- 3 hours ago
Adolf Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, at age 56, in his underground Führerbunker in Berlin. As Soviet forces closed in during the final days of WWII, Hitler shot himself while his wife, Eva Braun, took cyanide. Their bodies were burned in the Reich Chancellery garden, with remains later identified by Soviets via dental records.
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00:04Berlin, April 1945, Nazi Germany is about to fall.
00:12Hiding in an underground bunker beneath the city is Adolf Hitler,
00:16the man who plunged the world into six years of total war.
00:21Hitler had sworn to make the Nazis a world power,
00:24inspiring his adoring people with his vision of a thousand-year rule.
00:28His armies had ravaged over three million square miles of Europe
00:32and ignited a world war that killed 55 million people.
00:40Now, Hitler's world is shriveled to a few cramped rooms below the ruins of Berlin.
00:47Above him, the Soviet army advances through the city,
00:51tightening the noose as they hunt down the Nazi leader.
00:56This film goes inside Hitler's bunker to hear previously untold stories of those last desperate days.
01:04In extraordinary film interviews lost to the world for nearly 70 years,
01:09We hear from the people who were there what happened the day Hitler died.
01:17The army major who knew that to admit defeat to the Fuhrer meant death.
01:21He wanted to live. He loved power like miser loves gold.
01:27The secretary who typed Hitler's last will and political testament.
01:31For years he had been taking medicines, drugs and injections.
01:38The leader of the Hitler Youth who was the first to see the Fuhrer's body.
01:43The blast of the pistol had ruptured the veins on either side of his head.
01:49These witnesses from inside Hitler's bunker were filmed just after World War II.
01:56Their testimonies lay forgotten in American archives and have only recently been rediscovered.
02:01Did he expect others to commit suicide with him?
02:06Yes, people belong.
02:08The bunker became a mortuary and the people in it living corpses.
02:14None of these witnesses had ever spoken on camera before.
02:18Their memories have allowed us to reconstruct in detail the bunker,
02:22and the actions of the people who witnessed the end of the Nazi Third Reich
02:27and Hitler's final hours.
02:30Was there any doubt in your mind that he's going to die?
02:34None whatsoever.
02:49None whatsoever.
02:51This is the last time that Adolf Hitler has ever seen in public,
02:55the last time he's ever captured on film.
02:58He's been Führer of Nazi Germany for 12 years, but at this moment as he awards medals to
03:04boys of the Hitler Youth forced into combat, he is days away from defeat and from death.
03:17Hitler's troops once occupied most of Europe, but now the Third Reich is reduced to a desperate
03:23defense of Berlin. The German capital is surrounded, British and American forces fight in the west
03:29and the ferocious Soviet army advances from the east. The man who conquered over 3 million
03:37square miles of Europe is now confined to a claustrophobic underground bunker. Buried 30
03:45feet beneath his headquarters, the Führer bunker was constructed in 1944 in response to heavier
03:50Allied bombing. The ceiling and walls are 12 feet thick, encasing
03:57a network of 16 cramped rooms. Lying below the city's sewage system, four flights of steps
04:04lead into this subterranean refuge, where Hitler has been holed up for four months.
04:17The corridor is decorated with looted art. A grandfather clock in Hitler's study is the
04:23only way of telling the time. His private sitting room is crammed with oversized furniture brought
04:29down from his headquarters above. Next to his bed stands an oxygen tank in case the ventilation
04:36should fail. Hitler disappears into this underworld for the final time in April 1945. The only people
04:47who know what happened in the bunker are those trapped here with him. Six months after the war
04:56has ended. The Nuremberg war crime trials begin. Nazi leaders are prosecuted for crimes against humanity,
05:02but Hitler isn't on the list. There are rumors he's still alive. Nuremberg judge and US Navy lawyer,
05:11Captain Michael Musmano, decides to track down eyewitnesses to Hitler's final days. His mission? To prove the
05:19Fuhrer is dead. Musmano's search takes him across Germany. Over two years he speaks to more than a hundred
05:27people, everywhere from prisons, internment camps and in hiding. In 1948, Musmano captures his findings
05:35on film. I have brought a number of eyewitnesses on the subject of Hitler's disappearance. In their own words,
05:45they will tell you what happened to the Fuhrer of Germany. The witnesses Musmano brings together
05:54are surviving members of Hitler's civilian and military staff who are with him in the Fuhrer bunker.
