The Evening Star (December 5, 1945)
Bormann in Hitler death pact in Berlin, Nazi aviatrix says
Drama of last hours bordered on comic opera, she declares
OBERURSEL, Germany (AP) – Capt. Hanna Reitsch, German aviatrix who flew the last Nazi plane out of Berlin, has told American counterintelligence investigators that the missing Martin Bormann joined in a death pact with Hitler a few hours before the German capital fell.
The blond, 33-year-old pilot gave a graphic description of the final hours of Hitler and his companions in a Reich Chancellery bunker, but said she left on the Fuehrer’s orders before suicides were carried out.
The Army took her story off the secret list today with the comment that it was “probably as accurate a description as will be obtained of those last days.”
Bormann, aide to Hitler, chief of the Nazi SA (Storm Troops) and head of the Volkssturm, the people’s militia called to action in the final weeks of the war, is being tried in absentia by the International Military Tribunal at Nuernberg for war crimes.
The drama of the end bordered on comic opera as Russian shells burst overhead, according to Capt. Reitsch. She said Hitler berated Goering, Himmler and others as traitors while going through the motions of directing a phantom rescue army that had been wiped out days before.
She reported further:
Goebbels, surrounded by his wife and six children, launched into bursts of oratory with all the theatrics of a ham actor. Eva Braun became disgustingly dramatic. Blank-faced Bormann kept at his desk writing a historical record of the finish of Nazism.
As the intensity of the Russian barrage increased, the shaking Fuehrer, on the verge of collapse, called for repeated suicide rehearsals. SS guards, charged with seeing that the bodies were destroyed, stood by.
Capt. Reitsch, who claimed the world’s glider record and once flew in a V-bomb as test pilot, said she flew into Berlin April 26, 1945, with Lt. Gen. Ritter von Greim, who had received a frantic call from Hitler after Goering reportedly had attempted to take over as Fuehrer. Greim was wounded when Russian planes jumped them.
Betrayal by Goering
Her story, as told through an American interrogation officer:
“First to meet them was Mrs. Goebbels, who fell upon Reitsch with tears and kisses… Hitler came into Greim’s sickroom with his face showing deep gratitude over Greim’s coming.
“Hitler asked, ‘Do you know why I’ve called you? Because Hermann Goering has betrayed and deserted both me and his fatherland. Behind my back he has established connection with the enemy. His action was a mark of cowardice. And against my orders he has gone to save himself at Berchtesgaden… prepared to rule in my place.’
“Hitler shouted, ‘Nothing has been spared me. No allegiances are kept, no ‘honor’ lived up to, no disappointments that I have not had, no betrayals that I have not experienced, and now this above all else.’”
Greim and Capt. Reitsch were promised they could stay after they asked to remain in the bunker.
Given vial of poison
Afterwards Hitler came to her and in a low voice said, “Hanna, you belong to those who will die with me. Each of us has a vial of poison such as this,’’ and handed her one for herself and one for Greim.
“I do not wish that even one of us falls to the Russians alive, nor do I wish our bodies to be found by them,” said Hitler.
Hitler told her how he was counting on the army of a Gen. Wenck, moving up from the south, to drive the Russians back. Later she learned that Wenck’s forces had been wiped out days before.
She identified, among others in the bunker, Goebbels, his wife and their six children; State Secretary Neaman Havel from Ribbentrop’s office, Adm. Foss as a representative of Doenitz, Gen. Krebs of the infantry, Bormann, Eva Braun, Hitler’s personal pilot, Hansel Bauer, and Obergruppenfuehrer Fegelein, husband of Eva Braun’s sister.
Goebbels insanely incensed
Fegelein disappeared late the next afternoon in a reported attempt to escape in civilian clothes as a refugee. He was ordered shot as a deserter.
Goebbels was “insanely incensed over Goering’s treachery. He strode about his small luxurious quarters like an animal.”
Frau Goebbels was ‘‘a very brave woman.” Goebbel’s children, ranging in ages from three to 12, sang for their “Uncle Fuehrer” and seemed to enjoy being in “the cave.”
Eva Braun spent most of her time “polishing her fingernails and changing her clothes,” remarking over and over again: “Poor, poor Adolf, deserted by everyone, betrayed by all.”
Bormann “moved about very little. He kept instead very close to his writing desk.”
Hitler’s manner and physical condition had “sunk to the lower depths. He would stride about the shelter waving a road map that was fast disintegrating from the sweat of his hands, planning Wenck’s campaign… he was like a young boy playing at war.”
Suicide council called
On the night of April 27, as the Russian bombardment reached its highest peak, “another suicide council was called by the Fuehrer. The last instructions were given… The group was hypnotized… Then everyone made little speeches, swearing allegiance to the Fuehrer and to Germany.”
The news of Himmler’s armistice bid to the Allies on April 29 came as “the greatest blow of all. Hitler raged like a mad man… He sank into a stupor and for a time the entire bunker was silent.”
With the report that the Russians would launch an attack to overrun the chancellery on the morning of April 30, Hitler, with a chalk white face went to Greim’s room and slumped down on the edge of the bed.
“Our only hope is Wenck,” he said, “and to make his entry possible we must call up every available aircraft to cover his approach.”
Hitler then ordered Greim and Capt. Reitsch to make a getaway to deliver the order, as communications had failed. A small armored vehicle took them to a plane and they took off on a broad street leading from Brandenburger.