B006OAL1QM EBOK (44 page)

In the Bunker Hitler spent his last day on earth in a succession of conferences during the course of which it was revealed that the Russians were likely to reach the Bunker in forty-eight hours at most. Goebbels took part in these discussions. In the middle of the night a last messenger, Colonel von Bülow, was sent out with a further statement—a farewell to the Armed Forces who had been let down by their Commanders. In the afternoon Hitler had his dog poisoned. Sunday had also brought the timely news of the death of Mussolini and his mistress and the savage treatment of their bodies by the crowds in Milan. Providence, which had so often shown its care for Hitler, gave him this particular message as his last report from the world beyond the ever-narrowing perimeter that his dying soldiers were holding round the hallowed Bunker. Goebbels' remark to Naumann was: “Proof, if any proof were needed, that one must not in any circumstances fall into their hands alive! If we had happened to capture Stalin or Churchill, the Führer had decided to give them honourable detention in some castle or other. Aren't we ‘barbarians' actually the better people after all?”

Late that night, during the general meal in the upper passageway which was attended by a much depleted number of senior officers from the other bunkers, a message was received that Hitler would want at some time during the night to meet the women who were left in this strange community to say his formal farewell. Outside in the canteen of the Chancellery there was a dance in progress, but even this sad news of the Führer's wishes could not stop the hilarious noise made by the men and women who did not know whether they would be alive or dead in twenty-four hours. There were those who said their spirits rose when they heard what they knew was a prelude to Hitler's suicide. The dance went on even after the silent members of Hitler's intimate staff stood ranked in the Bunker at half-past two in the morning while the Führer solemnly moved along and, without audible words, stopped before each woman and shook her hand. The noise of the dance outside went on long after the ceremony, and the messages which had been sent to get it silenced were disregarded.

Day came outside, and the reports that arrived by noon showed that the narrow circle of German-held territory surrounding the Bunker had shrunk yet further. The Russians were less than a mile away to the north and west. Hitler ordered everyone away from the Bunkers and the Chancellery except for the chosen participants in the rites of his death. After lunch had been eaten, another ceremony of hand-shaking was held in which Eva Hitler also took part. Goebbels held his Leader's hand in his for the last time. His wife was not there; she had already said good-bye during the night and was shut away with her children. She had begun to realise how soon she would have to part from them, and the thought of accomplishing their death began to become a reality to her now that the task of killing drew appreciably nearer. Even so she undoubtedly heard the shot at half-past three in the afternoon when Hitler put a bullet through his mouth. He lay dead on a sofa beside Eva, who had poisoned herself. It was reserved for Goebbels and Bormann to be the chief mourners while men of the S.S. and Hitler's household carried the bodies through the further exit from the Bunker up into the garden where the ceremony of the burning was to be completed. The Russian guns sounded in mocking salute and the petrol-soaked bodies were slowly, methodically and with some difficulty consumed by fire. As the flames roared up Goebbels and the others raised their arms in the salute to which the dead man had given his name. Then those not concerned with maintaining the fire turned back silently to the Bunker. The bodies were kept burning for over two hours, and were eventually buried at night in the vicinity of the garden.

With the passing of Hitler life in the Bunker entered an entirely new phase. The all-powerful personality of the Führer was there no more. Bormann, whose personal ascendancy had depended solely on Hitler, at once lost his authority in the face of Goebbels, the new Reich Chancellor. Goebbels saw that everyone now, including Bormann, was intent on escape.
¹⁵
Bormann telegraphed Doenitz to tell him he was to be Hitler's successor but did not reveal the Führer's death; Doenitz addressed his reply to Hitler, pledging his unconditional loyalty.

On the night of 30th April Goebbels and Bormann called a con- ference at which it was decided that, by virtue of the offices to which they had been appointed by Hitler, they should communicate with Marshal Zhukov to arrange for a truce. After that, they considered, it would be for Doenitz to take over the negotiations. When it was clear that the Russians were prepared to receive an intermediary, General Krebs, who had been present at the conference, was sent to arrange the armistice. Zhukov's answer came back at noon and was disappointing; it admitted of no privilege such as Bormann had hoped for himself and Goebbels; only the unconditional surrender of all persons trapped in the Bunker. A further conference was held at once. None of those present was prepared to accept such terms.

Zhukov's ultimatum determined the last actions of Goebbels. While the rest were planning how their escape must be accomplished, Goebbels thrust aside the prevarications of Bormann's telegrams to Doenitz and sent the new President (who had still not yet received a copy of Hitler's testament) a wholly explicit telegram:

GRAND-ADMIRAL DOENITZ—

Most secret—urgent—officer only.

