The Pittsburgh Press (April 27, 1945)
Goering’s escape reported – Mussolini may be prisoner
By the United Press
Allied armies, herding the remnants of Nazi fighting forces into a dead-end corridor of Germany for the kill, were smoking enemy ringleaders from their hideaways today.
According to various European reports, the following headliners had been captured or were being driven toward capture although Allied confirmation of these reports was lacking:
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Reich Marshal Herman Goering: Radio Moscow said the “eagle of the Luftwaffe” had escaped from Berlin by plane with a $20 million “nest egg.” Earlier, Radio Hamburg said Goering had “resigned” his command of Germany’s beaten air force because of heart trouble.
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Lt. Gen. Kurt Dittmar: The spokesman of the German High Command and widely-quoted military commentator of Radio Berlin was reported in Allied hands. A BBC broadcast today reported his capture by Allied armies in the west.
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Benito Mussolini and Roberto Farinacci: The former Duce of Italy and the former secretary of the Fascist Party were hounds and hares in today’s dispatches. Radio Rome repeatedly broadcast a Swiss agency report that Mussolini was in Allied hands at Palanza on Lake Maggiore. The Italian government did not confirm or deny the report. Another unconfirmed report located Mussolini and Farinacci in a monastery at Como after a flight from Milan. But a Zurich dispatch said Mussolini had not reached Como.
The Milan radio reported that Benito Mussolini had been arrested by customs guards at Lecco on Lake Como.
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Lt. Gen. Emil Remer: According to a British broadcast, this loyal henchman of Hitler committed suicide April 20 after his division broke before Russian pressure on the Eastern Front. Remer was credited with foiling the bomb plot against Hitler last July and was rewarded with command of a division.
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Gestapo Chief Heinrich Himmler: The London Evening News reported that Himmler was dead. Reports are current in London, the Evening News said, that Himmler met his end in an unknown manner. The newspaper recalled that the British recently shelled a car in which Himmler may have been riding in Northwest Germany.
Meanwhile, Radio Hamburg insisted that Adolf Hitler was leading the defense of Berlin in a “martyr’s” last stand.
And British dispatches said Rudolf Hess, an early fugitive from Nazi circles, reportedly had gone insane in captivity.
Marshal Erwin Rommel’s widow told her U.S. Seventh Army captors that the “Desert Fox” died in bed a “broken man.” Mrs. Rommel, found in her home in Herrlingen, said her late husband “knew the fight was hopeless” after he had witnessed the crushing of his Afrika Korps. She said Rommel disagreed with Hitler’s military strategy. A heart attack finished him, she said, as he apparently was recovering from shrapnel wounds inflicted by an Allied fighter pilot.
Zurich reports said King Leopold of Belgium had been taken into the southern redoubt by the Nazis.
There was growing suspicion in London that other Nazis – possibly including Hitler himself – were using the battle of Berlin to cloak their disappearance into hiding.
The usually-reliable diplomatic correspondent of Exchange Telegraph reported no definite evidence had reached London that Hitler was still in Berlin.