sd0324
A Fixture
Pity that America didn't end the poor Reich's agony with an Atomic bomb.
100 Days in History: The Agony of The "Third Reich"
- Thread starter Martin Antonenko
- Start date
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Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
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- 8,995
"What if" is not a historical criterion. Only "what happend" is important.
------------------------------------------
Sunday April 29, 1945
Berlin:
In Berlin, the soldiers of General Semjon Bogdanow's 2nd Panzer Army make a breakthrough through the German lines of defense!
They approach the center from the west and can first occupy the ruins of the Charlottenburg Palace ...:
Then they overrun the German defenders of the Jungfernheide S-Bahn station as far as the headland at the confluence of the Spree and the Landwehr Canal ...:
The 79th Corps of Chuikov's 5th Army takes advantage of the night and leads a bloody assault over the Moltke bridge!
They run into the building of the Ministry of the Interior, because the complex, which the Soviet soldiers only call the "Dom Gimmlera", the "Himmler House", is difficult for the Germans - members of the Schwere Panzerjägerabteilung 614 der SS-Panzergrenadierdivision "Nordland" - heavy barricaded.
The fighting continues - floor by floor and room by room - all day long! The fighting stops somewhat after dark - both sides are just too exhausted.
Tschuikow lets the now very close Reichstag building take under heavy artillery fire.
Red Army soldiers storm the "Red City Hall" in the city center at the same time (on the next picture on the right, the Reichstag about 300 meters on the left) ...:
At the Zoological Garden, on the other hand, the Soviets have to stop their attacks all day long because Shukow's and Konjew's troops have been hopelessly involved!
Only in the coming night will it be possible to unravel the units and start the attack again.
The planned operation to occupy the Anhalt station, however, is canceled by Shukow!
There are so many civilian refugees in and around the ruin that even this marshal, who usually does not mean much to human life, has scruples about ordering fighting there ...:
In a kind of unspoken agreement, the Germans also stick to this "standstill" and in turn do not shoot the Red Army soldiers ...
The Soviet soldiers took Potsdamer Platz in the evening, which was the busiest place in Europe before the war ...:
In the afternoon, Hitler in his bunker calls SS Brigadführer Wilhelm Mohnke, who is responsible for the defense of the government district ...:
Hitler first asked about the situation.
Mohnke reports that in the north "the Russian" is just in front of the Weidendammer bridge, in the east at Lustgarten, in the south at Potsdamer Platz and at the Ministry of Aviation, in the west in the zoo, 300 to 400 meters away from the Reich Chancellery.
Then Hitler asks (as the Hitler Youth chief "Reichsjugendführer" Arthur Axmann reports): "Mohnke, how long can you last?"
Mohnke replies: "At most 20 to 24 hours, mein Führer, no longer."
By General Helmut Weidling ...
... the combat commander of Berlin as a whole, the "Führer" receives similar information.
Thereupon Hitler first sent a radio message to Grand Admiral Dönitz in Flensburg and ordered him to "crack down hard, lightning fast and quickly against the traitor" Heinrich Himmler.
(But Donitz is tactical. He knows that Himmler still has (armed) power. We'll get back to that.)
Then the "leader" calls for a registrar - to the limitless astonishment of his entourage.
While waiting, he dictates to his secretary Traudl Junge ...
... first his political and then his private will.
In the political will, Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz was appointed Reich President, Commander in Chief of the Wehrmacht and Minister of Propaganda "Siegesmund" Goebbels as Chancellor.
The one who arrives is actually not a registrar, but the Pankow city councilor for school administration and garbage disposal Walter Wagner. Goebbels declares Wagner as a registrar.
Then Hitler marries ...
... in a very short ceremony his previous lover Eva Braun!
Groomsmen are Josef Goebbels and NSdAP-"Reichsleiter" Martin Bormann ....:
The marriage certificate: as can be seen, Eva Hitler used "Braun" as a habit behind her first name, then crossed out the "Br" and signed it with "Hitler, née Braun" ...:
After the ceremony, Hitler sips pro forma on a glass of sparkling wine that someone gives him and then turns to more important things:
He poisons his German shepherd "Blondie" with a cyanide capsule!
**continued next post**
------------------------------------------
Sunday April 29, 1945
Berlin:
In Berlin, the soldiers of General Semjon Bogdanow's 2nd Panzer Army make a breakthrough through the German lines of defense!
They approach the center from the west and can first occupy the ruins of the Charlottenburg Palace ...:
Then they overrun the German defenders of the Jungfernheide S-Bahn station as far as the headland at the confluence of the Spree and the Landwehr Canal ...:
The 79th Corps of Chuikov's 5th Army takes advantage of the night and leads a bloody assault over the Moltke bridge!
They run into the building of the Ministry of the Interior, because the complex, which the Soviet soldiers only call the "Dom Gimmlera", the "Himmler House", is difficult for the Germans - members of the Schwere Panzerjägerabteilung 614 der SS-Panzergrenadierdivision "Nordland" - heavy barricaded.
The fighting continues - floor by floor and room by room - all day long! The fighting stops somewhat after dark - both sides are just too exhausted.
Tschuikow lets the now very close Reichstag building take under heavy artillery fire.
Red Army soldiers storm the "Red City Hall" in the city center at the same time (on the next picture on the right, the Reichstag about 300 meters on the left) ...:
At the Zoological Garden, on the other hand, the Soviets have to stop their attacks all day long because Shukow's and Konjew's troops have been hopelessly involved!
Only in the coming night will it be possible to unravel the units and start the attack again.
The planned operation to occupy the Anhalt station, however, is canceled by Shukow!
There are so many civilian refugees in and around the ruin that even this marshal, who usually does not mean much to human life, has scruples about ordering fighting there ...:
In a kind of unspoken agreement, the Germans also stick to this "standstill" and in turn do not shoot the Red Army soldiers ...
The Soviet soldiers took Potsdamer Platz in the evening, which was the busiest place in Europe before the war ...:
In the afternoon, Hitler in his bunker calls SS Brigadführer Wilhelm Mohnke, who is responsible for the defense of the government district ...:
Hitler first asked about the situation.
Mohnke reports that in the north "the Russian" is just in front of the Weidendammer bridge, in the east at Lustgarten, in the south at Potsdamer Platz and at the Ministry of Aviation, in the west in the zoo, 300 to 400 meters away from the Reich Chancellery.
Then Hitler asks (as the Hitler Youth chief "Reichsjugendführer" Arthur Axmann reports): "Mohnke, how long can you last?"
Mohnke replies: "At most 20 to 24 hours, mein Führer, no longer."
