[GRAPHIC] The death of Adolf Hitler (4-30-45)

6

The New York Times (May 2, 1945)

HITLER DEAD IN CHANCELLERY, NAZIS SAY
Doenitz, Successor, Orders War to Go On

Admiral in Charge; Proclaims Designation to Rule – Appeals to People and Army
Raises ‘Red Menace’; Britain to Insist Germans Show Hitler’s Body When War Ends
By SYDNEY GRUSON
By Cable to The New York Times

LONDON, May 1 – Adolf Hitler died this afternoon, the Hamburg radio announced tonight, and Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, proclaiming himself the new Fuehrer by Hitler’s appointment, said that the war would continue.

Crowning days of rumors about Hitler’s health and whereabouts, the Hamburg radio said that he had fallen in the battle of Berlin at his command post in the Chancellery just three days after Benito Mussolini, the first of the dictators, had been killed by Italian Partisans. Doenitz, a 53-year-old U-boat specialist, broadcast an address to the German people and the surviving armed forces immediately after the announcer had given the news of Hitler’s death.

[The British Foreign Office said that it would demand the production of Hitler’s body after the end of hostilities, The Associated Press reported.]

First addressing the German people, Doenitz said that they would continue to fight only to save themselves from the Russians but that they would oppose the western Allies as long as they helped the Russians. In an order of the day to the German forces he repeated his thinly veiled attempt to split the Allies.

Radio prepares Germans

Early this evening the Germans were told that an important announcement would be broadcast tonight. There was no hint of what was coming. The stand-by announcement was repeated at 9:40 P.M., followed by the playing of excerpts from Wagner’s “Goetterdaemmerung.”

A few minutes later the announcer said: “Achtung! Achtung! In a few moments you will hear a serious and important message to the German people.” Then the news was given to the Germans and the world after the playing of the slow movement from Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony, commemorating Wagner’s death.

Appeals for cooperation

Appealing to the German people for help, order and discipline, Doenitz eulogized Hitler as the hero of a lifetime of service to the nation whose “fight against the Bolshevik storm flood concerned not only Europe but the entire civilized world… It is my first task,” Doenitz added, “to save Germany from destruction by the advancing Bolshevist enemy. For this aim alone the military struggle continues.”

Clinging to the line of all recent German propaganda, reflected in Heinrich Himmler’s reported offer to surrender to the western Allies but not to Russia, Doenitz said that the British and Americans were fighting not for their own interests but for the spreading of Bolshevism. He demanded of the armed forces the same allegiance that they had pledged to Hitler and he assured them that he took supreme command “resolved to continue the struggle against the Bolsheviks until the fighting men, until the hundreds of thousands of German families of the German east are saved from bondage and extermination.” To the armed forces he described Hitler as “one of the greatest heroes of German history,” who “gave his life and met a hero’s death.”

News tickers in the House of Commons lobby carried the news of Hitler’s death just before the House rose tonight. The reaction of members and of the general public was much the same. Some doubted the truth of the announcement altogether, while others argued that there would have been no sense of making it if it were not true, since Hitler was perhaps the last person around whom the Germans still in unconquered territory would rally.

But there was an almost complete lack of excitement here. Those who believed the report seemed to accept it as a matter of course that Hitler would die. There was no official reaction.

The last reference to Hitler before tonight’s announcement came in this afternoon’s German communiqué, which said that the Berlin garrison had “gathered around the Fuehrer and, herded together in a very narrow space, is defending itself heroically.” When Himmler offered his surrender to the Americans and British, it is reported, he told Count Folke Bernadotte, his Swedish emissary, that Hitler was dying of a cerebral hemorrhage. During the past week, Hitler was variously reported dead, dying or insane in Berlin, Salzburg or the Bavarian mountains.

Doenitz’ self-proclaimed accession was believed in some quarters here to bear out reports of a recent split in the German hierarchy between the supporters of an immediate peace gathered around Himmler and the die-hard clique clinging to Hitler and his determination to fight to the very end.

It was noted that Doenitz commanded the last arm of the German military machine that could cause the Allies major difficulties, and his ability as an expert on submarine tactics is not belittled here.

He was one of the first military men to join the Nazis and his loyalty to the party and its ideology never wavered. Known as one of the most ruthless men in Germany, he has been a bitter enemy of Britain since his imprisonment during World War I, when he was confined to a Manchester asylum as a lunatic.

“Ghost” Interrupts Doenitz

LONDON, May 1 (AP) – When Doenitz declared on the radio that Hitler had died “a hero’s death,” a ghost voice immediately interrupted, shouting: “This is a lie!”

[The British Broadcasting Corporation subsequently reported that Hitler had actually died of a stroke, rather than in battle against the Russians, the National Broadcasting Company said.]

Hitler, who was 56 years old on April 20, was lauded by Doenitz as “one of the greatest heroes in German history.” Here the ghost voice broke in: “The greatest of all fascists!”

“With proud respect and mourning, we lower our standards,” Doenitz continued. “His death calls on us to act,” the ghost voice interrupted. “Strike now!”

Doenitz launched into a pepe talk to the German people and troops, only to be interrupted again by the ghost voice, crying: “Rise against Doenitz. The struggle is not worthwhile if crime wins.”

Haw-Haw repeats message

After Doenitz had broadcast his message the Hamburg station played “Deutschland Ueber Alles” and the “Horst Wessel Lied.” This was followed by three minutes of silence, then by a formal order of the day from Doenitz to the military services and then by funeral music. Then Lord Haw-Haw repeated the broadcast, including Doenitz’ order of the day, in English.

The Foreign Office said that it believed that Hitler was dead, but it declined to comment on the accuracy of the Hamburg radio’s report of how he died.

London press voluminous

London newspapers received the announcement of Hitler’s death just as the early editions were going to press but the second editions went “all-out” on the news, with long obituaries of Hitler and biographical sketches of Doenitz, the British radio said early today, according to the Office of War Information.

The Times of London limited its comment to a five-column obituary of Hitler and another half-column of copy on Doenitz, with photographs of both. The Daily Express, on the other hand, said that it “rejoices to announce the report of Adolf Hitler’s death,” the broadcast said.

The Daily Herald commented that Hitler had “snatched power at a moment when moral conviction and mutual trust were at a low ebb among the governments of the democracies” and added: “It is up to the democracies to insure that no such moment shall occur again.” The Daily Mail declared that the Germans would continue to “worship” Hitler.

Doenitz’ Accession Viewed as a Blind

Capital Lays His Designation to General Ignorance of His Allegiance to Party

WASHINGTON, May 1 (AP) – If Adolf Hitler really designated Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz his successor, military men here believe, he did so for the following reasons:

  1. Doenitz is a Nazi supporter who could he counted on to keep German resistance going if possible.

  2. But he is not associated in the Allies’ minds with German atrocities and the extreme policies of the Nazi party. Therefore, Hitler probably figured that he might be able to get better treatment from the Allies when the hour of surrender came.

  3. He is immensely popular with the German people.

There was a disposition here tonight to look for continued organized resistance whose core would now be centered in the Baltic and North Sea port areas. Those places are the homes of the German Navy and especially of the U-boat fleet that Doenitz commanded from 1936 until he succeeded Grand Admiral Erich Raeder as Commander in Chief of the navy in 1943.

There may be some continued resistance in the southern pocket, but there are well placed officials who now say that there is no national redoubt area and never has been.

In proportion to the total strength of the services, there have been far more Nazi party members among German Navy officers than among Army officers. The reason appears to be this: After the First World War and the scuttling of the German Fleet at Scapa Flow, German navy men developed an inferiority complex. The rise of the Nazi party and its doctrines of world domination appealed to them even more strongly than to their brothers of the army.

The reports of Hitler’s death caused a stir in Congress. Skepticism mingled with questioning whether it would make any difference in the final mop-up of German resistance.

Senator Edwin C. Johnson, Democrat, of Colorado, acting chairman of the Military Affairs Committee, said: “I hope it’s so, but I would kind of like to have a look at the body before I believe it.” Whether it makes any difference, Mr. Johnson said, depends not only on what attitude Doenitz takes but on what control he can exercise. “I doubt if it makes any difference,” he added.

Senator Robert A. Taft, Republican, of Ohio, declared that it was “significant and interesting that Hitler’s death, if the report is true, should come with the complete collapse of his philosophy. Incidentally, it will save the Allies a lot of worry about dealing with a captured Fuehrer.”

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Churchill Hints Peace This Week; 2-Day Celebration Is Authorized

By CLIFTON DANIEL
By Wireless to The New York Times

LONDON, May 1 – The general belief that peace with Germany will be announced this week persisted in Britain today, encouraged by Prime Minister Churchill himself and by Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz’s announcement of the death of Adolf Hitler.

The War Cabinet again held a session tonight but so far as was known did not have any concrete proposal to consider. The chances that Heinrich Himmler ultimately will deliver an acceptable peace are now held in some official quarters to be only “fifty-fifty.”

Nevertheless the buoyant Prime Minister told the House of Commons today that he might have “information of importance” to announce before Saturday.

The public’s hopes were raised still further by a long Home Office circular giving the Government’s views on how Britain should observe V-E Day, which the British, it appears, will be expected to celebrate strictly according to form.

[Stockholm reported, with the return there of Count Bernadotte, the “imminent liberation” of Denmark and Norway – already taking effect locally in Denmark – as a phase of a prospective general German capitulation that must be acceptable to the Allies’ military commands.]

The hurrahing will begin with the announcement of the cessation of hostilities by Mr. Churchill over a nation-wide radio network. The King will speak at 9 o’clock that evening. And throughout that day and the next all Britain, except for bank clerks and other essential public servants, will be on holiday – and probably a binge.

The military disintegration of Germany is proceeding now at such a pace that even the dampening news from Stockholm, Sweden, that Count Folke Bernadotte had no new offer from Himmler did not abate Britain’s peace fever.

In any case, the three major powers will make absolutely certain that Himmler can produce a genuine and total unconditional military surrender, before accepting any offer from him.

Mr. Churchill reiterated today that the political leaders would be guided by the military commanders in this matter.

He also hinted that the announcement, which he hoped to make this week, might not concern all enemy forces. Additional point was given to this remark tonight when the possibility arose that Admiral Doenitz might be acting independently of, or in competition with, Himmler, and might try to keep some German forces, including the Navy, in the fight.

Reports of the evacuation of German troops from Denmark also lent support to the supposition that the German surrender might still be a piece-meal affair.

Yet Britain had no doubt that peace was on the way. Authoritative quarters prepared the public for the inevitable delays attendant upon signing any surrender document and consultation between the three major powers to fix the time for announcing the end of hostilities.

Two-day celebration sanctioned

Mr. Churchill let the House know today that he would not be surprised at an unofficial leakage of the news, but he assured the members that he would not hold up the announcement unduly and that it would not wait upon full, formal occupation of Germany.

If the end of hostilities takes the form of a three-power declaration, Britain’s V-E Day plans may be changed. But until further notice the Government wants the churches to be open and the bells rung; it also wants thanksgiving services on the Sunday following V-E Day, flood-lighting wherever available, but not full street lighting; bonfires of non-salvagable material, full programs in all places of entertainment; later hours for dancing than normal, open-air celebrations, longer hours for saloons, parades on thanksgiving Sunday, and food stores to be kept open long enough to prevent people from going hungry.

‘Deep Satisfaction’ Is Felt by U.S. Troops At Death

American soldiers in the field received reports of Adolf Hitler’s death not with joy but with deep satisfaction, Richard Hottelet, CBS war correspondent, reported from the First Army in Germany yesterday.

