rise-and-fall-of-the-third-reich-william-shirer-pdf

1014 THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICHHitler Youth troops being sacrificed in encircled Berlin to prolong Hitler’s lifea few days, reported that the Russians had pushed ahead along the Saarlandstrasseand the Wilhelmstrasse almost to the Air Ministry, which was only astone’s throw from the Chancellery. The enemy would reach the Chancellery,he said, by May 1 at the latest – in a day or two, that is.This was the end. Even Hitler, who up until now had been directing nonexistentarmies supposed to be coming to the relief of the capital, saw that – atlast. He dictated his final message and asked Below to deliver it to Keitel. Heinformed his Chief of OKW that the defense of Berlin was now at an end, thathe was killing himself rather than surrender, that Goering and Himmler hadbetrayed him, and that he had named Admiral Doenitz as his successor.He had one last word to say about the armed forces which, despite hisleadership, had brought Germany to defeat. The Navy, he said, had performedsuperbly. The Luftwaffe had fought bravely and only Goering was responsiblefor its losing its initial supremacy in the war. As for the Army, the commonsoldiers had fought well and courageously, but the generals had failed them –and him.The people and the armed forces [he continued] have given their allin this long and hard struggle. The sacrifice has been enormous. Butmy trust has been misused by many people. Disloyalty and betrayalhave undermined resistance throughout the war.It was therefore not granted to me to lead the people to victory. TheArmy General Staff cannot be compared with the General Staff inthe First World War. Its achievements were far behind those of thefighting front.At least the Supreme Nazi Warlord was remaining true to character to thevery end. The great victories had been due to him. The defeats and final failurehad been due to others – to their ”disloyalty and betrayal.”And then the parting valediction – the last recorded written words of thismad genius’s life.The efforts and sacrifices of the German people in this war have beenso great that I cannot believe that they have been in vain. The aimmust still be to win territory in the East for the German people. ∗The last sentence was straight out of Mein Kampf. Hitler had begun hispolitical life with the obsession that ”territory in the East” must be won for thefavored German people, and he was ending his life with it. All the millions ofGerman dead, all the millions of German homes crushed under the bombs, eventhe destruction of the German nation had not convinced him that the robbing ofthe lands of the Slavic peoples to the East was – morals aside – a futile Teutonicdream.THE DEATH OF HITLER AND HIS BRIDE∗ Colonel Below destroyed the message when he learned of Hitler’s death while he was stillmaking his way toward the Allied Western armies. He has reconstructed it from memory. SeeTrevor-Roper, op. dr., pp. 194-95.