By General Helmut Weidling ...
... the combat commander of Berlin as a whole, the "Führer" receives similar information.
Thereupon Hitler first sent a radio message to Grand Admiral Dönitz in Flensburg and ordered him to "crack down hard, lightning fast and quickly against the traitor" Heinrich Himmler.
(But Donitz is tactical. He knows that Himmler still has (armed) power. We'll get back to that.)
Then the "leader" calls for a registrar - to the limitless astonishment of his entourage.
While waiting, he dictates to his secretary Traudl Junge ...
... first his political and then his private will.
In the political will, Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz was appointed Reich President, Commander in Chief of the Wehrmacht and Minister of Propaganda "Siegesmund" Goebbels as Chancellor.
The one who arrives is actually not a registrar, but the Pankow city councilor for school administration and garbage disposal Walter Wagner. Goebbels declares Wagner as a registrar.
Then Hitler marries ...
... in a very short ceremony his previous lover Eva Braun!
Groomsmen are Josef Goebbels and NSdAP-"Reichsleiter" Martin Bormann ....:
The marriage certificate: as can be seen, Eva Hitler used "Braun" as a habit behind her first name, then crossed out the "Br" and signed it with "Hitler, née Braun" ...:
After the ceremony, Hitler sips pro forma on a glass of sparkling wine that someone gives him and then turns to more important things:
He poisons his German shepherd "Blondie" with a cyanide capsule!
**continued next post**
Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
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- 8,995
On the same day, the Red Army liberated the Ravensbrück concentration camp in the north of Brandenburg...:
To commemorate the liberation, an ISU 122 assault gun from the Red Army stands in front of the memorial today:
French units occupy Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance ...:
The German Italian army under General von Vietinghoff and the fascist Italian units that remained loyal to it surrender to British Fieldmarshal Sir Harold Alexander in the presence of a Soviet representative ....:
The capitulation should take effect on May 2, 2:00 p.m., until then there is an armistice.
We still have some time left to tell the story of SS chief Himmler to the end:
Himmler showed up with a personal "staff" of 150 armed people (all members of the Reich Security Main Office) at Dönitz in Flensburg - this is the reason why Dönitz did nothing against him, contrary to Hitler's express order!
Nevertheless, the killer realizes that the ground is getting hot under his feet!
On May 5, Himmler, in the uniform of an SS Unterscharführer of the "Secret Field Police" and with a fake ID under the name "Heinrich Hitzinger", will flee south from Flensburg.
On May 20, he came under a control of the British Military Police in Meinstedt( near my hometown Bremen).
Himmler has good fake papers, too fake!
The military police noticed that the ID of the "Unterscharführer Heinrich Hitzinger" is brand new!
How is a secret field police officer who has been on duty since 1939 supposed to get a sparkling new ID card in the collapsing German Reich?
The alarmed police officers arrest "Heinrich Hitzinger" and take him to their office in Haus Uelzener Strasse 3a in Lüneburg ...:
There are experienced interrogators - including C. S.A. Austin (picture from later time)...
..., who recognizes Himmler immediately!
When he sees his camouflage blown open, Himmler bites without hesitation a glass ampoule with cyanide, which is hidden in a tooth gap in his lower jaw.
Heinrich Himmler dies in the interrogation room ...:
To commemorate the liberation, an ISU 122 assault gun from the Red Army stands in front of the memorial today:
French units occupy Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance ...:
The German Italian army under General von Vietinghoff and the fascist Italian units that remained loyal to it surrender to British Fieldmarshal Sir Harold Alexander in the presence of a Soviet representative ....:
The capitulation should take effect on May 2, 2:00 p.m., until then there is an armistice.
We still have some time left to tell the story of SS chief Himmler to the end:
Himmler showed up with a personal "staff" of 150 armed people (all members of the Reich Security Main Office) at Dönitz in Flensburg - this is the reason why Dönitz did nothing against him, contrary to Hitler's express order!
Nevertheless, the killer realizes that the ground is getting hot under his feet!
On May 5, Himmler, in the uniform of an SS Unterscharführer of the "Secret Field Police" and with a fake ID under the name "Heinrich Hitzinger", will flee south from Flensburg.
On May 20, he came under a control of the British Military Police in Meinstedt( near my hometown Bremen).
Himmler has good fake papers, too fake!
The military police noticed that the ID of the "Unterscharführer Heinrich Hitzinger" is brand new!
How is a secret field police officer who has been on duty since 1939 supposed to get a sparkling new ID card in the collapsing German Reich?
The alarmed police officers arrest "Heinrich Hitzinger" and take him to their office in Haus Uelzener Strasse 3a in Lüneburg ...:
There are experienced interrogators - including C. S.A. Austin (picture from later time)...
..., who recognizes Himmler immediately!
When he sees his camouflage blown open, Himmler bites without hesitation a glass ampoule with cyanide, which is hidden in a tooth gap in his lower jaw.
Heinrich Himmler dies in the interrogation room ...:
Blind Pew
PlanetFigure Supporter
Yep, he took the cowards' way out. Something obviously planned for, for quite some time. A tragedy that so many lives were ruined or cut short by these criminals. I still find it awful to see the before/after pictures of the towns and cities.
Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
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He was only the first one. Well' see here what will happen to the others...
This series here will run still four weeks...
Cheers
This series here will run still four weeks...
Cheers
Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 8,995
Monday, April 30, 1945
Berlin:
At 4 a.m. the 150th division finally conquered the "Himmler House" and paved the way for the comrades of the 171st division to occupy the western half of the diplomatic quarter.
Now the Reichstag building is to be occupied!
But a first attack from the movement fails due to German resistance.
So regroup!
At around 2 p.m., the 150th Rifle Division was ordered to attack again. The young battalion commander, Captain Neustrojew, is to lead him.
Neustrojew carefully assesses the situation and then sprints to his regimental commander:
"Comrade Colonel, we cannot go to the Reichstag - we are standing in the way of a large gray building!" He reports.
"Durak! (Idiot!) “, The colonel scolds back. "That IS the Reichstag!"
Neustrojew (on the right with Furaschka / peaked cap) ...
... would not have dreamed that they are so close to the goal of all Soviet soldiers in the German capital ...
The second attack on the giant building is successful!
The German defenders withdraw into the basement before the attack. While fighting continues down there, the Red Army men conquer the upper floors without a fight - the Germans had no time to mine! - and then rush to the roof!
Sershant Mikhail Minin ...
... climbson one of the stone sculptures on the facade. Comrades handed him the troop flag of the 150th Rifle Division. On Soviet troops' flags, the Soviet star - in contrast to the state flag - is yellow!