05:59They've never been interviewed on camera before and need to rehearse their statements in English or speak
06:05through a translator. The first witness will be Frau Traudeljunge, Hitler's secretary.
06:15Traudeljunge started working for Hitler in 1942 when she was only 22 years old. Once she dreamed of
06:22being a dancer. War put an end to that. Hitler selected her because she was from Bavaria, his favorite part
06:28of
06:28Germany. She married an SS officer from Hitler's staff. He died in combat a year later.
06:36Frau Traudeljunge, what did your duties consist of as Hitler's secretary?
06:42At first, I received and distributed person and male address to the Fuhrer. There were many
06:49women. I had nothing better to do than to write in every week. Were these communications in the nature of
06:57love
06:58letters? Yes. Did these enthusiastic women receive replies to their love refusions? Not at all.
07:11By April 1945, no one writes love letters to the Fuhrer.
07:17As Berlin burns and the Soviet army closes in, Hitler hides in his underground bunker.
07:25Secretary Traudeljunge is down here with him.
07:28Frau Traudeljunge, what was Hitler's health in April 1945?
07:35His health was very bad. For years, he had been taking medicines, drugs and injections. During his last
07:44days, he had a constant tremor in his hands. And in front of strangers, I think he was a little
07:52ashamed of
07:53his affliction and would try to hide it.
08:01As the Soviets fight their way into Berlin, Hitler refuses to accept the war is lost. He is attended in
08:08the
08:08bunker by more than a dozen generals, adjutants and aid-de-camp. Twice a day, he calls a military
08:14conference in an airless room where only he is permitted to sit. One of the military men trapped
08:20with Hitler is Baron von Loringhoven. He's an aristocrat with the rank of major, but has never
08:26joined the Nazi party. He has a wife and young son and has come to regard Hitler as insane.
08:34Baron Loringhoven, how large was the map room in which you held your conferences?
08:40It was about three by four meters and with 15 people crowded into it, the atmosphere was stifling.
08:48But what did you have to discuss? The war was lost.
08:52Yes, but no one dared to mention defeat to Hitler. To do so, one could lose one's life.
09:00In addition, one's entire family would be jeopardized.
09:06We still kept up his hopes by hinting at secret weapons and of dissensions between the Allies.
09:17One and a half million Soviet soldiers begin entering Berlin. The German defenders are outnumbered three to one.
09:25They know that the war is lost.
09:30But Hitler has been losing his grip on reality for weeks. The bunker is within range of the Soviet guns,
09:36yet he still thinks he can fight back.
09:40Heinz Lorenz is the Führer bunker's press attache. He's been part of Hitler's inner circle throughout the war and often
09:46sits up late with the Führer talking and drinking tea.
09:49Mr. Lorenz, I should like to have you tell me the most impressive moments that you associate with Hitler.
09:59Well, there were two such moments. The first occurred April 12th when I brought him the Jews that Roosevelt, the
10:08president of the United States, had passed away.
10:11From his beloved second home at Warm Springs, Georgia, the body of Franklin Delano Roosevelt moves on the first stages
10:19of his journey to his final resting place.
10:21Hitler went into a dance and congratulated himself as if he had himself brought about this event.
10:28He exclaimed, this will mean I will win the war. This is our victory. Ten days later, the other event
10:37occurred and this time his feelings went to the other extreme.
10:45The Red Army juggernaut rolls into the northern part of Berlin.
