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

101

Hitler wed Eva Braun and may have fled by air, Zhukov says

BERLIN, June 9 (AP) – Adolph Hitler married his sweetheart, Eva Braun, two days before Berlin’s fall and the two might have escaped from the German capital by plane, Marshal Gregory K. Zhukov, Russian conqueror of the city, said today.

“We have found no corpses which could be Hitler’s,” Marshal Zhukov said in the first authoritative report on the Hitler mystery.

Marshal Zhukov said the German fuehrer and his bride had good opportunities to get away from Berlin after one of history’s most macabre marriages.

“He could have taken off at the very last moment, for there was an airfield at his disposal,” said the head of the Red Army’s occupation forces in Germany.

Body not yet found

The Soviet commandant of Berlin, Col. Gen. Nikolai E. Bezarin, also said that Russian soldiers had not yet found Hitler’s body.

“My personal opinion is that he has disappeared somewhere into Europe,” Gen. Bezarin said. “Perhaps he is in Spain with Franco. He had the possibility of taking off and getting away.”

In Madrid, Spanish government spokesmen denied Adolf Hitler was in Spain. There are, however, at least 20,000 and possibly as many as 50,000 Germans in Spain now, and Allied authorities here are just beginning to delve into the identities and whereabouts of officially protected German Nazis in this country.

Some foreigners in Madrid think Hitler might be in Spain, but on the other hand no reports ever have reached Madrid that the German fuehrer had been seen.

NBC Broadcaster Robert Magidoff attributed to Marshal Zhukov the statement that Hitler might be hiding in Europe and said that he added: “Now it is up to you British and Americans to find him.”

Gen. Bezarin said that the Russians had found several bodies, in Hitler’s Reich Chancellery with the Fuehrer’s name on their clothes.

Hitler’s last-minute marriage in the ruins of Berlin with the last vestiges of his empire tumbling about him was disclosed by Marshal Zhukov to a group of American, British, French and Russian correspondents.

I was in this first group of Allied newsmen to spend more than 24 hours in the German capital. We had every facility to go where we wished and to talk freely to as many Germans as wished. We were allowed to roam the city, do our own inspecting and form our own conclusions.

Hitler marries

Eva Braun – the only woman whom Hitler is said to have loved – besides his mother – was said in the capital to have flown to Berlin in the last days of the battle to be by Hitler’s side.

Marshal Zhukov said “it is well known that two days before Berlin fell Hitler married Eva Braun.” He added that the Russians had found references to the marriage in the diaries of Hitler’s personal adjutants.

A dispatch from Berlin Wednesday by Joseph W. Grigg Jr., representing the combined American press at the first meeting of the Allied Control Council, reported that a high Russian military source said that a body in Berlin had been identified “with fair certainty” as that of Hitler.

Giving strength to theories that Hitler might have fled Berlin was Marshal Zhukov’s statement that “we do not know the fate or whereabouts” of Martin Bormann, deputy leader of the Nazi Party arid Hitler’s personal adjutant.

Goebbels believed dead

Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, on the other hand, was believed dead. Marshal Zhukov said nothing about Goebbels’ fate, but Gen. Bezarin said “he evidently killed himself with a gun and so did his wife. They poisoned their five children beforehand.”

The commandant of Berlin said that bodies believed to be those of Goebbels and his family were discovered beneath the Propaganda Ministry, but added: “Of course, I cannot positively confirm that we have found their bodies.”

Gen. Bezarin, turning to the question of whether or not Hitler died in Berlin, said:

“There are all sorts of people who were close to him who say that he killed himself. Still others say he was killed by an exploding shell. My own troops who took his ministry found bodies.

“In Hitler’s chancellery we found, in fact, too many bodies with his names on. It got to be a joke. Every time I would find a pair of pants, I would say, ‘These are Hitler’s.’”

Commission investigates

Gen. Bezarin said a special Russian commission had been investigating the case of what had happened to Hitler.

The German burgomeister of Berlin, 68-year-old Arthur Werner, a non-Nazi who has taken over the tough job of heading the capital’s city council, could throw no light on what has become of Hitler.

“Hitler – we just don’t know,” he said. “There are many Germans who said he has found refuge in another country.”

Around Berlin, the people said that Eva Braun, variously described as a dark brunette and a blond from Munich, was not particularly pretty. Some say she was a former stage actress, others say she was a former secretary in a Nazi office.

Hitler reportedly met her years ago through his personal photographer, Heinrich Hoffman, for whom she is said to have worked.

“I often heard that when she wanted anything from him she would go into tantrums more terrible than his,” Reinhold Pasch, an actor, said.

Pasch and some other theatrical people said they did not believe that Eva Braun ever was connected with the stage.

All said they knew nothing about Hitler’s marriage.

102

The Evening Star (June 11, 1945)

Eliot: The Fuehrer hunt is on

By Maj. George Fielding Eliot

We cannot afford to allow Adolf Hitler to vanish into the mists of mystery.

This is a matter of deadly seriousness, now and for the future.

We shall have enough troubles without a Hitler legend hanging over our heads like a Sword of Damocles.