Minin somehow attaches the flag to the stone sculpture on which he stands - and shortly before 10 p.m. the Soviet flag flies over the German Reichstag!
The army photographer Jewjenij Chaldej…
… who joined the Sturmtrupp made a whole series of recordings - none of which may later be released!
Because when the pictures are presented to the editor-in-chief of the magazine "Ogonjok" (= "fire"), he recognizes:
The second soldier who can be seen in the pictures, the Kumyke Abdulchakim Ismailow, apparently wears a watch on each arm - so he probably looted ...:
So Chaldei has to take another two days later on the roof of the Reichstag and an ideologically clean "official" photo...:
But the first picture cannot be suppressed and soon makes its way around the world - it is simply the better and also authentic!
In the Soviet Union, however, it was always shown with cut off arm with the second "clock" ...:
The whole effort was probably completely unnecessary - because in fact it is extremely questionable whether Ismailow was really a looter!
He wears a wristwatch on one wrist, but on the other there is a Soviet field compass, model "Adrianow" to be seen, like many other soldiers even wore...:
For the Soviet soldiers, the building is THE symbol of their victory over Nazi Germany - and thousands of them leave inscriptions on the walls.
After the war, when the building was superficially restored, these signatures disappeared under wall plaster.
But when the Reichstag building was restored again in 1991 after German unification - and this time very carefully - in order to use it again as a German parliament, the plaster was removed and many signatures reappeared.
They were preserved in this condition - and left as they were. They can still be seen today ...
**continued next post**
Berlin:
At 4 a.m. the 150th division finally conquered the "Himmler House" and paved the way for the comrades of the 171st division to occupy the western half of the diplomatic quarter.
Now the Reichstag building is to be occupied!
But a first attack from the movement fails due to German resistance.
So regroup!
At around 2 p.m., the 150th Rifle Division was ordered to attack again. The young battalion commander, Captain Neustrojew, is to lead him.
Neustrojew carefully assesses the situation and then sprints to his regimental commander:
"Comrade Colonel, we cannot go to the Reichstag - we are standing in the way of a large gray building!" He reports.
"Durak! (Idiot!) “, The colonel scolds back. "That IS the Reichstag!"
Neustrojew (on the right with Furaschka / peaked cap) ...
... would not have dreamed that they are so close to the goal of all Soviet soldiers in the German capital ...
The second attack on the giant building is successful!
The German defenders withdraw into the basement before the attack. While fighting continues down there, the Red Army men conquer the upper floors without a fight - the Germans had no time to mine! - and then rush to the roof!
Sershant Mikhail Minin ...
... climbson one of the stone sculptures on the facade. Comrades handed him the troop flag of the 150th Rifle Division. On Soviet troops' flags, the Soviet star - in contrast to the state flag - is yellow!
Minin somehow attaches the flag to the stone sculpture on which he stands - and shortly before 10 p.m. the Soviet flag flies over the German Reichstag!
The army photographer Jewjenij Chaldej…
… who joined the Sturmtrupp made a whole series of recordings - none of which may later be released!
Because when the pictures are presented to the editor-in-chief of the magazine "Ogonjok" (= "fire"), he recognizes:
The second soldier who can be seen in the pictures, the Kumyke Abdulchakim Ismailow, apparently wears a watch on each arm - so he probably looted ...:
So Chaldei has to take another two days later on the roof of the Reichstag and an ideologically clean "official" photo...:
But the first picture cannot be suppressed and soon makes its way around the world - it is simply the better and also authentic!
In the Soviet Union, however, it was always shown with cut off arm with the second "clock" ...:
The whole effort was probably completely unnecessary - because in fact it is extremely questionable whether Ismailow was really a looter!
He wears a wristwatch on one wrist, but on the other there is a Soviet field compass, model "Adrianow" to be seen, like many other soldiers even wore...:
For the Soviet soldiers, the building is THE symbol of their victory over Nazi Germany - and thousands of them leave inscriptions on the walls.
After the war, when the building was superficially restored, these signatures disappeared under wall plaster.
But when the Reichstag building was restored again in 1991 after German unification - and this time very carefully - in order to use it again as a German parliament, the plaster was removed and many signatures reappeared.
They were preserved in this condition - and left as they were. They can still be seen today ...
**continued next post**
Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 8,995
Meanwhile, around noon, the soldiers of the 171st Rifle Division approached Hitler's Reich Chancellery at just under a hundred meters.
Around 11:30 a.m. Hitler received the news that a rescue at the last minute, as it were, by soldiers of General Wenck's 12th Army or General Buses' 9th Army was no longer possible!
The message is:
"12. Army stuck with a tip - 9th army with mass included.” Busses soldiers got into the bloody cauldron of Halbe.
Now the "leader" knows that he has gambled!
Hitler is very well informed about the end of his mate Mussolini, he is very afraid that he will face the same thing - execution, public presentation and desecration of his body.
But he is even more afraid of being captured alive by the Soviet soldiers and being exhibited in Moscow "in a panopticon", as he says.
So there is only one way out: suicide!
His wife Eva has declared that he wants to share his fate!
At around 12 noon he had a last meal with his secretaries Traudl Junge, Gerda Christian and his wife Eva.
He is mobile and eats little, speaks nothing against his habit - and retires with Eva Hitler around 3:00 p.m. in his private room in the bunker.
Before that, he commissioned his personal aide, SS-Sturmbannführer Otto Günsche ...
... to later burn his body beyond recognition.
Günsche takes guardpost outside the door of Hitler's room.
A shot can be heard shortly afterwards in the bunker! Only one.
When Günsche enters the room, he realizes that Eva and Adolf Hitler are dead. After him are Hilers Kammdiener SS-Sturmbannführer Heinz Linge (beside Hitler in black SS uniform)...
...Hitler Youth chief Arthur Axmann...
... and also NSDAP “Reichsleiter” Metin Bormann.
They realize:
Eva Hitler poisoned herself with cyanide by biting on a small glass vial...
Hitler also took poison - and obviously at the same time with his personal pistol, a "Walther" caliber 7.65 mm (the following photo shows the origonal weapon!) ...
... shot in the right temple.
Later, the NKVD will arrest Günsche, Linge and Axmann and interrogate him for years in the Butyrka prison in Moscow on behalf of Stalin, since Stalin is obsessively interested in all the details of Hitler's life and death.
The statements made by the three prisoners about the situation in which the two bodies were found contradict each other! Sat they both on the sofa ...
... or Hitler in an armchair next to it? (The next two photos show later reconstructions of the GDR police)...:
The contradiction has never been resolved - and will never be resolved!
