It
is necessary that I should die for my people; but my spirit will rise from the
grave and the whole world will know that I was right.
[PHOTO
SOURCE: http://www.azquotes.com/quote/1338481]
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On this date, 29
April 1945, at the Führerbunker: Adolf
Hitler marries his longtime partner Eva Braun
in a Berlin bunker and designates Admiral Karl Dönitz as his successor. Both
Hitler and Braun commit suicide the following day. I will post the information
about The Last Will and Testament of Adolf Hitler from Wikipedia and Wikisource.
Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun [PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2010/02/100218_eva_braun_et_sl.shtml]
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The
last will and testament of Adolf Hitler was prompted by Hitler receiving
a telegram from Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring asking for confirmation of
Göring's succession, combined with news of Heinrich Himmler's attempted
negotiations of surrender with the western Allies and reports that Red Army
troops were within a block or two of the Reich Chancellery. It was dictated by
Hitler to his secretary Traudl Junge in
his Berlin Führerbunker on 29 April 1945, the day he and Eva Braun married. They committed
suicide the next day on 30 April, two days before the surrender of Berlin to the Soviets on 2 May,
and just over a week before the end of World War II in Europe on 8 May. It
consisted of two separate documents, a will and a political testament.
Will
The
last will was a short document signed on 29 April at 04:00.
- It acknowledged his marriage—but does not name Eva Braun—and that they choose death over disgrace of deposition or capitulation; and that their bodies were to be cremated.
- His art collection is left to "a gallery in my home town of Linz on Donau".
- Objects of "sentimental value or necessary for the maintenance of a modest simple life" went to his relatives and his "faithful co-workers" such as his housekeeper Mrs. [Anni] Winter.
- Whatever else of value he possessed went to the National Socialist German Workers Party.
- Martin Bormann was nominated as the will's executor.
The
will was witnessed by Martin Bormann and Colonel Nicholaus von Below.
INTERNET
SOURCE:
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/My_Private_Will_and_Testament
My
Private Will and Testament
by Adolf Hitler, translated by The United States Government Printing Office |
This
message was written by Adolf Hitler on 29 April 1945. Here taken from Nazi
Conspiracy & Aggression, Volume VI, translation of Document 3569-PS,
Office of United States Chief of Counsel For Prosecution of Axis Criminality
|
The Secretary of the Führer, Reichsleiter Martin
Bormann
Führer Headquarters
29.4.45
Führer Headquarters
29.4.45
Postal address Munich 33, Führerbau.
Dear Admiral of the Fleet,
As, owing to the non-arrival of all divisions, our position appears hopeless, the Führer last night dictated the enclosed political Testament.
Heil Hitler!
Your
[signature illegible, presumably Martin Bormann]
[Seal]
[ADOLF HITLER]
My Private Will and Testament
What I possess belongs — in so far as it has any value — to the Party. Should this no longer exist, to the State, should the State also be destroyed, no further decision of mine is necessary.
My pictures, in the collections which I have bought in the course of years, have never been collected for private purposes, but only for the extension of a gallery in my home town of Linz a.d. Donau.
It is my most sincere wish that this bequest may be duly executed.
I nominate as my Executor my most faithful Party comrade,
Martin Bormann.
He is given full legal authority to make all decisions. He is permitted to take out everything that has a sentimental value or is necessary for the maintenance of a modest simple life, for my brothers and sisters, also above all for the mother of my wife[1] and my faithful coworkers who are well known to him, principally my old Secretaries Frau Winter etc. Who have for many years aided me by their work.
I myself and my wife — in order to escape the disgrace of deposition or capitulation — choose death. It is our wish to be burnt immediately on the spot where I have carried out the greatest part of my daily work in the course of a twelve years' service to my people.
Given in Berlin, 29th. April 1945, 4:00 o'clock.
(Sd.) A. Hitler
(Sd.) Martin Bormann
(Sd.) Dr. Fuhr
As Witness:
(Sd.) Nicolaus von Below.
(Sd.) Nicolaus von Below.