10:50The only defense here is a ragtag collection of inexperienced units.
10:55Hitler orders them to attack the Soviets, warning that the fate of the German capital is in their hands.
11:02It's a suicide mission and Hitler's soldiers refuse.
11:07His armies were defeated on all fronts and Berlin was threatened.
11:13He ordered his troops forward to stop the advance, but the troops failed to attack.
11:21The shock of realization that he, Adolf Hitler, had been disobeyed and that complete disaster was inevitable was too much
11:30for him.
11:33He collapsed and he said, it's all over and I'll shoot myself.
11:40For over a decade, Hitler's been, in the eyes of his followers, an invincible demigod.
11:47Now his inner circle are stunned by this announcement.
11:52Secretary Charlie Junger sees him moments later.
12:16Hitler orders his safe emptied and the contents burned.
12:20He also removes his water PPK pistol from the safe and sits with it, staring at a portrait of Frederick
12:27the Great,
12:28the Prussian king who also vowed to kill himself when the Russians threatened Berlin.
12:34What was your attitude regarding Hitler's intention to commit suicide?
12:40I told him, if he intended to die, the place to die would be in battle, leading his troops.
12:48But he said he feared that he might only be wounded and captured, and then the Russians would degrade him.
12:57Did he expect others to commit suicide with him?
13:01Yes, Eva Braun.
13:06Eva Braun first met Hitler in 1929 when she was 17 and working for a Nazi party photographer.
13:15Although 23 years younger than him, Braun has been Hitler's mistress for 14 years,
13:21but the relationship is being kept hidden from the German people.
13:25Hitler wants to remain attractive to his female admirers,
13:28and has groomed Braun to refrain from public displays of affection.
13:36Their private life together in the bunker is confined to a few small concrete rooms.
13:43They sleep separately.
13:48She's here in the bunker against Hitler's wishes, but refuses to leave.
13:54Braun's family do not approve of her affair with the Führer.
13:58Her sister, Ilse Braun, knew that Eva's relationship with Hitler was doomed.
14:03Madame Braun, what was Hitler's health like when you last saw him?
14:09His face was gray as ashes.
14:11His hands were in a constant state of agitation, and his eyes were blessed.
14:19He was bent over like an old man.
14:22It seemed to me he didn't have the energy to live much longer.
14:27To those who knew details of Braun and Hitler's relationship,
14:31it is no surprise she wanted to die with him.
14:35Mrs. Winter, how long did you keep house for Hitler?
14:39For Winter, how long did you keep the house for Hitler?
14:47Of course, Eva Braun was a regular visitor.
14:54There was a time where Eva Braun wanted Hitler to marry her.
14:59Hitler said, I shall never marry.
15:04You can have my friend.
15:05But you may remain my girlfriend.
15:08She was very unglücklich there and tried to be a sexual assault.
15:11She was very unhappy over this situation and attempted suicide.
15:17She shot herself in the breast, but she did not seriously injure herself.
15:30As Hitler and Eva Braun contemplate ending their lives,
15:34a powerful influence in the Reich tells them to wait.
15:38Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, is the Führer's most fanatical follower.
15:44He persuades Hitler not to take his life, yet.
15:49Rather, he says, use his willingness to face death to inspire Germany to fight on to the end.
15:56Goebbels will make a radio broadcast announcing that the Führer will die fighting with his troops
16:01defending Berlin.
16:06Then, the propaganda minister brings his family into the bunker.
16:12His six children, five girls and a boy, call Hitler uncle Adolf.
16:17His wife Magda is a fanatical Nazi.
16:21The Goebbels have been presented to Germany as the Third Reich's model family.
16:25Now they will be at the Führer's side in his final hours as an example to all Germans.
16:37It becomes apparent that the Goebbels children have no change of clothes.
16:42And then the Nazi propaganda minister and his wife make a horrifying announcement.
