Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death
Page 152
and Otte, Mar 31, 1971; Otte was also interviewed by the Generalanzeiger, Bonn, Jul 11,
1972: he says they met the rest of the RMVP Prominenz in Hamburg’s five-star Hotel Atlantic.
36 Inge Haberzettel, op. cit.
37 JG, ‘Widerstand um jeden Preis,’ in Das Reich, Apr 22, 1945.
38 The events of Apr 22 are based on the diaries of Koller and Jodl, Apr 22–23; memos of
Koller and Lieutenant Volck, Apr 25, 1945; interrogations of Keitel, Jodl, Christian, Freytag
924 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
von Loringhoven, Below, Bernd von Brauchitsch, and the duty stenographers Hagen and
Herrgesell; and the written testimonies of Keitel, Günsche, Linge, Else Krüger, and Traudl
Junge (IfZ, Irving collection).
39 Oven, ‘Apr 22, 1945’; Magda’s silver toilet accessories are much sought-after items on
the memorabilia auction circuit.
40 British interrogations of Else Krüger, Sep 19, Mar 27, 1946 (Trevor Roper papers, IfZ,
Irving collection).
41 Jodl told Russian interrogators on Jun 18, 1945 that it was plain to JG that he neither
could not should survive the destruction of the Nazi system. Wehrwissenschaftlicher Rundschau,
1961, 535ff.
42 Der Panzer-Bär, Apr 23, 1945.
43 British interrogation of General Eckhard Christian, Oct 15, 1945 (Trevor Roper papers,
IfZ, Irving collection).
44 Rach, interview publ. in Pinguin (Rowohlt Verlag, Hamburg) May 1949 (in IfZ archives);
and Auguste Behrend, ‘Meine Tochter Magda Goebbels,’ in Schwäbische Illustrierte, No.22,
May 31, 1952.
45 USFET CIC interrogation of Gertrud Junge, Aug 30, 1946 (Trevor Roper papers, IfZ,
Irving collection).
46 Magda to Harald Quandt, Apr 28, 1945. Interrogation report of Hanna Reitsch, AIU/
IS/5, British Intelligence Objectives Sub-Committee, Oct 5, 1946 (Trevor Roper papers,
IfZ, Irving collection).
47 Ebermayer & Meissner, ‘Magda Goebbels sagte: Wir müssen alle sterben,’ in Revue,
No.26, 1952.
48 Trevor-Roper’s interrogation of Gebhardt, Mar 27, 1946 (Trevor Roper papers, IfZ,
Irving collection); and USFET MISC special interrogation of SS Hstuf Günther
Schwägermann, Jun 20, 1946 (ibid; and NA file RG.332, Mis-Y). Ohlendorf confirmed this
in CSDIC(UK) interrogation report SRGG.1322, Jul 7, 1945.
49 BBC Monitoring Report, Apr 23 (IWM archives); for ‘Radio Werewolf’s’ similar bulletin
see NYT, Apr 24, 1945.
50 News bulletin issued by propaganda officer attached to Army Group Vistula, Apr 23,
1945: war diary, annexes (NA film T311, roll 170, 2211).
51 At 9:29 P.M. EST, America. JG had operated more than thirty powerful transmitters,
which dominated the shortwave bands for twelve years and 24 days; the broadcasts to the
USA were from 6 P.M. to 1:15 A.M. each night, featuring the antisemitic Robert Best (once a
P.A. stringer in Vienna), Douglas Chandler (‘Paul Revere’) of Baltimore, Jane Anderson, the
wisecracking Edward Delaney, and Donald Day. NYT, May 6, 1945.
52 Traudl Junge, unpubl. MS (IfZ, Irving collection).
53 Soviet interrogation of SS Stubaf Helmut Kunz, reproduced in Lev Besymenski, Der Tod
des Adolf Hitler (Hamburg, 1968). The physical data on JG’s children are extracted from the
autopsies reproduced in this book.
54 The Göring telegram and Bormann’s handwritten responses were found by a US officer,
Capt John Bradin, in the bunker in Jul 1945 (IfZ, Irving collection).
55 Junge, interrogation, Aug 30, 1946, and MS (IfZ, Irving collection).
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 925
56 Heinz Lorenz, verbatim shorthand notes on Hitler’s final war conferences, first published
in Der Spiegel, No.3, Jan 10, 1966.—Authenticated by the author’s interview of Lorenz;
by a letter of Capt H Searle of British intelligence to CI War Room, London, Mar 5, 1946;
and by CSDIC(WEA) interrogation of Lorenz, Nov 30, 1945 (Trevor Roper papers, IfZ,
Irving collection).
57 Interrogation report of Hanna Reitsch, AIU/IS/5, British Intelligence Objectives Sub-
Committee, Oct 5, 1946 (Trevor Roper papers, IfZ, Irving collection); and Korf’s interrogation
of Reitsch, Apr 28, 1945 (Hoover Libr., K Frank Korf papers).
