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Brigadeführer Albrecht Alwin-Bröder - Committed Suicide (?)
Wilhelm Arndt - Hitler's Valet - KIA
Reichsjugendleiter Artur Axmann
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Born 18 February 1913 in Hagen; died on 24 October 1996 in Berlin.
Since 1940 Reichsjugendführer (Reich Youth Leader), attendant at the cremation of Hitler´s body, was arrested by the Americans in December 1945, allegedly whilst trying to set up an underground Nazi group, in American war captivity until 1949.
- claimed to be the last person to see Hitler alive
- claimed to have seen the dead body of Martin Bormann whilst escaping the Bunker (probably true)
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Gruppenführer Hans Baur
Hauptsturmführer Helmut Beermann
Wolfgang Beigs
Major Nicholaus von Below
Oberscharführer Johann Bergmüller - Russian POW
Obersturmbannführer Georg Betz
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Hitler's personal co-pilot and Hans Baur's substitute. According to The Last Days Of Adolf Hitler, H. R. Trevor-Roper, Betz was last observed in the area of the Weidendamm Bridge as part of the group which left the Führerbunker during the evening of May 1, 1945. His ultimate fate remains unknown, but he is assumed to have died in the area of the bridge. |
Brigadeführer Johann Hugo Blaschke Hitler's Dentist
Rittmeister Gerhardt Boldt - von Löringhoven's aide
Gruppenführer Albert Bormann (2 September 1902 Halberstadt - 8 April 1989 München) Brother of Martin Bormann
Reichsleiter Martin Bormann
Jürgen Bosser (pilot of Arado Ar 96?)
Eva Braun
General Wilhelm Burgdorf
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Born on February 14, 1895 in Fürstenwalde, died May 2, 1945 in Berlin, since 1944 Head of the Army Personnel Department and Chief Adjutant of the Wehrmacht (Armed Forces), stayed in the bunker and shot himself (according to other sources: missed). |
Gerda Christian
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née Daranowski (13 December 1913 - April 14, 1997, Düsseldorf) was one of the three private secretaries of Adolf Hitler in World War II. One of the last remaining occupants of the Führerbunker at the end of the war, Christian escaped from the Red Army along with Hitler's close aide Sturmbannführer Otto Günsche. |
Generalmajor Eckard Christian
Hauptsturmführer Adolf Dirr
Fritz Echtmann
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On May 11,1945 Soviet Army authorities brought a cigar box containing a partial jaw–bone and two dental bridges to Fritz Echtmann, a dental technician who had worked for Dr. Johann Hugo Blaschke, Adolf Hitler’s dentist since 1938. Echtmann identified one of the bridges from records. The Nazi dictator, the chief protagonist in a war that left fifty million people slaughtered, was finally confirmed dead. |
Wilhelm Exhold
Gruppenführer Hermann Fegelein
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After Fegelein's boss, Heinrich Himmler, tried to negotiate a backdoor surrender to the Allies via Count Bernadotte in April 1945, Fegelein left the Reichs Chancellery bunker and was caught in his Berlin apartment apparently preparing to escape to Sweden with cash and forged passports in civilian clothes with a mistress. He was also, according to all accounts, highly intoxicated when brought to the bunker.
At this point, historical accounts begin to differ radically.
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Erna Flegel
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Sunday, May 1, 2005
Hitler's Nurse Breaks Silence
Adolf Hitler's nurse, Erna Flegel, now 93, ailing and in a nursing home in Germany, broke her six-decade silence about her Führer and their last days together in Hitler's Berlin bunker.
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Obersturmbannführer Ludwig Förster
Walter Frentz
Major Bernd von Freytag-Löringhoven
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Tuesday, 26 April, 2005
Bernd Freytag von Löringhoven, 91, is one of the last living eyewitnesses to Hitler's final days
As an aide to army chiefs he had daily contact with Hitler, escaping the bunker just 24 hours before the dictator shot himself...............