The Russians drew the covert, and found the beast had escaped. They have told us so. They have said in effect: “He got away from us. He is probably out of our reach. He is probably in that part of the world where we look to you Americans and you British to keep order. Now it is up to you.”

Of course, we can’t be sure just where he is – always provided that he did not perish miserably in the flaming ruins of Berlin, after all, and is not yet identified, or is beyond identification. We do know that Russian methods are pretty thorough; we can be reasonably confident that they would not admit that they were at a loss without exhausting every immediate possibility. We cannot be sure that Hitler is not hiding somewhere in Eastern Europe, in the Russian zone of influence, but the chances are against it.

Why? Because, if he got away from Berlin, almost certainly his escape was long and carefully planned, with every detail worked out. The choice of a place of refuge must have been made with great care. It is unlikely to the last degree that this place of refuge, would be one within the zone of operations of the Russian secret police. Hitler, with his contempt for the “decadent democracies” and their silly ideas about human rights; their stupid laws and their restrictions on what a policeman can do, would prefer to take his chances in the west – or so it would seem to this writer.

Wherever he went, it was somewhere within airplane radius of Berlin. The best guess – the one the Russians have made – is Spain. We know that. German refugees have been reaching Spain – maybe some of them to prepare the way for the Fuehrer’s escape, though very few indeed will be trusted with that secret for the present. We know that there are a good many Germans already in Spain. We know that Francisco Franco considers that he owes a great debt to Hitler for having established him in power at Madrid. He would not dare give Hitler open sanctuary. But he might be willing to help Hitler escape from Allied justice. After all, the public trial and execution as a criminal of the man to whom he has admitted he owes his present position would not be calculated to increase Franco’s standing in the world or with his own people.

And, it may be added, it is quite possible to take ship at a quiet little Spanish port for South America; or it is possible to fly to the Spanish colony of Rio de Oro and take ship there, even more quietly. Or one can fly from Rio de Oro to Brazil – if there should be some interior airfield which can be hidden away from the local police – and thence one could fly to the Argentine. And there are such things as submarines.

All this is the purest speculation, a mere review of a few of the possibilities. There are others.

The point is, that this is a matter which the governments of the United States and Great Britain, and their associates of the Western world, cannot afford to neglect or shrug aside. If Adolf Hitler is loose in the world he must be found and brought to justice. If he is dead, that fact must be established beyond any possibility of doubt.

If one of these two things does not happen, we shall be plagued for a generation to come with the Hitler legend.

103

The Evening Star (June 12, 1945)

‘Ghost’ radio telling Hitler legend hunted

WIESBADEN, Germany (AP) – Army authorities are trying to trace a “ghost” radio which for more than two weeks has been making midnight broadcasts attempting to revive the Hitler legend.

A 12th Army Group spokesman said the broadcasts first were reported in the Weissenburg area north of Augsburg. The station has operated on various wave lengths, but has a low power transmitter, he added.

104

The Evening Star (June 16, 1945)

Ribbentrop reported under questioning at Eisenhower’s offices

MONTGOMERY’S HEADQUARTERS, Germany (AP) – Captured Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop was reported to be under questioning today at Gen. Eisenhower’s headquarters at Frankfurt-on-the-Main.

The supreme command’s most skilled examiners were said to have been assigned to try to pry loose some of the state secrets known to the 52-year-old former Reich ambassador to London who was reputed to have convinced Hitler on his return in 1938 Britain would not intervene when Poland was invaded.

Officially, Von Ribbentrop left Lueneberg airfield here for an unidentified destination “somewhere in Europe” yesterday after being arrested in Hamburg Thursday along with an attractive brunette divorcee in whose apartment he boarded under the name of “Herr Riese.”

Believes Hitler is dead

The capture of the former champagne salesman resulted from a tip by the son of a Hamburg wine merchant who refused him haven.

He told his captors he was on “a mission from the dead Fuehrer.” When asked whether Hitler was really dead he is said to have replied, “I am certain he is, but, of course, I might be wrong.”

By telephone from Hamburg, Lt. J. B. Adam of Paisley, Scotland, told how his detail of a Belgian and two British sergeants arrested Von Ribbentrop. He said:

“We called at a very unpretentious block of fiats about 9 a.m. and knocked on the door of the top floor, but getting no answer we nearly had decided to break it down when a lady in a dressing gown appeared. She was dark-haired and very attractive, and we learned later she was 35 and divorced. We brushed her aside, saying we’d seen in and search.”

The Belgian discovered Von Ribbentrop, sleeping in pajamas. He shook him and woke him. Lt. Adams said "we searched him from top to bottom” but they did not discover the taped-on poison phial which a medical examination at headquarters later found hidden between his legs.

Sleepily Vou Ribbentrop dressed, muttering to himself. He then spoke up to his captors in good English saying, “you know who I am, all right, don’t you? I congratulate you. If you had been two days later I would have given myself up voluntarily.”