“We will fight as long as the German soldiers shoot at us,” was the chief reaction, he said.

“We don’t now any details of Hitler’s death except that the German radio says he was killed in action,” he added. “The news is just beginning to spread around to the soldiers here in the First United States Army.

“Hitler has become hated among the soldiers of our Army, hated personally and violently, as the man who kept fighting a senseless fight, kept the slaughter going for absolutely no reason. There’s a feeling here that justice has been done, and certainly a determination that none of the lesser Nazis shall escape.”

Hitler’s Birthplace Taken As Germans Tell of Death

PARIS, Wednesday, May 2 (AP) – Braunau, the little Austrian town where Adolf Hitler was born fifty-six years ago, was captured last night by the American Third Army just as the German radio was telling the world that Hitler was dead. The Thirteenth Armored Division took Braunau on the Inn River after having stormed across the Isar River and driven twenty-five miles.

‘The Bloody Dog Is Dead’

LONDON, May 1 (U.P.) – In its first comment on the announcement of Hitler’s death, the British radio started off: “‘The day is ours, the bloody dog is dead.’ That, from the last scene of Shakespeare’s '’King Richard III,’ is as good for a first comment on Hitler’s death.”

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Nazi Ruse is Seen in Hitler ‘Death’

Writer Suggests the Report Is an Effort to Hide the Whereabouts of Leader
By LOUIS P. LOCHNER
Chief of the Former Associated Press Bureau in Berlin

WITH THE UNITED STATES SEVENTH ARMY, May 1 (AP) – I have just listened to the shortwave broadcast of Admiral Karl Doenitz’ speech as the new Fuehrer of Germany, but I still find it difficult to believe that Hitler is really dead or that he remained in Berlin during the Russian assault.

The whole melodramatic buildup, beginning with Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels’ announcement days ago that Hitler was personally conducting the defense of the capital, now reaching its climax in the claim that he met death in the Chancellery, of all places, looks like an effort to make good the Fuehrer’s oft-repeated assertion: “I will never capitulate.” Hitler could not afford to accept unconditional surrender, so what may prove to be the legend of his meeting a hero’s death had to be staged.

Hitler may or may not be dead. If he is dead, it seems extremely unlikely that he died as the German radio says that he did. Having spent the past days in the very section of the country where Hitler rose to power, wrote “Mein Kampf” and conducted affairs of intrigue with the whole world from Munich, I still cannot escape the feeling that Hitler is some place where nobody expects him to be. From time to time people will claim to have seen him.

Doenitz’ announcement by no means ends our troubles with Hitler. They may have only begun. There may be a state funeral for him, and photographers may have the opportunity to produce pictures of a dead man labeled Hitler. Then, some day much later, a “resurrected” Hitler may again stir the world.

The appointment of Doenitz as Hitler’s successor indicates that the German leadership desires someone as chief of state who can possibly negotiate with the Allies. Doenitz had no experience in government and had no real hold on the affections of the German people. His appointment was obviously a political maneuver.

The course of the war is unlikely to be affected by his appointment.

Just a ‘Fascist Trick,’ Moscow Radio Asserts

LONDON, Wednesday, May 2 (AP) – The Moscow radio’s first announcement of the German report of Hitler’s death, broadcast at 3:12 A.M. to the Russian people, declared that “the German radio statement evidently represents a new Fascist trick.”

The radio announcement was prefaced by the phrase “it is asserted that,” indicating that the Russians were skeptical of the German version of Hitler’s fate. The broadcast said that Admiral Doenitz’s order to the German troops was repeating “the usual trickery and twists of Hitlerite propaganda.”

The Moscow broadcast said that, “by the dissemination of the statement on the death of Hitler, the German Fascists evidently hope to prepare for Hitler the possibility of disappearing from the scene and going to an underground position.”

Milestones in Hitler’s Career Marked by Memorable Dates in His Rise and Fall

By the United Press

Significant dates in Adolf Hitler’s life:

April 20, 1889 – Born in Braunau, Austria.
Nov. 8-9, 1923 – Attempted to seize dictatorship of Bavaria through “beer-hall” Putsch in Munich; failed.
Jan. 30, 1933 – Appointed Chancellor by President von Hindenburg.
March 23, 1933 – Made dictator of Germany by powers voted by Reichstag.
Oct. 14, 1933 – Announced Germany’s withdrawal from League of Nations and disarmament conference.
March 7, 1936 – Denounced Treaty of Locarno, sent German troops into demilitarized Rhineland area.
March 12, 1938 – Sent German troops into Austria; proclaimed union of Austria and Germany the next day.
Sept. 28, 1938 – Munich conference at which Britain, France and Italy agreed to partition of Czechoslovakia.
March 14-15, 1939 – Occupied the remainder of Czechoslovakia.
March 22, 1939 – Seized Memelland from Lithuania.
April 28, 1939 – Denounced 1935 naval agreement with Britain and non-aggression pact with Poland.
Aug. 23, 1939 – Entered non-aggression pact with Russia.
Sept. 1, 1939 – Invaded Poland.
April 9, 1940 – Invaded Norway and Denmark.
May 10, 1940 – Invaded France and the Low Countries.
June 22, 1941 – Invaded Russia.
Dec. 11, 1941 – Declared war on the United States.
Nov. 9, 1943 – Said that Germany “will never capitulate.”
May 1, 1945 – Reported dead by Hamburg radio.

Hitler’s Credo of Force and Bloodshed Expounded in ‘Mein Kampf,’ Nazi Bible

Hitler’s credo – in so far as it could be considered a credo, for it was a mass of political and social contradictions – was expressed in his famous book “Mein Kampf,” and in his speeches.

“Mein Kampf,” begun while Hitler was a prisoner, following his beer-cellar putsch in 1923, became the bible for many millions of Germans and one of the greatest “best sellers” in history. By the spring of 1939 it had been translated into eleven languages, and more than 5,200,000 copies had been sold. No figures of the book’s sale during the war are available, although it is probable that several more million copies have been disposed of. It went through more than 425 German editions before the war, when it was estimated that the book had netted Hitler about $3,000,000. His royalties from foreign sales by 1933 amounted to $150,000.

On May 1, 1936, the German Ministry of the Interior decreed that the “community” provide every married couple with a copy. This added greatly to the sale of the book. In Germany the book became a party and national catechism. It was a gift book for boys and girls celebrating their birthdays and for old folks on their anniversaries.

It was a historical criticism of German policy, a manual of faith, a confession, a political testament. Hitler never altered it. For this added reason it remained a maze of contradictions, although some of its ideas were carried to realization, with grave consequences for Germany and the rest of the world.

Discussing Germany’s need for “Lebensraum,” Hitler frankly declared in “Mein Kampf” that Germany intended to take what she could by force of arms.

“The frontiers of states are made by men,” he wrote, maintaining that war was a nobler state than peace. “One must realize that often a steel-hard, healthy national body has grown out of the bloodiest civil war, while more than once decay has stunk to heaven from an artificially cultivated state of peace.

“No one can doubt that this world will one day again be exposed to the deadliest struggles for the existence of mankind. Nothing can be finally victorious but the passion for self-preservation. So-called humanitarianism, the expression of a mixture of stupidity, cowardice and conceited priggishness melts before it like snow in the March sunshine. Humanity grew great in eternal strife – in eternal peace it perishes.”

Doenitz Held Suspect

Admiral Believed Appointed to Negotiate Peace but Any Move is Looked at Askance
By HANSON W. BALDWIN

The E. Phillips Oppenheim quality of the last days of Hitler’s Germany was heightened yesterday as strong peace rumors continued to be circulated after the German radio had announced Hitler’s death.

Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, Commander in Chief of the German Navy and ruthless director of the U-boat war, was appointed to succeed him – and possibly to sign the surrender. Both Hitler’s announced death and Doenitz are to be suspected. The former may be true. It would fulfill the Hitlerian myth to have the Fuehrer immolate himself as a martyr to the Greater Reich, But we may never know whether it is true. Will the body be produced, and if so, how will it be identified?

Doenitz himself seems to be a figurehead, appointed perhaps because he is not a member of the General Staff or of the Junker class, not a Nazi political leader as Heinrich Himmler is; not so closely identified with Hitler as Field Marshal Gen. Wilhelm Keitel was. But both his present position as a figurehead and his past history as a Nazi condemn him. He is no more to be trusted than Himmler.

May be there to negotiate

Apparently he has been set up by the German armed forces for the purpose of negotiating a peace. It is interesting and perhaps symptomatic that an admiral rather than a member of the army, which is Germany’s pride, has been selected for this purpose.

The aura of mystery that has surrounded whatever exchanges with the Germans have been occurring has not, therefore, been lifted by yesterday’s events, and it is well to remember that the Allies’ troops are still being killed in Germany. But the German radio’s announcements may be prefatory to other announcements, and expectations are still high – though without official endorsement – that some early surrender with a German Government will be arranged. But exactly what German Government, how arranged, or by whom was not clear.

If, as some reports have indicated, Heinrich Himmler or other leading Nazis or Doenitz, operating behind the scenes, have tendered surrender offers, these offers must be regarded with suspicion. For Nazi fanatics would never quit unless they felt there was some quid pro quo for them – and for Nazism – in surrender. Even a cornered rat, facing certain death, fights to the end.

The ulterior motive in the original offer reported to have come from Himmler is clear enough. The offer followed the same divisive policy that has marked the enemy’s political strategy for the past four years. Surrender was tendered to the United States and Britain, but not to Russia. This offer was rejected, and it has been reported, though without any official confirmation, that the original tender has been amended to include Russia.

Offer of desperation

If this is true, the reasoning behind such a surrender approach is not so clear. It is obviously an offer of desperation; Germany and the German Army are falling apart like a house of cards. But there are still sizable and fanatical enemy forces, with large stockpiles of ammunition, and capable of prolonging the fighting. The German policy of sabotage, espionage, terror and underground activities in areas already occupied by the Allies is functioning, though on a small scale. The longer the fighting can be protracted, the more difficult it will be for the Allied Military Government to restore some stability to war-torn Europe; the more chance there is that Europe will be plunged into the “organized chaos” that the Nazis have professed to espouse.

Why then should men like Himmler and other Nazi leaders offer to surrender unconditionally – if they have done so? There may be several answers to that question, none of them totally satisfactory:

(1) The announced removal of Hitler from the national and party helm in Germany – by death or other causes – may have caused a change, under pressure of this emergency, in the party line. The new leaders may be convinced that Germany and the Germans will be virtually eliminated unless resistance ceases soon, or they may have less fanaticism than Hitler, or they may be attempting to achieve his same ends in different ways.

(2) Some German leaders would unquestionably be willing to surrender on any terms if they could preserve their lives. But these are the cravens, and whatever else we may say of many of the German leaders, there are among them many men who have shown no lack of physical courage and to whom their own lives have been secondary to what they have considered a greater purpose. Moreover, it seems very unlikely at this late date that Himmler or any other prominent Nazi tarred with such a reputation as his could hope to escape punishment by surrendering. The Allies would surely never stoop to such a bargain.

Hess case recalled

But Himmler and his associates may think that they would. The strange case of Adolph Hess who parachuted into England to arrange a peace shows how different the world looks, how warped the mind is, when one has swallowed a large dose of one’s own propaganda. And the Nazis undoubtedly remember the case of the Kaiser premier war criminal twenty-seven years ago, who lived out his years in ease and peace.