After the death of Hitler is officially determined, so to speak, Günsche and Linge carry the two bodies into the courtyard of the Reich Chancellery - which is not entirely harmless because of the constantly striking Soviet grenades - and place them in a deep grenade funnel ...:
... and because they don't know where else to go with it, Hitler’s dead German Shepherd “Blondie” is added.
Then Linge and Günsche empty several gasoline canisters, the Hitler's personal driver Erich Kempka ...
... from the still intact underground car park of the Reich Chancellery - over the corpses and set them on fire.
The two can no longer watch the end of their destruction work, the shelling forces them back into the bunker.
That's how Adolf Hitler's life ended.
**continued next post**
Around 11:30 a.m. Hitler received the news that a rescue at the last minute, as it were, by soldiers of General Wenck's 12th Army or General Buses' 9th Army was no longer possible!
The message is:
"12. Army stuck with a tip - 9th army with mass included.” Busses soldiers got into the bloody cauldron of Halbe.
Now the "leader" knows that he has gambled!
Hitler is very well informed about the end of his mate Mussolini, he is very afraid that he will face the same thing - execution, public presentation and desecration of his body.
But he is even more afraid of being captured alive by the Soviet soldiers and being exhibited in Moscow "in a panopticon", as he says.
So there is only one way out: suicide!
His wife Eva has declared that he wants to share his fate!
At around 12 noon he had a last meal with his secretaries Traudl Junge, Gerda Christian and his wife Eva.
He is mobile and eats little, speaks nothing against his habit - and retires with Eva Hitler around 3:00 p.m. in his private room in the bunker.
Before that, he commissioned his personal aide, SS-Sturmbannführer Otto Günsche ...
... to later burn his body beyond recognition.
Günsche takes guardpost outside the door of Hitler's room.
A shot can be heard shortly afterwards in the bunker! Only one.
When Günsche enters the room, he realizes that Eva and Adolf Hitler are dead. After him are Hilers Kammdiener SS-Sturmbannführer Heinz Linge (beside Hitler in black SS uniform)...
...Hitler Youth chief Arthur Axmann...
... and also NSDAP “Reichsleiter” Metin Bormann.
They realize:
Eva Hitler poisoned herself with cyanide by biting on a small glass vial...
Hitler also took poison - and obviously at the same time with his personal pistol, a "Walther" caliber 7.65 mm (the following photo shows the origonal weapon!) ...
... shot in the right temple.
Later, the NKVD will arrest Günsche, Linge and Axmann and interrogate him for years in the Butyrka prison in Moscow on behalf of Stalin, since Stalin is obsessively interested in all the details of Hitler's life and death.
The statements made by the three prisoners about the situation in which the two bodies were found contradict each other! Sat they both on the sofa ...
... or Hitler in an armchair next to it? (The next two photos show later reconstructions of the GDR police)...:
The contradiction has never been resolved - and will never be resolved!
After the death of Hitler is officially determined, so to speak, Günsche and Linge carry the two bodies into the courtyard of the Reich Chancellery - which is not entirely harmless because of the constantly striking Soviet grenades - and place them in a deep grenade funnel ...:
... and because they don't know where else to go with it, Hitler’s dead German Shepherd “Blondie” is added.
Then Linge and Günsche empty several gasoline canisters, the Hitler's personal driver Erich Kempka ...
... from the still intact underground car park of the Reich Chancellery - over the corpses and set them on fire.
The two can no longer watch the end of their destruction work, the shelling forces them back into the bunker.
That's how Adolf Hitler's life ended.
**continued next post**
Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
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- 8,995
And now I briefly hide from the current history and tell the story of Hitler to the end ...:
On October 25, 1956, Adolf Hitler was officially declared dead by the Berchtesgaden District Court ...:
What only a few initiates know:
At this time, the remains of the "leader" and that of his wife Eva ...
... superficially buried in a garage in Magdeburg in the courtyard of house Westendstrasse 36 (now Klausenerstrasse 23) in the command area of the 3rd Soviet shock army ...:
Members of the "Special Department of the KGB" (formerly "Smersch") in the 3rd shock army (troop part 92626) under the personal command of General Nikolaj Kowalenko ...
... had found the bodies of Hitler and his wife Eva and had gone there with the greatest secrecy.
However, the ex-"Führer"is not complete!
His teeth...
..store a wooden box lined with red velvet in the Kremlin - just like a piece of his skull, namely the one with the bullet hole ...:
Even the commander-in-chief of the Soviet troops in Germany, Marshal Georgij Shukow, will only find out about the secret funeral and the transfer of the leader parts to Moscow many years later and will describe this in his memoirs as the greatest breach of trust in his career.
In 1970 the Soviet troops would vacate the property on Westendstrasse / Klausenerstrasse. On the orders of the then KGB chef Jurij Andropow (here his KGB ID) ...
... the bodies of the "Fiihrer" and his wife are dug up, burned and the ashes dumped into the Ehle creek near the Biederitz community ...:
... Eva Hitler, née Braun is officially declared dead by the local court in Berchtesgaden on January 17, 1957. The court found April 30, 1945, 3:28 p.m. as the time of death - exactly two minutes before Hitler's end.
Officially, the Soviet authorities will deny until Gorbachev's reign to found Hitler's body at all ...
**contiunued next post**
On October 25, 1956, Adolf Hitler was officially declared dead by the Berchtesgaden District Court ...:
What only a few initiates know:
At this time, the remains of the "leader" and that of his wife Eva ...
... superficially buried in a garage in Magdeburg in the courtyard of house Westendstrasse 36 (now Klausenerstrasse 23) in the command area of the 3rd Soviet shock army ...:
Members of the "Special Department of the KGB" (formerly "Smersch") in the 3rd shock army (troop part 92626) under the personal command of General Nikolaj Kowalenko ...
... had found the bodies of Hitler and his wife Eva and had gone there with the greatest secrecy.
However, the ex-"Führer"is not complete!
His teeth...
..store a wooden box lined with red velvet in the Kremlin - just like a piece of his skull, namely the one with the bullet hole ...:
Even the commander-in-chief of the Soviet troops in Germany, Marshal Georgij Shukow, will only find out about the secret funeral and the transfer of the leader parts to Moscow many years later and will describe this in his memoirs as the greatest breach of trust in his career.
In 1970 the Soviet troops would vacate the property on Westendstrasse / Klausenerstrasse. On the orders of the then KGB chef Jurij Andropow (here his KGB ID) ...
