Inside of the Fuhrerbunker on the 30th April 1945, Adolf Hitler took his own life whilst the city of
Berlin around him crumbled. The Second World War had drastically turned against the Germans as the
conflict saw the Red Army, and the Soviets push east towards the German heartlands. What hindered
the Germans also was the Allied Advancement following the Normandy Landings. With this
combined, the German Army was pushed back greatly, and defeat was in sight for Hitler and his Third
Reich. Germany had been decimated by Allied Bombing raids, and it was certain that the end was
nigh. The Red Army surrounded Berlin on the 23rd April 1945, and Goebbels had made an order for any
citizen to defend the city. However at this time, Hitler must have been considering his own downfall
and his death. Today we look at the Men who burned Hitler. The men specifically tasked with disposing
of Adolf Hitler’s body. Remember to support our channel, please make sure to subscribe.
Hitler had remained in the Fuhrerbunker for a while, and it was certain that
the final battle of the war in Europe would result in the Battle of Berlin.
As the Red Army encroached, Hitler suffered a complete nervous breakdown when he had found
out that previous orders he had issued to a military SS general had been disobeyed.
He launched an angry tirade against his military commanders calling them treacherous, and for the
first time he admitted on the 22nd April 1945 that the war had been lost. He then announced that he
would stay in Berlin until the end, and would then take his own life by shooting himself.
Following this, he then asked an SS doctor Werner Haase what would be the most reliable method of
taking his own death, and he was recommended the poison and pistol method, taking a dose of cyanide
poison along with a gunshot to the head. After this, things were very tense inside the bunker,
and Hitler’s dog was the subject of the cyanide testing, and his German Shepherd
companion was killed. Days later, Berlin had been completely cut off from the rest of the nation,
with radio communications cut, and to add salt into the wounds, Hitler had received news of
Heinrich Himmler’s treachery, trying to negotiate surrender with the Western Allies. Hitler
considered this treason, and was furious with the leader of the SS. Hitler men ordered Himmler’s
representative from the SS shot for desertion, and at this time the Red Army were very close
to storming the Reich Chancellery, the heart of the Nazi government just above the Fuhrerbunker.
After midnight on the 29th April, he married Eva Braun his long term girlfriend, and he saw this
as a reward for her loyalty. This took place in a small ceremony inside the map room in the bunker,
and then shortly after a wedding breakfast Hitler disappeared with his secretary Traudl Junge
to dictate his last will and testament. In this it carried instructions as to the fact that Grand
Admiral Karl Donitz would become the Head of State. Now at some point on the 29th April in
the afternoon, Hitler found out that his close friend and ally Benito Mussolini had been shot
dead and executed by Italian Partisans. This had a profound effect on the Dictator of Germany
as he realised that he did not want to go the same way that Mussolini did.
Mussolini was shot but what happened after greatly shaped how Hitler dictated his final moments
would be. Mussolini was publicly displayed after death inside of a market in Milan,
and along with his mistress’ corpse, they were abused and mocked by the Italians. The
crowds spat at, urinated on, punched, and threw items at the corpses which were hanged upside
down. Hitler decided that he did not want his or his wife Eva Braun’s bodies to be treated
in this way, and to be made a spectacle of. With this, he ordered that after his
death his body should be burned to get rid of the remains, so this could not happen.
At some point with the soviets less than 500 metres away from the Fuhrer Bunker Hitler and
Eva Braun disappeared into Hitler’s private study inside the bunker. They had previously
said goodbye to their adjutants and fellow members of the bunker such as Joseph Goebbels and Martin
Borrman. Guarding the door was Hitler’s personal adjutant SS-Sturmbannfuhrer Otto Gunsche. Gunsche
had been entrusted with the job of ensuring that Hitler’s body was cremated after his death. After
a short amount of time, a gunshot was heard from the study, and in rushed Gunsche with Heinz Linge,
Hitler’s Valet along with Martin Bormann. When they entered the study, they found Hitler and
Braun’s lifeless bodies, slumped on a small sofa. Hitler’s right temple was dripping with blood
and his pistol was at his feet, and Braun also was dead, having consumed
cyanide and it was noted that the room smelled of almonds, a side effect of cyanide poisoning.