The Führer died yesterday at 15.30 hours. Testament of 29th April appoints you as Reich President, Reich Minister Dr. Goebbels as Reich Chancellor, Reichsleiter Bormann as Party Minister, Reich Minister Seyss-Inquart as Foreign Minister. By order of the Führer, the testament has been sent out of Berlin to you, to Field-Marshal Schorner, and for preservation and publication. Reichsleiter Bormann intends to go to you today and to inform you of the situation. Time and form of announcement to the press and to the troops is left to you. Confirm receipt.—GOEBBELS.
¹⁶

This message was sent at a quarter-past three in the afternoon. It was Goebbels' last official act. He then joined his wife and children to prepare them for the end.

Five hours were to elapse before Goebbels and Magda climbed the steps up to the garden where they faced their death. During that time they were to say good-bye to a number of people, among them Nau-mann and Schwaegermann. Naumann in fact stayed some part of the time with them. But in the confines of the Bunker they remained like ghosts while the besieged remnants of Hitler's staff and bodyguard prepared themselves for the mass break-out at night when the darkness would hide them as they crept their way through the Russian-occupied streets to what seemed to be the comparative safety of the south and the west. They took no more notice of the man and the woman with their six children who were to share the ceremony of death with the Führer.

No one now can reconstruct their thoughts as they shut themselves away from those preparing to leave them. Schwaegermann told them that the break-out was planned to take place in groups that would leave the Bunker at various intervals once darkness had fallen. Naumann's group had in fact arranged to leave at ten-thirty. General Weidling, the Commandant of Berlin, had given them until midnight to make their escape; at that hour he proposed to surrender the capital to the Russians. Goebbels then gave Schwaegermann his final instructions. After he and Magda were dead their bodies, like Hitler's and Eva's, must be burned with the aid of petrol. Goebbels looked round for something to give Schwaegermann as a parting present. He had nothing but Hitler's signed photograph. He gave him that. Schwaegermann left and sent Rach, the chauffeur, to gather what petrol he could find.

Goebbels spent the rest of the time left to him in writing his diary with the pride of a man who imagined his words were history. He gave the half-dozen pages to Naumann, who read them carefully. But after Goebbels' death he decided to burn them. Reich Chancellor Goebbels had written nothing new: he lamented that total war had begun too late and that the Western World was behaving with incredible folly because it had not drawn together at this last moment in order to prevent the enslavement of Europe by the Bolshevists. This, he said, would now happen because Churchill and Roosevelt had sabotaged the only nation capable of destroying the Communist menace—Germany under National Socialism.

Goebbels and Magda postponed their suicide to the last possible moment. But before they set about killing themselves while there were still men left to cremate them, they had to achieve the deaths of their children. Magda gave them a sleeping draught with their evening meal and put them to bed. When they had at last fallen asleep she gave them one by one their poison with a spoon. Only when they were safely dead could their parents leave the tender bodies to turn cold and make their own departure.
¹⁷

It was about half-past eight that Naumann, Schwaegermann and Rach—the civil servant, the adjutant and the chauffeur—became the principal witnesses to what followed. Goebbels and Magda came out of their room arm in arm. Magda was deathly pale and hung upon her husband. Goebbels was calm. He said a few words of thanks to Naumann for his friendship and loyalty and his speech was clear and articulate. He even tried to make light of the moment by saying that they were climbing the steps together to save their friends the trouble of carrying the bodies up the steep flight of stairs leading to the garden. Magda could say nothing. But she held out her hand to Naumann who kissed it in silence. Goebbels said no more but shook hands; after this he put on his gloves most carefully, easing his fingers into place. Then he and Magda turned away very slowly and arm in arm went up the stairs out of sight.

Naumann never saw them again. He stood with the others transfixed by the emotions of the moment, waiting for the sound of the shots which would be the signal of death. In his pocket was the capsule of poison which Hitler had given him and which they all carried about them during the final days. He knew Magda intended to take the poison the instant before her husband shot her. And he knew that Goebbels would bite his own capsule at the same moment he shot himself.

After the time of waiting the shots came once, then twice. Naumann left immediately, for he must think now only of his escape. Schwaegermann went up to fulfil his promise to throw petrol on the bodies and see to their destruction. But time was short, and he too had his escape to keep in mind. As soon as the bodies were well alight with the blazing fluid he left them in the garden, the flames darting up into the night sky from their burning clothes.

It was between half-past eight and nine o'clock on the night of 1st May. The orders were that the Bunker was to be destroyed. An attempt was made to do so and it almost cost Schwaegermann his life because the force of the explosions jammed the doors. Then the partially demolished Bunker that had locked so much agony of mind in its cells beneath the ground was left silent and empty except for the stiffening bodies of the children lying shut away in their beds. While the last defenders of Hitler's power were dodging and creeping their way through the Russian lines, some like Naumann and Schwaegermann to reach safety and some like Bormann to be killed, the corpses of Goebbels and Magda lay side by side in the garden. The flames licked at them until the damps of nature and the spring night put out the fire, leaving the deserted bodies blackened but undestroyed.

