The beginning and end of Hitler

Apr.20th, 1889- Apr.30th, 1945

While I had thought about posting a note yesterday being Hitler's birthday and what a dark day it heralded for world history, I decided against it for the reason that the date of his birth is not nearly so important as the date of his death.

In the waning days of the war, during the winter month of Janurary as the Third Reich disintegrated around him, Hitler took up permanent residence in Berlin's Fuhrerbunker just outside the walls of the Chancellory. His failing health and increasing paranoia drove him to self imposed imprisonment. He no longer trusted the majority of the general staff serving under him. There had been repeated assassination attempts. The Allies were literally knocking at the doors of Germany, and the careful walls Hitler had built were finally tumbling down after five years of bloody struggle.

After midnight on 29 April, Hitler married Eva Braun in a map room within the bunker complex. Hitler then took secretary Traudl Junge to another room and dictated his last will and testament. He signed these documents at 04:00 and then retired to bed.

Late in the morning of 30 April, with the Soviets less than 500 meters from the bunker, Hitler had a meeting with General Helmuth Weidling, commander of the Berlin Defense Area, who informed Hitler the Berlin garrison would probably run out of ammunition that night. Hitler, two secretaries and his personal cook then had lunch consisting of spaghetti with a light sauce, after which Hitler and Eva Braun said their personal farewells to members of the Fuhrerbunker staff and fellow occupants, including the Goebbels family, Martin Bormann, the secretaries and several military officers. At around 14:30 Adolf and Eva Hitler went into Hitler's personal study. Witnesses later reported hearing a loud gunshot at around 15:30.

After waiting a few minutes, Hitler's valet, Heinz Linge, with Bormann at his side, opened the door to the small study. Linge later stated he immediately noted a scent of burnt almonds, a common observation made in the presence of prussic acid, the aqueous form of hydrogen cyanide. Hitler's SS adjutant, Sturmbannfuhrer Otto Gunsche, entered the study to inspect the bodies, which were found seated on a small sofa, Eva's to Hitler's left and slumped away from him. Eva's body had no visible physical wounds and Linge assumed she had poisoned herself. Gunsche has since stated that Hitler "sat sunken over, with blood dripping out of his right temple. He had shot himself with his own pistol."

Red Army troops began storming the Chancellery at approximately 23:00, about 7 hours and 30 minutes after Hitler's death. On 2 May, the remains of Hitler, Braun, and two dogs (thought to be Blondi and her offspring Wulf) were discovered in a shell crater by Ivan Churakov of the 79th Rifle Corps.

In 1993 the KGB publicly released the autopsy records and other statements by former KGB members. The autopsy recorded both gunshot damage to Hitler's skull and glass shards in his jaw, assumed to be from a cyanide capsule. The remains of Hitler and Braun were repeatedly buried and exhumed by the Russians during relocation from Berlin to a new facility in Magdeburg where they, along with the charred remains of propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and those of his wife Magda Goebbels and their six children, were buried in an unmarked grave beneath a paved section of the front courtyard. This location was kept highly secret.

Out of several films over the years documenting these last days of Hitler, Der Untergang (The Downfall) is perhaps the best and most accurate, a 2004 German feature film (subtitled, no English voiceovers) largely set in and around the Fuhrerbunker. Director Oliver Hirschbiegel accurately reconstructed the actual look and atmosphere as best he could through eyewitness accounts, various survivors' memoirs, and other verified sources. It also features an interview with Traudl Junge.