Whatever the reasons that may motivate any surrender offer made or to be made, there is no doubt that the present disasters that Germany is suffering are a powerful spur to rationalization in the German mind and toward making the best of a bad bargain. Yet ulterior purposes by the enemy must and should be suspected. We may be certain that any peace that the Germans make will be accompanied by very large mental reservations, indeed, even if unexpressed or unrecorded.

Therefore, every peace offer must, and undoubtedly will, be minutely scrutinized and examined. There must be no strings attached, no conditions – actual or tacit or implied – to unconditional surrender.

9

City Takes Report of Death in Stride

Many New Yorkers Skeptical, Others Are Unemotional – Service Men Pleased
By MEYER BERGER

Reports of Adolf Hitler’s death, like the weather yesterday, left New Yorkers cold. They stopped only briefly in the chill rain of the evening rush hour to glance at headlines, to shrug in disbelief, before they dived like moles into the subway.

Skepticism was by far the dominant reaction. There was no cheering, only subdued gloating. The comparative few who discussed the reports aloud seemed to find profane speech most fitting. Eight of ten persons took the attitude: “It’s another Nazi fake,” or, “They’re trying to palm off a Hitler double.”

Though the reports broke here a little before 5 P.M., they filtered as slowly as winter molasses through rain-swept Times Square. A police sergeant from Traffic J moved from Forty-second Street to the Times Tower’s bulletin board at Forty-third Street to verify oral rumor.

Beaded rain dripped from his cap as he stared at the poster: “Hitler Is Dead.” He shook off the rain. He said: “So the bum’s dead, eh?” and, as if answering his own question, he said dully: “What difference does it make now?”

French sailors bitter

Two French sailors read the sign. One turned to sodden civilians grouped near him. He said: “It is the end of the pig. He will roast in hell.” The civilians looked bewildered. They remained silent.

A bobby-socks blonde turned to a friend and repeated the legend on the bulletin board. Her friend tugged at her sleeve to hurry her on. She said: “Too bad he’s dead. He should have been tortured.”

A tall Italian told them: “Do not believe what it says. Believe it when you see a picture of Hitler as you saw Mussolini’s picture yesterday.” The girls moved off without reply.

Skepticism took some amusing turns. A sharp-featured woman told a friend sharing her umbrella: “Don’t believe what bulletins tell you. This morning the bulletin said: ‘light showers today.’”

The appearance of newspaper extras started a sudden flurry. Hoarse cries of “Hitler dies – get that uxtray!” brought surging groups to newsstands and the hucksters’ cries added to the traffic din, but only for a while. Within an hour, extras found few buyers.

Leo Kaplan of 32-15 Forty-first Street, Astoria, Queens, a soldier hit by machine-gun bullets in the Philippines, hobbled across the Square through the downpour. He stopped to say: “If it’s true, it’s the greatest thing I ever heard.”

A mounted policeman, huddled glumly under his rubber cape, waited until the soldier was beyond earshot. He said: “It would have been good news twenty years ago. Late now.” He stared gloomily eastward down Forty-second Street.

The East Side gave no more outward evidence of gloating or belief in the report than did Yorkville, traditional German quarter. The game was general true in all the city’s Jewish districts.

Service men were outspoken. Lieut. Arthur McIntyre of Kansas City, Mo., an air corps man, said in Times Square when he saw the bulletin: “Good riddance.” Sgt. John Eliopoulos of Haverhill, Mass., an Army engineer, remarked bitterly in Pennsylvania Station: “We’d likt to spit on his grave, the—.” He spoke for a group of five.

Joe Ente, who owns a monument yard at 89 Ludlow Street, discussed the report in terms of his trade. He said: “His headstone should be skunk. But he shouldn’t be buried. He will contaminate the good earth.”

Chinatown skeptical

Chinatown took the news gravely, but skeptically, like the rest of the city. Shavey Lee, its mayor, said fervently: “Here’s hoping we can sing the death of Hirohito.”

Commuters bound home through the murky twilight read the scant details of Hitler’s reported end and stared moodily but silently at drear landscape. Out in the Brownsville district of Brooklyn, Joe Sisselman, who works in Hoffman’s Cafeteria at Saratoga and Pitkin Avenues, looked up from a mound of dishes when he heard the report. “Maybe,” he said, “it will save the lives of some of our American kids. For me it comes late.”

His son, Leonard Sisselman, was reported dead in Germany ten days ago. He had been with the Ninetieth Division of the Third Army.

Rabbi Henry A. Schorr of 1100 Grand Concourse, the Bronx, said: “He leaves behind him a ruined and agonized world, the monument to his madness. God save humanity from the seeds of his tyranny and terror.”

Mayor La Guardia was returning from Brooklyn where he had helped to open a city health center, when he was informed of Hitler’s reported death. “That’s the best news I’ve heard,” he shouted into the two-way police radio in his car. “Look for anything to happen now.”

Editorial: The end of Hitler

The German radio announces that Adolf Hitler fell yesterday afternoon in his command post at the Reich Chancellery in flaming Berlin, “fighting to his last breath against bolshevism.” The announcement adds that Admiral Karl Doenitz, commander of the German fleet, has been named as Hitler’s successor, which presumably means as head of the German state and Reich Chancellor.

The Nazis have made lies so much a part of their politics, and the reports about Hitler’s alleged doubles have been so widely spread, that these announcements are bound to leave in many minds the suspicion that the master liar is attempting to perpetrate one last great hoax on the world in an effort to save himself, and perhaps prepare the way for his return at a later and more auspicious time. Yet, whether true or not, the announcement does mark the end of Hitler and the regime that plunged the world into this war and formed the core of the fanatical German resistance which has cost so much Allied blood and effort.

All things considered, there seems to be no good reason to doubt that Hitler is dead, or that he died as the announcement says he did. Logically, he had to die that way, and had he tried to evade his fate, it is difficult to believe that even his most devoted followers would have permitted him to do so. There was always a good deal of opéra bouffe in Italian fascism, and despite its ghastly results for Italy and Mussolini’s own grim fate, both Italy’s wars and the “Sawdust Caesar’s” end were in keeping with fascism’s fundamental character. But the serious-minded, cold-blooded and wholly humorless Germans had exalted Nazism into a religion which proclaimed Hitler not only the Fuehrer of all Germans but also their god, and Hitler loved to refer to himself as the instrument of Providence. He could not have been permitted to die like Mussolini, to be kicked about and strung up by his heels by the same populace which once had cheered him to the skies. He had to die with the cause he lost, and he had to die that way for two reasons. He had to save it from ridicule inherent in the ludicrous contrast between his megalomaniacal pretensions and his catastrophic failure. And he had to perform one last service for that cause by helping to perpetuate the legend which formed the core of Nazi propaganda and by which he rose to power – the legend that he and the Nazis were shining knights in armor fighting for European civilization against bolshevism – “to their last breath.”

And so it seems probable that Hitler fell as he was supposed to fall – in the roar and terror of battle, amid the crumbling walls of his capital, in the Chancellery which he had built as the seat of his world dominion, and at a moment when the conquering Russian armies were planting their victory banners on the scenes of his former triumphs. If so, history will add one particularly sardonic touch in the fate which made Hitler die on May Day – the day on which he used to display his greatest power over the German masses, the very day, in fact, on which his great adversary, Joseph Stalin, was staging a victory parade in Moscow, which Hitler once thought within his grasp.

But equally important is the announcement that Hitler’s successor is to be, not Goering, who was once designated as such, or Himmler, who was supposed to have concentrated all power in his hands and recently made a “surrender offer” to the United States and Great Britain, but Admiral Doenitz, the head of the German Navy. Doenitz is a stanch Nazi, but not politically exposed. He is also the first navy man to become a head of the German Government.

The inference seems obvious. Himmler’s attempt to save himself and the Nazi regime, and even to split the Allies by a surrender offer which Stalin denounces as a “trick,” has failed, and therewith the role of Himmler is finished. That is also attested by the fact that Count Bernadotte, the Swedish intermediary, returned from a new conference with Himmler’s representatives without a new message for the Allies, and by a statement of an American authority in Stockholm that if the Germans want to surrender they must surrender to the Allied commanders in the field – as Marshal Graziani did in Italy. But it is also evident that Germany is finished, and that only the method of surrender remains to be determined. That job now appears to have been turned over to the German Navy, which, in German eyes at least, might appear to be more respectable than the defeated and disintegrated army, whose most noted leaders have been either purged or discredited.

Doenitz himself declares that he will continue the fight against Russia, and there is the possibility that he may attempt to hole up with his U-boats in Norway in an attempt to blackmail the Allies into more favorable terms. But it seems incredible that any German Government would attempt to continue under the leadership of a virtually nonexistent navy a war which the army has already lost. The next few days, perhaps hours, should tell the story.

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.

soyuz

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.

10

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 (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 (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 (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 Reichschancellery, 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 now were fighting for German strong points 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, last major Baltic port short of the neck of the Danish peninsula.

The Russians also struck out westward toward a new linkup with American 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.

Brain stroke killed Hitler, Eisenhower’s evidence indicates

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 (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

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 Reichsmarshal 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 already may be under way. 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 also was 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.”

11

‘Saves us trouble,’ Canadian thinks

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.”

Hitler’s on trip, astrologist says

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.

12

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.

Trick by Nazis, Russians charge

Reds scoff at report of Hitler’s death

MOSCOW (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 Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering, Propaganda Minister Paul Joseph Goebbels and Gestapo Chief 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.

13

Jubilant but dubious – that’s reaction of British

U.S. soldiers in London howl with joy until they realize war’s not over yet

LONDON (UP) – Morning newspapers today generally “greeted” the reported death of Adolf Hitler and bannered the news in the largest type used since President Roosevelt’s death.

The Daily Express, however, went a step further with a three-column box headed “Obituary.” It said:

“The Daily Express rejoices to announce the report of Adolf Hitler’s death. It prints today every line of information regarding the manner of his death.

Deeds well known

“It wastes no inch of space on his career. The evil of his deeds are all too well known. It gives no picture of the world’s most hated face. It records that Hitler was born Schickelgruber at Braunau, Austria, April 20, 1889, and his days upon the earth he sought to conquer were too long.”

The British people were jubilant over the report, although a number still were skeptical that Hitler had died. When a group of Cockney youths was asked what they thought, one replied: “I don’t believe it.” Another insisted that “He’s halfway to Stockholm by now;” while a third said “It’s a pity a British housewife couldn’t have given it to him – that would have been a real show.”

Howl with joy

American soldiers howled with joy when the report was announced at the Rainbow Corner Red Cross Club. Cpl. Charles Cummings of Omaha, Neb., was the first to hear the news.

“I grabbed the mike,” he said, “and shouted: ‘Hitler’s kicked the bucket. Adm. Donuts has taken over.’

“I don’t think they heard that last part. They really howled. In about 15 minutes they subsided – I guess they realized the war wasn’t over yet and they wouldn’t be catching no boats tomorrow.”

Hitler’s death not worth an extra in Rome

ROME (UP) – The German announcement of Adolf Hitler’s death caused remarkably little excitement in Italy, once a co-partner in the Axis.

Newspapers were not printing because of the May Day holiday and publishers told the United Press that “Hitler’s death is not worth an extra or publication on an off-day.”

“We are waiting for the German surrender, nothing else,” one publisher said.

American diplomatic quarters were skeptical of the report.

14

Adolf Hitler’s story: From Vienna bum to dictator–to death

Egoist Fuehrer raised double-cross art to its highest pitch of all history
By S. Burton Heath

In 20 years, to the exact day, Adolf Hitler talked and double-crossed his way from the Austro-Hungarian lent of a Bowery bum to dictator over one of the world’s great nations.