The room held only a few articles of clothing and two bulky envelopes containing long handwritten letters to Marshal Montgomery and Prime Minister Churchill. “I want to ask you a favor,” Von Ribbentrop said. “You put that envelope addressed to the Prime Minister inside the one addressed to the Field Marshal and deliver them intact to your commander.”

Then he was led off.

Officers at supreme headquarters said Gen. Eisenhower wanted no interviews with or pictures taken of Von Ribbentrop in Frankfurt at the moment. The reason given was that such pictures and news accounts might affect the Von Ribbentrop trial. Later, if pictures are needed, then the Signal Corps will take them, an officer said.

105

The Sunday Star (June 17, 1945)

Ribbentrop says note to Churchill contains message from Hitler

By Daniel De Luce, Associated Press war correspondent

FIELD MARSHAL MONTGOMERY’S HEADQUARTERS, June 16 (AP) – Joachim von Ribbentrop has written a confidential letter to Prime Minister Churchill and Anthony Eden referring, he maintains, to “a message given to me by the Fuehrer before his death.”

The captured former Nazi foreign minister wrote to Field Marshal Montgomery asking him to deliver the letter intact.

Written in ink in an elegant hand script while Ribbentrop was in hiding in the Hamburg apartment of a brunette divorcee, the note to Marshal Montgomery was merely a covering letter containing no sensational information.

Ribbentrop reportedly told British security officers after his arrest Thursday in Hamburg:

“For goodness sakes, don’t publish my letters until they are in the hands of those to whom they are addressed. They are addressed to certain people and I can’t tell you about them.”

Composed in Hamburg

The note to Marshal Montgomery was composed after Ribbentrop arrived in Hamburg from Berlin. There was reason to believe that it was written only a day or two before his capture and that his reported statement that he had been preparing to surrender voluntarily had a semblance of truth.

Military sources said both letters as well as Ribbentrop’s cache of several hundred thousand marks, seized with him in the climax of one of Europe’s greatest manhunts, were sent to SHAEF authorities along with Ribbentrop himself.

Although Ribbentrop’s English was grammatically correct in his Montgomery note, he misspelled the names of both Mr. Churchill and British Foreign Secretary Eden. Mr. Churchill’s Christian name was written as “Wincent” and Eden’s family name was spelled “Edn.”

The letter was as casual in its form as a thank-you letter to a dinner party hostess, but it laid polite stress on the importance of Mr. Churchill and Mr. Eden learning what Ribbentrop had to say about Adolf Hitler’s supposed “message.”

It was learned today that Ribbentrop’s mysterious Hamburg “landlady,” arrested with him yesterday, listed her occupation on her identity card as a “secretary.” She was still being held in the British field security headquarters in the center of Hamburg late this afternoon.

Ribbentrop’s falsified identity card gave the name “Jakob Riese.” The words “Kaufman-merchant” were written in the space for indicating occupation.

The card bore a picture of Ribbentrop wearing horn-rimmed spectacles.

His landlady’s bearing since the arrest reportedly has been cool and calm after her original surprise when British soldiers knocked at the entrance of her home.

Verification of the contents of his note to Marshal Montgomery cleared up one of the major contradictions in the stories related by staff officers yesterday concerning his arrest.

Reports differ

The first official news release, by a lieutenant colonel who read from notes approved by at least three colonels and one general, said Ribbentrop was captured while sleeping nude in a lodging house, with three letters in his possession addressed to Mr. Churchill, Mr. Eden and Marshal Montgomery.

Last night Lt. J. B. Adam, commander of the raiding detachment, said Ribbentrop was wearing pink and white pajamas and had only two letters in his possession, both of them lying on a table in full view.

A request by correspondents for detailed eye-witness descriptions of Ribbentrop’s meeting with his sister, who identified him after his capture, and for accounts of other events after he was removed from the flat was refused by military authorities.

Orderlies at the field security headquarters in Hamburg said the sister, Frau Doctor Marie Jenke, appeared to be younger than her brother and of a quite different physical appearance. She is assumed to be still under arrest.

106

Hitler murdered, Bernadotte believes

STOCKHOLM, June 16 (AP) – Count Folke Bernadotte, who acted as an unofficial emissary in bringing Gestapo Chief Heinrich Himmler’s surrender offer to the Western Allies, wrote in the epilogue to his book, “The End,” that Adolf Hitler did not die a hero’s death but “it can be taken as quite certain that he was murdered.”

The chairman of the Swedish Red Cross, in his book, described his dealings with Himmler and his colleagues in obtaining the release of Norwegians and other civilians from German prison camps during the last phases of the war.

He pointed to “initiated German quarters” for his view on Hitler’s end. In the last chapter of the book, SS Brigade Fuehrer Walter Schellenberg, one of Hitler’s closest aides now living near Stockholm who acted as liaison for Count Bernadotte, was quoted as saying that Hitler died about April 27 as the result of an injection by an unknown person.

Earlier Schellenberg said he and Himmler had discussed Hitler’s health. On the basis of a doctor’s report Hitler was said to be suffering from “paralysis agitans.” Schellenberg then quoted Himmler as saying he didn’t think they could continue with Hitler any longer.