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Obersturmführer Helmuth Frick
Karl Gebhardt
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Born 23 November 1897 in Haag, Oberbayern; died 2 June 1948 in Landsberg am Lech) was a German medical doctor; personal physician of Heinrich Himmler and one of the main coordinators and perpetrators of surgical experiments performed on inmates of the concentration camps at Ravensbrück and Auschwitz.
Gebhardt's Nazi career began with his joining the NSDAP on 1 May 1933. Two years later, he also joined the SS and became head physician at the sanatorium of Hohenlychen in the Uckermark, which he changed from a clinic for tuberculosis patients into an orthopedic clinic and later, during World War II, into a hospital for the Waffen-SS. In 1938, Gebhardt was appointed as Heinrich Himmler's personal physician.
Gebhardt treated Albert Speer in early 1944 for fatigue and a swollen knee. He nearly killed Speer until he was replaced by another doctor. Himmler saw Speer as a rival for power.
Gebhardt rose to the rank of Gruppenführer in the Waffen SS.
Having either ordered them or carried them out, Gebhardt was directly responsible for numerous surgical experiments performed on concentration camp inmates. He was particularly active at the women's camp in Ravensbrück (which was close to Hohenlychen) and the camp in Auschwitz.
During World War II, Gebhardt also acted for some time as the President of the German Red Cross.
By 22 April 1945, the Soviets were entering Berlin and Josef Göbbels brought his wife and children into the Führerbunker. Gebhardt, in his capacity as the Red Cross leader, approached Göbbels about taking the children out of the city with him. But he was dismissed by Göbbels.
After the war, Gebhardt stood trial in the Doctors' Trial together with 22 other doctors before a U.S. military tribunal, where he was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced to death on 20 August 1947. He was hanged on 2 June 1948, in Landsberg prison in Bavaria. |
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(April 2, 1898, Siegen - January 20, 1987, Düsseldorf) was a German architect during the Nazi era, one of the two architects most favored and rewarded by Adolf Hitler (the other being Albert Speer).
Hermann Giesler completed his architectural study at the Academy for Applied Arts in Munich. Starting from 1930 he worked as an independent architect. In 1933 he became master of building of districts in Sonthofen and 1937, became a professor.
Up to 1938 he designed the "medal castle" in Sonthofen, planned Gau Forums in Weimar and Augsburg, And the "high school" for the NSDAP at Chiemsee. Also, Giesler refurbished different buildings (such as the "Hotel of the Elephant" in Weimar). In addition, he was commissioned to build Hitler's house in Munich.
In 1938 he was ordered by Hitler to the "General Panel of Buildings for the reorganization of the city of Munich". Later he became also a director in the Organisation Todt, then one of the directors of the Group of Works of VI (Bavaria, Donaugaue).
Starting from 1941, after fellow architect Roderich Fick fell out of political favor, Giesler was entrusted by Hitler with the reorganization of the entire city of Linz. Starting from 1942 he worked on plans and a large model for the Danube Development of the Banks, starting from 1944, also worked on designs for the cultural center, which Hitler regarded with particular interest. Throughout the war, Giesler and Speer had several heated arguments about architectural styles.
After the war, Giesler wrote "Ein anderer Hitler" (Another Hitler), a personal memoir about his relationship with the dictator. |
N.S.D.A.P Reichsleiter/Gauleiter Dr. Paul Josef Göbbels
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Paul Josef Göbbels. Born on October 29, 1897 in Rheydt, 1921 conferral of a doctorate in German language and literature studies, University Bonn, since 1928 member of the Reichstag, 1931 marriage with Magda Quandt, since 1933 Reichsminister for Volksaufklärung and Propaganda, according to Hitler´s political last will Reich Chancellor since April 30, 1945.