On August 2, 1914, when World War I started, Hitler was existing in the squalor and degradation to which laziness, egotism and the complete lack of any constructive talent had brought him.

On August 2, 1934, he declared himself complete dictator of the Reich, and made good his presumption.

Hitler has boasted that history will remember him long after it has forgotten all his predecessors. Probably that is true.

It will recall him as an egotist who raised the double-cross to an art which nobody else in the world’s history ever achieved.

Alois Hitler, illegitimately born Schickelgruber, but legitimized by one George Hiedler, described his son, Adolf, as “good for nothing.” The description was apt from the day of his birth, April 20, 1889, to the outbreak of the first World War.

Adolf Hitler lived in Vienna, in a sort of flop house, from 1907 to 1913. His fellow roomers gave him crusts of bread and bits of horse sausage, which he supplemented at a free soup kitchen.

In 1913, he went to Munich, where he continued his low life until the Germans marched on France.

His war service was ordinary. He won the Iron Cross twice, was wounded twice and gassed once.

He got into politics by double-crossing the German Army. In July 1919, he was assigned by the Propaganda and Espionage Division, which used him as a snooper, to observe a “meeting” of the German Workers Party, consisting of six men devoted to pan-Germanism and certain quasi-socialistic dogma. He joined them, on the spot, and thereafter combined politics with his “military” duties.

Hitler’s platform of pan-Germanism, anti-Versailles, anti-Semitism appealed to enough persons to convince him that politics was his forte.

Then came the foundation for another piece of double-crossing. A pervert named Ernst Roehm had raised a large secret army. Hitler was made public spokesman. When the Allies forced that army underground, Hitler adopted it as the Gymnastics and Sports Division of the Nazi Party.

An ex-military flier named Hermann Goering lent Hitler money and joined the party. A year later, he was put in command of Roehm’s army, the brown-shirted S.A.

Beer hall putsch put down

Nor was that all that Roehm contributed to Hitler’s rise. In 1923, the Nazis and other strongarm groups held a Congress of some 100,000 persons in Nuernberg and formed a German Combat Union. Roehm maneuvered so that within a month Hitler, who had wangled dictatorship over the numerically small Nazi Party became political head of the whole combat union.

On May Day, 1923, Hitler’s S.A. men stole weapons from the Reichswehr barracks, undeterred because Roehm had arranged that the guards would not resist. And in November, 600 S.A. men kidnapped the entire government of Bavaria in the celebrated beer hall putsch.

Here, again, double-crossing was the order of the occasion. Wilhelm Frick had ordered his police to close their eyes to Hitler’s gangster activities. The ample guard at the beer hall did nothing, though it outnumbered the S.A. contingent. It was only Gen. von Seekt’s orders to the Reichswehr, after the conspirators thought they had won, that put an end to the coup and sent Hitler to prison.

Throughout this turbulent period, Gen. Ludendorff was used as a tool by the rising Austrian gang chief. Hitler used him on the theory that, when the time came for violence, the Army never would fire on its hero.

From 1923 to 1933 was a period of growth in Hitler’s fortunes and those of his party. Both were supported by contributions from big industrialists who approved Hitler’s opposition to the Treaty of Versailles, his desire to gather all Germans of the world into a greater Germany, his anti-Communism.

And finally, there was the military caste. The Junkers thought they were using Hitler to promote their own ends and woke up, much too late, to discover that Hitler had done the using.

Then, in 1932, the conservative von Papen felt obliged to offer him a cabinet seat, which he left Munich to take, only to be brought back by Goering and Goebbels.

The advice of those two lieutenants, to hold out for all or nothing, proved wise. On January 30, 1933, senile President von Hindenburg asked Hitler, as chancellor, to form a new government.

The day after he became chancellor, Hitler dissolved the Reichstag and set March 5 for new elections. On February 27, the Reichstag building burned. It is commonly believed that the fire was set by the Nazis. but the arson was blamed on Communists and was used by Hitler to get from old man Hindenburg a decree suspending all the basic freedoms.

Storm troopers arrested political opponents. Hitler swept the elections. On March 23, a rubber-stamp Reichstag made Hitler dictator over Germany.

In June 1934, he persuaded Roehm to give the S.A. a month’s furlough, after which he promised to incorporate the S.A. into the Reichswehr as soon as sick President Hindenburg should die.

Roehm killed in blood purge

Then Hitler and Goebbels, with a picked S.S. group, killed Roehm and most of his closest friends while Goering, back in Berlin, purged other enemies and settled a few personal grudges with the pistol and the headsman’s help.

By 1938, Hitler felt strong enough to violate the Locarno Pact by marching into the demilitarized Rhineland. Commanding officers carried sealed orders which, if the French had objected with show of force, would have directed the Nazis to match back home again. But the French did nothing.

Hitler and Mussolini created the Rome-Berlin Axis on January 13, 1937.

Japan joined in November.

German troops marched into Austria in March – and that nation was annexed to the Reich.

Neither France nor England liked the way Hitler was stepping out. But he got Chamberlain and Daladier together with Mussolini and himself at Munich, and on September 30, the Anglo-French negotiators signed a pact authorizing Hitler to take the Sudetenland.

In each of these steps for new territory, Hitler double-crossed the nation concerned, the Anglo-French allies and the world at large. In each he used the Fifth Column technique.

Hitler had signed a 10-year non-aggression pact with Poland in 1934, and the sanctity and importance of this he had reaffirmed publicly January 30, 1939.

On August 25, 1939, he signed a non-aggression pact with Stalin of Russia. Two days later, Poland concluded a defensive alliance with Great Britain. One week thereafter, German planes began bombing Polish cities and German troops crossed the frontier.

Everything went according to plan. Russia stepped in the back door September 17. Hitler and Stalin divided Poland between them the next day, and by September 29, Poland as a nation no longer existed.

But Hitler had driven England and France too far. They had declared war. Too weak really to help Poland, they stalled along behind the Maginot Line.

In April, he took over Denmark and Norway – again with Fifth Column assistance. In May, he invaded Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg.

June 14, Paris fell. June 17, Petain asked for an armistice for France, and June 25, hostilities ceased. The British evacuated their men from Dunkirk and left their armament.

Mussolini, who came into the war just as France was ready to capitulate, polished off much of North Africa for the Axis, but came to grief when he tried to sneak-attack little Greece near the end of 1940.

In April 1941, Hitler forces knocked off Yugoslavia, drove the British from Greece and subjugated that brave little nation, took Crete from the air in a completely novel type of campaign, and regained in North Africa much of what the Italians had lost to the British.

Then Hitler made a second great mistake. (The first, by general consensus, was putting off too long the invasion of Great Britain.) He pulled another double-cross – this time on Stalin.

At 3 a.m. of June 22, German troops crossed the dividing line in Poland and attacked Russia.

By December 14, Moscow had been under siege for two months, and only optimists even hoped that the Reds could survive. December 15, the German invaders began to withdraw.

From then on, Hitler’s star began to fade.

Technically the United States did not enter the war until Japan attacked Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941. Actually, her entire weight except for actual shooting was on the side of the Allies at least from September 3, 1940, when President Roosevelt and Premier Churchill agreed that, in return for leases on certain defensive bases, this country should turn 50 overage destroyers over to the British for use against submarines.

On March 11, 1941, Mr. Roosevelt signed the Lend-Lease Bill.

Then, in December, the United States entered the war.

He escapes bomb plot

Hitler began fading even faster from official gatherings as his armies began withdrawing from the stolen reaches of his “European Fortress.”

A bomb planted by German officers on July 20, 1944, hastened his withdrawal from the spotlight. This attempt on Hitler’s life left him bruised and burned, killed one of his aides and wounded 12 others.

Wrathfully, Hitler converted the plot into a purge of the German Army. Eight Junker officers were hanged August 8, 1944.

Then, on January 1, 1945, in a New Year’s message, he promised the German nation new weapons, new troops and a bright future. None materialized.

On February 16, Hitler decreed martial law in German areas threatened by advancing Allied armies. He threatened Germans who shirked their duty with court martial and death.

On March 9, when American troops were expanding their Remagen bridgehead on Germany’s side of the Rhine, Hitler was reported to have visited the Oder River front facing the Russians.

Two days later, Hitler spoke by proxy to his people in observance of “Heroes Day” ceremonies at the War Memorial in Berlin.

On March 16, official British quarters confirmed rumors that an emissary of the German government had made peace overtures in Stockholm.

The gist of these feelers was that Hitler would quit if the Allies would recognize him as Germany’s post-war ruler.

Early in April, Hitler was reported again in complete command of the German armies.

Unsubstantiated reports on April 11 quoted some circles as saying that Hitler was dying, that Nazi Party leaders were split and that Heinrich Himmler had succeeded Hitler as Germany’s dictator.

Yesterday came the final report: Hitler died in Berlin even as it was being cleared of all German troops by triumphant Russian invading forces.

15

Editorial: Hitler, dead or alive

The Nazi radio says Hitler is dead.

Strong evidence that this is true is provided by Gen. Eisenhower’s statement today telling of a conference between the Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte and two German representatives, Heinrich Himmler and Gen. Schellenberg, on April 24.

The two Germans told the Swedish Red Cross head at that time that Hitler had had a brain hemorrhage and might not live 48 hours.

We hope these reports are accurate. But it would not be difficult for the Nazis to fake the story. Hitler had several doubles good enough to deceive the Germans in public appearances. The Nazis might make a corpse of one of these.

According to Adm. Doenitz’s radio announcement, on April 30 the Fuehrer appointed him successor and on May 1 was killed: “Adolf Hitler this afternoon at his command post in the Reich Chancellery fighting till his last breath against Bolshevism, fell for Germany.”

That, of course, is precisely what the Nazi propaganda line would be in any event. If true, it would be the perfect cap for the Hitler myth, particularly to the German mind. If untrue, it would serve the same purpose – and also pave the way for a fadeout, escape, and future underground operation as leader or front for the real one.

There can be no doubt that the Nazis plan an underground movement. The Allies already have ample evidence that it is in operation even now. Though the Allies are forewarned and forearmed against this strategy, it will be exceedingly difficult to combat.

Certainly some, and probably many, of the “political prisoners” and alleged victims of Nazi terror now being rescued from concentration camps by the Allies, are in fact Nazi plants. Some will get away with it, and live to do their dirty work again when they think the time is ripe.

Whether or not Hitler would be an asset to such a movement is a question. But we are inclined to believe that “a martyr who died a hero’s death” would be worth much more to them than a defeated leader, who had led Germany to its doom – especially if he were a mental and physical wreck.

The Allies will have to be very careful when it comes to checking on Hitler’s death. This is no case for wishful thinking.

16

City skeptical of Hitler’s death

Seeing is believing, so report is doubted

The report of Hitler’s death greeted Pittsburghers as they left their jobs last evening and they stampeded newsstands to buy “extras” telling of the long-awaited event.

But they took the report with a grain of salt.

“Oh, that’s his double!” said a woman as she peered at the big black headlines.

“That’s just German propaganda!” exclaimed another homeward-bound worker.

Bet he’s a suicide

“Seeing is believing – I’d have to see him dead!” said still another.

“I wonder if it’s true.” “Oh, that’s his stand-in.” “I’ll bet he committed suicide.” And so on.

Even among those who apparently believed the report, there wasn’t the elation that might have been evident at an earlier date. “That’s good,” said one “Extra” purchaser, “but it came too late.”

A soldier laughed. “Damn! I had designs on him myself.”

