FINAL HOURS OF ADOLF HITLER

Rochus Misch was the one with his boss Adolf Hitler in the Berlin bunker till his final hours. Misch died in 2013 at the age of 96 after scribbling his memoir. Misch followed him to live underground protected by the so called Fuehrerbunker's heavily reinforced concrete ceilings and walls. "He was no brute. He was no monster. He was no superman." Misch said about Hitler. 

By genocide, the murder of hostages, reprisal raids, forced labour, 'euthanasia', starvation, exposure, medical experiments and terror bombing, and in the concentration and death camps the Nazis murdered around 20,946,000 men, women, handicapped, aged, sick, prisoners of war, forced labourers, camp inmates, critics, homosexuals, Jews, Slavs, Serbs, Germans, Czechs, Italians, Poles, French, Ukrainians, and many others. Among them 1,000,000 were children under 18 years of age. And none of these monstrous figures even include civilian and military combat or war-deaths. The war killed 28,736,000 Europeans.

The telephone operator was on the switchboard in Hitler's bunker on 30 April 1945, when General Keitel messaged into say the army failed to break the Soviet encirclement in Berlin and that the end of the Second World War was inevitable. "Hitler shook hands with Gunsche and told him that all soldiers were released from their oath of loyalty." Hitler talked quietly to him Nazi party official Martin and others. Hitler then walked into his study room. Eva, now Mrs Hitler, followed him in. "Everybody in the bunker waited nervously. Then there was some commotion. The study door was opened and Misch looked inside." Misch added "My glance fell first on Eva. She was seated with her legs drawn up, and head inclined towards Hitler. Her shoes were under the sofa. Near her ...... the dead Hitler. His eyes were open an staring, his head had fallen forward slightly."

Adolf Hitler signed his last will and testament in the Berlin Fuehrerbunker on 29 April 1945, the day before he committed suicide with his mistress and late wife Eva Braun. It was all well planned and managed. He had already said farewell to his servants and poisoned his dog. Gasoline for his cremation had been sent for. He had his pistol. Eva  had cyanide. He wore his Nazi uniform jacket and black  trousers. She wore a blue dress trimmed in white. They closed the door and sat beside each other on a small couch. He was 56. She was 33. They had been married for a day and a half. It was 3.15 pm on April 30, 1945, a Thursday.

(Indebted to the Memoir of Rochus Misch and Democide: Nazi Genocide and Mass Murder Chapter 1 of  R J Rimmel)

K V George

kvgeorgein@gmail.com