107

Hitler’s body must be found to shatter myth

By Marcel Wallenstein, North American Newspaper Alliance

Has the Hitler myth begun? President Truman has indicated, that he is satisfied Hitler is dead. A team of Soviet detectives recently concluded that, if Hitler is dead, he did not die in the ruins of his Reich Chancellery. The tale told by a member of Hitler’s bodyguard seems, to Russian criminologists, to catalyze the many, conflicting stories of the Fuehrer’s last days. This bodyguard last saw Hitler on April 27, fidgeting on a sofa in his personal room in the chancellery, while Eva Braun, Hitler’s blond friend, sat at a table uniting. With the noise of street fighting penetrating the room, Hitler harangued, in effect: “As long as I live there will be no conflict among Russia, America and England. They are united in their will to destroy me. If I am dead a conflict must come. When it comes I must be alive to lead the German people, to help them arise from defeat, to lead them to final victory. Germany can hope for the future only if the whole world thinks I am dead. I must…”

But no body has been found.

WITH U.S. NINTH ARMY IN EUROPE (By air mail) – If Hitler is dead it is as important to find his body as it is to try him before a world court of justice if he is alive.

To those who ask what is to be gained by obtaining his corpse, the answer is: To prevent another dangerous myth finding root in the German mind. On similar myths the war spirit of the Germans has fed since the earliest European civilization.

Whatever his crimes and errors, Hitler knew German character. Throughout his career he played on the love of legend, hero myth and the Gothic mumbo jumbo for which a whole generation of his people threw over their religious teaching.

One has only to recall the rites at Nuernberg, the midsummer night’s orgies of Nazi youth on mountain tops when goats were sacrificed and knives of adolescents plunged into the hot blood; the tenets of blood and soil, the inscribed daggers (many now sent to the United States as souvenirs) and all the rest of the theatrical stage trappings so important to German minds and hearts.

Again one may ask what have these to do with the recovery of Hitler’s body, if he is dead?

Let those who ask the question think of the tale of Frederick Barbarossa and the Unterberg. On previous occasions this correspondent has referred to the Barbarossa legend and suggested that Hitler might choose to disappear in the same manner, or that of another legendary Teutonic hero. The suggestion is now fact. Hitler has disappeared.

This was no coincidence

It could not have been coincidence that caused Hitler to choose Berchtesgaden as the site of his private estate, where he could retire for meditation, rest or to plot the course which brought the Third Reich to its doom.

Berchtesgaden looks out on the Unterberg, the mountain where the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, “the greatest German who ever lived,” was believed to be sleeping until his presence was required by the German people. Then, according to the fairy tale, he was to split the mountain asunder and emerge with his war ax and in full armor to rescue his people from their danger.

Like all other Germans, Hitler knew every detail of the fable, and there is sound reason to believe he intended to replace Barbarossa in the minds of the German race as their savior after his death. Here it should be said that the Emperor Frederick was frowned and the facts suppressed to establish the Unterberg legend. Before the war many otherwise educated Germans would tell you that Barbarossa had disappeared and that there was reliable evidence for the story concerning his retirement to wait out the ages in his mountain.

Believed himself immortal

There may have been periods when Hitler believed in his own immortal quality. If so, he was not the first dictator to think along the same lines. He knew he must go, and there seems to be good reason for believing he desired his hold on his countrymen to remain afterwards. His disappearance lends color to this belief if he was killed in Berlin, as has been reported.

Americans reading these lines, unable to reconcile modem Germany’s technical advances with the mystical layer in the German character, may scoff at suggestions of this nature. But so hard headed a corporation as the British government knew better than to do so. In the year of peril, Lord Halifax, then foreign minister in the British cabinet, gave hours of his valuable time while the details of Hitler’s horoscope were explained to him by a German astrologer who had fled from Hitler’s Germany.

Hitler’s personal astrologer, who read his astral maps and cast the horoscope with its month-to-month projections, was a German named Karl Kraft. Kraft is believed to have died in a concentration camp or elsewhere under detention following the exposure of an indiscretion. He wrote a letter to a Rumanian diplomat, Viorel Tilea, in which he expressed the opinion that the time chosen by Germany for the beginning of the war might have been inopportune, and that the war might be lost.

Disappearance prophesized

But of even greater importance in this connection was Kraft’s suggestion made in the same letter that Hitler might disappear.

As Hitler’s astrologer, Kraft had frequent access to the dictator, and it is reasonable to assume engaged in private discussions with him. The suggestion of Hitler’s disappearance may have been the result of such a conversation. In any case, Kraft paid the penalty for his slip.

Hitler, dead or alive, has disappeared, and his passing whether beyond the grave or into a secret hiding place, leaves fertile soil for the growth of another German legend.

Why should this be dangerous or of the least importance to the rest of the world?

What difference can it make if a defeated Germany consoles itself with another fairy tale?

The answer lies in buried cities, towns and farmsteads of Germany. They swarm with young children, many born since September q, 1939, the day Hitler’s armies marched into Poland. It was part of the Nazi creed, as it was part of the Hohenzollern creed the last time, to produce young to replace the fallen, that there might always be feet for the marching boots and hands for the rifles.