16:48Goebbels and Mrs. Goebbels announced they didn't want to live after the Führer had gone.
16:54And so they talked all day long on how they were going to die.
17:00Minister Goebbels and his wife arranged to have her six children poisoned as well.
17:07Frau Goebbels declares that she doesn't wish her children to live in a world without
17:11national socialism.
17:13The rank atmosphere in the bunker is recharged with Nazi fervor.
17:19Generals Krebs and Burgdorf announced that they too will die with the Führer.
17:24It was passing around poison files.
17:27Did you get one?
17:28No, I wasn't within the immediate entourage nor had any desire to paint my lips.
17:34Well, what do you mean by that?
17:37The poison was contained in a receptacle which looked like a lipstick.
17:42And those who received them regarded them as a great treasure.
17:54It was contained in a little file which fitted in a brass container just like this.
18:03He gave me one with the others.
18:05Did you intend to commit suicide also?
18:09Well, I didn't intend to die just because Hitler was going to end his life.
18:15I intended to lose the poison only if war conditions compelled me or in the event of a personal attack.
18:26Conversation in the bunker is dominated by the idea of suicide.
18:30But some people reject the notion.
18:33Major Johann Meyer is Hitler's army adjutant.
18:36He's a veteran of the Russian front and won the Iron Cross for bravery.
18:40Major Johann Meyer, did you receive one of the poison files which Hitler distributed according to the testimony of other
18:50witnesses?
18:52No, I was a soldier and did not want to die by poison.
18:57I wanted to fight and if I had to die, die only.
19:04But Hitler allows no one to leave the bunker without his permission and few believe they're going to get out
19:10alive.
19:12Thirty feet above the bunker in the ruins of Berlin, thousands of Germans are already dead.
19:18The Red Army has completely encircled the city and meets up with U.S. troops in the west.
19:24General Eisenhower, supreme commander of the Allied forces, has agreed to let the Soviets take Berlin.
19:30They want Hitler alive.
19:32And as they fight their way to the Führerbunker street by street, they're calling it the biggest manhunt in history.
19:41Hitler tries one last desperate tactic to save himself.
19:45Fifty miles to the southwest of Berlin is the 12th German army, commanded by General Wenck.
19:51It faces the American advance on the river Elbe.
19:54Hitler orders Wenck and his 70,000 men to about turn and come to his aid.
19:59Hitler hoped that Wenck's army would break through to relieve Berlin.
20:04Where was Wenck?
20:06On the Elbe.
20:07He stormed ahead with a few troops as far as Potsdam, but he was hopelessly outnumbered and out-equipped.
20:16The Soviet bombardment now hones in on Hitler's position.
20:20Shells land so close to the bunker it shakes.
20:24Filling the air and covering surfaces with concrete dust.
20:29The lights frequently fail.
20:32Each day Hitler takes tea and crumpets with his secretary.
20:36And each day he demands to know when Wenck will come.
20:42But unknown to Hitler, Wenck has disobeyed the order to relieve Berlin and is instead helping civilians flee.
20:49Nonetheless, each day Hitler wants to know where Wenck was.
20:54But Barron, hadn't Hitler already decided to die?
21:00Yes, but he wanted to live.
21:03He loved power like a miser loves gold.
21:11For five days Hitler clings to the delusion that his army will relieve Berlin.
21:17Baron von Loringhoven's duty is to provide the Führer with intelligence updates.
21:22But the bunker is now cut off from radio contact with the military.
21:26He resorts to using a Berlin telephone directory to call addresses in the city.
21:33If a Russian voice answers, he knows that sector is taken.
21:36If it's German, he asks them to look out of the window and tell him what's happening.
21:42By April the 28th, the Russians are less than 500 meters from the bunker.
21:47Hitler still clings on.
21:49Then he receives news that changes everything.
21:54Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS and the second most powerful man in the Reich, has betrayed him.