Good thing he did

A pretty office worker, reading the headlines, remarked: “So he died. That’s one good thing he did.”

An elderly man, glancing at a newsstand, opened his mouth in astonishment and, without a word, bought a paper.

Fervent eulogy

Some of the younger and less inhibited citizens let out whoops ay they heard the news, but their elders, by and large. just tucked their papers under their arms and went on home.

The most fervent eulogy was muttered by a husky individual who stood with his hands in his pockets, considering the event.

“The son of a bitch,” he said, and turned away.

17

АКТ

2 мая 1945 года
город Берлин

Мы, нижеподписавшиеся — начальник отдела контрразведки «Смерш» 79-го стрелкового корпуса — подполковник КЛИМЕНКО, начальник 4-го отделения отдела контрразведки «Смерш» 3-й ударной армии — майор БЫСТРОВ и заместитель начальника отдела контрразведки «Смерш» 207 стрелковой дивизии — майор ХАЗИН составили настоящий акт о нижеследующем:

2-го мая, имея при себе опознавателей из немцев — ЛАНГЕ ВИЛЬГЕЛЬМА и ШНАЙДЕРА КАРЛА, прибыли в район рейхстага, где в 17.00 сего числа у бомбоубежища Геббельса, в нескольких метрах от входных дверей были обнаружены два обгоревших трупа — мужчины и женщины.

Опознаватели Ланге и Шнайдер после внимательного осмотра трупа мужчины опознали в нем труп рейхсминистра пропаганды Германии — доктора ГЕББЕЛЬСА.

В целях сохранения от посторонних влияний и для проведения дальнейшей экспертизы по опознанию Геббельса, труп доставлен в отдел контрразведки «Смерш» 79-го стрелкового корпуса, о чем и составлен настоящий акт.

Начальник ОКР «Смерш» 79 ск.
подполковник КЛИМЕНКО

Начальник 4 отделения ОКР «Смерш» 3 уд. Армии
майор БЫСТРОВ

Зам. нач. ОКР «Смерш» 207 стр. дивизии
майор ХАЗИН

Ф. К-1 ос, оп. 4, д. 6, л. 19-20 (подлинник)
18

Neues Österreich (May 3, 1945)

Götzendämmerung

Die rasende Verbrecherbande, an deren Spitze Hitler steht, hat weite Teile Europas in eine Wüstenei, Deutschland in einen riesigen Scherbenberg, in eine grausige Schädelstätte verwandelt. Es ist ein Zusammenbruch von beispiellosen Ausmaßen, eine Hölle, vor der das Herz erstarrt, das Wort verstummt. Aufgestiegen aus den Sümpfen, aus der Unterwelt einer brüchig gewordenen Gesellschaft, hat die „verschworene Gemeinschaft“ verlumpter Agitatoren und krimineller Abenteurer sich eine furchtbare Macht ergaunert - mit Hilfe kriegslüsterner Junker und beutegieriger Industriemagnaten, die für den schändlichsten Raubkrieg aller Zeiten ein Regime der Schande, der Lüge und des Mordes benötigten. Ein Schwindler aus Braunau, ein verkrachter Literat und ein heimtückischer Provokateur konnten nur darum eine Welt in Brand stecken, weil die industriellen und junkerlichen Machthaber Deutschlands ihnen den gesamten Machtapparat auslieferten, weil auch ein lausiger Tunichtgut, an den Schalthebel eines ungeheuren Kraftwerkes gestellt, unermeßlichen Schaden anrichten kann. Die technischen und gesellschaftlichen Energien eines großen Staates des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts in den unkontrollierten Händen von ein paar apokalyptischen Spitzbuben - das hat die gigantische Katastrophe herbeigeführt.

Und diese Katastrophe, dieses von brennenden Städten durchloderte, vom Millionenschrei der Verzweiflung durchgellte, von Leichendunst durchqualmte Chaos war für die blutbesudelten Spitzbuben nur der Hintergrund für eine Dreigroschenoper mit Wagnermusik. Als schmutzige Possenreißer haben sie ihre Laufbahn begonnen, als schmutzige Possenreißer treten sie nun von der Bühne ihrer zerstörenden Tätigkeit. Es war ein Totentanz der Propaganda, der über den Trümmerhaufen Deutschland hinweglärmte. Unter dem Aufgebot aller verfügbaren Trommelwirbeln, Trauermärsche, Walkürenritt und Götterdämmerungsmotive teilte der deutsche Rundfunk mit, Adolf Hitler sei im Kampfe gefallen und Admiral Dönitz habe die Führung übernommen. Vorher hatte der Reichshenker Himmler mit einem dummen Gaunertrick vergeblich versucht, England und Amerika gegen die Sowjetunion auszuspielen und mit den Methoden eines provinziellen Roßtäuschers die verbündeten Großmächte zu trennen. Nach dem vollkommenen Mißerfolg dieses albernen Manövers verschwand Hitler unbemerkt von der Bildfläche. Der Fluchtplan war längst bis ins Detail ausgearbeitet, die Flugzeuge waren startbereit, die Führer schwangen sich auf und davon. Er werde dem deutschen Volk keine Träne nachweinen, hat Hitler schon vor einem halben Jahr verkündet, das Volk hatte seine Schuldigkeit getan, es hatte sein Blut, seine Lebenskraft für eine Schimäre von „Weltherrschaft“ und Größenwahn vergeudet; für Geopferte hatte Hitler kein Interesse mehr. Der Auftakt vom 9. November 1923 wurde zur schauerlichen Erfüllung gesteigert: auch damals hatte sich Hitler, als seine Gefolgschaft an den Stufen der Feldherrnhalle sterbend zusammenbrach, schleunigst in ein Auto geschwungen, um Hals über Kopf davonzubrausen und später in einer komfortablen Festungshaft einen Sommerurlaub zu verbringen. Diesmal vollzog sich dasselbe in phantastischer Inszenierung: die Karikatur einer Wagneroper im Scheinwerferlicht des verbrennenden Deutschen Reiches, mit Trommelwirbeln von Millionen Gerippen auf der zerfetzten, blutdampfenden Erde, die einst für das deutsche Volk eine Heimat war und jetzt eine Hölle ist.

Der letzte Propagandatrick, das Märchen von Hitlers „Heldentod,“ soll dazu dienen, die letzten verendenden deutschen Divisionen noch einmal zu „bedingungslosem Einsatz“ aufzustacheln, noch einmal eine sich selbstzerfleischende Nation „zum Sterben zu berauschen“ und den Boden für eine Fortsetzung der verbrecherischen Tätigkeit auch nach der totalen Niederlage vorzubereiten, den Boden für die künftige Entfesselung eines dritten deutschen Wahnsinnskrieges. Es soll den gerissenen Propagandisten nicht gelingen, durch ihre letzte und frechste Lüge den Blick der Schlachtopfer zu vernebeln. Es soll ihnen nicht gelingen, durch eine grelle „nordische List“ der strafenden Gerechtigkeit zu entrinnen. Es soll ihnen nicht gelingen, den Fluch der Menschheit und auch den Fluch des mißbrauchten, von Schlachtbank zu Schlachtbank geschleiften deutschen Volkes auszulöschen.

Unter den Leichen von Berlin hat niemand den verschollenen Hitler gefunden. Die Richter werden ihn finden - und möge er sich im letzten Winkel der Welt verstecken.

Paris-presse (May 3, 1945)

LA MORT DE HITLER
Doenitz, chef du IIIe Reich ; Ribbentrop s’en va

Les Alliés exigeront dès la cessation des hostilités que le corps du Führer soit présenté pour établir avec certitude qu’il ne s’agit pas d’un subterfuge

LONDRES, 2 mai. - La radio du nord de l’Allemagne a annoncé, hier soir, que Hitler était mort dans l’après-midi, à Berlin, à la Chancellerie.

– Lundi dernier, ajoutait le speaker, Hitler avait choisi l’amiral Doenitz comme successeur.

Après cette déclaration, Doenitz a pris lui-même la parole à la radio :
– Le Führer, déclara-t-il, est mort à son poste de commandement…

Et, afin de tenter une ultime manœuvre pour diviser les Alliés il indiqua dans sa proclamation que son seul but était de défendre l’Allemagne contre les armées russes.

– Nous serons forcés, ajouta-t-il, de mener une lutte défensive contre les Britanniques et les Américains aussi longtemps qu’ils nous empêcheront de lutter contre le bolchevisme.

L’annonce de la mort de Hitler fut précédée à la radio de Hambourg par de la musique wagnérienne et, en particulier, par le « Crépuscule des Dieux ».

Pendant ce temps, la radio du sud de l’Allemagne donnait de la musique légère.

– La façon dont on annonce la mort de Hitler pour faire croire qu’il est mort au combat est le premier acte de la légende du Führer, a déclaré lord Vansittart à un collaborateur de l’agence Reuter.

« Il y a quelque temps, Himmler nous disait que Hitler était malade et ne vivrait pas plus de 48 heures.

« Hitler qui, nous dit-on, souffrait d’une hémorragie cérébrale, s’est-il levé de son lit de souffrances pour mourir en héros ? »

Londres croit à la mort…

LONDRES, 2 mai. - Dans les milieux diplomatiques de Londres, on admet officiellement la mort de Hitler, mais l’on précise qu’à la cessation des hostilités les Alliés demanderont à voir son cadavre ou d’autres preuves tangibles de sa mort, pour établir avec certitude que cette « vivante torche de guerre » ne se cache pas dans quelque coin perdu de l’Allemagne, attendant son heure.

On souligne que les bruits relatifs à la mort de Hitler ont commencé à circuler il y a huit jours, et que c’est alors qu’elle a probablement eu lieu. La cause en reste encore à établir - embolie, blessure de guerre ou assassinat - mais il est évident que les dirigeants nazis ont décidé alors d’en profiter pour la propagande du nazisme, et jamais celle-ci n’avait atteint un tel degré de mysticisme patriotique qu’au cours de la semaine passée. La radio allemande a commencé, en effet, à rapporter que Hitler se trouvait à la tête de ses troupes d’élite défendant Berlin, et il était devenu évident qu’il devait partager le sort de sa capitale, dont la situation était déjà désespérée.

En somme, cette mort est survenue au moment précis où elle devait survenir pour le grand bien du nazisme : elle fait de Hitler un véritable martyr de son idéal une espèce de « saint Adolf » nazi, que les générations futures pourront adorer à l’égal d’une divinité. - (U.P.)

Le président Truman a le sourire…

WASHINGTON, 2 mai. – Le correspondant de l’agence Reuter à Washington déclare que le président Truman a appris la mort de Hitler alors qu’il était en conférence avec le général Marshall, chef d’état-major de l’armée des Etats-Unis.

Un quart d’heure après, le visage souriant, il quittait la Maison Blanche.

Cette nouvelle est généralement accueillie avec scepticisme. L’opinion des milieux militaires, traduite par un porte-parole du département de la Guerre, est que cet événement enlève à l’offre de capitulation de Himmler la dernière chance qu’elle pût être étendue à l’URSS.

Un subterfuge dit Moscou

MOSCOU, 2 mai. - La radio soviétique suggère ce matin que l’annonce de la mort de Hitler peut être un subterfuge qui lui permettrait de disparaitre de la scène pour entreprendre une lutte souterraine.

Von Ribbentrop liquidé

LONDRES - La radio de Hambourg annonce que le comte Schwerin von Krossigck vient d’être nommé ministre des Affaires étrangères.