Göbbels was a skilled builder of saga and he spread the NSDAP doctrines with great ability. He admittedly forced the arts and letters of Germany into a constricting mold and was responsible for the burning of degenerate anti-west books and themes. Unable to face "The brave new world of Soviet brutality and ‘New West’ Coca-Cola culture” Dr. Göbbels and his wife, Magda, committed suicide in the Führer's bunker on May 1, 1945. Wishing to spare their children the horrible torture that surely would have been inflicted by the Ruskie Kulturträger, Dr. & Frau Magda poisoned them. During the last visit of Avitrix Hanna Reitsch to Hitler, Magda hugged her and burst into tears, "My dear Hanna," she said. "You must help me to help the children out of this life. They belong to the Third Reich and the Führer, and if these two things cease to exist, there will be no place on earth for them." |
Magda Göbbels
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née Behrendt, divorced Quandt, born on November 1, 1901 in Berlin,after re-marriage of her mother, she grew up in Belgium under the name: Friedländer, 1921 marriage with the Entrepreneur Günther Quandt, divorce 1929, one child with Quandt: Harald, 1931 marriage with Göbbels, six children: Helga, Hilde, Helmut, Holde, Hedda, Heide. Moves into the bunker together with her 6 children on April 22, 1945 - after Hitler had announced his suicide, she kills her children on May 1, 1945 in the bunker, soon afterwards she was shot down by her husband, according to her wish. |
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Born 8 June 1899 in Charlottenburg, in the western part of Berlin, Germany; died 24 April 1945.
As Reichsphysician SS and Police, Grawitz advised Heinrich Himmler, commander of the Schutzstaffel (SS), on the use of gas chambers. He carried out brutal medical experiments on Nazi concentration camp prisoners. Due to his own SS rank, Grawitz was administratively responsible for all medical experiments conducted.
Towards the end of World War II in Europe, Grawitz was a physician in the Führerbunker. When he heard that other officials were leaving Berlin in order to escape from advancing Soviet armies, Grawitz petitioned Hitler to allow him to leave. In addition to denying his request, Hitler made a point of humiliating Grawitz in front of several of the female bunker residents for his (perceived) cowardice.
Grawitz decided to kill himself along with his family. While eating supper with his wife and two children, he pulled the pins out of two grenades that he held under the table. The explosion blew up his family and himself.
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Dr Kurt Haagen - Stenographer
Oberscharführer Peter Hartmann
Obersturmbannführer Dr Werner Haase
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born on August 2, 1900 in Köthen, died probably 1945 in Moscow, since 1935 Begleitarzt (concomitant doctor) in staff of the Reichskanzler (Reich Chancellor), 1945 Head of the ward (Krankenstation) in the bunker, stayed in the bunker and was arrested there by the Red Army, was taken to Moscow for interrogations. |
Hauptsturmführer Dr Hans-Karl von Hasselbach
Käthe Hausermann
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An autopsy was performed on Hitler by a SMERSH unit, led by Chief Forensic Pathologist Dr. Faust Sherovsky. They first identified Hitler using odontological records of removable dental fittings given to Hitler by his dentist Hugo Blaschke. Two of Blaschke's arrested assistants (Fritz Echtmann and Käthe Hausermann) confirmed the accuracy of the records by first drawing sketches of his bridgework from memory. |
Josef Hausner
Johannes Hentschel
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(born 10 May 1908 in Berlin) was a German master electro-mechanic for Adolf Hitler's apartments in the Old Chancellery. He was hired on 4 July 1934, and was responsible for the machine room in the Führerbunker during the last days of World War II. He was one of the last people remaining in the bunker because the field hospital in the Chancellery needed electricity and water. He was captured by the Red Army as they entered the bunker, and was released from Russian captivity 4 April 1949. |
? Herrgesell - Stenographer
Brigadeführer Ambassador Walther Hewell
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Born on January 2, 1904 in Köln; died on May 2, 1945 in Berlin,
Colour Sergeant during the Hitler Putsch 1923 in Munich, since 1940 Steady Agent of the Reich Foreign Minister at the Reich Chancellory, until May 1, 1945 in the bunker, probably suicide during escape to avoid Soviet war captivity |
Unterscharführer Hans Hofbeck
Standartenführer Peter Högel
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born on August 19, 1897 in Dingolfing, died on May 2, 1945 in Berlin, 1944 Kriminaldirektor (Chief Inspector) at the Reichssicherheitsdienst, until May 1, 1945 in the bunker, suicide during escape to avoid Soviet war captivity. |
Obersturmführer Erwin Jakubeck
Untersturmführer Hans Junge - Committed Suicide
Arthur Kannenberg
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Adolf Hitler's personal chef, Arthur Kannenberg, moved to New York after the war. He changed his name to Steve Neanteus, and then opened a restaurant. |
Sturmbannführer Erich Kempka
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(16 September 1910 – 24 January 1975) served as Adolf Hitler's primary chauffeur, valet and bodyguard from 1934.
