.

The statement by Gen. Eisenhower was the first from any Allied official to shed light on the mystery of Hitler’s reported death.

Gen. Eisenhower said the enemy claim that Hitler died fighting the Russians in Berlin was “in contradiction of facts” given by Heinrich Himmler at a conference with Count Folke Bernadotte of Sweden at Luebeck eight days ago.

Himmler and a Gen. Schellenberg, who accompanied him to the conference, said Hitler had a brain hemorrhage and could not live 48 hours and even then might be dead, Gen. Eisenhower said in a statement issued through Supreme Headquarters in France.

Through neutral source

Even though this version of Hitler’s death was based on Nazi information, it had the merit of coming to Gen. Eisenhower through Count Bernadotte, a neutral. Observers were inclined to put more credence in the Himmler version than in the melodramatic account broadcast by the Hamburg radio yesterday.

A high British source at the San Francisco conference told the United Press Saturday that Hitler had suffered a stroke and could not live more than 24 hours. That raised the possibility that Hitler’s death might have been covered up for two or three days to give time to build up a legend of a hero’s death.

Germany finished

Himmler admitted that Germany was finished, Gen. Eisenhower said in the official confirmation of the Luebeck conference. Bernadotte said in Stockholm yesterday that he could make no disclosure of his activity as the reported intermediary in Nazi-Allied negotiations.

Gen. Eisenhower said the radio statement by Adm. Karl Doenitz, announcing Hitler’s death and proclaiming himself as his successor, represented an attempt to drive a wedge between the Russians and Anglo-Americans.

The attempt “will be as completely ineffective as many previous efforts which have been made,” Gen. Eisenhower said. “Nothing which either Doenitz or Himmler may say or do can change in any way the agreed operations of the Allied Armies.”

Doenitz was reported already to have ousted Joachim von Ribbentrop as foreign minister in what may be the first move toward trying to save Germany from further battering.

London circles with excellent sources circulated a report that Propaganda Minister Paul Joseph Goebbels probably had died in Berlin with Hitler.

Radio Hamburg, voice of the new Doenitz government, said the admiral had appointed British-educated Count Ludwig (also known as Lutz) Schwerin von Krosigk, 58-year-old nephew of the late Kaiser Wilhelm, as foreign minister.

Allied and neutral sources predicted that the death – real or fictional – of Hitler, and elevation of Adm. Doenitz to Fuehrer will hasten Germany’s collapse.

Belief persisted in London that victory in Europe will come this week. Prime Minister Winston Churchill conferred with his cabinet until early this morning on the swift sequence of events.

No Churchill statement

In the House of Commons, the question period passed today without any statement by the Prime Minister on the war situation or Hitler’s reported death.

German preparations to quit Denmark and possibly even Norway continued in what Stockholm suggested was the first step toward Germany’s full capitulation.

The first meeting of top-ranking Allied and German officials on the Western Front was disclosed by Supreme Allied Headquarters. It resulted in an agreement to ship food by air, sea and highway into German-occupied Holland, and a dispatch from headquarters added:

“The implications of a face-to-face meeting of high SHAEF and German officers at this time are obvious.”

Lt. Gen. W. Bedell Smith, chief of staff to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, headed the Allied delegation and Arthur Seyss-Inquart, governor of German-occupied Holland, the German group.

Rhodes scholar

The new German Foreign Minister Schwerin von Krosigk, a former Rhodes scholar at Oxford, speaks fluent English and it was suggested that Doenitz may have called upon him as a man capable of negotiating with the Allies.

He was Minister of Finance in Adolf Hitler’s government, but had been active in German politics long before Hitler’s advent. He became head of the German budget department in 1929 and served in the von Papen and Schleicher cabinets before Hitler came into power.

Like all members of the Hitler government, Schwerin von Krosigk was made a member of the Nazi Party. But he was regarded the least Nazi of those in the cabinet.

Radio Hamburg made no mention of Ribbentrop. He was last reported in Southern Germany two weeks ago.

Goebbels last in Berlin

London sources which reported that Goebbels may have died with Hitler in Berlin pointed out that he had not been mentioned by the German radio for more than a week, though as Nazi leader of the capital he then was directing its defense.