... the bodies of the "Fiihrer" and his wife are dug up, burned and the ashes dumped into the Ehle creek near the Biederitz community ...:
... Eva Hitler, née Braun is officially declared dead by the local court in Berchtesgaden on January 17, 1957. The court found April 30, 1945, 3:28 p.m. as the time of death - exactly two minutes before Hitler's end.
Officially, the Soviet authorities will deny until Gorbachev's reign to found Hitler's body at all ...
**contiunued next post**
Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
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- 8,995
But back to the last days of the "Third Reich"!
The war continues elsewhere:
The city of Greifswald is handed over to Marschal Rokossowkskij's troops today ...:
The Americans occupy Munich without a fight ...
...and Landshut...:
The Remaining Reich:
Großadmiral Dönitz in Flensburg, informed of Hitler's death and his "promotion" to Reich President and Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht by radio message, continues exactly where his faded "leader" left off:
Continue fighting!
Dönitz orders the defense of the city of Hamburg, which is crammed with civilians and refugees "with unconditional commitment and to the utmost"!
We'll see what happens to it ...
In addition, attempts are to be made to build a new line of defense on the Kiel Canal...:
In addition - order must be! - Dönitz orders the renaming of the "Heeresgruppe Süd" to "Heeresgruppe Ostmark". With a few exceptions, the troops are all in Austria and no longer in Italy.
Dönitz is also informed that he "inherited" 426 billion Reichsmarks from Hitler's state debt from the German Reich.
40 billion of these were piled up in the current month of April alone.
The powerless and politically chilled Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop ...
... who is hiding under the wrong name "Reiser" in a tiny rented room in Hamburg, has his birthday today: His 52nd ...
The war continues elsewhere:
The city of Greifswald is handed over to Marschal Rokossowkskij's troops today ...:
The Americans occupy Munich without a fight ...
...and Landshut...:
The Remaining Reich:
Großadmiral Dönitz in Flensburg, informed of Hitler's death and his "promotion" to Reich President and Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht by radio message, continues exactly where his faded "leader" left off:
Continue fighting!
Dönitz orders the defense of the city of Hamburg, which is crammed with civilians and refugees "with unconditional commitment and to the utmost"!
We'll see what happens to it ...
In addition, attempts are to be made to build a new line of defense on the Kiel Canal...:
In addition - order must be! - Dönitz orders the renaming of the "Heeresgruppe Süd" to "Heeresgruppe Ostmark". With a few exceptions, the troops are all in Austria and no longer in Italy.
Dönitz is also informed that he "inherited" 426 billion Reichsmarks from Hitler's state debt from the German Reich.
40 billion of these were piled up in the current month of April alone.
The powerless and politically chilled Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop ...
... who is hiding under the wrong name "Reiser" in a tiny rented room in Hamburg, has his birthday today: His 52nd ...
Martin Antonenko
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Tuestday, May 1, 1945
Berlin:
The combat commander of Berlin, General Helmut Weidling ...
... is ordered again into the bunker under the Reich Chancellery. There he first learns that Hitlet is dead.
The new Chancellor of the "Reich", Joseph Goebbels, wants also his report..
Weidling reports:
“In the hands of the Russians are: Zoologischer Garten station, Weidendammbrücke, Spittelmarkt, Leipziger Straße, Potsdamer Platz, Potsdamer Brücke and Bendlerbrücke. Resistance crushed in Wilmersdorf, location in the west of the city unknown. "
No more chances!
But Goebbels wants to save time. An - open - radio message in Russian is issued and the commander of the 8th Guard Army, General Wassilij Tschuikow ...
... German parliamentarians announced.
The choice as negotiator falls on the incumbent chief of staff of the army, General Hans Krebs, who was a military attaché at the German embassy in Moscow before the war and speaks Russian reasonably well ...:
Krebs is accompanied by Colonel Theodor von Dufving ...
... the Latvian SS Obersturmführer Atis Neidlandis as interpreter...
... and a corporal with a white flag.
Tschuikow gives orders to let the four through the front line!
The Soviet general is sitting in a headquarters, a confiscated and undamaged villa at the Schulenburgring (west of Tempelhof airport) having a cozy round table with the writer Wsewolod Wishnewskij ...
... the poet Jewgenij Dolmatowskij...
... and the composer Matwej Blanter ...
... together and talks animatedly.
The three artists came to Berlin on behalf of Stalin to write a hymn to victory. Shortly before 4 a.m. the arrival of three Germans is reported to him.
Composer Blanter is the only one wearing civilian clothes and is simply (historically!) Locked in a wardrobe, Vishnevsky and Dolmatovsky have to play "staff officers".
Wishnewksij writes down every word of the conversation.
Krebs begins the conversation by trying to unsettle his counterpart by opening Hitler's death to him.
With Pokerface, Tschuikow replies a straight lie: "We already know that!", And now it is Krebs to be amazed.
Krebs then reads a call hastily written by Goebbels to "find a satisfactory way out for the two states that have suffered the most from the war." and then asks for an armistice.
Tschuikow replies calmly: "Would you close a gun stall with me in my situation?" and undoubtedly thinks of Stalingrad.
Krebs is silent.
Chuikov then leaves the room, calls his commander Marshal Shukow and informs him. Zhukov immediately appointed his deputy, General Wassilij Sokolowskij ...
... to Tschukow in March.
He trusts Sokolowskij more than Tschuikow and absolutely wants to avoid that Tschuikow can later adorn himself with the fame of having accepted the capitulation of Berlin!
After Sokolowskij is gone, Shukow calls ...
... in turn Stalin over the direct line. But the chief of Stalin's bodyguards, the fat General Nikolaj Wlassik ...
... initially refuses to wake his sleeping boss - Shukow has to get massive.
When he finally has Stalin on the phone, the Marshal reports briefly.
"So now it's over with him, it's a shame we didn't get him alive!" Stalin replies and then immediately wants to know where Hitler's body is.
Shukov can only say that according to General Krebs, Hitler was burned.
Then Stalin:
"Tell Sokolowskij: No negotiations with Krebs or any of Hitler's gang unless the unconditional surrender on all fronts!
And don't call me again until morning - I need some sleep before the parade! "
Right, Shukow jerks it off! It is May 1st and in a few hours the traditional May parade will begin on "Red Square"!
He immediately informs Sokolowskij, who has now arrived at Tschuikow in the school burgring.
When asked for unconditional surrender, General Krebs stated several times that he had no authority to do so. In addition, the Soviet Union must first recognize the new government of Admiral Dönitz - before that there could be no agreement with the Allies.
So the negotiations remain fruitless.
Now Tschuikow on the phone with Marshal Shukow: "I mean, if they don't surrender immediately, we should send them to the devil!"