21:59From the relative safety of German occupied territory in the north, he's trying to negotiate peace with the Americans.
22:09The news is picked up via a bulletin on the BBC World Service, now virtually the only contact Hitler's staff
22:15has with the outside world.
22:18Now Baron Loringhoven, just when did Hitler abandon all wars?
22:24When Hitler heard that Himmler had tried to surrender to the western powers, he raged and declared that never would
22:33a traitor succeed in this Führer.
22:36Hitler orders Himmler's representative in the bunker, General Fegelin, to be shot.
22:42Fegelin is Eva Braun's brother-in-law, married to her pregnant sister.
22:47Hitler's mistress begs for his life, but the plea is refused.
22:54Then Hitler begins dictating his final will and political testament to Traudeljumme.
23:00He starts by blaming the Jews for the war.
23:04He dictated it to me the night of April 28th.
23:10And I must frankly say that the will was very disappointing.
23:16I thought that in it he would try to justify what he has done and why Germany found itself in
23:23its present situation.
23:26So that he might offer to show some way out of our horrible tragedy.
23:33But he repeated the same old arguments he had used over and over in all his speeches.
23:40The will also reveals that Hitler is prepared to give his mistress what she's always craved.
23:46Although never mentioning her by name, it states that in return for her loyalty and willingness to die with him,
23:52he will at last marry Eva Braun.
24:02Just over an hour after executing her brother-in-law, Hitler emerges from his room with Eva Braun on his
24:08arm.
24:09She wears a black sequined dress.
24:12Her eyes are radiant with happy tears.
24:15Hitler wears his usual tunic.
24:18Goebbels acts as best man in the hastily arranged ceremony, and the bride and groom adhering to the legal requirements
24:24of a Nazi wedding, both declare that they are of pure Aryan descent and free from hereditary disease.
24:33As Eva signs the wedding certificate, she writes the letter B for Braun before scoring it out and writing Hitler.
25:02Hitler returns to dictating his will, stating that he and his new wife will take their lives rather than face
25:09the shame of defeat and surrender.
25:11Their bodies are to be burned.
25:13It also urges his successors to continue the fight.
25:22The documents are to be couriered out of the bunker through Soviet lines to territory still held by Germany.
25:28When did you last see Adolf Hitler?
25:33The morning of April 29th.
25:36He directed me to take a copy of his will to Field Marshal Schörner and emphasize the importance of the
25:44mission.
25:45What was the atmosphere of that last conversation with Hitler?
25:48We both realized we would never see each other again.
25:56Was there any doubt in your mind that he's going to die?
26:00Not whatsoever.
26:06Having married Eva Braun and written his last will and political testament, urging his followers to continue the fight, all
26:14Adolf Hitler has left to do is take his life.
26:17Now in his final hours, the Führer's paranoia reaches new heights in the claustrophobic bunker.
26:24What was Hitler's move during this period?
26:28He was depressed and suspicious of everybody.
26:32He even now suspected that the poison would only make him unconscious and he would be turned over alive to
26:40the Allies.
26:41So he decided to test the poison.
26:44On whom did he test the poison?
26:46On his best friend.
26:48Namely?
26:49Blondie.
26:51Who was Blondie?
26:52His dog.
26:58Well what was the result of the test?
27:00The dog died.
27:13Trapped in the bunker with him, his staff know the reign of the Führer will soon be over.
27:19Hitler moved about like a living dead man.
27:23He couldn't bear to be alone and he walked around from person to person.
27:29Before everybody had an awe of him.
27:32Now he excited no fear or sensation.
27:35The people in the bunker even smoked.
27:37Something no one had dared to do in 12 years in his presence.
27:43Even Eva Brown, who had never smoked before, passed a cigarette on that day.
27:51The bombardment of Berlin intensifies.
27:55The bunker's sewage pipes rupture and the toilets overflow, filling the corridor and rooms with the reek of urine.
28:02The generals get drunk.