Hitler aurait été assassiné

par Yves DELBARS

La vision d’une mort à grand spectacle avait toujours hanté Hitler, grand organisateur des manifestations qui représentaient une des principales armes de sa propagande. Fidèles à ce principe, ses collaborateurs immédiats s’efforcent encore de parer sa mort d’une auréole de légende.

Les motifs de l’offre de capitulation de Himmler, précédée elle-même de l’annonce de la démission de Goering avaient fortement intrigué l’opinion.

D’autant plus qu’à peine 48 heures avant, lors de son discours a l’occasion du 56e anniversaire de Hitler, Goebbels avait une nouvelle fois proclamé que le IIIe Reich ne capitulerait jamais. Les efforts pour expliquer le mystère de ce revirement soudain - la catastrophe militaire s’était précisée bien avant - ont donné naissance à de nombreuses hypothèses plus ou moins vagues. Toutes cependant aboutissaient à la disparition de Hitler comme Führer effectif.

Une version de cette disparition a été donnée par les milieux habituellement les milieux informés. Selon elle, Hitler a été assassiné. Et les auteurs de l’attentat se trouvent dans son entourage immédiat.

La casemate BX

Le 21 avril, au grand quartier général situé dans la forteresse souterraine du Tiergarten, désignée comme casemate BX, Hitler avait présidé un conseil de guerre auquel assistaient, entre autres, le maréchal von Kesselring, le maréchal Busch, les généraux Schoerner, Guderian, Fitzler et le trio Himmler-Goering-Goebbels, accompagné de Bohrmann, successeur de Rudolf Hess.

Hitler continuait à insister avec véhémence sur le plan auquel il s’accrochait depuis des mois : continuer la lutte dans les réduits bavarois, danois et norvégien, même après la chute prochaine de Berlin. Seul, Goebbels aurait partagé son avis. La séance se termina dans une atmosphère tellement tendue que l’invitation a Kesselring, Busch, Himmler et Goering de revenir seuls le lendemain matin les remplit d’appréhension. Le souvenir du 30 juin 1934 et de l’hécatombe de ceux qui avaient osé s’opposer a la volonté de Hitler n’était pas effacé.

Dans la nuit, quelques heures avant la réunion redoutée, une explosion d’une grande violence se serait produite dans les locaux privés de Hitler dans la casemate BX. Lui-même et tous les gardes de corps de service devaient y succomber.

Tôt dans la matinée, d’après les mêmes informateurs, Himmler, qui depuis l’hiver 1941-1942 avait remplacé Goering comme successeur de Hitler, serait intervenu. Il aurait insisté pour que le secret de la mort fût gardé afin de gagner du temps et pouvoir en tirer le profit escompté. Il prenait sur lui d’engager des pourparlers en proposant une reddition « sans conditions » aux armées américaines et anglaises. Les maréchaux commandant les tronçons nord et sud reçurent le conseil de rejoindre leurs troupes : et Goering fut envoyé en Norvège. Les complices de Hitler voulurent prouver que leur offre de capitulation avait une valeur pratique. Pour cela, il fallait que la résistance se prolongeât encore et si la capitulation était acceptée, son efficacité fût prouvée en persuadant les S.S. fanatisés d’accepter de mettre bas les armes.

Goering était chargé de la mission en Norvège pour pouvoir s’échapper le cas échéant en Suède, tandis que Himmler lui-même allait se consacrer au désarmement des troupes occupant le Danemark.

Le 22 avril, sur ordre de Himmler, la casemate BX fut entièrement détruite par des charges massives d’explosif, sous prétexte qu’endommagée par l’explosion précédente, elle présentait un danger d’écroulement.

En recourant a cette mise en scène, les militaires ne font que suivre la tactique traditionnelle allemande : essayer de brouiller les cartes.

Quant à Goering et Himmler, ils font une ultime tentative pour se faire « dédouaner » ou au moins de sauver leur vie. - Y. D.

COMMENTAIRES AMÉRICAINS
« Personne ne connaît la vérité »
dit un grand journal de New-York

À Washington, M. Johnson, sénateur démocrate du Colorado, a déclaré : « J’espère que la nouvelle de cette mort est exacte, mais je préfèrerais voir le cadavre avant que d’y croire. »

Quant à M. Taft, sénateur républicain, il a dit :
« Si cette nouvelle se confirme, il est intéressant de noter que la mort de Hitler vient en même temps que la faillite complète de sa doctrine. »

Le New York Times écrit :
« Qu’elle soit exacte ou non, cette nouvelle marque la fin de Hitler et celle de son régime, qui a plongé le monde entier dans la guerre. Il semble, d’ailleurs, n’y avoir aucune raison de douter de cette mort. »

Le New York Herald Tribune estime que personne ne connaît la vérité :
« Hitler meurt entouré de mensonge aussi bien que de saleté. Perdu derrière un nuage de fausseté, écrit-il, il a peut-être été tué au combat ou est mort en dément et il est même possible qu’il ne soit pas mort. »

19

The New York Times (May 3, 1945)

Goebbels and Fuehrer Died by Own Hands, Aide Says

By Cable to the New York Times

LONDON, Thursday, May 3 – A deposition by Joseph Goebbels’ chief assistant that both the German propaganda chief and Adolf Hitler had committed suicide in Berlin was given to the world early today by Red Army forces after they had occupied the capital of the crumbling Reich. Hans Fritsche, Goebbels’ deputy, was quoted in the Soviet communiqué as having reported also the suicide of General Krebs, who was disclosed to have been appointed Chief of the German General Staff in place of Field Marshal Gen. Wilhelm Keitel, lately believed to have been backing Heinrich Himmler’s peace bid to the Western Powers.

The statement of Fritsche, who was captured in Berlin with a large assortment of defense chiefs, added another version of the Fuehrer’s demise to two already given – that he had died in battle and that he had succumbed to cerebral hemorrhage.

Suicide seemed more in character for Goebbels, whose brilliant mind was as twisted as his club foot. Administrator for the defense of Berlin as well as Minister of Enlightenment and Propaganda, he had announced that he would remain in Berlin and kill himself rather than live in a Germany dominated by “Bolshevist terror.”

A cynical propagandist who set out without scruple to warp the mind of a whole nation, he was the great intellect of the Nazi party, a Catholic-bred, university-trained Rhinelander. A Nazi since he first heard Hitler speak in 1922, he was largely responsible for the hypnotic hold his party fastened on Germany. There had been none of his finesse and assurance in the recent German propaganda broadcasts.

Truman Believes Hitler Dead

Special to the New York Times

WASHINGTON, May 2 – President Truman announced at his press conference today that Adolf Hitler was dead.

This Government, the President said, has received information to this effect on the best authority possible. He added that he personally was convinced it was true.

The information, however, contained nothing concerning the manner of Hitler’s death or any details. Mr. Truman declined to give the source of the information.

The President’s announcement came unexpectedly, He was asked for comment on the death of Benito Mussolini and the reported death of Hitler.

It meant, of course, he replied, that the two principal war criminals would not have to come to trial, that this was now a fact.

“Does that mean that official confirmation has been received that Hitler is dead?” he was asked.

It was then that he made his announcement and said he was glad. He was next asked if Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, who has proclaimed himself Hitler’s successor, was on the list of war criminals. The President replied in the negative. He did not discuss the matter further.

Cremation Report Predicted

WITH UNITED STATES FIRST ARMY, May 2 (UP) – A former high official of the German Foreign Office predicted today the Germans soon would announce that the body of Hitler had been cremated. He said he did not believe Hitler had died a hero’s death in Berlin.

The former official, who spent more than thirty years in the German Foreign Office, said he believed Hitler was dead, but that he probably died several days ago from a cerebral hemorrhage and was taken to Berlin for a “hero’s death.”

“You can be sure Hitler’s body will not be discovered,” the official said. “The Nazis will claim cremation to eliminate all trace. I believe he is dead. We of the Foreign Office all do. But admittedly there exists a possibility he is alive and attempting to disappear through feigning death.”

Paris Reports Assassination

LONDON, May 2 (AP) – The Paris radio broadcast a report today that Hitler was assassinated in his Berlin headquarters the night of April 21-22 after a quarrel with other leaders over continuation of the war. The broadcast quoted the newspaper Paris Presse, which attributed the report to “well informed quarters.”

On April 21, the broadcast said, Hitler presided over a war council attended by Field Marshals Albert Kesselring, Ernst von Busch and Ferdinand Schoerner and Col. Gen. Heinz Guderian and General Fitzler, as well as Heinrich Himmler, Hermann Goering and Joseph Goebbels.

“The atmosphere became so tense that when Kesselring, von Busch, Himmler and Goering were invited to return alone the next day they feared they would share the fate of those who opposed Hitler in July, 1944,” the broadcast said. “During the night, only a few hours before the second meeting was to have taken place, an explosion took place in Hitler’s private apartments. He and the entire guards corps there were killed.”

De Valera Proffers Sympathy to Reich

DUBLIN, May 2 (UP) – Prime Minister Eamon de Valera made a personal call at the German Legation today to express condolences for Adolf Hitler’s death.

He was accompanied by Joseph Walsh, Secretary of the Department of External Affairs, and was received by the German Minister, Dr. Eduard Hempel.

Hitler’s death was widely discussed throughout neutral Eire and received wide play in newspapers.

The Portuguese Government ordered two days of mourning for Hitler and flags will be flown at half-staff on “all public buildings,” the American Broadcasting Station in Europe said yesterday, according to the Office of War Information.

Hitler News Fails to Arouse Weimar

Buchenwald Prisoners Are Suspicious of Report, Suspecting Nazi Trick
By HAROLD DENNY
By Wireless to the New York Times

WEIMAR, Germany, May 2 – The report that Adolf Hitler was dead fell flat here in the heart of the country he ruled so long. A good many Germans do not believe it and others do not seem to care much.

On the streets of this little city, one sees no change from yesterday in the expressions on the people’s faces. There is no appearance of sorrow or of rejoicing. About the same proportion are smiling as on any other day.

“If he is dead,” said an elderly German, “well, everybody has to die some time.”

A noblewoman here, who hated Hitler and once publicly snubbed him, thought his death would not make much difference because he was finished anyhow.

The Wagnerian fanfare with which Hitler’s death was announced on the German radio did not seem to impress the German people here, at least at the moment. Many persons did not hear the broadcasts because the lack of electric current has silenced most radios. Also, the people have become skeptical of what they hear on the German radio.

A young laundress in the hotel where I am stopping had heard the news and said, amid sobs, “He died a hero’s death.”

For most of the population it is probably true that they have taken so many shocks in recent months that they do not react much anymore.

At the Buchenwald camp for political prisoners near Weimar, where one would have expected a celebration, there was similar indifference. German political prisoners whom I questioned generally discredited the report. They suspected a trick in the announcement. Hitler had been such a crook that some thought he was incapable even of dying honestly.

A Russian thought it a shame that Hitler had got off with a quick death when he had caused such suffering to millions. A Netherland prisoner said the end of Hitler was not important, that the evil he had done lived after him. He stressed that there still remained fascism, with which he had infected a generation and that must be fought all over the world.

No Hero’s Death, Says Eisenhower

General Contradicts Doenitz’s Announcement on Hitler – Himmler version given
By Wireless to the New York Times

PARIS, May 2 – Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz’s announcement that Adolf Hitler had died a hero’s death has been contradicted by a statement from Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower that reveals that Heinrich Himmler told Count Folke Bernadotte of Sweden at a meeting on April 24 that Germany was “finished” and that Hitler was dying.

General Schillenburg, another German present, said Hitler was suffering from a brain hemorrhage.