"You're right!" Replies Shukow:
"Tell them, if they don't agree to the unconditional surrender, we'll put Berlin in ruins!"
On behalf of Shukow, Tschuikow gives the Germans a deadline of 10:15 a.m.
Krebs, von Dufving and the interpreter Neiladis then leave the villa! It has now gotten light and someone is photographing General Krebs and the corporal with Krebs' briefcase when leaving the villa ...:
(These are the last pictures that show General Krebs alive! We will also shoot himself shortly. I found these two photos in a Russian archive - they are probably unknown in the West ...)
Around 1 p.m. back in the Führer bunker, Krebs reports and triggers a temper tantrum at Goebbels!
Goebbels shouts, he would not use the few hours he had as chancellor to put his name under a document of surrender.
Gobbels then decides, together with his wife Magda ...
... to follow their "Führer" and commit suicide as well.
Before that, however, Madga Goebbels, a fanatic supporter of Hitler up to Obesssion, commits a singular crime!
She has said several times that a world without Hitler and National Socialism is not worth living in - and includes her six children in it ...:
Together with the SS doctor, Sturmbannführer Dr. Ludwig Stumpfegger ...
... she kills the children Helga, Hildegard, Helmut, Holdine Hedwig and Heidrun with cyanide!
The role of "Siegesmund" Goebbels is limited to passive apathy.
Then Goebbels first shoots his wife with his service pistol and then himself.
The two adults are also poured petrol over them and set on fire ...:
But something extinguishes the fire - possibly the explosion pressure of grenades - so that Joseph and Magda Goebbels do not burn completely.
They will later be buried in the same garage yard in Magdeburg by the Soviets and later their remains will be strewn into the same river as the remains of Hitler and his wife ...
**continued next post**
Berlin:
The combat commander of Berlin, General Helmut Weidling ...
... is ordered again into the bunker under the Reich Chancellery. There he first learns that Hitlet is dead.
The new Chancellor of the "Reich", Joseph Goebbels, wants also his report..
Weidling reports:
“In the hands of the Russians are: Zoologischer Garten station, Weidendammbrücke, Spittelmarkt, Leipziger Straße, Potsdamer Platz, Potsdamer Brücke and Bendlerbrücke. Resistance crushed in Wilmersdorf, location in the west of the city unknown. "
No more chances!
But Goebbels wants to save time. An - open - radio message in Russian is issued and the commander of the 8th Guard Army, General Wassilij Tschuikow ...
... German parliamentarians announced.
The choice as negotiator falls on the incumbent chief of staff of the army, General Hans Krebs, who was a military attaché at the German embassy in Moscow before the war and speaks Russian reasonably well ...:
Krebs is accompanied by Colonel Theodor von Dufving ...
... the Latvian SS Obersturmführer Atis Neidlandis as interpreter...
... and a corporal with a white flag.
Tschuikow gives orders to let the four through the front line!
The Soviet general is sitting in a headquarters, a confiscated and undamaged villa at the Schulenburgring (west of Tempelhof airport) having a cozy round table with the writer Wsewolod Wishnewskij ...
... the poet Jewgenij Dolmatowskij...
... and the composer Matwej Blanter ...
... together and talks animatedly.
The three artists came to Berlin on behalf of Stalin to write a hymn to victory. Shortly before 4 a.m. the arrival of three Germans is reported to him.
Composer Blanter is the only one wearing civilian clothes and is simply (historically!) Locked in a wardrobe, Vishnevsky and Dolmatovsky have to play "staff officers".
Wishnewksij writes down every word of the conversation.
Krebs begins the conversation by trying to unsettle his counterpart by opening Hitler's death to him.
With Pokerface, Tschuikow replies a straight lie: "We already know that!", And now it is Krebs to be amazed.
Krebs then reads a call hastily written by Goebbels to "find a satisfactory way out for the two states that have suffered the most from the war." and then asks for an armistice.
Tschuikow replies calmly: "Would you close a gun stall with me in my situation?" and undoubtedly thinks of Stalingrad.
Krebs is silent.
Chuikov then leaves the room, calls his commander Marshal Shukow and informs him. Zhukov immediately appointed his deputy, General Wassilij Sokolowskij ...
... to Tschukow in March.
He trusts Sokolowskij more than Tschuikow and absolutely wants to avoid that Tschuikow can later adorn himself with the fame of having accepted the capitulation of Berlin!
After Sokolowskij is gone, Shukow calls ...
... in turn Stalin over the direct line. But the chief of Stalin's bodyguards, the fat General Nikolaj Wlassik ...
... initially refuses to wake his sleeping boss - Shukow has to get massive.
When he finally has Stalin on the phone, the Marshal reports briefly.
"So now it's over with him, it's a shame we didn't get him alive!" Stalin replies and then immediately wants to know where Hitler's body is.
Shukov can only say that according to General Krebs, Hitler was burned.
Then Stalin:
"Tell Sokolowskij: No negotiations with Krebs or any of Hitler's gang unless the unconditional surrender on all fronts!
And don't call me again until morning - I need some sleep before the parade! "
Right, Shukow jerks it off! It is May 1st and in a few hours the traditional May parade will begin on "Red Square"!
He immediately informs Sokolowskij, who has now arrived at Tschuikow in the school burgring.
When asked for unconditional surrender, General Krebs stated several times that he had no authority to do so. In addition, the Soviet Union must first recognize the new government of Admiral Dönitz - before that there could be no agreement with the Allies.
So the negotiations remain fruitless.
Now Tschuikow on the phone with Marshal Shukow: "I mean, if they don't surrender immediately, we should send them to the devil!"
"You're right!" Replies Shukow:
"Tell them, if they don't agree to the unconditional surrender, we'll put Berlin in ruins!"
On behalf of Shukow, Tschuikow gives the Germans a deadline of 10:15 a.m.
Krebs, von Dufving and the interpreter Neiladis then leave the villa! It has now gotten light and someone is photographing General Krebs and the corporal with Krebs' briefcase when leaving the villa ...:
(These are the last pictures that show General Krebs alive! We will also shoot himself shortly. I found these two photos in a Russian archive - they are probably unknown in the West ...)
Around 1 p.m. back in the Führer bunker, Krebs reports and triggers a temper tantrum at Goebbels!
Goebbels shouts, he would not use the few hours he had as chancellor to put his name under a document of surrender.
Gobbels then decides, together with his wife Magda ...
... to follow their "Führer" and commit suicide as well.
Before that, however, Madga Goebbels, a fanatic supporter of Hitler up to Obesssion, commits a singular crime!
