HISTORY YEAR 10: NAZI GERMANY - DEATH OF ADOLF HITLER. It contains: battle for Berlin, Hitler death, Goering, Himmler, Hitler and Eva Braun, Musollini and Clara, Hitler and cyanide, Goebbels suicide, Hitler suicide, Hitler's bodyguard, Rochus Misch.

1. YEAR 10 HISTORY
NAZI GERMANY
6. DEATH OF
ADOLF HITLER

2. By early 1945, Germany's military situation was on the verge
of total collapse.
Hitler, presiding over a rapidly disintegrating Third Reich,
retreated to his Führerbunker in Berlin on 16 January 1945.
To the Nazi leadership, it was clear that the Battle for Berlin
would be the final battle of the war in Europe.

4. 325,000 soldiers of Germany's Army Group B were surrounded
and captured on 18 April, leaving the path open for American
forces to reach Berlin.
By 11 April the Americans crossed the Elbe, 100 kilometres to
the west of the city.
On 16 April, Soviet forces started the battle for the Seelow
Heights, the last major defensive line protecting Berlin.
Berlin was bombarded by Soviet artillery for the first time on 20
April (on Hitler's birthday).
By the evening of 21 April, Red Army tanks reached the
outskirts of the city.

5. At the afternoon situation conference
on 22 April, Hitler suffered a total
nervous collapse.
Hitler launched a tirade against the
treachery and incompetence of his
commanders, culminating in a
declaration -for the first time - that the
war was lost.
Hitler announced that he would stay in
Berlin until the end, and then shoot
himself. Later that day he asked SS
physician Dr. Haase about the most
reliable method of suicide.

6. Haase suggested the "pistol-and-poison
method" of combining a dose of cyanide
with a gunshot to the head.
When Göring learned about this, he sent a
telegram to Hitler asking for permission to
take over the leadership of the Reich.
Hitler's secretary Bormann, convinced
Hitler that Göring was threatening a coup.
In response, Hitler sacked Göring and
ordered his arrest.

7. By 27 April, Berlin was cut off from the
rest of Germany.
Secure radio communications with
defending units had been lost.
On 28 April, a BBC report stated that
Himmler had offered to surrender to the
western Allies; the offer had been
declined.
Himmler had implied to the Allies that he
had the authority to negotiate a
surrender; Hitler considered this treason.
Hitler ordered Himmler's arrest.

8. The Red Army was prepared to storm
the Chancellery.
This report prompted Hitler to make
the last decisions of his life.
After midnight on 29 April, Hitler
married Eva Braun in a civil ceremony
in the map room in the Führerbunker.
Afterwards Hitler hosted a modest
wedding breakfast with his new wife.

10. Hitler then took secretary Junge to another room and dictated
his last will and testament.
He signed these documents at 04:00 and then retired to bed.

11. On 29th of April, Hitler
learned of the death of
his ally, Benito Mussolini,
who had been executed
by partisans.
Mussolini's body and that
of his mistress, Clara
Petacci, had been strung
up by their heels.

12. These events strengthened Hitler's resolve not to allow himself
or his wife to be made "a spectacle of", as he had earlier
recorded in his Testament.
That afternoon, Hitler expressed doubts about the cyanide
capsules he had received through Himmler's SS.
To verify the capsules' potency, Hitler ordered Dr. Haase to test
one on his dog Blondi, who died as a result.

13. Adolf Hitler killed himself by gunshot on 30 April 1945. His
wife Eva Braun committed suicide with him by taking cyanide.
That afternoon, in accordance with Hitler's instructions, their
remains were carried up the stairs through the bunker's
emergency exit, doused in petrol, and set alight in the Reich
Chancellery garden outside the bunker.

15. Records in the Soviet archives show that their burnt remains
were recovered and interred in successive locations until 1970,
when they were again exhumed, cremated, and the ashes
scattered.

16. Accounts differ as to the cause of death; one states that he died
by poison only and another that he died by a self-inflicted
gunshot while biting down on a cyanide capsule.

17. One eyewitness recorded that the body showed signs of having
been shot through the mouth, but this has been proven
unlikely.
In 2009, American researchers performed DNA tests on a skull
Soviet officials had long believed to be that of Hitler.
The tests and examination revealed that the skull was actually
that of a woman less than 40 years old.

18. Rochus Misch was Hitler’s bodyguard,
courier, and telephone operator.
He was widely reported in the media
as being the last surviving occupant
of the Führerbunker.
By that date, as the Red Army was
entering Berlin, propaganda minister
Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda
brought their six young children to
stay in the Vorbunker.
Goebbels moved into the room next
to Misch's telephone exchange room.

19. On 30 April, the Soviets were less than 500 metres from the
bunker. That afternoon, Hitler and Eva Braun committed
suicide fewer than 40 hours after they were married.
Misch witnessed the discovery of the bodies of Hitler and
Braun. He followed Günsche and Hitler's chief valet Linge to
the door of Hitler's private room.
After the door was opened, Misch only took a quick "glance".
He saw Eva, with her legs drawn up, to Hitler's left on the sofa.
Her eyes were open and she was dead.
Hitler was also dead. He was either sitting on the sofa or in the
armchair by it; his head "had fallen forward slightly".
Misch started to leave to report the events to Schädle, but then
stopped and returned to the door of Hitler's study.

20. Misch observed that Hitler's corpse had been removed from
inside the study and wrapped in a blanket.
Several men then picked it up and carried it past him.
Misch left and reported the events to Schädle, who instructed
him to return to his duty station.
After returning to the telephone exchange, Misch later recalled
Retzbach proclaiming "So they're burning the boss now!“
Retzbach asked Misch if he was going upstairs to watch the
events, but Misch declined to go. Thereafter, Günsche came
down and told Misch that the corpses of Hitler and Braun had
been burned in the garden of the Reich Chancellery.
Misch was present in the bunker complex when Magda

21. Misch was present in the bunker
complex when Magda Goebbels
poisoned her six children and
then committed suicide with her
husband Joseph on 1 May 1945.
According to Misch, this act by
the Goebbels' of murdering
their children was most
unsettling.
Years later he stated that event
was the "most dreadful thing"
he experienced in the bunker.

22. Prior to his suicide, Goebbels finally released Misch from
further service; he was free to leave.
Misch and mechanic Hentschel were two of the last people
remaining in the bunker. Misch fled the bunker in the early
morning of 2 May, only hours before the Red Army seized it.
He met up with some other soldiers and they travelled north
through the U-Bahn tunnels.
They were taken prisoner by Red Army soldiers. Misch was
brought to Lubyanka Prison in Moscow, where he was tortured
by Soviet NKVD officers in an attempt to extract information
regarding Hitler's last days.
Misch spent eight years in Soviet forced labour camps. Misch
died in Berlin on 5 September 2013 at the age of 96.