While the Supreme Commander revealed some details of the meeting between Count Bernadotte and Himmler, who was named as “Reich Fuehrer” in the Doenitz announcement, intelligence officers at his headquarters sought an answer to the mystery of the admiral’s sudden rise to command in Germany.

One theory is that Himmler has been killed or deposed and that the Supreme Command, composed of Admiral Doenitz for the navy, Field Marshal Gen. Wilhelm Keitel for the army and Air Field Marshal Erhard Milch for the air force, has assumed power in Germany.

The Supreme Headquarters announcement stressed that Admiral Doenitz’s attempt at last night’s address to drive a wedge between the United States and Britain and Russia “will be completely ineffective.”

Doenitz is contradicted

General Eisenhower’s statement refers first to Admiral Doenitz’s announcement that Hitler had died a hero’s death and that he had appointed Admiral Doenitz his successor as Reich Chancellor and Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht and that by virtue of this the allegiance of the German army was transferred from Hitler to Admiral Doenitz.

In answer General Eisenhower’s statement said:

“A meeting took place at Luebeck at 1 A.M. on the morning of April 24 between Count Bernadotte of the International Red Cross and Reich Fuehrer Heinrich Himmler. At this meeting Himmler admitted Germany was finished. He told Count Bernadotte that Hitler was so ill that he might be already dead. At any rate, he could not live more than two days longer. General Schillenburg, who was also present, added that Hitler was suffering from a brain hemorrhage.

“Admiral Doenitz’s statement, therefore, that Hitler has met a hero’s death at his post is in contradiction with the facts given by Himmler and General Schillenburg.”

The statement ended by declaring that “constant contact” was being maintained “between this headquarters and the headquarters of the Soviet Army.”

High command rule seen

Although they are quick to admit the situation within the German Government is chaotic, senior officers at Supreme Headquarters here say Admiral Doenitz’s assumption of command indicated that the German High Command had beaten Himmler in the struggle for power and that generals and admirals were in command rather than the National Socialist party and Elite Guard forces. They point out that Admiral Doenitz, a member of the High Command, could hardly have assumed power without the assistance of the admirals and generals and that the dying German State had turned to the war lords, its old leaders, in the final phase.

However, it is suggested by some officers that the rise of these generals to power may be part of a plot to cover the withdrawal of Himmler and other party leaders for underground activity with the generals and admirals hoping, as France once hoped, for a soldiers’ peace to cover the retreat.

Most sources questioned today said they thought Hitler was more valuable to Germany dead than alive, stressing that if those now in power choose to continue the fight a “martyred Fuehrer” could be made the rallying point for popular resistance.

20

Nazi Resistance in Chaos

German Soldiers Rain in as Prisoners as the Hitler Myth Goes to Valhalla
By HANSON W. BALDWIN

The remnants of an army whose tread once shook the world were surrendering by the thousands yesterday as the end of organized German resistance rapidly approached.

The announcement of Adolf Hitler’s death on Tuesday was accompanied and followed, either by coincidence or as a natural resultant of that announcement, by a wave of capitulations, extending from Denmark to Italy. A Hitlerian myth was born, but the German soldier, in military exremis, may no longer consider himself bound by the personal oath of fealty to Hitler ever since 1938:

“I swear by God this holy oath, that 1 shall unconditionally obey the Fuehrer of the German Reich and People, Adolf Hitler, the Supreme Commander of the Army, and that I am ready as a brave soldier to give my life at any time for this oath.”

Armies broke Germans

But the German soldier has now been told there is no longer a flesh-and-blood Hitler, that strange psychological link which has kept the Germans fighting long after the hour of defeat has now been broken. It was broken in Italy even before the announcement of Hitler’s death, for there the bloody, tired and sweating men of the Fifth and Eighth Armies, who have endured the snow and biting cold of the Apennines for two long winters, the mud and freshets of the mountain spring and the endless battle against nature and against man, have won a smashing and dramatic blitzkrieg. In a campaign of less than a month they had broken, by last Sunday, the German troops that for so long held the mountain ramparts, and unconditional surrender terms were signed even before Hitler’s death was announced. There has been no more startling victory in this war than the sudden drive that smashed the vaunted German Army of Italy. It is fitting that the first great break in the protracted battle of the pockets that the Germans had hoped to wage was forced by the gallant veterans of the Apennines.

The surrender of Col. Gen. Heinrich von Vietinghoff-Scheel, German commander in chief in the southwest, and of all the forces in Army Group C apparently affects the greater part of the Alpine redoubt area. Most of southern Austria was included in the German commander’s area, according to the announcement from Italy. If so, and if General Vietinghoff-Scheel can command the obedience of his troops, the so-called Southern redoubt, already imperiled by the rapid advances of the French First Army and the American Third and Seventh Armies, has gone. Moreover, the position of German Army Group E, Col. Gen. Alexander Loehr, commanding, which still holds part of northwestern Yugoslavia, is now exposed to flank attack from Italy.

What has become of the strong German forces that have been opposing the Russians west of Vienna is not clear. It is possible that these troops, together with General Loehr’s remnants, may yet try to retire into the mountains around Salzburg for a last-ditch fight.

But the germ of surrender is in the air, and yesterday was the blackest day of the war for the Germans.

Moscow announced Berlin’s fall; there were piecemeal local surrenders in Denmark; and there were intimations of a forthcoming surrender in the Netherlands. Rostok fell to the Russians in the north and the British cut off the Danish Peninsula from the rest of the Reich.

So many and so concerted were the surrenders or the intimations of them that it appeared possible that whatever German Government remained had told the field commanders to use their own judgment or to make piecemeal surrenders in the field to the Western Allies, while continuing the fight against the Russians.

The three major “standouts” in the pockets that now remain are Norway, whose commander yesterday swore loyalty to Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, successor to Hitler; Bohemia and Moravia in Czechoslovakia, and the eastern Austrian-northwestern Yugoslav area. Apparently, there is also a large German enclave still in Latvia, but this has not been mentioned in reports from either side for some time.

Japanese totter in Burma

The good news was not confined to Europe. British amphibious and airborne landings on either side of Rangoon and the swift British armored advance from the landward side, which already has resulted in the capture of Pegu, dominating the last major Japanese escape route to the east, mean very clearly the beginning of the end of the Japanese short-lived reign in Burma. And it may be a quick end, although the enemy may try to hold a perimeter defense of the important port city, and will probably also use its buildings as fortresses, as the Japanese did in Manila.

The rapid British progress in Burma in recent weeks has been due to several causes. The British have emerged from the jungles and into the open plains of the south, where they could use their mechanized superiority to the full and run rings around the Japanese. Second, the Japanese in Burma were greatly weakened by their losses and defeats at Imphal, North Burma and Mandalay and they have made little attempt to replace those losses. Third, the Japanese have been pulling some troops eastward out of Burma into Thailand and French Indo-China, recognizing that the game was up.

But the British successes since Meiktila have been entirely their own doing, as far as ground forces are concerned; they have had no help, the communiqués make clear, from either Americans or Chinese.

As the campaign of Burma ends, the campaign of the Netherlands Indies opens favorably. Australian and Netherland troops have invaded Borneo in what is the first of a long-drawn-out series of amphibious actions and sporadic land fighting. This campaign is likely to be fought chiefly by the Australians and Dutch on the ground, with American air and sea support from the north and east and with the British joining in later on against Sumatra from the west.

21

Soviet Information Bureau (May 3, 1945)

Оперативная сводка за 3 мая

В течение 3 мая юго-западнее города и порта ПИЛЛАУ войска 3-го БЕЛОРУССКОГО фронта продолжали вести бои по очищению от противника косы ФРИШ НЕРУНГ и заняли населённые пункты КАЛЬБЕРГ ЛИП, КАЙЗЕРХОФ.

Войска 2-го БЕЛОРУССКОГО фронта, развивая наступление, овладели городами БАРТ, БАД ДОБЕРАН, НОЙБУКОВ, ВАРИН, ВИТТЕНБЕРГЕ и 3 мая на линии ВИСМАР-ВИТТЕНБЕРГЕ соединились с союзными нам английскими войсками. Войска фронта заняли также крупные населённые пункты КРЕПЕЛИН, НОЙ КЛОСТЕ, БЮТЦОВ, ГЮСТРОВ, ГОЛЬДБЕРГ, КАРОВ, МЕЙЕНБУРГ, ПУТЛИТЦ, ПРИТЦВАЛЬК и ПЕРЛЕБЕРГ. В боях за 2 мая войска Фронта взяли в плен 10.600 немецких солдат и офицеров и захватили 328 самолётов. В числе пленных командующий 5 Штеттинским округом по делам трудовой повинности генерал-майор Мато.

Северо-западнее Берлина войска 1-го БЕЛОРУССКОГО фронта, продолжая наступление, с боями заняли крупные населённые пункты ВИЛЬСНАК, ГЛЕВЕН, ШТЮДЕНИТЦ, НИТЦОВ, ВЕЛЬГАСТ, ШТРОДЕНЕ, РИНОВ, ШПАТЦ; ХОЗН-НАУЕН и, выйдя ка реку ЭЛЬБА юго-восточнее города ВИТТЕНБЕРГЕ, соединились с союзными нам американскими войсками.

2 мая после 21 часа в БЕРЛИНЕ войска фронта дополнительно взяли в плен более 20.000 немецких солдат и офицеров; кроме того, взято в госпиталях 10.700 раненых немецких солдат. Всего в БЕРЛИНЕ 2 мая войсками фронта взято в плен 100.700 немецких солдат и офицеров. В числе пленных командир воздушной правительственной эскадры генерал-лейтенант Баур, начальник медицинской службы полиции Берлина генерал-майор медицинской службы Врубель, генерал-лейтенант полиции Раттенхубер, начальник канцелярии Геббельса Сайлер.

За 2 мая войска 1-го УКРАИНСКОГО фронта в районе БЕРЛИНА взяли в плен более 34.000 немецких солдат и офицеров и захватили 37 танков и свыше 140 полевых орудий. В числе пленных командир 236 немецкой пехотной дивизии генерал-майор Робен.

Всего, таким образом, в районе БЕРЛИНА 2 мая взято в плен более 134.000 немецких солдат и офицеров, из коих 100.000 взято войсками 1-го БЕЛОРУССКОГО Фронта и 34.000 войсками 1-го УКРАИНСКОГО фронта.

Войска 4-го УКРАИНСКОГО фронта, продолжая наступление, 3 мая овладели городом ЦЕШИН, важным узлом дорог и сильным опорным пунктом обороны немцев, а также заняли крупные населённые пункты ВАЛЬТЕРСДОРФ, БУТОВИЦЕ, ФРИДЭК, КАРВИННА, ПОГВИЗДУВ, ГОЛЕШУВ, ЛЕШНА, МАКОВ. В боях за 2 мая войска фронта взяли в плен более 1.400 немецких солдат и офицеров.

Войска 2-го УКРАИНСКОГО фронта, продолжая наступление восточнее города БРНО, с боями заняли крупные населённые пункты ЛАЧНОВ, ЗЛИН, ОСТРОКОВИЦЕ, ШЕЛЕШОВИЦЕ, РАТАЕ, КРЖЕНОВИЦЕ. За 2 мая войска фронта взяли в плен более 1.000 немецких солдат и офицеров, Партизанами Чехословакии взят в плен и передан нашим войскам командир 16 немецкой танковой дивизии генерал-майор Мюллер.

На других участках фронта — существенных изменений не было.

За 2 мая на всех фронтах подбито и уничтожено 53 немецких танка и самоходных орудия.