28:06The bunker became a mortuary and the people in it living corpses.
28:13The atmosphere was very depressing and funereal and I had no desire to remain.
28:22If I was going to die, I preferred death on the battlefield as a soldier.
28:29How did you get out of the bunker?
28:33I asked my superior officer, General Kripps, if I could try to join General Rink's army.
28:41He got Hitler's permission, isolated and left.
28:46What was Hitler's demeanor as you actually left?
28:49He had a collected and concentrated expression, as if he had closed everything, and was no more interested in minor
29:01people like ourselves.
29:09A British radio broadcast is picked up in the bunker late on the evening of April the 29th, describing the
29:15fate of Hitler's ally, the Italian fascist dictator Mussolini.
29:19Milan was in a state of the wildest excitement, and about this time, two partisans had just killed Mussolini.
29:25The bodies of the ex-dictator, his mistress and fellow fascists were left lying in the square,
29:30and the enraged Italians took the opportunity of kicking them and flinging rubbish on them.
29:35The final ghastly scene was the hanging of the bodies upside down outside a petrol station.
29:41Well, at least it's a warning to all remaining fascists everywhere.
29:46Did Hitler hear of the death of Mussolini?
29:50Yes, he did.
29:52And I think that this unnerved King Martin anything else.
29:56He had a great fear that if captive, dead or alive, his body would be exposed to ridicule and degradation.
30:15In the early hours of April the 30th, Hitler orders an assembly of the Führerbunker staff.
30:23Baroness Ilmengard von Warhol is a German aristocrat sheltering in the bunker from the Red Army.
30:29Now she volunteers as a waitress.
30:33About 2.30 in the morning, I was awakened and instructed to report to the Führer's rooms.
30:42My eyes, heavy with sleep, I made my way underground to the corridor in the Führerbunker.
30:53I saw a strange figure.
30:55It looked like a ghost.
30:59I saw it was Hitler.
31:02He was absolutely shrunken.
31:05He was hanging in his clothes.
31:08His eyes were glaring into emptiness.
31:11His hands were shaking like leaves in his jaw.
31:17Hitler thanks his staff for their loyal service.
31:20He shook hands with each one of us like an old man going to his grave.
31:26And then he said goodbye to all of us.
31:30I made some foolish remarks about keeping up courage.
31:35But I'm sure he did not hear me or pay any attention.
31:40And then, dragging his feet, he slowly went out.
31:52The Soviets are 200 meters away.
31:56Hitler is informed that the Führerbunker will be breached at any moment.
32:01He attempts to step outside, but the shelling is too intense.
32:07A conference is held.
32:09There is nothing to say.
32:13Hitler instructs his adjutant Otto Gunther to procure enough gasoline to ensure that his and his wife's bodies are incinerated.
32:34Hitler is vegetarian, and the last meal he and Eva Braun eat is spaghetti with cabbage and raisin salad.
32:46How did Eva Braun take all this business of dying?
32:50She loved the fuel, and she was willing to die with it.
32:55But still, she loved life.
32:57She was a very lively person, and had a great spirit of good living.
33:02Once she had agreed to die with Hitler, I think she was like a child in the dark.
33:09She asked Hitler when it hurt.
33:11I don't mind dying her regularly, but it must be painless.
33:16And she laughed.
33:17But it was not laughter which comes from the heart.
33:21What did Hitler say to this?
33:24Oh, he went into details.
33:27He said, the immediate effect of the poison will be a paralyzation of the respiratory tissues and that of the
33:35heart.
33:35Death will occur only after a few minutes, but the pains will cease after a few seconds, for then the
33:45tissue conversions occur.
33:47Okay.
33:54Eva Braun changes.
33:56She chooses Hitler's favorite dress, black with white roses around the neck.
34:01She does her hair
34:05and paints her nails.
34:07After lunch, I retired in one of the rooms.