Thus, within six days, four of the top Nazi leaders of Germany have disappeared from the scene – Hitler, Goebbels, Ribbentrop and Reich Marshal Hermann Goering. The German radio announced last Friday that Goering had resigned as commander of the Luftwaffe because of poor health.

Whereabout and status of the other top Nazi, Gestapo Chief and Interior Minister Himmler, were not known. Doenitz did not signify immediately whether he considered Himmler part of his regime.

The surrender of German forces in Denmark may already be underway. A Stockholm dispatch to the London Evening News said that German naval forces in Denmark had begun to surrender.

Norway reports conflict

Conflicting reports were received from Norway. Some said the Germans were determined to fight to the death there, but others asserted the surrender of those forces was also likely.

One source said Doenitz had discharged Adm. Otto Ciliax, German naval commander in Norway, because he desired to capitulate. Adm. Theodor Kranke, formerly assistant to Gen. Fritz Boehme, German Army commander in Norway, was named to succeed Ciliax, it was said.

The announcement of Hitler’s death met a mixed reception in Allied capitals.

A British Foreign Office commentator said there appeared little doubt that Hitler was dead. Far from dying a “hero’s death,” however, the spokesman said all reliable reports indicated the Fuehrer died of a stroke.

Moscow sees trick

Moscow, on the other hand, inclined to the belief that the death report was a blind to enable Hitler and his henchmen to go underground.

Allied officials expressed surprise at Doenitz’s announcement that Hitler had designated him rather than Gestapo Chief Himmler as his successor.

They theorized, however, that Himmler must have approved the appointment since he still controlled the dreaded, all-powerful SS and Gestapo, without whose support no German official could remain in office.

Himmler may have decided that Doenitz as a non-war criminal might better be able to deal with the Allies.

Allied authorities were far from convinced that Hitler actually was dead.

One British official said he would have to see Hitler’s body before he would believe the Nazi leader was dead. Measurements of Hitler’s head taken by doctors before the war might clinch final identification.

Fight on, Doenitz says

Announcing Hitler’s death over the Hamburg radio last night, Doenitz called on the German Army to continue the struggle against Bolshevism “until the fighting troops and hundreds of thousands of families of the German eastern territories are rescued from enslavement or extermination.”

“Against the British and the Americans,” he said, “I shall continue the struggle in as far and so long as they will hinder me in carrying out the fight against Bolshevism.”

Observers pointed out that Doenitz’s anti-Bolshevist pronouncements followed the pattern laid down by Himmler who within the past fortnight offered to surrender Germany unconditionally to the United States and Britain.

The Western Allies replied that surrender could only be accepted if addressed to Russia as well. A British spokesman reiterated last night that Doenitz’s emergence as Fuehrer would have no effect on the Allies’ demand for Germany’s unconditional surrender to all of the “Big Three.”

127

Full surrender may be delayed

By Paul Ghali

BERN, Switzerland – The disappearance of Adolf Hitler from the political scene at this juncture – no matter by what means – is taken generally here as indication of the failure of any attempt at general German capitulation, thought it may precipitate local surrenders on the part of German Army generals.

The end of the war is no longer estimated in terms of hours, as did the more optimistically-minded over the weekend, but rather in days.

Some of Switzerland’s less pessimistic souls today voice undisguised joy at the latest report of Hitler’s demise. But the general belief that this most malevolent figure of modern history still lives despite the German radio’s efforts to convince the world otherwise seems at long last to be the boomerang of Nazi propaganda, which for so many years has outdone itself in building the Hitler legend.

Members of the German legation and consulates here now openly admit that the war’s end approaches. All employees of the Nazi foreign service in Switzerland yesterday received three months’ salary in lieu of notice. Many are already job-hunting.

128

‘Saves us trouble,’ Canadian thinks

Wednesday, May 2, 1945

WITH THE FIRST CANADIAN ARMY, Germany (UP) – A Canadian soldier, hearing of Adolf Hitler’s reported death, said, “It save us a lot of trouble.”

Another Canadian trooper said the event was “too sudden. It deprived us of the joy of hearing that we hanged him.”

129

Hitler’s on trip, astrologist says

Wednesday, May 2, 1945

NEW YORK (UP) – Astrologist Helen Paul read of Adolf Hitler’s reported death, checked over the same horoscope Der Fuehrer used to use, and decided that “it couldn’t be so.”