58 Diary, Nov 2, 1940.
Goebbels
59 Traudl Junge MS.
60 Magda to Harald Quandt, Apr 28, 1945.
61 Judge Michael A Musmanno’s interrogation of Gertrud Junge, Jan 26, 1948 (transcript
from Musmanno papers in IfZ, Irving collection).
62 Lorenz, conference transcript, Apr 27, 1945.
63 Soviet interrogation of SS Stubaf Helmut Kunz. Kunz, b.1910 in Ettingen, Baden, was in
May 1945 adjutant of the chief physician of the S.S. Health Dept.
64 Harald Quandt, now 23, was held prisoner in Egypt from Nov 4, 1944 to Mar 10, 1947.
He was killed after the war in an automobile accident.
65 JG to Harald Quandt, Apr 28, 1945. Interrogation report of Hanna Reitsch, AIU/IS/5,
British Intelligence Objectives Sub-Committee, Oct 5, 1946 (Trevor Roper papers, IfZ,
Irving collection).
66 BBC Monitoring Report, Apr 28, 1:55 P.M. (IWM archives)
67 USFET MISC special interrogation of SS Hstuf Günther Schwägermann, Jun 20, 1946
(NA file RG.332, Mis-Y; and Trevor Roper papers, IfZ, Irving collection).
68 USFET special interrogation of Gerda Christian, Apr 25, 1946 (Trevor Roper papers,
IfZ, Irving collection; and NA file RG.319, IRR, XE.009487); and BAOR interrogation of
Nicolaus von Below, Jan 23, 1946 (ibid; and NA file RG.332, Mis-Y).
69 Adolf Hitler, Political Testament, Apr 28, 1945 (Hoover Libr., special collection.)
70 This was Gau-Inspekteur Walther Wagner. BAOR interrogation of Nicolaus von Below,
Jan 23, 1946 (NA file RG.332, Mis-Y; and Trevor Roper papers, IfZ, Irving collection).
71 USFET CIC interrogation of Gertrud Junge, Aug 30, 1946 (Trevor Roper papers, IfZ,
Irving collection).
72 The original wedding certificate, Apr 29, 1945, is in the Hoover Libr., special collection.
73 British interrogation of Else Krüger, Sep 25, 1945 and USFET interrogation of Gertrud
Junge, Aug 30, 1946 (Trevor Roper papers, IfZ, Irving collection).
74 USFET special interrogation of Gerda Christian, Apr 25, 1946 (Trevor Roper papers,
IfZ, Irving collection; and NA file RG.319, IRR, XE.009487).
75 USFET CIC interrogation of Gertrud Junge, Aug 30, 1946 (Trevor Roper papers, IfZ,
Irving collection).—General Wilhelm Burgdorf wrote to Schörner on Apr 29, 1945 enclosing
Hitler’s political testament and confirming that ‘he wrote it today after the crushing
news of the Reichsführer’s act of disloyalty.’
76 Diary, Feb 28, Mar 14, 21, 22, 1945.
926 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
77 USFET CIC interrogation of Gertrud Junge, Aug 30, 1946 (Trevor Roper papers, IfZ,
Irving collection); and Junge, MS.
78 Cf. BBC Monitoring Report, Apr 29, 1945 (IWM archives)
79 Der Spiegel, Jan 24, 1951.
80 CSDIC(WEA) interrogation of Heinz Lorenz, Nov 30, 1945 (Trevor Roper papers,
IfZ, Irving collection).
81 Walter Rapp, interrogation of Axmann, Oct 16, 1947 (Trevor Roper papers, IfZ, Irving
collection); author’s interview of Axmann, May 7, 1991.
82 USFET CIC interrogation of Gertrud Junge, Aug 30, 1946 (Trevor Roper papers, IfZ,
/>
Irving collection); and Junge, MS.
83 Author’s interview of Otto Günsche, Mar 20, 1967; report by HQ tailor Willi Müller,
Nov 9, 1945 (NA file RG.319, IRR, XE.009487).
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 927
Epilogue: ‘Ever at your Side’
REICH Chancellor Joseph Goebbels nodded to Otto Günsche, Hitler’s broad-
Ê Ê Ê Ê shouldered, blond S.S. ‘bulldog,’ to go ahead. Hitler had commanded
Günsche to ensure that he and Eva were truly dead, and then to cremate their remains.
They all trooped into Hitler’s private sanctum. The sight of their Führer lifeless,
the fountainhead until now of their own power and influence, slumped on the
sofa with blood oozing from his head and mouth, had a numbing effect on them all.
Eva’s head rested on his shoulder. Ludwig Stumpfegger, Hitler’s wiry young S.S.
doctor, stooped briefly and confirmed that they were both dead, which relieved
Günsche of a last distasteful duty with which Hitler had also charged him.1
While the valet wrapped Hitler’s corpse in a blanket and carried it out with
Stumpfegger’s assistance, Bormann picked up Eva’s and followed them to the spiral
staircase with Dr Goebbels a few paces behind. Schwägermann reported the scene
to Magda. ‘He ought not to have done this to us,’ she wept.2
Upstairs Russian artillery was bracketing the building. Shrapnel was flying around
the gardens. Storms of mortar dust and smoke whipped past. The little funeral party
unceremoniously tipped the Führer’s body into a hollow a few yards from the bunker
exit where Goebbels remained, taking shelter. Hitler’s corpse lay face upwards
with Eva’s next to him. A rude gust of wind hoisted her blue dress to reveal her
garter-belt. Then, sodden down with the gasoline that Günsche and Hitler’s chauffeur
slopped out of five jerricans, the cloth wrapped itself limply round her limbs.