34:11At about 2.30,
34:14Günther, who was Hitler's SS at the time,
34:17called me out to the call door.
34:20Here I saw Hitler with even a crown on his arm,
34:24giving his final farewell.
34:29I was the last person to whom he offered his hand.
34:33It was very little.
34:35He looked at me,
34:37but I don't think he saw me.
34:39I don't think he saw anybody.
34:43Hitler and his wife retire to their rooms.
34:54Magda Goebbels,
34:56the Nazi propaganda minister's wife and mother of his six children,
35:00appears at Hitler's door.
35:02For days, she has shut herself away in her room.
35:06Now, she demands to see Hitler.
35:08The adjutant relents at Knox.
35:11Hitler opens the door,
35:12and Frau Goebbels bursts into a desperate plea.
35:17She knows that when the Führer dies,
35:19she will have to carry out her vow to not only kill herself,
35:23but also poison her children,
35:25and implores Hitler to escape and live on.
35:28Hitler's refusal is bruised.
35:34No one will see the Führer alive again.
35:44Arthur Axman, leader of the Hitler Youth, arrives.
35:48He joined the Nazi Party of 15,
35:51and started the first Hitler Youth Group
35:53to indoctrinate children and teenagers into national socialism.
35:57He's recruited thousands of boys as young as 12 to defend Berlin,
36:01and they are taking heavy casualties.
36:04He's here for his daily conference with the Führer.
36:07I arrived there at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon.
36:12I went to his room,
36:15but the door was closed,
36:18and Günther, his SS adjutant,
36:22was standing outside.
36:26He motioned me to silence,
36:29and I went back to the conference room
36:33and waited with Gürbetsk.
36:39The bombardment above resumes with renewed intensity.
36:43The bunker personnel wait for the Führer
36:45to finally carry out the act
36:46he's been threatening for the last eight days.
36:51Suddenly, I thought of the Gürbetsk children.
36:54My heart went out in sympathy with them,
36:56because I knew the bombardments were death true.
37:00And I was afraid
37:01that just in that moment
37:03the children would want to see him.
37:07I knew that at any moment
37:10now Hitler would take his life.
37:26And that kept him to mind.
37:28It was a shot
37:29which finished our football.
37:47Gürbetsk and I ran back to Hitler's room
37:50and the end of it.
37:53We found Eva Braun sitting on the sofa,
37:57her head resting on Hitler's left shoulder.
38:02She wore a black chiffon dress.
38:06She was dead,
38:07but she had no marks or violence on her body.
38:11She died of poison.
38:14Hitler's lower jaw was slightly distorted.
38:19It was obvious
38:20he had shot himself in the mouth.
38:24On either side of his temples
38:26I saw drugs of blood.
38:30The blast of the pistol
38:32had ruptured the veins
38:34on either side of his head.
38:37The sofa was stained with blood
38:40and his pistol lay at his feet.
38:45I remained with the corpses
38:47about ten minutes.
38:50Then I returned to the conference room
38:53and from this point
38:55saw Hitler's
38:56and Eva Braun's bodies
38:59being carried out of the gun.
39:02But for Hitler's staff
39:04there is still one more ordeal to come.
39:08For 12 years
39:10Adolf Hitler was leader of Nazi Germany.
39:13For 6 years
39:14he inflicted the chaos and catastrophe
39:16of a global war
39:17that claimed 55 million lives.
39:20Now Hitler lies dead by his own hand.
39:23The Third Reich
39:24is over.
39:34In accordance with his orders
39:36the bodies of Hitler
39:37and his wife
39:38are to be burned.
39:40His staff must get them outside.
39:44Erich Kempke
39:45the Führer's chauffeur
39:46since 1934
39:47carries Eva Braun.
39:49Mr. Kempke
39:50please tell us
39:52about the events
39:53of April 30th.
40:00I turn over Eva Braun's body
40:02to Gunscher
40:04and he laid it down
40:08next to Hitler's course.