She has said several times that a world without Hitler and National Socialism is not worth living in - and includes her six children in it ...:
Together with the SS doctor, Sturmbannführer Dr. Ludwig Stumpfegger ...
... she kills the children Helga, Hildegard, Helmut, Holdine Hedwig and Heidrun with cyanide!
The role of "Siegesmund" Goebbels is limited to passive apathy.
Then Goebbels first shoots his wife with his service pistol and then himself.
The two adults are also poured petrol over them and set on fire ...:
But something extinguishes the fire - possibly the explosion pressure of grenades - so that Joseph and Magda Goebbels do not burn completely.
They will later be buried in the same garage yard in Magdeburg by the Soviets and later their remains will be strewn into the same river as the remains of Hitler and his wife ...
**continued next post**
Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
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- 8,995
In the meantime, the deadline set by Zhukov has expired and the major Soviet attack has begun!
There is now a "save-yourself-who-can" mentality in the Führer bunker, various groups are leaving the bunker and want to try to fight their way through the Soviet siege ring on their own.
The most prominent among them is certainly NSdAP- "Reichsleiter" Martin Bormann, who together with SS doctor (and child killer) Dr. Stumpfegger and "Reichsjugendführer" Axmann breaks out.
Since both are never seen again, rumors persist until the 1970s that they managed to escape abroad.
According to Axmann (in Soviet captivity), however, both shot themselves shortly after their outbreak not far from the Reich Chancellery in Invalidenstrasse when they were put up by Red Army soldiers.
Axmann's statement turned out to be true in 1972 - the bodies were found during construction work. Bormann was unequivocally identified from his teeth ...:
General Weidling and his staff officers agree: unconditional surrender is the only way out! And so they decide to act on their own (they don't know anything about Goebbels' death yet!).
Again Tschuikow gets an open radio message - and around midnight Colonel von Dufving...
...crosses the front line for the second time.
While Berlin is going under, Marshal Rokossowslij's troops take the island of Rügen, the city of Stralsund ...
... and the towns Demmin and Waren.
The Americans have crossed the (now again!) border between Bavaria and Austria and are marching into Seefeld (Tyrol) ...
... and the French in Bregenz and the Vorarlberg region (also Austria) ...:
There they capture members of what is probably the most exotic German military unit: Indian Sikh volunteers of the Waffen SS ...:
And then there is General Wenck's 12th Army, which Hitler had summoned to save him! But when a Soviet overpowering blocked his way to Berlin, Wenck came up with another idea!
He wants to rescue the comrades of the 9th Army from General Busse, who got south of Berlin with 11 infantry divisions, 2 motorized divisions and a tank division in the murderous "Kessel von Halbe" ...:
The bloody combs in a completely unclear forest area are the last and bloodiest cauldron battle of the war!
The struggled Germans, who gradually have to leave all their heavy weapons due to lack of fuel, face 45 Soviet rifle divisions and two armored armies (the 3rd and 4th) with over 700 tanks!
The Germans are shot at from all sides without really being able to defend themselves!
At some point, the Soviet tank shooters and artillerymen came up with the idea of firing explosives into the tree tops, and not only did the explosive pieces of exploding grenades fly around, but also weird, needle-sharp wood splinters!
To save the 9th Army, Wenck and his troops - surprisingly for the Soviets - advance south of Berlin to the east and take up positions.
Busses soldiers break out of the cauldron towards the rescuing 12th Army, but only about 15 percent of the troops arrive there - about 25,000.
After five days of tough fighting, more than 30,000 dead German soldiers and around 10,000 civilians remain. 120,000 Germans are taken prisoner!
The Soviets mourn 20,000 deaths.
Together with the remnants of Busses army, Wenck struggles to the west - towards the Elbe - to surrender to the Americans ...
For the German population, this day ends with a lie!
The following text is broadcast several times on the Reichssender Hamburg, the only one still in the German sphere of power:
"It is reported from the Führer's headquarters that our Führer Adolf Hitler, fighting against Bolshevism to the last breath, fell for Germany."
Then they send funeral music ...
There is now a "save-yourself-who-can" mentality in the Führer bunker, various groups are leaving the bunker and want to try to fight their way through the Soviet siege ring on their own.
The most prominent among them is certainly NSdAP- "Reichsleiter" Martin Bormann, who together with SS doctor (and child killer) Dr. Stumpfegger and "Reichsjugendführer" Axmann breaks out.
Since both are never seen again, rumors persist until the 1970s that they managed to escape abroad.
According to Axmann (in Soviet captivity), however, both shot themselves shortly after their outbreak not far from the Reich Chancellery in Invalidenstrasse when they were put up by Red Army soldiers.
Axmann's statement turned out to be true in 1972 - the bodies were found during construction work. Bormann was unequivocally identified from his teeth ...:
General Weidling and his staff officers agree: unconditional surrender is the only way out! And so they decide to act on their own (they don't know anything about Goebbels' death yet!).
Again Tschuikow gets an open radio message - and around midnight Colonel von Dufving...
...crosses the front line for the second time.
While Berlin is going under, Marshal Rokossowslij's troops take the island of Rügen, the city of Stralsund ...
... and the towns Demmin and Waren.
The Americans have crossed the (now again!) border between Bavaria and Austria and are marching into Seefeld (Tyrol) ...
... and the French in Bregenz and the Vorarlberg region (also Austria) ...:
There they capture members of what is probably the most exotic German military unit: Indian Sikh volunteers of the Waffen SS ...:
And then there is General Wenck's 12th Army, which Hitler had summoned to save him! But when a Soviet overpowering blocked his way to Berlin, Wenck came up with another idea!
He wants to rescue the comrades of the 9th Army from General Busse, who got south of Berlin with 11 infantry divisions, 2 motorized divisions and a tank division in the murderous "Kessel von Halbe" ...:
The bloody combs in a completely unclear forest area are the last and bloodiest cauldron battle of the war!
The struggled Germans, who gradually have to leave all their heavy weapons due to lack of fuel, face 45 Soviet rifle divisions and two armored armies (the 3rd and 4th) with over 700 tanks!
The Germans are shot at from all sides without really being able to defend themselves!
At some point, the Soviet tank shooters and artillerymen came up with the idea of firing explosives into the tree tops, and not only did the explosive pieces of exploding grenades fly around, but also weird, needle-sharp wood splinters!
To save the 9th Army, Wenck and his troops - surprisingly for the Soviets - advance south of Berlin to the east and take up positions.
Busses soldiers break out of the cauldron towards the rescuing 12th Army, but only about 15 percent of the troops arrive there - about 25,000.