In 1945, as the end of the Third Reich drew near, Kempka accompanied Hitler to the Reich Chancellery and then the Führerbunker. On 20 April, ten days before Hitler's suicide, he briefly wished the Führer a happy birthday and spent about fifteen minutes with him.
Kempka was one of those responsible for burning Hitler's body. He was detailed on the afternoon of 30 April to deliver 200 litres of gasoline to the garden outside the bunker, but was only able to obtain 180. He left the bunker on the following day. On 20 June, he was captured by U.S. troops at Berchtesgaden.
Despite claims made to the contrary during his interrogation, Kempka later admitted that when Hitler and Eva Braun locked themselves in a room to commit suicide, he lost his nerve and ran out of the Führerbunker, returning only after Hitler and Braun were dead. By the time he returned to the bunker, Hitler and Braun's bodies were already being carried upstairs for cremation.
Despite his questionable reliability, many interviewers quote Kempka in their accounts of Hitler's suicide because of his colorful (and raunchy) language. For example, one interviewer, O'Donnell, recounted the following quip in his book, The Bunker:
When Martin Bormann carried Eva Braun's corpse out of the bunker, Kempka took the body from him and insisted on carrying it up himself, remarking that Bormann was carrying Braun "like a sack of potatoes". (Bormann and Braun had a mutual dislike.)
At the Nuremberg trials, Kempka was called to testify because he claimed to have seen Martin Bormann killed by a Soviet anti-tank rocket.
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Obersturmbannführer Josef Kiermaier
Oberführer Arthur Klingemeier - 24 February 1913 Kummerfeld - 1997 Wiesbaden (?) Some sources claim KIA 1 May 1945
Unterscharführer Maximilian Kölz
Generaloberst der Infanterie Hans Krebs
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(4 March 1898 – 1 May 1945) was a German general of infantry who served during during World War II. Krebs was holder of the 749th award of Oakleaves to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. He was a signatory witness to the last will and testament of Adolf Hitler and subsequently became the first chief of staff to attempt a negotiated surrender with the Soviets.
Within hours of Hitler's suicide on April 30, 1945, Josef Göbbels sent Krebs under a white flag to General Vasily Chuikov, the commander of the Soviet forces in central Berlin. He arrived shortly before 4 a.m. on May 1, taking Chuikov by surprise. Krebs, a Russian-speaker, informed Chuikov that Hitler and Eva Braun, his wife, had killed themselves in the Führerbunker. Chuikov, who was not aware that there was a bunker under the Reich Chancellery or that Hitler was married, calmly said that he already knew. Chuikov was not, however, prepared to negotiate with Krebs as the Soviets were unwilling to accept anything other than unconditional surrender. The meeting ended with no agreement, and Krebs returned to the bunker looking "worn out, exhausted", according to Traudl Junge, Hitler's secretary. The surrender of Berlin was thus delayed only 24 hours.