[Seal]
ADOLF HITLER
Testament
The
last political testament was signed at the same time as Hitler's last will,
04:00 on 29 April 1945. The first part of the testament talked of his
motivations in the three decades since volunteering in World War I, repeated
his claim that neither he 'nor anyone else in Germany wanted the war in 1939,'
stated his reasons for his intention to commit suicide, and praised and expressed
his thanks to the German people for their support and achievements. Also
included in the first testament are statements detailing his claim that he
tried to avoid war with other nations and attributes responsibility for it to
"international Jewry and its helpers". He would not 'foresake
Berlin...even though the forces were too small to hold out'. Hitler expressed
his intent to choose death rather than 'fall into the hands of enemies'... and
the masses in need of 'a spectacle arranged by Jews.' He concluded with a call
to continue the 'sacrifice' and 'struggle.'
He expressed hope for a renaissance of the National-Socialist movement with the
realization of a "true community of nations".
The
second part of his testament lays out Hitler's intentions for the government of
Germany and the Nazi Party after his death and details who was to succeed him.
He expelled Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring from the party and sacked him from
all of his state offices. He also canceled the 1941 decree naming Göring as his
successor in the event of his death. To replace him, Hitler named Großadmiral Karl
Dönitz as President of the Reich and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. Reichsführer-SS
and Interior Minister Heinrich Himmler was also expelled from the party and
sacked from all of his state offices for attempting to negotiate peace with the
western Allies without Hitler's 'knowledge' and against permission. Hitler accused
Göring and Himmler of betraying him and bringing "irreparable shame on the
whole nation" by negotiating with the Allies.
Hitler
appointed the following as the new Cabinet and as "leaders of the
nation":
- President of the Reich (Reichspräsident), Minister of War (Kriegsminister) and Commander-in-Chief of the Navy (Oberbefehlshaber der Kriegsmarine): Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz
- Chancellor of the Reich (Reichskanzler): Dr. Joseph Goebbels
- Party Minister (Parteiminister): Martin Bormann
- Foreign Minister (Aussenminister): Arthur Seyss-Inquart
- Interior Minister (Innenminister): Gauleiter Paul Giesler
- Commander-in-Chief of the Army (Oberbefehlshaber des Heeres): Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner
- Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force (Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe): Field Marshal Robert Ritter von Greim
- Reichsführer-SS and Chief of Police (Reichsführer-SS und Chef der Deutschen Polizei): Gauleiter Karl Hanke
- Minister of Economy (Wirtschaft): Walther Funk
- Minister of Agriculture (Landwirtschaft): Herbert Backe
- Minister of Justice (Justiz): Otto Thierack
- Minister of Culture (Kultur): Dr. Gustav Adolf Scheel
- Minister of Propaganda (Propaganda): Dr. Werner Naumann
- Minister of Finance (Finanzen): Johann Ludwig Graf Schwerin von Krosigk
- Minister of Labour (Arbeit): Dr. Theo Hupfauer
- Minister of Munitions (Rüstung): Karl-Otto Saur
- Director of the German Labour Front and member of the Cabinet (Leiter der Deutschen Arbeitsfront und Mitglied des Reichskabinetts: Reichsminister) Dr. Robert Ley
Witnessed
by Dr. Joseph Goebbels, Martin Bormann, General Wilhelm Burgdorf, and General Hans Krebs.
On
the afternoon of 30 April, about a day and a half after he signed his last will
and testament, Hitler and Braun committed suicide.
Within the next two days, Goebbels, Bormann, Burgdorf and Krebs also committed
suicide.
Obersalzberg- Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun with
dogs
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INTERNET SOURCE: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/My_Political_Testament
My
Political Testament
by Adolf Hitler, translated by The United States Government Printing Office |
This is a
testament given by Adolf Hitler on 29 April 1945. It is here taken from United
States, Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis
Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, 8 volumes and 2
supplementary volumes (Government Printing Office, Washington, 1946-1948),
VI, 259-263, Doc. No. 3569-PS.
|
More
than thirty years have now passed since I in 1914 made my modest contribution
as a volunteer in the first world war that was forced upon the Reich.
In
these three decades I have been actuated solely by love and loyalty to my
people in all my thoughts, acts and life. They gave me the strength to make the
most difficult decisions which have ever confronted mortal man. I have spent my
time, my working strength and my health in these three decades.
