In later April 1945 , topsy-turvydom reigned in Berlin . Years of war had turned former superpower Germany into a battlefield , and its cities from strongholds into place under siege . The Red Army had completely circled the urban center , which now ring on senior work force , police , and even children to defend it . But though a battle raged on in the street , the war was already lose . Adolf Hitler ’s time was almost up .
The hoi polloi of Germany had already taken leave of absence of their Führer . Since a public appearance on his birthday , April 20 , he had been disconcertingly absent from the public middle . In realness , he was holed up in a dugout near the Brandenburg Gate in the heart of Berlin , surrounded by his bidding staff and a few private citizen , include his mistress Eva Braun .
For weeks , bad news program drifted into Hitler ’s hideaway . As American force-out advanced from the west , and the relentless Soviet tanks from the east , Hitler ’s general get to mislay their heads . Suspicious of a coup by his closemouthed advisors , Hitler raged and planned and rebuke again . When he learned that Felix Steiner , one of his SS commandant , had ignored his order to stage a grand last bandstand south of the city , he began to rant and cry , declare the warfare lose . subsequently that Clarence Day , he consulted with Werner Haase , his private doctor , about the best way to commit suicide .
By April 29 , the situation had contain a turn for the worse . Though Hitler married Eva Braun that daybreak , masses were more interested in discussing suicide than celebrating a wedding . Hitler had memorize that Heinrich Himmler , loss leader of the SS , had given the Allies an offer of contiguous surrender — an offer they quickly deny . Outraged , Hitler demanded that Himmler — once his tightlipped and powerful compatriot — be arrested . Then Hitler hear of the death of Benito Mussolini , his opposite number in Italy . execute and defiled by an furious crime syndicate , the potentate ’s end was a brawny warning about what might be in store for the man who had promised his now - scourge country an dateless imperium . Mussolini ’s death set the last 24 hours of life in the sand trap into motion .
9 January 2025
All time are approximate
1 a.m.:Field Marshal William Keitel report that the entire Ninth Army is surrounded and that reinforcements will not be able to reach Berlin .
4 a.m.:Major Otto Günsche heads for the toilet , only to come up Dr. Haase and Hitler ’s hound handler , Fritz Tornow , feed cyanide pills to Hitler ’s beloved German Shepherd , Blondi . Haase is plainly testing the efficacy of the nitril pills that Hitler ’s former ally Himmler had bring home the bacon him . The capsule works and the dog dies almost immediately .
10:30 a.m.:Hitler meet with General Helmuth Weidling , who enjoin him that the end is near . Russians are attacking the nearby Reichstag . Weidling asks what to do when troops run out of ammo . Hitler respond that he ’ll never give up Berlin , so Weidling asks for permission to allow his troop to break out of the city as long as their intention never to surrender remains clear .
2:00 p.m.:Hitler and the women of the bunker — Eva Braun , Traudl Junge , and other secretaries — sit down for lunch . Hitler promises them that he ’ll give them vials of cyanide if they wish to use them . He apologizes for being ineffectual to give them a better farewell present .
3:30 p.m.:Roused by the sound of a loud gunshot , Heinz Linge , who has do as Hitler ’s valet for a decade , opens the doorway to the study . The feeling of fire sweet almond — a predecessor of cyanide — wafts through the door . Braun and Hitler sit side by side . They are both dead . Braun has evidently ask the cyanide , while Hitler has done the human activity with his Walther pistol .
4:00 p.m.:Linge and the other resident of the bunker wrap the bodies in blankets and carry them upstairs to the garden . As shells come , they douse the bodies in gas . Joseph Goebbels , parson of propaganda , will kill himself tomorrow . Meanwhile , he holds out a box of matches . The survivors fumble and finally ignite the corpses on flame . They steer down to the dugout as they cauterize .
On May 1 , Germans who can encounter time between shell to heed to the radio are greet with the feeling of Wagner’sGötterdämmerung—“The Twilight of the Gods . ” Hitler , they are recount , has “ fallen at his command post in the Reich Chancery fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism and for Germany . ” The Führer is dead .
References : Endgame , 1945 : The Missing Final Chapter of World War II;German Commanders of World War II;The Bunker;The Day the War Ended;Five Days That Shocked The World;Until the Final Hour : Hitler ’s Last Secretary;Inside Hitler ’s Bunker;BBC News .
