58. See Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, pp. 824f. Cf. Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, p. 411. See also Frank, Der Tod im Führerbunker, pp. 63ff.
59. Junge, Bis zur letzten Stunde, p. 180.
60. See Meissner, “Der letzte Befehl,” pp. 2 and 16. These notes are based on what Schaub, who shared “time and a cell” with Meissner “in the witness wing of the Nuremberg prison,” apparently told Meissner about “his last days with Adolf Hitler.” Schaub mentioned Hitler’s “last command”: the “order to destroy the secret Führer archive” (p. 6). Hitler allegedly said: “No scrap of it must fall into enemy hands” (p. 2). Cf. Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, p. 411.
61. Eva Braun to Herta Schneider, Berlin, April 22, 1945, in Gun, Eva Braun, 252. See also Speer, Inside the Third Reich, p. 476: According to Speer Eva Braun had told him during his last visit to the bunker that Hitler “had wanted to take his own life on April 22.”
62. See Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, p. 826.
63. Eva Braun to Gretl Fegelein, Berlin, April 23, 1945, in Gun, Eva Braun. Eva Braun mentions here an additional letter that Hitler’s servant Wilhelm Arndt had been given to bring to the family at the Berghof, together with a suitcase. They had heard, Braun writes, that his airplane was “overdue.” In fact, the plane, having taken off from Berlin-Staaken on April 22, crashed in Börnersdorf. Arndt lost his life. See Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, p. 362. Decades later, a reporter for the Stern, Gerd Heidemann, reported that “Diaries” by Adolf Hitler had been salvaged from the wreckage in Börnersdorf. See Michael Seufert, Der Skandal um die Hitler-Tagebücher (Frankfurt am Main, 2008), p. 15.
64. See Lakowski, “Der Zusammenbruch der deutschen Verteidigung zwischen Ostsee und Karpaten,” pp. 664f.; Besymenski, Die letzten Notizen von Martin Bormann, p. 230.
65. Speer, Inside the Third Reich, p. 476.
66. Ibid., p. 484.
67. Junge, Bis zur letzten Stunde, p. 187.
68. Speer, Albert Speer: Die Kransberg-Protokolle 1945, p. 119.
69. “Report of Conversation among Gretl Braun Fegelein, Frau Herta Schneider, and Walter Hirschfeld (undercover), 25 September 1945,” in F 135/2, vol. 2, p. 367, IfZ Munich. See also Riefenstahl, Memoiren, p. 405; Hiller von Gaetringen, Das Auge des Dritten Reiches, p. 32.
70. “Report of Conversation among Gretl Braun Fegelein, Frau Herta Schneider, and Walter Hirschfeld (undercover), 25 September 1945,” p. 368. See also Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, pp. 213f.
71. Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, p. 414.
72. Expert assessment in the matter of Adolf Hitler, Berchtesgaden District Court, August 1, 1956 (Ref.: Z.: II 48/52), copy, Gb 05.01/2, pp. 30ff., IfZ Munich. See also Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, p. 1038.
73. See Junge, Bis zur letzten Stunde, p. 196.
74. See Loringhoven, Mit Hitler im Bunker, pp. 157ff.; Gerhard Boldt, Die letzten Tage der Reichskanzlei (Hamburg, 1964), pp. 128ff.
75. See Boldt, Die letzten Tage der Reichskanzlei, pp. 135f. Extensive discussion in Schellenberg, Aufzeichnungen, pp. 355ff.
76. See Longerich, Heinrich Himmler, pp. 750f.; Folke Bernadotte, Das Ende: Meine Verhandlungen in Deutschland im Frühjahr 1945 und ihre politischen Folgen (Zürich and New York, 1945).
77. Eva Braun to Gretl Fegelein, Berlin, April 23, 1945, previously cited. Thus Fegelein in no way “left the Chancellery unnoticed” on April 26, as Gerhard Boldt claims (Die letzten Tage der Reichskanzlei, p. 133). Boldt was a member of General Wilhelm Krebs’s staff and spent the last weeks in the bunker.