It
is untrue that I or anyone else in Germany wanted the war in 1939. It was
desired and instigated exclusively by those international statesmen who were
either of Jewish descent or worked for Jewish interests. I have made too many
offers for the control and limitation of armaments, which posterity will not
for all time be able to disregard for the responsibility for the outbreak of
this war to be laid on me. I have further never wished that after the first
fatal world war a second against England, or even against America, should break
out. Centuries will pass away, but out of the ruins of our towns and monuments
the hatred against those finally responsible whom we have to thank for
everything, international Jewry and its helpers, will grow.
Three
days before the outbreak of the German-Polish war I again proposed to the British
ambassador in Berlin a solution to the German-Polish problem — similar to that
in the case of the Saar district, under international control. This offer also
cannot be denied. It was only rejected because the leading circles in English
politics wanted the war, partly on account of the business hoped for and partly
under influence of propaganda organized by international Jewry.
I
have also made it quite plain that, if the nations of Europe are again to be
regarded as mere shares to be bought and sold by these international
conspirators in money and finance, then that race, Jewry, which is the real
criminal of this murderous struggle, will be saddled with the responsibility. I
further left no one in doubt that this time not only would millions of children
of Europe's Aryan peoples die of hunger, not only would millions of grown men
suffer death, and not only hundreds of thousands of women and children be burnt
and bombed to death in the towns, without the real criminal having to atone for
this guilt, even if by more humane means.
After
six years of war, which in spite of all setbacks will go down one day in
history as the most glorious and valiant demonstration of a nation's life
purpose, I cannot forsake the city which is the capital of this Empire. As the
forces are too small to make any further stand against the enemy attack at this
place, and our resistance is gradually being weakened by men who are as deluded
as they are lacking in initiative, I should like, by remaining in this town, to
share my fate with those, the millions of others, who have also taken upon
themselves to do so. Moreover I do not wish to fall into the hands of an enemy
who requires a new spectacle organized by the Jews for the amusement of their
hysterical masses.
I
have decided therefore to remain in Berlin and there of my own free will to
choose death at the moment when I believe the position of the Führer and Chancellor
itself can no longer be held.
I
die with a happy heart, aware of the immeasurable deeds and achievements of our
soldiers at the front, our women at home, the achievements of our farmers and
workers and the work, unique in history, of our youth who bear my name.
That
from the bottom of my heart I express my thanks to you all, is just as
self-evident as my wish that you should, because of that, on no account give up
the struggle but rather continue it against the enemies of the Fatherland, no
matter where, true to the creed of a great Clausewitz. From the sacrifice of
our soldiers and from my own unity with them unto death, will in any case
spring up in the history of Germany, the seed of a radiant renaissance of the National-Socialist
movement and thus of the realization of a true community of nations.
Many
of the most courageous men and women have decided to unite their lives with
mine until the very last I have begged and finally ordered them not to do this,
but to take part in the further battle of the Nation. I beg the heads of the
Armies, the Navy, and the Air Force to strengthen by all possible means the
spirit of resistance of our soldiers in the National-Socialist sense, with
special reference to the fact that also I myself, as founder and creator of
this movement, have preferred death to cowardly abdication or even
capitulation.
May
it, at some future time, become part of the code of honor of the German officer
— as is already the case in our Navy — that the surrender of a district or of a
town is impossible, and that above all the leaders here must march ahead as
shining examples, faithfully fulfilling their duty unto death.
Second
Part of the Political Testament
Before
my death I expel the former Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring from the party and
deprive him of all rights which he may enjoy by virtue of the decree of June
29th, 1941; and also by virtue of my statement in the Reichstag on September
1st, 1939, I appoint in his place Grossadmiral Dönitz, President of the Reich
and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.
Before
my death I expel the former Reichsführer-SS and Minister of the Interior, Heinrich
Himmler, from the party and from all offices of State. In his stead I appoint Gauleiter
Karl Hanke as Reichsführer-SS and Chief of the German Police, and Gauleiter Paul
Giesler as Reich Minister of the Interior.
Göring
and Himmler, quite apart from their disloyalty to my person, have done
immeasurable harm to the country and the whole nation by secret negotiations
with the enemy, which they conducted without my knowledge and against my
wishes, and by illegally attempting to seize power in the State for themselves.