22

The Pittsburgh Press (May 3, 1945)

REDS HUNT HITLER’S BODY IN BERLIN
Death story still doubted by Russians

Fuehrer killed self, Goebbels’ aide says

LONDON (UP) – Victorious Red Army troops searched the rubble of captured Berlin today for the bodies of Adolf Hitler and his crippled henchman, Paul Joseph Goebbels.

On the success of their hunt hinged the solution to the greatest mystery of the war – whether Hitler and Goebbels actually were dead, and if so, whether they committed suicide, were killed by Soviet shells or died of natural causes.

The Russians also may find among the dead and 70,000 prisoners in Berlin such personages as Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering, Joachim von Ribbentrop, ousted only yesterday as German foreign minister, and other leading Nazis.

Reports suicides

Hans Fritzsche, Goebbels’ deputy propaganda chief, told Red Army troops who captured him that Hitler, Goebbels and Gen. Krebs, newly-appointed chief of the German Army General Staff, had killed themselves in tine final hours of the battle of Berlin.

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and a British Foreign Office spokesman said all evidence at hand indicated that Hitler had died of a brain hemorrhage.

The German radio version of Hitler’s death was that he “fell” a hero while directing the defense of Berlin.

Moscow remained unconvinced that Hitler actually was dead and suggested that he may have gone underground with other key Nazi Party leaders to plot an eventual return to power.

Cremation reported

A high officer of the German Foreign Office captured on the American First Army front said he believed Hitler had died of a brain hemorrhage and his body had been taken to Berlin for propaganda purposes.

The officer said the Nazis probably had cremated Hitler’s body and scattered the ashes to prevent the remains from falling into Allied hands.

Fritzsche’s report that Goebbels also had committed suicide was the first word from a German source on the whereabouts of the propaganda minister in more than a week.

Goebbels had announced at that time that as gauleiter of Berlin he and his family would remain in the city.

Issues order of day

Russian troops centered their search for the bodies of Hitler, Goebbels and other high Nazis in the area around the Reich Chancellery and the Tiergarten, beneath both of which Hitler was rumored to have maintained underground headquarters.

Premier Marshal Stalin announced the capture of Berlin last night in a triumphant order of the day. He called the ruined capital “the center of German imperialism and the nest of German aggression.”

Resistance ended when Gen. Weidling, commander, and the 70,000 haggard survivors of the original garrison of perhaps 500,000 troops surrendered to Marshal Gregory K. Zhukov’s First White Russian and Marshal Ivan S. Konev’s First Ukrainian Armies.

City in ruins

Eight other generals were taken in the final mop-up, which was concluded three years, 10 months and 10 days after German armies attacked the Soviet Union.

The Germans made their final stand in the Tiergarten, around the Alexanderplatz and in the Wilhelmstrasse, the latter the site of Hitler’s Reich Chancellery.

Front dispatches to Soviet newspapers said most of Berlin was in ruins. Large sections previously had been blasted into rubble by Allied bombs, and Russian and German guns and mortars added to the wreckage.

De Valera voices regret personally

DUBLIN (UP) – Prime Minister Eamon de Valera of neutral Eire expressed condolences for the death of Adolf Hitler in a personal call at the German Embassy yesterday.

He was accompanied by Joseph Walsh, secretary of the Department of External Affairs, and was received by German Minister Dr. E. Hemphill.

23

Hitler’s body hard to fake

Physical peculiarities cited by doctor

LANSDOWNE, Pennsylvania (UP) – Dr. Robert M. W. Kempner, chief legal adviser of the pre-Hitler German police, revealed today that the Nazi leader had certain physical characteristics which would establish positive identification of his body.

Dr. Kempner, now an American citizen, said he studied Hitler’s physical peculiarities while investigating the Fuehrer following his arrest in the famous “beer hall putsch.”

Hitler had an abnormally long right thumb, Dr. Kempner said, and his right ear was much more pointed than his left. He said the Nazi dictator’s shoulders were habitually stooped, and that although Hitler tried to correct this condition in public appearances, the bone structure would reveal the stoop.

Dr. Kempner said a complete identification file, including fingerprints, was kept on Hitler on Landsberg fortress in Bavaria during his imprisonment there in 1924. The fortress was captured recently by the Americans.

He said he had turned over to federal authorities the name of a Berlin physician who could make positive identification. Since his arrival in this country to escape Nazism in 1939, Dr. Kempner has been engaged in scientific police work in Philadelphia.

Portugal mourns death of Hitler

LISBON (UP) – An official two-day period of mourning for Adolf Hitler began in Portugal today.

The government decreed the mourning period yesterday and ordered all flags on official buildings to be lowered to half-mast.

Flags also flew at half-mast from the Spanish Embassy and Jap Legation buildings.

24

ПРОТОКОЛ ОПОЗНАНИЯ

3 мая, 1945 года
Действующая армия

Я, старший следователь отдела контрразведки «Смерш» 79 стрелкового корпуса старший лейтенант КАТЫШЕВ, с участием переводчика немецкого языка рядового ОЛЕЙНИКА, сего числа допросил в качестве опозна-вателя ЛАНГЕ ВИЛЬГЕЛЬМА, 1891 г. рождения, уроженец мест. Халфер, Альтенаского округа в Вестфалии, немец, из рабочих, повар государственной канцелярии Германии, с 1937 г. — член национал-социалистской партии Германии, женат, проживал: Берлин-Панков, Штубнитц-штрассе, 18.

За дачу ложных показаний опознаватель об ответственности по ст. 95 УК РСФСР предупрежден.
ВИЛЬГЕЛЬМ ЛАНГЕ

Переводчик — рядовой Олейник об ответственности по ст. 95 УК РСФСР за неправильный перевод предупрежден.
ОЛЕЙНИК

Вопрос: Вы осмотрели обгоревший труп мужчины. Кого вы опознаете в этом трупе?

Ответ: Да, я внимательно осмотрел труп и узнаю в нем имперского министра пропаганды доктора ИОСИФА ГЕББЕЛЬСА.

Вопрос: На основании каких признаков и примет вы опознаете в трупе доктора Геббельса?

Ответ: В трупе я узнаю имперского министра доктора Геббельса по следующим признакам:

  1. В течение последних восьми дней доктор Геббельс вместе со своей семьей находился в здании имперской канцелярии — это я утверждаю, так как лично сам видел, как он приходил в столовую.

    Берлин был окружен плотным кольцом русских войск, и никакого выхода не было. Не видя никакого выхода из создавшегося положения, как я полагаю, доктор Геббельс совершил самоубийство. Кто его поджег, об этом я ничего не знаю.

  2. Форма тела, головы, ног в осмотренном мною трупе совершенно идентична формой тела доктора Геббельса. У меня нет никакого сомнения, что труп принадлежит покойному доктору Геббельсу, так как труп найден на территории имперской канцелярии около персонального блиндажа Геббельса.

  3. Доктор Геббельс был низкого роста, одна (правая) нога короче другой — на правой ноге носил протез, т.е. все эти признаки имеются и у трупа.

  4. Доктор Геббельс носил светлый жакет и черные брюки. На жакете — значок о принадлежности к национал-социалистской партии Германии. Осмотренные мною остатки обгоревшего костюма трупа вполне идентичны с костюмом доктора Геббельса.

На основании этих признаков и примет я утверждаю и признаю в трупе имперского министра пропаганды — доктора Иосифа Геббельса.

Вопрос: Кто еще может подтвердить ваши показания?

Ответ: Опознать труп доктора Геббельса и подтвердить мои показания могут люди, которые находятся на излечении и работают в госпитале на территории имперской канцелярии.

Из них могу назвать по фамилии:

  1. Профессор ХААЗЕ
  2. Электромастер ХЕНТШЕЛЛ

Оба в настоящее время должны находиться на территории имперской канцелярии.

С моих слов записано все правильно и мне вслух на немецком языке прочитано.

ВИЛЬГЕЛЬМ ЛАНГЕ

Переводчик: ОЛЕЙНИК

Допросил:
ст. следователь ОКР «Смерш» 79 стр. корпуса
старший лейтенант КАТЫШЕВ

В допросе участвовал:
начальник отдела контрразведки «Смерш» 79 СК
подполковник КЛИМЕНКО

Ф. 4 ос, оп. 3, д.36, л. 17-18 (заверенная копия)
25

ПРОТОКОЛ ОПОЗНАНИЯ

1945 года, мая, 3 дня
Действующая армия

Я, старший следователь отдела контрразведки «Смерш» 79 стрелкового корпуса старший лейтенант КАТЫШЕВ, при переводчике немецкого языка рядовом ОЛЕЙНИКЕ, сего числа допросил в качестве опознавателя ШНАЙДЕРА КАРЛА-ФРИДРИХА ВИЛЬГЕЛЬМА, 1899 г. рождения, урож. гор. Берлин, немец, из рабочих, техник гаража имперской канцелярии Германии, с 1937 г. — член национал-социалистской партии Германии, женат, проживал по ул. Германа Геринга, 16.

Опознаватель за дачу ложных показаний, а переводчик за неправильный перевод об ответственности по ст. 95 УК РСФСР предупреждены.

КАРЛ ШНАЙДЕР
ОЛЕЙНИК

Вопрос: Вы осмотрели обгоревший труп мужчины, кого вы опознаете в этом трупе?

Ответ: Труп я осмотрел очень внимательно и узнаю в нем имперского министра пропаганды доктора ИОСИФА ГЕББЕЛЬСА.

Вопрос: На основании каких признаков и примет вы заключаете, что осмотренный вами труп есть труп доктора Геббельса?

Ответ: Имперского министра пропаганды, доктора Геббельса я видел несколько раз. Правда, в дни окружения Берлина русскими войсками я его лично не видел, но слышал от людей, что Адольф ГИТЛЕР и доктор Геббельс с семьей в это тяжелое время были в Берлине и находились в своих личных блиндажах на территории имперской канцелярии, на основании чего я утверждаю, что осмотренный мною труп есть труп доктора Геббельса.

  1. Доктор Геббельс низкого роста, физически слаб, одна (правая) нога короче другой, на правой ноге носил протез, все эти признаки имеются и у трупа.

  2. Форма тела, расположение и форма головы трупа идентичны с названными частями доктора Геббельса.

  3. Труп найден около персонального блиндажа доктора Геббельса, на территории имперской канцелярии, куда имели доступ только члены правительства.

  4. О самоубийстве доктора Геббельса, а также и Адольфа Гитлера я узнал вечером 1-го мая 1945 года. Эта весть передавалась из уст в уста, все говорили, но никто точно не знал.

На основании перечисленных признаков я утверждаю, что труп, который я осмотрел, есть труп имперского министра пропаганды доктора Иосифа Геббельса.

Вопрос: Кто, кроме вас, может опознать труп доктора Геббельса и подтвердить ваши показания?

Ответ: Я думаю, что доктора Геббельса могут опознать, а вместе с тем и подтвердить мои показания профессор ХААЗЕ и советник ЦИМ, которые в настоящее время должны находиться в Берлине на территории имперской канцелярии.

С моих слов записано верно и мне вслух на немецком языке прочитано.

КАРЛ ШНАЙДЕР

Переводчик: ОЛЕЙНИК

Допросил:
ст. следователь ОКР «Смерш» 79 стр. корпуса
старший лейтенант КАТЫШЕВ

В допросе принимал участие:
начальник отдела контрразведки «Смерш» 79 СК
подполковник КЛИМЕНКО

Ф. 4 ос, оп 3, д. 36, л. 19-20 (заверенная копия)