As the Soviets advanced on the Führerbunker, Krebs was last seen by others, including Junge, in the bunker when they left to attempt to escape. Junge relates how she approached Krebs to say goodbye and how he straightened up and smoothed his uniform before greeting her for the last time. He and at least two other senior officers, including General Wilhelm Burgdorf, stayed behind with the stated intention of committing suicide. Their bodies were found when Soviet personnel entered the bunker. |
Else Krüger
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None of Hitler's secretaries married or re-married after Hitler's death. Junge, a widow by 1945, never re-married. Christian, who was married at the time, actually divorced her husband because he escaped Berlin, and she remained with Hitler (she subsequently never remarried). Wolf also remained single. The only secretary to get married was Krüger, who worked for Bormann, not Hitler (ironically, according to the other secretaries, Krüger was Bormann's mistress; she later married her British interrogation officer). |
Untersturmführer Heinz Krüger
Hauptsturmführer Dr Helmut Kunz
Wilhelm Lange
Armin Lehmann
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(23 March 1913 - 1980) He was one of Adolf Hitler's servants at his headquarters.
Linge worked as a valet (chamber servant) at Wolfsschanze in Rastenburg and at Hitler's bunker in the last days of the Führer's life, and was Hitler's personal ordinance officer. Linge delivered messages to Hitler and also escorted people for whom Hitler had sent for. Linge was one of many soldiers, servants, secretaries and officers who moved into the Reich Chancellery bunker in 1945. There he continued as Hitler's valet and protocol officer and was one of those who closely witnessed the last days of Hitler's life. Linge was one of the last to leave the bunker and was arrested by the Red Army. He was released from Soviet captivity in 1955 and died in Bremen in West Germany in 1980. |
Heinz Lorenz
Constanze Manzialy
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Hitler preferred Austrian, particularly Viennese, cooks.
His final cook was Konstanze Manziarly (name sometimes spelled differently). born on April 14, 1920 in Innsbruck, She was his cook in the Berghof on the Obersalzberg from sometime in 1943, and she stayed on as his cook in the Führerbunker in the final defence of Berlin. She prepared the Hitlers' last lunch before their joint suicide
There were claims that she took a cyanide capsule to kill herself on May 2, the day after the Führerbunker was abandoned by most personnel to escape Soviet capture, but others assert that she left the bunker with the large break-out group before the Soviets arrived, but was separated from them and never heard from again. |
Heinz Matthiesing - von Below's aide
Rottenführer Harry Mengershausen
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The only person who claimed to have seen Hitler's corpse is Harry Mengershausen. He recalled that, in early June 1945, an inspection of "the place" where Hitler's corpse had allegedly been buried took place.
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Oberscharführer Rochus Misch
| Germany 30.04.2005
The Last Witness Recalls: I Saw Hitler Dead
Rochus Misch, 88, is the only person still alive today to have seen the Nazi leader and his wife Eva Braun dead in their bunker deep under the shattered city of Berlin.
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Dr Theodor Morell
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Morell made a lot of money during the war, not least with a louse powder we were given on the eastern front which smelt awful and was useless.
I shall never forget how he begged, on 22 and 23 April, when the women were allowed to leave.He sat there like a fat sack of potatoes and begged to fly out. And he did.
~ Bernd Freytag von Löringhoven
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Gruppenführer Heinrich Müller
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born on April 28, 1900 in Munich, since 1939 Head of the Gestapo, last seen in the bunker on April 29, 1945, then lost. |
Otto Willi Müller
SA-Brigadeführer Werner Naumann
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born on June 16, 1909 in Guhrau, died on October 25, 1982, State Secretary in the Propaganda Department, still seen in the bunker on April 29, 1945, successful escape to West Germany, 1953 imprisoned for 4 months.
Friedrich Bergold testified at Nuremberg that he had last seen Naumann walking a meter in front of Martin Bormann when the latter was hit by a Soviet rocket.