Gunsche then left the study and informed those who had gathered that Hitler was dead. He
stated this in the briefing room, and present was Goebbels and military generals Krebs and Burgdorf.
A few others also saw the bodies of Hitler, and whilst this happened Heinz Linge and another man
rolled up Hitler’s body in a rug which was found in the study. Hitler had issued written
and verbal instructions that he and his wife’s bodies were to be then carried up the stairs
and through the bunker’s emergency exit to the garden behind the Reich Chancellery. So
Hitler’s body was carried up the steps by these men, and then it was taken into the garden.
The Reich Chancellery garden had been hit by bombing attacks and artillery,
and there were a number of craters within the garden. Hitler and Braun’s body
wrapped in rugs were then placed into one of these craters and then their
bodies were covered in petrol. Berlin at the time was suffering from a lack of fuel
and petrol, and initially the petrol did not work initially. But who was there? Who were those
people that were present at the burning of Adolf Hitler, and who specifically burned his body?
Present was Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s close friend and minister of propaganda, Martin Bormann a man
who was obsessed with gaining favour inside the inner circle, Otto Gunsche Hitler’s adjutant,
Heinz Linge the Valet, Erich Kempka, Hitler’s primary chauffeur, Peter Hogl, an SS leftenant
colonel and member of Hitler’s personal bodyguard, Ewald Lindloff an SS officer and Hans Reisser
another SS officer. Together these men ensured and were tasked with burning the body of Adolf Hitler.
Now initially the attempts to ignite the corpse was unsuccessful, and then as bombs
and artillery fell around them, Heinz Linge was ordered back into the bunker to get some paper.
He then passed this to Martin Bormann, who then lit the paper before throwing this onto
the bodies of Hitler and Braun. With this the two corpses caught fire, and then the group off men
all raised their arms in the hitler salute s the body burned just outside of the bunker’s doorway.
So it was these men who burned the body of Adolf Hitler, specifically Martin Bormann
who lit the touch paper to burn the dictator of Nazi Germany. Bormann had acted as Hitler’s
private secretary and was a man who gained a huge amount of power from his closeness with Hitler.
He was a man who was disliked by others inside the inner circle, but Hitler described him in his
final days as, ‘my most faithful party comrade,’ and was even an executor of Hitler’s will.
Around an hour after Hitler’s body was burned, Heinz Linge and two more SS officers rolled up the
bloodstained rug inside Hitler’s study, and they then burned these swell. The Red Army continued to
shell the Reich Chancellery and the area unaware that Hitler’s body was burning shortly nearby.
As time went on, further SS officers continued to add more fuel and petrol onto the bodies of Hitler
and Braun to ensure that nothing was left of Hitler. Heinz Linge later stated that the fire did
not wholly destroy Hitler’s remains. One issue was the fact they were burned in the open, and this
made it difficult for a full creamation to occur. The corpses burned for around 2 and a half hours,
and then at 6:30pm, Lindloff and Reisser then covered the ash remains inside of the bomb crater.
So the men who burned or were present at the burning go Hitler’s body were,
Joseph Goebbels, Martin Borrman, Heinz Linge, Otto Gunsche, Erich Kempka, Peter Hogl, Ewald Lindloff
and Hans Reisser, with it being Martin Bormann who was the one who ignited the fire. Much of
what we know about the burning of Hitler’s body comes from the later testimony of Otto Gunsche,
however days after the burning the Soviets did manage to locate the few remains of Hitler.
What happened to Hitler’s remains and body will be covered in another video, however it was
clear that after hearing of his former friend Mussolini’s public humiliation after death,
Hitler imposed his will and decision that his body should be burned after death. There
wasn’t much left after the burning, just a few remains that today allegedly remain in
the care of the Russian government and locked away in a secret soviet archive.
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Once again thanks for watching