The charts showed Hitler left Germany last week on a long journey, Mrs. Paul said. The charts didn’t name the destination.

130

Trick by Nazis, Russians charge

Reds scoff at report of Hitler’s death

MOSCOW, USSR (UP) – Reports of Adolf Hitler’s death were described by the official TASS News Agency today as a Nazi trick.

It appeared the Russians were not likely to accept the German radio announcement without independent supporting evidence.

The TASS dispatch said the Nazis, by disseminating news of Hitler’s death, “obviously hope to enable Hitler to vanish from the scene and assume an illegal underground position.”

Called usual propaganda

It charged that the appeal by Adm. Karl Doenitz was the “usual fabrication of German propaganda calculated to provoke discord among members of the anti-Hitlerite coalition.”

It can be assumed reasonably that until the Russians actually see Hitler’s body, they will not be convinced he is dead.

Other recent events also caused considerable skepticism here over the authenticity of the report. Some sources pointed out that the report was made even more suspicious by the fact that not only Hitler, but Reich Marshal Hermann Goering, Propaganda Minister Paul Joseph Goebbels and Gestapo Heinrich Himmler allegedly vanished from the scene when Doenitz was elevated to Fuehrer.

Disguise hinted

Only two days ago, in commenting on Goering’s rumored execution, Leonid Leonov wrote in the newspaper Izvestia that plastic surgeons probably were working hard on Hitler, Goebbels and other Nazis to change their physical appearance so they could escape.

The general feeling here was that, regardless of the truth of the report, Hitler’s death would not materially affect the duration of the war. The Russians believe the German Army has been crushed decisively and its days of continued resistance numbered.

131

Hitler death news results in skepticism

If true, it may have little effect

WASHINGTON (UP) – This capital calmly awaited the unfolding of events today to show whether the German radio report of Adolf Hitler’s death is true and how the alleged succession of Adm. Karl Doenitz will affect the supposed surrender negotiations.

Though there has been no official comment as yet, the general opinion is that German disintegration is now so nearly complete that even if the Nazis are telling the truth, it will make little difference at this stage of the war.

Consequently, there is little tendency to rejoice over the news of Hitler’s death, just a general feeling of relief that the world is well rid of him – if he is really dead.

Voices skepticism

The general skepticism felt throughout the Allied world was expressed here by Sen. Edwin C. Johnson (D-Colorado), a member of the Senate Military Affairs Committee.

“I’d suspect the report and would like to see the body,” Mr. Johnson said. “I don’t believe those darn hounds at all. They might pull anything.”

Important questions arise if Doenitz really has taken command of the German nation. One is whether he will attempt to make new contacts with the Allies. Another is the question of how serious he can be about continuing the fight in view of the rapid overrunning of the Reich by Allied Armies.

Where is Himmler?

A third question is what has happened to Gestapo Chief Heinrich Himmler, who was reported to be conducting surrender negotiations with the Allies.

The possibility was not overlooked that Himmler, if he is in control in Germany, might have staged the whole show in keeping with his purported promise to deliver Hitler’s body as a token of good faith. Doenitz could be a figurehead set up to carry out the actual capitulation.

There were divergent views expressed on Doenitz himself. Military observers believed he might have been chosen because he was the strongest possible leader and that he might continue to lead a last-ditch stand in Denmark, Norway and the German ports.

Strong party man

These observers pointed out that Doenitz was recognized as a strong Nazi Party man. At the same time, they said, he was the only German commander who had not been thoroughly whipped. His U-boats were reported increasingly active after the first of this year.

However, it was felt at the State Department that despite Doenitz’s rise to top rank through his espousal of Nazism he still thinks like old-line German High Command military men. This would make him a possible choice to lead a peace move in keeping with the High Command’s suspected desire to save what it can from the ruins.

One theory advanced at the State Department to explain Doenitz’s getting control rather than Himmler is that Doenitz “just happened to be there” at the right time and decided to take over.

May be hoax

This could portend a scrap between Doenitz and the men behind him with Himmler and his Nazi adherents, presumably including what remains of the Gestapo and other Nazi groups.

The possibility is also seen, however, that the whole affair is a hoax designed to cover Hitler’s whereabouts and plans and confuse the Allies on the question of ending hostilities.