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Rottenführer Josef Ochs
Hauptsturmführer Alfred Rach
Oberführer Johann Rattenhuber
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born on April 30, 1897 in Munich, died on June 30, 1957 in Munich, Head of the Reichssicherheitsdienst (RSD), a unit for the private protection of Hitler, until May 1, 1945 in the bunker, until 1951 in Soviet war captivity. |
Obersturmführer Hans Reisser
Hanna Reitsch
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Hanna undertook a dangerous flight to Hitler's Bunker in Berlin. Since November 1943, Reitsch had been stationed along the Eastern front in Russia, with General Robert Ritter von Greim. On April 26, 1945 they flew to Berlin, where Greim was supposed to take command of the Luftwaffe. Their plane was hit by Soviet anti-aircraft fire. Greim was badly wounded and Hanna landed the plane. They stayed in Berlin for 3 days, as Hitler's guests.
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Joachim von Ribbentrop
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Born April 30, 1893 in Wesel (now in North Rhine-Westphalia); died 6, 1946.
He was Ambassador to the United Kingdomn 1936 – 1938 and Foreign Minister of Germany from 1938 until 1945; later hanged for war crimes after the Nuremberg trials.
On April 20, 1945, Ribbentrop attended Hitler's 56th birthday party in Berlin. This was one of the last times he saw Hitler. On April 23, 1945 Ribbentrop attempted to have a meeting with Hitler, only to be told to go away as Hitler had more important things to do than talk to him |
Obergruppenführer Julius Gregor Schaub
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Born August 20, 1898 in Munich; died December 27, 1967 in Munich.
He become Hitler's chief aide and adjutant in 1940
In the aftermath of the July 20 Plot to kill Hitler in 1944, Hitler had a badge struck to honor all those injured or killed in the blast. Hitler's aides later said that Schaub, who was in a building some distance from the explosion, falsely tried to claim he was injured so as to be able to wear the badge.
At the end of the war, Hitler ordered Schaub to burn all his personal belongings in his flats in Munich and in Obersalzberg. His final rank, from 1944, was as an SS-Obergruppenführer.
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Obersturmbannführer Ernst-Günther Schenck
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Ernst-Günther Schenck (1904-December 21, 1998) was a German doctor who joined the Sturmabteilung in 1933.
Schenck's encounter with Hitler came when he volunteered to work in an emergency casualty station located in the Reich Chancellory in April of 1945, near the Führerbunker. Although he did not have much experience with surgery, he nonetheless helped out with a hundred or so major surgeries, without having access to proper supplies and instruments.
During these surgeries, Schenck was aided by Dr. Werner Haase, who also served as one of Hitler's private physicians. Although Haase had much more surgical experience than Schenck, he was dying of tuberculosis, and often had to lie down while trying in vain to give verbal advice to Schenck.
Schenck only saw Hitler in person twice, for only a brief time - once when Hitler wanted to thank him for his emergency medical services, and once during the "reception" after Hitler's marriage to Eva Braun.
Additionally, Schenck was actively involved in the creation of a large herbal plantation in Dachau concentration camp, which contained over 200,000 medicinal plants, from which, among other things, vitamin supplements for the Waffen SS were manufactured. During the creation of this plantation in 1938 over 100 people died, according to recollections of prisoners. In 1940 he was appointed as inspector of nutrition for the Waffen SS. In 1943 Schenck developed a protein sausage, which was meant for the SS frontline troops. This was tested before its adoption on 370 prisoners, some of whom died.
In his memoirs Schenck, stated that his only concern was to improve nutrition and fight hunger. However a report in 1963 condemned Schenk for "treating humans like objects, guinea pigs". In the Federal Republic of Germany Schenck was not allowed to continue his medical career.
Ernst-Günther Schenck died on December 21, 1998 in Aachen. |
Hauptsturmführer Karl-Wilhelm Schneider
Christa Schröder
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Born Emilie Christine Schröder on March 19, 1908, in Hannoversch Münden –1984, in Munich, she was one of Hitler’s personal secretaries before and during World War II.