Goebbels handed Günsche a match, a lighted rag was tossed onto the bodies, a sheet
928 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
of flame enveloped the couple and Bormann, Goebbels, Günsche and the doctor
raised their right arms in a farewell salute.
Goebbels led the way back down into the underground map room. Günsche and
Axmann cleaned up in the death chamber. ‘Bormann—Burgdorf—Krebs—Mohnke,’
Goebbels ordered. ‘Please come to an immediate situation conference.’ (Wilhelm
Burgdorf had succeeded Schmundt; Krebs had replaced Guderian; Wilhelm Mohnke
was the citadel’s commandant.)
Hitler was dead. The Greatest Warlord of All Times had deserted them. For the last
six years Germany had been a Führer state without a Führer. Now Goebbels was
Reich chancellor without a Reich. The men clustered round as Goebbels told them
of Hitler’s testament appointing him.
The main point on his agenda was to secure Moscow’s formal recognition for his
new government before the Soviet High Command had crushed his tiny Reich.3
Together with Martin Bormann he dictated to secretary Gerda Christian a letter
addressed to the Soviet military commander Marshal Zhukov informing him that the
Führer was dead and asking on behalf of the new government for an immediate cease
fire to enable the injured to be evacuated from the chancellery area.4 He detailed
Krebs, a Russian speaker, to carry this letter to Zhukov’s HQ under a flag of truce.5
But the preliminaries for this dangerous expedition took longer than planned. Else
Krüger recalls that a radio signal went first to the Russian command, then a junior
officer went to inquire if they would receive Krebs. It was close to midnight before
the general set off, accompanied by a colonel, General Weidling’s chief of staff, in an
armored car flying a white flag.6
What was Goebbels’ intent? Krebs’ remarks to the Soviet officers, of which due
record was taken, show that Goebbels had perceived only one hope for his own
salvation: if Stalin would cut a deal with him at the expense of his western Allies.
For several hours there was no word from Krebs. Goebbels and his men hung
around the bunker’s lowest level drinking endless cups of coffee and knocking back
tots of schnapps. Goebbels had authorized a mass breakout for that night, and the
cooks upstairs had packed all their pots and pans in anticipation; but now that Krebs
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 929
was still absent the cooks had to unpack and prepare more meals. Upstairs meanwhile
a burial party tried in the darkness to complete the cremation work, but the
Hitler couple’s corpses were barely charred. They were buried in a shell crater with
the bodies of their two dogs laid out one layer above them as a decoy. Hitler’s Alsatian
Blondi had a collar-tag engraved ‘Immer mit dir’—ever at your side.7
Several efforts were made to persuade the new chancellor even now to spare the
lives of his six children. Axmann offered to take them out of Berlin. Goebbels went
through the motions of consulting Magda, but returned and said he did not want the
children to live to see him branded as a war criminal.8 Hitler’s chauffeur made a
similar offer. Goebbels told him that if Krebs failed, then his course was clear.9 The
night passed but General Krebs did not return. Pondering what to do now, Goebbels
asked Traudl Junge for a copy of Hitler’s testament: but she had destroyed both her
own shorthand and the remaining carbon copies.10
At seven-forty the next morning—it was now May 1, 1945—Martin Bormann
sent a succinct message to Dönitz in Flensburg, northern Germany: ‘Testament in
force,’ it said. ‘I shall join you as rapidly as possible. My advice is to delay publication
until then. BORMANN.’11 At about the same time Goebbels was dressing punctiliously
for this day’s probable meeting with his Maker, choosing his finest underwear, his
light brown party uniform, dark silk socks, a brown silk necktie clasped with a swastika
badge, and the special orthopædic shoes.12 The sounds of combat had almost
died away—it was the Russian labour day.
TOWARD mid-morning the colonel came back from the Russian HQ, his uniform torn
by barbed wire. He reported that General Krebs had been conducted to the Eighth
Guards Army command post on the edge of Tempelhof airfield. The commanding
officer, General Vassiliy Ivanovich Chuikov had heard him out; but after conferring
by phone with Marshal Zhukov the Russians had refused to discuss anything but
unconditional surrender. There could be no talk of a limited armistice. Krebs had
argued, as instructed, that it was in Stalin’s interest to recognize the new Goebbels
government at once. General Chuikov had repeated the Soviet refusal. Krebs had
930 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
sent the colonel back to the chancellery with a Soviet signals team to run a field
telephone line in to the bunker. But the cable had proved too short by several hundred
yards.13