Young children are seen in every German household and some of the mothers give the appearance of being no more than 17 years old. These children will grow up while the German nation does penance, in a time of mourning for dead fathers, when conquerors rule the land, when food and comforts are scarce and life in all respects is hard and bitter. Victors and vanquished alike agree that the immediate future for Germans will try their souls in a fashion unknown before in their country.

It cannot be argued that any future resurgent Germanism will depend on the legends of Barbarossa or Hitler, or that it will need any such basis. Still, Hitler, ignored by the armies now concerned with immediate details, may yet fire the minds of glowing German youth in his death (if he is dead) as he did in life, and stalk, a gory apparition. in the dreams of peaceful nations of the future.

German schools are closed until books, purged of Nazi doctrines, arrive from abroad. The new books will teach facts of life as lived by Germany’s more civilized neighbors. You may teach such lessons every day in schoolhouses, but what is to prevent returned warriors and widowed mothers telling the Hitler legend to their children in the evenings when the candles are lit and the shutters drawn across the beaten Germanland? What will prevent it firing a new longing, a new hunger for revenge in the years of subjection?

Hitler’s children

The Hitler myth is ready-made for the children of Hitler’s beaten armies unless the man is caught and exposed for what he is. or his body unearthed in proof that he has not ascended to some Teutonic Valhalla or gone underground in a mountain cavern to await the bugles of another German horde that will drown hew generations in blood.

In either case, whether he lives or is dead, the search for Adolf Hitler should not be abandoned until the world, and in particular the German world, knows the truth about him.

108

The Pittsburgh Press (June 18, 1945)

Trouble ahead from rumors about Hitler

A fake Fuehrer could rally Germans

LONDON (UP) – Allied diplomatic circles expressed concern today over persistent though unconfirmed reports that Adolf Hitler either is alive or fathered an heir before he died.

Unless disproved, they said, these reports well might contribute to a future Nazi uprising in Germany.

If Hitler or a man masquerading as him should appear in Germany later, he easily might prove a rallying force for the shattered Nazi organization.

‘Son’ may come forth

Similarly, if the rumor that Hitler had children by his mistress, Eva Braun, should be nurtured, a man claiming to be a son of the Fuehrer might come forward within the next 25 years to threaten world peace again.

Only yesterday The London Sunday Chronicle relayed a report that Eva may have become pregnant in the last days of Berlin as a “final mission for Hitler.” She was known to have been with him several days before Berlin fell, but no trace of her was found in the runs.

An earlier report from Stockholm said Eva and Hitler were the parents of two children, a five-year-old girl and a four-year-old boy. Soviet sources said they had found evidence that the couple were wed during the last stages of the Berlin battle.

The British War and Foreign Offices are convinced that Hitler is dead. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower had added his opinion that the Fuehrer died.

However, Lord Wright, chairman of the United Nations War Crimes Commission, was more on the cautious side. He insisted, as have the Russians that no confirmation of the death was available.

Walter Schellenberg, former close associate to Heinrich Himmler, suggested that a doctor may have given Hitler a fatal injection on Himmler’s instigation. Schellenberg’s version appeared in a book published in Stockholm by Count Felix Bernadotte, who relayed a peace offer by Himmler shortly before Germany surrendered.

Hunt plastic surgeon

Schellenberg left Stockholm today aboard a plane bound for Supreme Allied Headquarters at Frankfurt-on-Main. Swedish sources believed he intended to surrender himself to Britain and the United States and risk trial as a war criminal.

A London Daily Express Dispatch from Copenhagen said a wide search had begun for Dr. Ferdinand Sauerbruch, German surgeon who often operated on Hitler, in the belief that he might have changed the Fuehrer’s face to enable him to escape the Allies.

Press Conference with Gen. Eisenhower
June 18, 1946

The Pentagon
Washington, D.C.

…

Q: Do you think Hitler is dead? Are you convinced Hitler is dead?

EISENHOWER: Well, to tell you the truth, I wasn’t. I was at first. I thought the evidence was quite clear. But when I actually got to talk to my Russian friends, l found they weren’t convinced, and I found that it had been erroneously reported from Berlin. I don’t know. The only thing I am sure of is what I said in my Paris conference – if he is not dead, he must be leading a terrible life for a man that was the arrogant dictator of 250,000,000 people, to be hunted like a criminal and afraid of the next touch on his shoulder. He must be suffering the agonies of the damned if he is alive.

…

109

The Evening Star (June 19, 1945)

Heffernan: Breakdowns are epidemic

By Harold Heffernan

HOLLYWOOD – Personal but not private:

…

Revival of reports that Hitler may be alive and waiting in some faraway spot for the right opportunity to revive the Nazi movement causes Max Factor Jr., famous makeup expert, to speculate on what type of disguise Adolf might adopt to confound his searchers.

