It was the closing days of a war that claimed the lives of millions,
and the end of the rise of the Third Reich. How did it end? Deep underground? With another death,
that was more tragic to witnesses than the end of Hitler himself?
By spring of 1945, Russia's Red Army was converging on Berlin, and Adolf Hitler, with his
long-time mistress Eva Braun, had retreated to the so-called Führerbunker, an above-and-below-ground
complex near the Reich Chancellery, the center of Nazi government in the German capital.
Construction on the Führerbunker began in 1936, before war even broke out. It was finished in
two stages, the last one concluded in 1944. The Führerbunker was two connected shelters,
and it was finely appointed with expensive rugs and art, among other luxuries.
Soon life in the bunker became chaotic, and — addicted to opiates and living with Parkinson's
disease — Hitler's health only worsened along with his prospects of winning the war.
In the Führerbunker along with Hitler was Nazi chief propagandist Joseph Goebbels,
and Hitler's own private secretary. That was Martin Bormann, a long-time member of Hitler's
inner circle and the man who controlled access to the Führer. Hitler, Braun, and Goebbels' wife and
family — who were also in hiding — would all kill themselves just hours before the fall of Berlin.
With those deaths and the subsequent Allied victory, the Third Reich was no more,
and the Second World War, in Europe at least, had mercifully come to a close.
Thanks in part to the book "Hitler's Last Day:
Minute by Minute," the final hours of Hitler's life are recorded in chilling detail.
"Did you ever hear him mention suicide?"
"Yes, after April the 22nd, he talked about it constantly."
As the story unfolded, the fate of those hidden with Hitler became clear,
and one of history's darkest moments was resolved as Adolf
Hitler — among mankind's most brutal and malicious dictators — came to his end.
In total, Hitler would spend 105 days living underground.
The last time Hitler ever saw the sunshine was on April 20,
his 56th birthday. After that point, he never emerged from the Führerbunker again.
With news that Italian fascist dictator and Hitler ally, Benito Mussolini, was captured and killed by
Allied forces, and with many of Hitler's inner circle turning on him, it was becoming clearer
and clearer that the war was lost and the Third Reich was finished. Supplies and munitions were
running low for the German army, and the Soviets were expected to take Berlin at any moment. Hitler
had one final task to complete before he carried out his final act, though, as Sky History notes.
Only a matter of days before Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun would end their lives,
the couple decided to get married.
The marriage ceremony was performed by Walter Wagner, an attorney, notary,
and devout Nazi who had reportedly never met Hitler before the wedding ceremony.
In the civil ceremony both pledged they were of pure Aryan blood,
in keeping with Hitler's philosophy of racial superiority and of a master race. The wedding
was followed by a somber reception. Once married, Hitler dictated his final will and testament.
The following day, Hitler received an update on how the German army was proceeding.
It would only be a matter of hours before the Red Army took control of Berlin.
A teenage Hitler Youth courier named Armin Lehmann, who was in the Führerbunker in those
final hours but survived, described Hitler like a ghost, staring ahead,
lost in thought. When a mortar struck the ground above the bunker, Lehmann later recalled,
"Dirt and mortar trickled down on us, but he made no attempt to brush it off.
He looked so much more unhealthy than 10 days earlier at his birthday reception.
It looked like he was suffering from jaundice. His face was sallow."
A telephone operator, Rochus Misch, described what it was like as the days wore on:
"Everybody was already half dead. It was very close to the end.
I don't know if you can imagine what those days were like."
Along with Hitler, Braun, and other members of the Nazi brass in the Führerbunker was Hitler's dog,
a German shepherd named Blondi. Blondi had been given to Hitler in 1941 by his
private secretary Martin Bormann, and it was said that Hitler and the dog were very
close — according to some, the relationship was closer than Hitler was even with Braun.
In the 2006 book "The Lost Life of Eva Braun," it was said,
"He was more publicly demonstrative to his dog, hugging and kissing her."
Hitler's affection for dogs played into Nazi propaganda that attempted to
portray him as an animal lover. Perhaps unsurprisingly, that only went so far.
According to Hitler and Braun's suicide pact, the two would die side by side.
Braun would ingest cyanide, and Hitler would both ingest cyanide and shoot himself in the temple.
Braun forgoed adding a gunshot to her suicide by cyanide, reportedly saying:
"I want to be a beautiful corpse."
First, though, Blondi would also die, to test the effectiveness of
the cyanide capsule one day prior to Hitler and Braun's own suicide.
One of only two survivors from the Führerbunker later recalled the death of the dog affecting
those in the underground bomb shelter more than even the death of Eva Braun.
On April 30, 1945, and with Allied forces advancing, Adolf Hitler decided the time
had come for himself and his wife to follow through on their plan to kill themselves, rather
than face possible capture by Allied forces. Around noon on that day, Hitler told Bormann,
"The time has come. Fraulein Braun and I will end our lives this afternoon."
After eating his final meal of spaghetti and salad, Hitler met with Goebbels,
who urged the tyrant to reconsider and to escape, instead. Hitler would not be moved, telling him:
"You know my decision. I'm not going to change it."
At that point, Hitler and Braun entered their private chambers for the final time.
A shot rang out through the bunker, and Hitler was later discovered,
bloodied and slumped over, with Braun by his side. History says
that their bodies were cremated in the Chancellery garden, per Hitler's wishes.
Also in keeping with Hitler's final will and testament, Goebbels was named Chancellor in
Hitler's stead. But Goebbels, too, would die by suicide, along with his family. As predicted,
Berlin fell to the Allies with an unconditional surrender from the Germans eight days later,
and one of the worst moments in world history had finally come to a close.