In
order to give the German people a government composed of honorable men — a
government which will fulfill its pledge to continue the war by every means —,
I appoint the following members of the new Cabinet as leaders of the nation:
President
of the Reich: DÖNITZ Chancellor of the Reich: DR. GOEBBELS Party Minister: BORMANN
Foreign Minister: SEYSS-INQUART
[Here
follow fifteen others.]
Although
a number of these men, such as Martin Bormann, Dr. Goebbels, etc., together
with their wives, have joined me of their own free will and did not wish to
leave the capital of the Reich under any circumstances, but were willing to
perish with me here, I must nevertheless ask them to obey my request, and in
this case set the interests of the nation above their own feelings. By their
work and loyalty as comrades they will be just as close to me after death, as I
hope that my spirit will linger among them and always go with them. Let them be
hard, but never unjust, above all let them never allow fear to influence their
actions, and set the honour of the nation above everything in the world.
Finally, let them be conscious of the fact that our task, that of continuing
the building of a National Socialist State, represents the work of the coming
centuries, which places every single person under an obligation always to serve
the common interest and to subordinate his own advantage to this end. I demand
of all Germans, all National-Socialists, men, women and all the men of the
Armed Forces, that they be faithful and obedient unto death to the new
government and its President.
Above
all I charge the leaders of the nation and those under them to scrupulous
observance of the laws of race and to merciless opposition to the universal
poisoner of all peoples, international Jewry.
Given
in Berlin, this 29th day of April 1945. 4:00 A.M.
ADOLF HITLER
It
is necessary that I should die for my people; but my spirit will rise from the
grave and the whole world will know that I was right.
[PHOTO
SOURCE: http://www.azquotes.com/quote/1338481]
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Authorship
In
his book The Bunker, James O'Donnell, after comparing the wording of
Hitler's last testament to the writings and statements of both Hitler and
Joseph Goebbels, concluded that Goebbels was at least partly responsible for
helping Hitler to write it. Junge stated that Hitler was reading from notes
when he dictated the testament after midnight on 29 April.
The story of the documents
Three
messengers were assigned to take the will and political testament out of the
besieged Führerbunker to ensure their presence for posterity. The first
messenger was deputy press attaché, Heinz Lorenz. He was arrested by the
British while traveling under an alias as a journalist from Luxembourg. He
revealed the existence of two more copies and messengers: Willy Johannmeyer,
Hitler's army adjutant, and Bormann's adjutant SS-Standartenführer Wilhelm
Zander. Zander was using the pseudonym "Friedrich Wilhelm Paustin".
These two messengers were apprehended in the American zone of occupation. Thus,
two copies of the papers ended up in American hands, one set in British hands.
The texts of the documents were published widely in the American and British
press by January 1946 but the British Foreign Secretary, Ernest Bevin,
considered restricting access to these documents. He feared they might become
cult objects among the Germans. Since they were public knowledge already, the
Americans did not share these concerns but nonetheless agreed to refrain from
further publication of them. Hitler's testament and his marriage certificate
were presented to President Truman. One set was placed on public display at the
National Archives in Washington for several years.
Death of the witnesses
All
four witnesses to the political testament died shortly afterwards. Goebbels and
his wife committed suicide. Burgdorf and Krebs committed suicide together on
the night of 1/2 May in the bunker. Bormann's exact time and place of death
remain uncertain; his remains were discovered near the site of the bunker in
1972 and identified by DNA analysis in 1998. Therefore, he most likely died the
same night trying to escape from the Führerbunker complex.
Flensburg Government
In
the Flensburg Government of Hitler's appointed successor as Reichspräsident
Karl Dönitz, the depositions of Albert Speer and Franz Seldte were ignored (or
the two ministers quickly reinstated). Neither former incumbent Alfred
Rosenberg nor Hitler's appointee, Seyß-Inquart, held the post of Foreign
Minister. The post was given to Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, who after
Goebbels' suicide also became Leading Minister of the German Reich (Head of
Cabinet, post equivalent to Chancellor).
July 1947 photo of the rear entrance to the
Führerbunker in the garden of the Reich
Chancellery. Hitler and Eva Braun were cremated in a shell hole in front of the
emergency exit at left; the cone-shaped structure in the centre served as the
exhaust, and as bomb shelter for the guards.
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