“If he’s halfway smart at all,” said Factor, “Hitler would discard that silly and hammy type of disguise used by Julius Streicher and the late Heinrich Himmler. By the simple act of putting on an eyepatch Himmler violated the first principle of disguise – that of not drawing attention to your appearance.

“What would I do if I were Hitler trying to get away? Well, if he’s still alive and if he’s smart to the ways of makeup we can all start looking for a fellow of Hitler’s general build, but wearing a smashed-in nose and protruding lower dentures. The nose, believe it or not, is the most conspicuous feature of the human face. Disguising the nose changes the whole appearance of the face. He should alter his mouth line, because it is hard and firm. Protruding teeth would do this.

“As a final touch, just to make the deceit complete, he could change his gait by putting lifts in one shoe to make him slightly lame.”

And so there’s the tip-off on a possible roaming Hitler direct from an expert. Watch for this man!

The Pittsburgh Press (June 19, 1945)

Ike’s not certain Adolf died

WASHINGTON (UP) – Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower is not sure that Adolf Hitler is dead.

He told a press conference yesterday he originally was convinced the Fuehrer was no more. But that after talking to the Russians he found that Russian views on the matter had been reported erroneously from Paris.

110

СООБЩЕНИЯ ИНОСТРАННОЙ ПРЕССЫ О СУДЬБЕ ГИТЛЕРА

Корреспондент агентства Юнайтед Пресс сообщает из Берхтсгадена, что недавно арестованный американцами личный шофер Гитлера Кемпке показал, что Гитлер и его любовница Ева Браун застрелились в подземельях имперской канцелярии в Берлине 30 апреля. Их тела были сожжены ночью в саду канцелярии. Кемпке утверждает, что он сам переносил туда тело Браун и лично видел сожжение трупов Гитлера и Браун. Он заявил также, что Геббельс и его жена, покончившие жизнь самоубийством, были сожжены 1 мая.

Корреспондент Юнайтед Пресс при 21-й английской армии сообщает, что бывший сотрудник нацистской уголовной полиции показал, что он видел сожжение трупов Гитлера и Браун около имперской канцелярии днем 1 мая.

Корреспондент агентства Ассошиэтед Пресс сообщает из Травемюнде, что, как выяснилось, обслуживающий персонал местного аэродрома в последние недели войны получил приказание держать в полной готовности громадный четырехмоторный самолет, способный вместить большое количество бензина. Этот самолет был предназначен для бегства Гитлера в Японию.

На самолете могли помещаться только три пассажира, все остальное место было занято запасами горючего. В готовности на тайном аэродроме находились, кроме того, три гидроплана для бегства других нацистских чиновников из Германии.

20 июня 1945 года (ТАСС)

111

ПОКАЗАНИЯ БЫВШЕГО СЕКРЕТАРЯ ГИТЛЕРА

ПАРИЖ, немецкий яз., 21 июня, 12 ч. 30 м., проток. запись

Секретарь Гитлера дал следующие показания относительно заседания, имевшего место 21 апреля с.г. во втором этаже «Коричневого дома» в Берхтесгадене. Присутствовали кроме Гитлера, Кейтель, Йодль, Дениц, Геббельс и Борман.

На заседании было решено, что Гитлер возьмет на себя верховное командование в Берлине и останется там до самого последнего момента, вплоть до своей смерти. Поведение Гитлера на заседании произвело на секретаря такое впечатление, словно Гитлер был уже совершенно ненормальным, не понимал, о чем идет речь, и безучастно реагировал на все предложения и постановления.

Когда совещание кончилось, Геббельс встал, отбросил свой стул в сторону и заявил, что он вернется в Берлин с Гитлером и, в случае необходимости, покончит там жизнь самоубийством вместе с женой и детьми.

Кейтель заявил, что он не намерен участвовать в комедии, недостойной солдата. В противовес ему Дениц сказал, что он намерен остаться с Гитлером до самого конца. Геринг на заседании не присутствовал.

Кейтель и Йодль первыми покинули заседание. Гитлер и Геббельс уехали на автомобиле в Зальцбург, а оттуда направились на самолете в Берлин. Сохранился подлинный протокол этого заседания.

21 июня 1945 года (ТАСС)

112

ПОКАЗАНИЯ ШОФЕРА И СОТРУДНИКА ОХРАНЫ ФЮРЕРА О СМЕРТИ ГИТЛЕРА

Два немца, которые оба уверяют, что видели труп Гитлера, были проинтервьюированы союзными корреспондентами.

Один из них, Эрих Кемпка, как говорят, был шофером Гитлера, а другой, Герман Кернау, говорит, что он был членом личной охраны Гитлера.

Корреспонденты беседовали с Кернау в штабе 21-й армейской группировки. Он заявил, что 1 мая, когда Берлин подвергался ожесточенному обстрелу русской артиллерии, он видел Гитлера сидящим на стуле в его подземном убежище. Позднее он видел тела Гитлера и Евы Браун, лежащими у запасного входа убежища.

Кернау говорит, что, хотя оба трупа горели, их можно было вполне узнать. Около трупов лежали 4 бидона из-под бензина.