The following day new visitors, with eyes alert and guns ready, moved warily from room to room on their first inspection of the Bunker. They found nothing there but death and debris. Then they went up the steps beyond and out into the garden. At their feet lay the body of Goebbels; one hand turned black and claw-like seemed to be reaching up at them. His blistered head lay back with the sightless sockets of its eyes fixed in greeting. The Russians left the bodies unburied until they had been identified, and Fritzsche, who had just been taken prisoner, was brought to the Bunker to perform the sickening duty of identification. But there was no doubt at all to whom these charred and gaping features had belonged in life. The last horrifying photograph was taken to complete the record of Goebbels' story.

So the corpses were disposed of, like the bodies of the children, by enemy hands. The man who strove to become master of our thoughts as he had become the master of the minds of millions of others was shovelled with his wife into the conquered earth of Berlin. No note was kept of the site. He was probably interred in the garden where he and Magda were found and where so many others were pushed with spades into their nameless graves. His broken remains like Hitler's have disappeared without honour or recall.

Notes

CHAPTER ONE

The sources for this Chapter are mainly the personal accounts given to Heinrich Fraenkel (referred to hereafter by the initials H.F.) by Goebbels' sister, Frau Maria Kimmich, and by the friends of his youth, Alma, Else (both of whom request that we use only their first names), Dr. Fritz Prang and his mother, Frau Prang. The documents quoted were kindly loaned for the purpose by them and by the Albertus Magnus Society. Most of the legends of Goebbels' childhood, adolescence and early career originated in the official biographies of the Nazi period, notably those written by Bade and Krause, and have been in many cases repeated by Riess, Ebermayer and others recording either the life of Goebbels or the history of the Nazi movement. The facts concerning Goebbels' introduction to the Nazi Party have been confirmed by Dr. Prang, Karl Kaufmann, Dr. Otto Strasser and Dr. Helmuth Elbrechter. The quotations from Goebbels' short novel
Michael
are translated from the original edition published by the Eher Verlag.

1.
   Maria Kimmich has stated to H.F. that her maternal grandmother was born on 18th April 1869 at Uebach over Worms, a Dutch township. (Worms has nothing to do with the German city on the Rhine; it is the name of a Dutch rivulet on which Uebach is situated.) The grandmother's maiden name was Coervers, which is Dutch, and her ancestry was entirely Dutch. In 1932 Goebbels saw fit to have certain allegations that his grand mother was Jewish refuted in a pamphlet published in Berlin,
Doktor Joseph Goebbels—wet ist das?
by Viator. In this pamphlet his grandmother's maiden name is given the German spelling of Coerdes, and her Dutch origin is concealed. Her husband, Goebbels' maternal grandfather Oden-hausen, was a German who had emigrated to Holland.

2.
   Wilfred von Oven,
Mit Goebbels bis zum Ende
(Durer-Verlag, Buenos Aires, 1950), Vol. I, p. 243.

3.
   Goebbels spells his first name Josef. In his maturer years he was to adopt the more normal spelling Joseph.

4.
   Goebbels after long delay attempted to settle this debt by sending the Society 10,000 deflated marks which were technically worth at the time only 1.09 gold marks. The Society generously credited him with two marks, and sent in the bailiffs! The case dragged on until 1931, when Goebbels was a Reichstag deputy. He finally paid the debt plus legal expenses in three much-delayed instalments.

5.
   This letter was published in the
Kirchenzeitung für das Bistum Aachen,
27th October 1946.

6.
   See Curt Riess,
Joseph Goebbels
(Hollis and Carter, London, 1949), p. 16.

7.
   See H. R. Trevor-Roper,
The Last Days of Hitler
(Macmillan, London, 1947), p. 18.

8.
   Sec Sir Nevile Henderson,
Failure of a Mission
(Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1940), p. 76.

9.
   Rudolf Ullstein once said jokingly in conversation with H.F. that it was a pity they had never accepted
Michael
and so perhaps diverted Goebbels' energies into literature instead of politics.

10.
Later Rathenau was to be assassinated by the Nazis, and the murderers feted by Goebbels.

11.
The script of this play is preserved among the private family papers at Bonn. At the time of the writing of this book it was inaccessible pending a lawsuit.

12.
Dr. Klauck of the Albertus Magnus Society claims that Goebbels' love affair with Anka first began during the Sommer-Semester of 1919 at Freiburg.

13.
A list of these documents is held by the Wiener Library in London.

14.
A copy of this document is in the possession of Goebbels' sister, Frau Kimmich.

15.
This story was told to H.F. by Joachim von Ostau.