On the eve of the anniversary of the suicide of Nazi Fuhrer Adolf Hitler (April 30, 1945), the FSB of the Russian Federation released new archival documents. According to TASS, newspapers talk about the mood in the headquarters of the German leader on the eve of the defeat of the Third Reich.
Published documents are stored in the archives of the FSB in the Novgorod region. This is part of the investigation file of Hans Baur, Hitler’s personal pilot. It also includes the words of the Führer’s personal aide, SS Sturmbannfuehrer Otto Günsche. He was captured and arrested by SMERSH and held in the NKVD’s internal prison in Lubyanka.
The FSB reported that Günsche was placed in a cell with Colonel Artur Schwartz, the former commander of the mortar regiment. He described the events and mood that reigned in Hitler’s bunker in central Berlin during the last days of Nazi Germany.
Schwartz also recounted Günsche’s words in his testimony in May 1945.
First of all, according to TASS, Günsche told Schwartz that there was no unified leadership in the country in the last days of the Third Reich.
Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering in southern Germany, thinking that the Führer could no longer make important decisions himself, declared himself Hitler’s successor at the end of April.
“Her [Геринга] his inability to organize the air force and his immoral lifestyle completely undermined his authority in Germany, ”said Schwartz, quoting the words of Hitler’s adjutant.
It was known about the head of the SS Heinrich Himmler, who was in Macklenburg and Pomerania at the end of the war in northern Germany, that he had contacts with England and America, from which he was dismissed and expelled. NSDAP. “The behavior of Göring and Himmler caused particularly strong outrage,” the article says.
According to Günsche, shortly before his suicide, Hitler felt abandoned by his comrades and the Nazi party. At the same time, the Führer rejected proposals to fly out of Berlin, citing the futility of this attempt.
“You would think he was completely out of balance,” the adjutant said. “But many still believed in miracles. On the other hand, although everything that happened in Berlin was considered madness, ”Schwartz recounted the words of the Soviet security guard Günsche.
Also, in recent days, Hitler was afraid of “falling into the hands of the Russians”. He also declared that one must either cling to the end and win or perish.
Citing the words of a German officer, TASS said, “I have said many times recently that Germany should go with Russia but cannot do that, that the party cannot do that, that this should bring the future with it.”
Günsche also told a cellmate that Martin Bormann, Reich Minister for NSDAP Affairs and Hitler’s personal secretary, had died in the conflict. Chief of Staff Kreps, head of the personnel department of the Wehrmacht Burgdorf, imperial head of the Hitler Youth Axmann committed suicide.
After killing their young child, Reich propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda also committed suicide.
Günsche said that on May 1, 1945, he and other SS men tried to cross into the West from the Berlin underground, but the next day they encountered Soviet tanks and were forced to surrender when they could not find any troops to pass. americans
Schwartz also told the NKVD that Günsche spoke of British propaganda among Wehrmacht and SS officers.
“One of the German officers taken prisoner by the British and to be released in return was asked by a British officer before he was sent whether, under certain conditions, he would agree to fight under British command against Bolshevism.”
— According to documents published by the FSB.
Finally, Günsche also saw the bodies of the deceased Hitler and his wife Eva Braun.
“He did not see Hitler’s face because it was covered with the veil, but his legs were hanging off the stretcher, and Günsche clearly recognized Hitler’s boots, socks, and trousers,” Schwartz said.
The burned bodies of the Führer and his wife were found by Soviet soldiers on 13 May, after the surrender of Nazi Germany.
In 2022, the FSB published documents on the last hours of Hitler’s life. According to the testimony of SS Gruppenführer Hans Bauer, Hitler’s personal pilot, in April Hitler said that he would not leave Berlin, even though many of those around him convinced him that the city should be evacuated.