Другой немец, шофер Кемпка, находится в штабе 101-й парашютной дивизии. Он уверяет, что сам вынес тело Евы Браун из убежища. Кто-то другой вынес труп Гитлера, завернутый в одеяло. На трупы был вылит бензин из 5 бидонов, после чего они были подожжены.

Оба эти рассказа приблизительно совпадают друг с другом.

Однако ни один из этих немцев не видел, как Гитлер умер, причем их показания относительно причин смерти расходятся.

Шофер Кемпка говорит, что Гитлер и Ева Браун застрелились, а Кернау — что они были отравлены.

21 июня 1945 года (ТАСС)

113

СООБЩЕНИЯ О ПОКАЗАНИЯХ ОТНОСИТЕЛЬНО СМЕРТИ ГИТЛЕРА

Как сообщает специальный корреспондент агентства Рейтер Макфи Керр, находящийся с частями 21-й армейской группы, один из членов личной охраны Гитлера рассказал о том, как умер Гитлер в помещении имперской канцелярии в Берлине вместе с Евой Браун, о которой говорили, что она является или любовницей, или женой Гитлера. 32-летний Герман Кернау является полицейским из Вильгельмсгафена. Он недавно перешел из русской зоны оккупации Германии и предоставил себя в распоряжение канадских войск. Он заявил, что Гитлер умер 1 мая и что он женился на Еве Браун в конце апреля.

Кернау заявил: «Я прибыл из Берхтесгадена в феврале 1945 года. В Берхтесгадене я видел комнаты, в которых жили Ева Браун и Гитлер, и мне сказали, что эти комнаты соединяются дверью. Никому не разрешалось называть Еву «фрейлейн Браун», было приказано называть ее лишь инициалами Е.Б. Когда я возвратился в Берлин, среди членов охраны ходили слухи, что Гитлер и Ева Браун поженились в конце апреля. 30 апреля я встретился с Евой Браун в подземном бомбоубежище. Она была одна и весьма опечалена. Она сказала: «Я бы хотела умереть здесь. Я не хочу уезжать». Я пытался успокоить ее, назвав ее «фрейлейн Браун», а она ответила: «Вы можете теперь называть меня фрау Гитлер». 1 мая, когда я проходил через угольный подвал, чтобы получить завтрак, я увидел Гитлера, который сидел на плетеном стуле и нервно барабанил по стулу пальцами левой руки. Он встал и пошел навстречу бригаденфюреру Монке, который отдал ему гитлеровское приветствие, а затем пожал руку. Гитлер спросил его: «Какие новости?» Тот ответил: «Хорошие новости. Силезский вокзал очищен от противника». Это были последние слова, которые я слышал от Гитлера. Когда во второй половине дня, примерно в 5 часов, я вернулся в угольный подвал, он был пуст».

Кернау заявил, что 1 мая он видел трупы Гитлера и Евы Браун близ запасного выхода из угольного подвала. Оба трупа горели. «Оглядевшись вокруг, я увидел штурм-банфюрера Шедле — одного из членов личного штата Гитлера, который был очень взволнован и крикнул мне:

«Фюрер умер и горит!» Я вышел из угольного подвала и увидел трупы Гитлера и Евы Браун на песчаном грунте, примерно в 3 ярдах от запасного выхода. Гитлер лежал на спине, слегка подогнув колени, Ева Браун лежала рядом с ним, лицом вниз. Оба трупа горели, распространяя ужасный запах».

Если рассказ Кернау достоверен, он разрешает загадку о том, что в действительности случилось с Гитлером. О нем сообщалось, что он был отравлен его личным врачом, что он сгорел в здании имперской канцелярии, что он до сих пор скрывается в Германии или живет за границей по другим именем.

25 апреля, когда советские армии наступали на Берлин, немецкое радио сообщило, что Гитлер направился в самый критический пункт боев в Берлин. На следующий День гамбургское радио объявило, что Гитлер останется в Берлине, а в сообщении из Осло говорилось, что он руководит операциями по обороне столицы. На следующий день германское радио сообщило, что Гитлер принял командующих секторами берлинского фронта. Когда русские стали приближаться к Берлину, волна слухов о Гитлере еще больше возросла. 28 апреля в сообщении из Стокгольма говорилось, что у Гитлера кровоизлияние в мозг, а два дня спустя тот же источник сообщил, что Гитлер умер в Берлине 29 апреля. 30 апреля в телеграмме из Берна было сказано, что Гитлер умер в 12 часов этого дня. Адмирал Карл Дениц, который пришел к власти после Гитлера, заявил 1 мая: «Наш фюрер Адольф Гитлер погиб». А 2 мая в немецком коммюнике было сказано, что Гитлер пал в бою во главе защитников столицы Германской империи. 8 мая русские настаивали, что Гитлер и Геринг скрываются. После этого красноармейцы начали интенсивные поиски трупа, хотя, согласно сообщению, останки, обнаруженные в здании имперской канцелярии, были останками Гитлера. Согласно данным, обнаруженным позднее русскими, Гитлер умер в результате впрыскивания какого-то яда его личным врачом доктором Мо-реллем в берлинском бомбоубежище 1 мая.