Schröder lived at the Wolfsschanze near Rastenburg, where Hitler and other members of his staff lived. Her account of her service as Hitler's secretary (Er war mein Chef, Herbig, 2002) is an important primary source in the study of the Nazi years.
After the war, Christa Schroeder was interrogated in 1945 by the French liaison officer Albert Zoller serving to the 7th US-Army. This interrogation and later interviews in 1948 formed the basis for the first book published about Hitler after World War II in 1949, Hitler privat (“Hitler in private”).
Christa Schröder died on June 18, 1984 in Munich.
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Major Joachim Schultz
Hauptsturmführer Günther August Wilhelm Schwägermann
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born on July 24, 1915 in Ûlzen, since about 1940 Göbbel´s Personal Adjutant, until May 1, 1945 in the bunker, successful escape to West Germany, then until 1947 in American war captivity. |
Oberscharführer Werner Schwiedel
Albert Speer
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Born March 19, 1905 in Mannheim, Germany; died September 1, 1981 in London, England.
Speer was Hitler's chief architect before becoming his Minister for Armaments during the war. He reformed Germany's war production to the extent that it continued to increase for over a year despite increasingly intensive Allied bombing. After the war, he was tried at Nuremberg and sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment for his role in the Third Reich. As "the Nazi who said sorry", he was the only senior Nazi figure to admit guilt and express remorse. Following his release in 1966, he became an author, writing two bestselling autobiographical works, and a third about the Third Reich. His two autobiographical works, Inside the Third Reich and Spandau: the Secret Diaries detailed his often close personal relationship with German dictator Adolf Hitler, and have provided readers and historians with an unequalled personal view inside the workings of the Third Reich.
Hitler continued to consider Speer trustworthy, though this trust waned near the war's end as Speer, at considerable risk, campaigned clandestinely to prevent the implementation of Hitler's Nero Decree. The Nero Decree was issued on 19 March and it promoted a scorched earth policy on both German soil and occupied territories. Speer worked in association with General Gotthard Heinrici, whose troops fighting in the east retreated to the American-held lines and surrendered there instead of following Hitler's orders to make what would have been a suicidal effort to hold off the Soviets from Berlin.
Speer even confessed to Hitler shortly before the dictator's suicide that he had disobeyed, and indeed actively hindered Hitler's "scorched earth" decree. According to Speer's autobiography, Speer visited the Führerbunker towards the end and stated gently but bluntly to Hitler that the war was lost and expressed his opposition to the systematic destruction of Germany while reaffirming his affection and faith in Hitler. This conversation, it is said, brought Hitler to tears.
On 23 April, Speer left the Führerbunker. By his own account, Speer considered assassinating Hitler by releasing poison gas into the air intake vent on the Führerbunker, but the plan, such as it was, was frustrated for a number of reasons. Independent evidence for this is sparse. Some credit his revelation of this plan at the Nuremberg trials as being pivotal in sparing him the death sentence, which the Soviets had pushed for. Now in disfavour, on 29 April, Speer was excluded from the new cabinet Hitler outlined in his final political testament. This document specified that Speer was to be replaced by his subordinate, Karl-Otto Saur.
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Obersturmbannführer Dr Ludwig Stumpfegger
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(July 11, 1910 - May 2, 1945) he was an SS doctor in World War II and Adolf Hitler's personal physician from 1944.
He initially worked as an assistant doctor under Prof. Karl Gebhardt in the Sanatorium Hohenlychen, which specialised in sports accidents. As a result of this experience, he was part of the medical team, along with Gebhardt, at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin and the Winter Olympics of the same year in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
In 1939, the Hohenlychen was used by the SS as part of the war effort. Working under the supervision of Gebhardt, Dr. Fritz Fischer and Dr. Herta Oberheuser, he participated in medical experiments, the subject of which were women from the concentration camp at Ravensbrück. The experiments included the transplantation of bone and muscle.