40:11Hitler and Braun's bodies
40:13are laid in a shell crater.
40:16180 liters of gasoline
40:18lie waiting at the bunker exit.
40:24We then picked up the cans
40:26and poured gas
40:28over both bodies.
40:32Führer Bunkergaard
40:34Hermann Karnow
40:35approaches the scene.
40:38Hitler was wrapped up
40:40in a blanket
40:41which had opened up.
40:43I saw his face
40:46covered with blood.
40:48The whole time
40:49the Russians
40:51put the Red Kanzlei
40:52so much at Larive
40:53and put the guns
40:54All the time
40:55the Russian artillery
40:56was shelling
40:57the Reich's chancellor.
40:58In one of the
40:59Overs Tupro-Schul.
41:00We had to take shelter
41:02in the concrete entrance
41:04to the bunker.
41:07Here had then
41:08Gunscher
41:09a lamp
41:10and opened
41:11here
41:11Gunscher
41:12lighted a rag
41:14and
41:15on the
41:16leichen
41:16the waffle
41:16and threw
41:17her to the bodies.
41:33Both bodies
41:34were in full flame
41:35when I left.
41:44Herman Karnow
41:45has kept watch
41:46over the funeral pyre
41:47for the last
41:47two hours.
41:50The bodies
41:51were still burning.
41:53The flesh
41:53moved up and down
41:55and the flesh
41:56moved up and down.
42:02I touched
42:03the burning
42:04remains
42:05which were lying
42:06before me
42:07with my feet
42:07and they fell apart.
42:14Almost frozen
42:15I remained
42:16fixed to the spot
42:17and lifted
42:18my arm
42:19in solution.
42:24The incinerated remains
42:26of Adolf Hitler
42:27and Eva Braun
42:28are buried
42:29in the shell crater.
42:39This is London
42:40calling.
42:41Here is a news
42:42flash.
42:44The German radio
42:45has just announced
42:46that Hitler
42:47is dead.
42:49I repeat that.
42:50The German radio
42:52has just announced
42:53that Hitler
42:54is dead.
43:0024 hours later
43:01Soviets enter
43:02and loot
43:03the deserted
43:04Führer bunker.
43:11They find
43:12the child
43:12remains
43:13of what's left
43:14of Adolf Hitler
43:14and Eva Braun
43:15and identify
43:16the Führer
43:17uses his dental records.
43:19No one is certain
43:20what happened
43:21to the remains
43:21and they are never
43:23shown to the
43:23western part
43:24of Gerville's
43:25children.
43:25Stalin,
43:26the Russian dictator,
43:27suggests Hitler
43:28escaped Berlin
43:29and is still alive.
43:31The rumour
43:32marks the beginning
43:33of the mistrust
43:34and disinformation
43:34that will define
43:36the coming Cold War.
43:38By the time
43:39Captain Mosmano
43:40concludes his
43:40investigation in 1948,
43:43there's been no trace
43:44of Hitler
43:44for three years.
43:47There's been no doubt
43:48that Adolf Hitler,
43:51the Fuhrer of Germany,
43:53the master criminal,
43:55of the world,
43:56the greatest gangster
43:58who ever disgraced
44:01the human race
44:03is dead.
44:07Michael Mosmano's
44:08interview footage
44:09is never seen
44:10by the public.
44:11He sends a copy
44:12to Hollywood,
44:13but the mood
44:14of the western world
44:15has changed.
44:17It wants to forget
44:18Hitler and the war
44:19and instead look forward
44:21to a brighter,
44:22new future.
44:23The film is only
44:24rediscovered in an
44:25American university
44:26archive in 2013.
44:31Today,
44:32the site of the
44:32Führerbunker in Berlin,
44:34where Hitler died
44:35and his body was burned,
44:37is a car park.
44:38.
44:39.
44:40.
44:40.
44:45.
45:15Transcription by CastingWords
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