Граф Фольке Бернадотт, который вел переговоры с Гиммлером, позже заявил, что Гитлер был убит его же подчиненными.

Кернау продолжал: «Трупы было легко распознать. Я узнал Браун по черным ботинкам на низком каблуке, по летнему платью и темному пальто, а Гитлера — по его коричневой форме и по лицу, хотя нижняя часть обоих трупов сильно обгорела. Поблизости валялось четыре пустых бидона из-под керосина, которые, как я раньше заметил, были принесены в угольный подвал в тот же день. Согласно моей теории, и Гитлер, и Ева Браун были отравлены профессором Штумпфэггером — старшим медицинским офицером канцелярии. Я встретил Штумпфэгге-ра немедленно после того, как видел горевшие трупы. Он проходил через подвалы. Предыдущей ночью Штумпфэг-гер отравил любимую эльзасскую собачку Гитлера — Блон-ди. Все члены личной охраны считают, что Гитлер был готов скорее принять яд, чем попасть в руки русских. Его личный слуга Линге получил приказ, чтобы его труп никогда не попал в руки врага. Когда я увидел трупы, никого вокруг не было. По-видимому, никакие погребальные обряды не были соблюдены. Позднее вечером наш начальник Кольке собрал всех членов личной охраны и обратился к нам с речью: «Печально, что никто из офицеров не интересуется тем, где находится труп фюрера. Я горжусь тем, что я единственный человек, который знает, где он лежит».

Кернау заявил мне, что он видел Геббельса, помещение которого было смежным с помещением Гитлера. Геббельс стоял один посреди комнаты, задумавшись и поддерживая подбородок рукой. «Он выглядел ошеломленным, похожим на щенка, — сказал Кернау. — Вскоре после смерти Гитлера его заместитель Мартин Борман послал телеграмму с приказом об аресте Геринга, который обвинялся в государственной измене, и я лично сопровождал офицера, которому было поручено передать эту телеграмму в отдел связи».

Кернау был допрошен английским офицером разведки. «Я убежден, что отчет Кернау о смерти Гитлера достоверен, — заявил он Керру. — Я допрашивал многих пленных немцев, и я бы назвал этого человека достоверным осведомителем».

Отчет о заявлении Кернау готовится для передачи русским представителям разведки.

23 апреля, заявил Кернау, группа нацистских чиновников, включая некоторых сотрудников имперской канцелярии, отбыла на самолете с аэродрома Темпельгоф в Баварию.

21 июня 1945 года (ТАСС)

Ф. К-1 ос, оп. 4, д. 17, л. 12 об.-13 об. (машинописный экз.)
114

The Evening Star (June 21, 1945)

Rumors increasing that Hitler is in Hamburg vicinity

HAMBURG (AP) – Rumors that Hitler is in the Hamburg area and talk of his possible capture within the city itself are increasing among German civilians now that Joachim von Ribbentrop has been picked up here.

Residents to whom one correspondent talked in Germany’s second largest city, where many other Nazi bigwigs have been arrested, do not believe the story of Hitler’s death in Berlin.

They are more disinclined than ever to lend credence to it since conflicting reports have been given as to how Hitler allegedly met death by men who contend they were on the scene.

British security officers still are investigating the Ribbentrop case amid a high degree of secrecy. He may have had many interesting visitors during his seven weeks’ stay in an apartment house room which he presumably rented from an attractive 35-year-old blond divorcee.

The divorcee insists the only caller on Ribbentrop that she saw was a “tall, slender man with black hair.”

However, she admits her roomer may have had many visitors when she was absent.

“He always asked me the exact time I would return when I left,” she said.

115

High Allied officer says he thinks Hitler is dead

SUPREME ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, Paris (AP) – A high officer of Gen. Eisenhower’s intelligence staff said today it was his personal belief that Adolf Hitler is dead, but the evidence is inconclusive.

The officer, whose name cannot be used, told a press conference that the situation is this: “There is very good evidence that he is dead – but there is no conclusive evidence he is not still alive.”

The correspondents were told that Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering also proved to be “something of a drug fiend.” The name of the drug was not disclosed, but Goering took so much that “if it had been taken away from him suddenly he would have become a raving maniac in 24 hours.” His captors are cutting down the amount he takes.

116

The Evening Star (June 26, 1945)

Hitler ‘alive and safe,’ mystery radio reports

LONDON (AP) – The Daily Sketch yesterday reported that its radio listening post had picked up a mysterious German language broadcast last night saying Adolf Hitler is alive and safe. The broadcast was not heard by any other listening center.

The Sketch said the unidentified radio went dead immediately after reporting:

“The Fuehrer is alive and safe. He is living with some of his most faithful followers far beyond the reach of the enemy. Do not despair, Germans! The light will come again from the darkness.”

“The despicable machinations of his false friends with whom he surrounded himself have misfired. Those who aimed high and for greater power are now either dead or are languishing in enemy prison cages. The power for which they strove and for which they were willing to sacrifice the Fuehrer was of short duration only.”