Hitler took up residence in the
Führerbunker on
January 16, 1945 where he presided over a rapidly disintegrating
Third Reich as the
Allies advanced from both east and west. By late April
Soviet forces had entered
Berlin and were battling their way to the centre of the city where the
Chancellery was located.
On
April 22 Hitler had what some historians later described as a
nervous breakdown during one of his military situation conferences, admitting defeat was imminent and Germany would lose the war. He expressed his intent to kill himself and later asked physician
Werner Haase to recommend a reliable method of suicide. Haase suggested combining a dose of
cyanide with a gunshot to the head.
Hitler had a supply of cyanide capsules which he had obtained through the
SS. Meanwhile on
April 28 Hitler learned of
Heinrich Himmler's attempt to independently negotiate a peace treaty. Hitler considered this
treason and began to show signs of
paranoia, expressing worries the cyanide capsules he had received through Himmler's SS were fake. To verify the capsules' potency he ordered Dr. Haase to try them on his dog
Blondi and the animal died as a result.
After midnight on
29 April, Hitler married
Eva Braun in a small civil ceremony in a map room within the bunker complex.
Antony Beevor states that after hosting a modest wedding breakfast with his new wife, Hitler took a 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, (some sources say Hitler dictated the last will and testament immediately before the wedding, but all sources agree on the timing of the signing).
Hitler and Braun lived together as man and wife in the bunker for less than 40 hours. Late in the morning of
April 30, 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. Weidling asked Hitler for permission to break out, a request he had made unsuccessfully before. Hitler did not answer at first and Weidling went back to his headquarters in the
Bendlerblock where at about 13:00 he got Hitler's permission to try a breakout that night. Hitler, two secretaries and his personal cook then had a light lunch consisting of spaghetti with light sauce, after which Hitler and Eva Braun said their personal farewells to members of the Führerbunker staff and fellow occupants, including the
Goebbels family, Bormann, the secretaries and several military officers. At around 14:30 Adolf and Eva Hitler went into Hitler's personal study.
Some witnesses later reported hearing a loud gunshot at around 15:30 (the Goebbels' young son is said to have declared, "A direct hit!" thinking it was a bomb overhead). 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 burned almonds, a common observation made in the presence of
prussic acid, the gaseous form of
cyanide. The Hitlers were both sitting on a small sofa, Eva on the left, Adolf to her right. Eva's body slumped away from Adolf's. Hitler appeared to have shot himself in the right temple (there was an exit wound towards the top, left side of his head) with a
7.65 mm pistol which lay at his feet. Blood dripping from Adolf's temple and chin had made a large stain on the right arm of the sofa and was pooling on the floor/carpet. Eva had no visible physical wounds and Linge assumed she had poisoned herself.
Several witnesses said the two bodies were carried up to ground level and through the bunker's emergency exit to a small, bombed-out garden behind the Chancellery where they were doused with
petrol and set alight by Linge and members of Hitler's personal
SS bodyguard. The SS guards and Linge later noted the fire did not completely destroy the corpses but Soviet shelling of the bunker compound made further cremation attempts impossible and the remains were later covered up in a shallow bomb crater after 18:00.
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