In 1945, Stumpfegger started working directly for Adolf Hitler in the Führerbunker in Berlin. As the Red Army advanced towards the bunker, he helped Magda Göbbels murder her children before she and husband Josef Göbbels committed suicide.
He attempted to break out from the bunker with Martin Bormann and committed suicide with Bormann at the Lehrter Bahnhof by taking cyanide |
Obersturmführer Joachim Tibertius
Feldwebel Fritz Tornow
Baroness von Varo
Oberleutnant Hans Volk
Vizeadmiral Hans-Erich Voss
Walter Wagner
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If the marriage of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun wasn't actually made in hell, they were at least wed in some of the most hellish conditions imaginable. Facing death together in their Berlin bunker, they celebrated their vows by sharing a glass of champagne with Josef Göbbels and his family.
But key pieces of information about Hitler's wedding and final hours are missing. One unanswered question concerned the presence of a mysterious, low-ranking Nazi official at the nuptials. Who was he? And why was he there at a moment in history so intimate?
It is now possible to put a face to this figure. Two British writers have finally uncovered the truth about Walter Wagner. Historian Ian Sayer and journalist Douglas Botting have put together the story from a postcard that fell into Sayer's hands at a sale of documents relating to the war. It was the last postcard sent from Berlin by Wagner to his wife, just days before the notary presided over the marriage. It had been taken from Wagner's wife's home by British Military Intelligence when they learnt her husband had been in the bunker.
'I realised the significance of the contents of the card when I had it translated,' said Sayer. 'This was one of the last people to have seen Hitler alive in the bunker.'
Sayer tracked down the son that Wagner mentioned in the postcard to his wife. He is now a lawyer, Michael Wagner, and he only recently discovered what happened to his father after he left the bunker. Rejoining his company, Wagner, 37, was shot in the head days later and died.
Wagner had been a faithful party member and a lawyer who worked with Göbbels in Berlin. He had only been called up for military service during the last phase of the war. When Hitler told Göbbels, his former propaganda chief, that he intended to marry Braun as a reward for her loyalty, Wagner was summoned in secret and taken straight to the bunker. On his arrival on 28 April, 1945, he queried the lack of the correct paperwork for a wedding, so he was driven away again to pick up the necessary documentation. The vows were made shortly after midnight.
'Wagner was just an ordinary man who had never met the Führer before and who was only known to Göbbels. He must have been terribly shocked to have been driven away in an armoured car and then taken down inside the bunker,' said Sayer, co-author of Hitler and Women. |
General Helmuth Weidling
Obersturmbannführer Hans Weiss
Oberstleutnant Rudolf Weiss - Burgdorf's aide
Gustav Weler - Hitler's Doppelgänger - Executed by the SS
Gerhard Welzin
Johanna Wolf
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Born 1 June 1900 in Munich, died 5 June 1985 in Munich.
Wolf joined Hitler's personal secretariat in 1929 as a typist, at which time she also became a Nazi Party member. When Hitler became Chancellor in January 1933 she became a senior secretary in his Private Chancellery. As the senior secretary and a dedicated Nazi she was a trusted member of Hitler's entourage, and remained with him when he withdrew to the Führerbunker in central Berlin as the Red Army approached.
On 22 April 1945, however, Hitler, having decided to stay and die in Berlin, sent Wolf and Christa Schröder to his house at Berchtesgaden in Bavaria. They were tasked with burning his personal papers before the papers could be seized by the Allies.
Wolf was taken prisoner on 23 May in Bad Tölz when the Americans occupied Berchtesgaden. Together with Schröder, she remained a prisoner until 14 January 1948.
Although Wolf served under Hitler for many years, unlike other secretaries such as Traudl Junge, she refused to consent to any interviews or reveal any information, even when, during the 1970s, she was offered a large amount of money to write her memoirs. Whenever asked to do so, she stated that she was a "private" secretary and believed it was her duty to never reveal anything about Hitler.
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Fritz Wollenhaupt
Standartenführer Wilhelm Zander
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