78. Junge, Bis zur letzten Stunde, p. 197. Below and Loringhoven also report that they received a call from Fegelein from his Berlin apartment (Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, p. 415; Loringhoven, Mit Hitler im Bunker, p. 167).
79. “Report of Conversation among Gretl Braun Fegelein, Frau Herta Schneider, and Walter Hirschfeld (undercover), 25 September 1945,” p. 367.
80. See Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, p. 415. Below dates these events to April 28, whereas Traudl Junge writes that Fegelein was already being sought on the previous day and was brought to the Chancellery on the evening of April 27 (Bis zur letzten Stunde, pp. 197ff.).
81. See Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, p.823
82. Adolf Hitler, “Mein privates Testament,” Berlin, April 29, 1945, 4 o’clock (transcription of a copy of a notarized testament), in Adolf Hitler Papers, N 1128/38, BA Koblenz. On the testament, see Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, p. 823
83. See Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, p. 415; Henrik Eberle and Matthias Uhl, eds., Das Buch Hitler: Geheimdossier des NKWD für Josef W. Stalin, zusammengestellt aufgrund der Verhörprotokolle des Persönlichen Adjutanten Hitlers, Otto Günsche, und des Kammerdieners Heinz Linge (Bergisch Gladbach, 2005 [Moscow, 1948–1949]), p. 436. Hitler’s servant Heinz Linge gave the impression in his memoir, published in 1980, that he had been present (Linge, Bis zum Untergang, pp. 281f.). A few years after the fact, Otto Meissner recalled that Hitler had had “the authorized registrar” brought on April 28 in an “armored car” (Staatssekretär, p. 610).
84. See Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, p. 416. See also Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, p. 823
85. Expert assessment in the matter of Adolf Hitler, Berchtesgaden District Court, August 1, 1956 (Ref.: Z.: II 48/52), copy, Gb 05.01/2, pp. 34f., IfZ Munich.
86. See Lakowski, “Der Zusammenbruch der deutschen Verteidigung zwischen Ostsee und Karpaten,” p. 671.
87. See “Ergebnisse der gerichtsmedizinischen Untersuchung durch sowjetische Ärzte,” in Hitlers Tod, ed. Völklein, pp. 121ff.
12. AFTER DEATH
1. Notes by the translator, Pavlov, on the conversation between Stalin and Harry Hopkins, May 26, 1945, in the Russian Presidential Archives, Moscow, quoted from Völklein, Hitlers Tod, p. 60.
2. See Charles L. Mee Jr., Meeting at Potsdam (New York, 1975), p. 94.
3. “Report of Conversation among Gretl Braun Fegelein, Frau Herta Schneider, und Walter Hirschfeld (undercover), 25 September 1945,” p. 368.
4. Personal telegram from the Commander of the First Belorussian Front, Marshall Georgy Zhukov, May 1, 1945, Dossier No. 41-Sh/2-w/I, Russian Presidential Archives, Moscow, quoted in Völklein, Hitlers Tod, p. 47. See also Lew Besymenski, Der Tod des Adolf Hitler (Hamburg, 1968).
5. See autopsy records for Adolf Hitler (File 12) and Eva Braun (File 13), Archive of the President of the Russian Federation in the Archive of the Federal Counterintelligence Service, Moscow, quoted in Völklein, Hitlers Tod, pp. 126ff.
6. Anonymous letter to Dwight D. Eisenhower, Amsterdam, November 22, 1948. (Glenn H. Palmer, Chief, Intelligence & Security Branch) in David Irving Collection, “Adolph Hitler 1944–1953,” vol. 1, pp. 16ff., F 135/1, IfZ Munich.
7. “Presse-Information des Bayerischen Staatsministeriums der Justiz, Betreff: Verfahren zur Feststellung des Todes Hitlers, München, 25. Oktober 1956 [Press release from the Bavarian State Ministry of Justice, re: Proceedings to Determine Hitler’s Death, Munich, October 25, 1956]” (copy), Gb 05.01/1, IfZ Munich.