After five days of tough fighting, more than 30,000 dead German soldiers and around 10,000 civilians remain. 120,000 Germans are taken prisoner!
The Soviets mourn 20,000 deaths.
Together with the remnants of Busses army, Wenck struggles to the west - towards the Elbe - to surrender to the Americans ...
For the German population, this day ends with a lie!
The following text is broadcast several times on the Reichssender Hamburg, the only one still in the German sphere of power:
"It is reported from the Führer's headquarters that our Führer Adolf Hitler, fighting against Bolshevism to the last breath, fell for Germany."
Then they send funeral music ...
Hi Martin
Thank you a veritable amazing amount of information , didn't know about the remnants of Hitler and the saddest thing is the children ..just proves how people are thinkng at this time
To the very end propaganda still is there , throwing out lies
Enjoyable yet again
Nap
Thank you a veritable amazing amount of information , didn't know about the remnants of Hitler and the saddest thing is the children ..just proves how people are thinkng at this time
To the very end propaganda still is there , throwing out lies
Enjoyable yet again
Nap
Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
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- Jul 11, 2008
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- 8,995
At the end of this story you will know, what happens to them all...
Cheers
Cheers
Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
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Wednesday, May, 2, 1945
General Weidling's emissary Colonel von Dufving and the Soviet General Tschuikow (supervised in the background by Marshal Shukow and his representative General Sokolowski) quickly agree:
General Weidling signs the unconditional surrender declaration for Berlin at exactly 7:50 am!
It is in the form of an order to the German troops - in the text the general makes no secret of his contempt for Hitler ...:
Translation:
General Weidling's emissary Colonel von Dufving and the Soviet General Tschuikow (supervised in the background by Marshal Shukow and his representative General Sokolowski) quickly agree:
General Weidling signs the unconditional surrender declaration for Berlin at exactly 7:50 am!
It is in the form of an order to the German troops - in the text the general makes no secret of his contempt for Hitler ...:
Translation:
Berlin, May, 2, 1945
Order.
On April 30th, 1945 the Fiihrer killed himself and thereby let us, who had sworn allegiance to him, down.
On the orders of the Fiihrer you still believe that you have to fight Berlin, although the lack of heavy weapons, ammunition and the overall situation make the fight seem pointless.
Every hour you continue to fight extends the terrible suffering of the civilian population of Berlin and our wounded. Anyone who still falls in the battle for Berlin makes his victims free of charge.
In agreement with the high command of the Soviet troops, I therefore urge you to stop fighting immediately.
(Weidling)
General of the artillery
and
Berlin Defense Commander
This memorial tablet hangs at the house at the Schulenburgring in which Tschuikow's quarter was ...:
The table from Tschuikow quarter, on which the "order" was issued, stands now at the museum Berlin-Karlshorst ...:
While Weidling, who previously also informed the Wehrmacht Chief of Staffi at the Führer bunker, is still with Tschuikow, General Krebs and the head of the Wehrmacht's personnel office, General Wilhelm Burgdorf chase...
... themselves a bullet in their heads!
(Incidentally, Burgdorf was the one who forced Field Marshal Erwin Rommel to commit suicide on October 14, 1944!)
A little later when the first Soviet soldiers entered the Führer bunker (one of them was fotographed in Hitler's study) ...
... they find - exept the two dead generals - only one living person there:
SS machinist Johannes Hentschel, who made sure that the electricity and ventilation in the bunker system continued ...:
In the meantime, General Weidling drives in a loudspeaker truck of the Red Army (like this one, Type GAZ AAA)...
... through the areas of Berlin still held by Germans and reads out his "order". At some point the general collapses unconscious in the truck from excitement and exhaustion ...
In the basement of the Reichstag building, the 1,500 German defenders entrenched there continue to fight until 1 p.m. - and it is until shortly before 5 p.m. before the Red Army men have brought one after the other to light ...:
The soldiers of the Red Army round up all German soldiers and also capable male civilians in the capital, whom they can get hold of, and set them on the march towards the Soviet Union - a total of 134,000 people, of which at least 70,000 are Wehrmacht and SS members!
General Helmuth Weidling is among the prisoners! He will never see his home again and will die of heart failure on November 17, 1955 in the Wladimirowka prison camp near the city of Wladimir ...
The war in Berlin is over!
At least 160,000 dead soldiers from both sides and tens of thousands of civilians lie in the rubble.
**continued next post**
Martin Antonenko
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The surviving Red Army soldiers celebrate their victory boisterously!
The following propaganda painting is also supposed to show the victory celebration - but as much as I like to see Kuban Cossacks, they certainly did not take part in the conquest of Berlin in this form - especially not on horseback ...:
All those involved in the battle - and if they are dead their relatives - will later be honored with the medal "For the Conquest of Berlin" ...:
This is one of the few appropriate propaganda posters from those days:
The small poster on the top left says "Conquest of Berlin" and below it in red letters: "Red Army - Glory".
The most important feeling of the soldiers shows the handwriting on the wall in the background: "Domnu" - "Home"!
On the same day the British-Canadian troops meet with Soviet troops at Wismar in Mecklenmburg for the first time ...:
In contrast to the exuberant meeting of the Soviets and Americans near Torgau, this meeting is much more formal!
This may be due to the fact that there are far more officers present on the British side than in Torgau - and word quickly got around on the Soviet side that many participants in the meeting with the Americans subsequently had to endure strict interrogations of the NKVD's anti-espionage officers ...
As we can see, Fieldmarshal Montgomery rushed in himself - and holds a parade together with Soviet Marshal Konstantin Rokossowski ...:
The city of Wismar is occupied by the British without a fight ...:
Today air marshal Arthur Harris says goodbye to Germany - the last attack by the British Bomber Command on Germany is recorded - the goal is the port of Kiel!
The already heavily damaged German cruiser "Admiral Hipper" gets the rest ...:
Contrary to the intentions of the new "Reich President" Admiral Dönitz, which became known the day before yesterday, to defend Hamburg to the last man and the last cartrigde, the Germans today accept an offer from Montgomery to negotiate the peaceful handover of the city of Hamburg, to save human life.
The "High Command of the Wehrmacht" in Flensburg sends a delegation to Montgomery to sign this agreement...:
Both sides arrange that Hamburg will be handed over without a fight in front of Hamburg City Hall the following morning ...:
The Americans were handed over Passau in Bavaria (here German parliamentarians, whose GI's have blindfolded) ...
... and Schwerin in Mecklenburg without a fight ...:
**continued nexct post**
The following propaganda painting is also supposed to show the victory celebration - but as much as I like to see Kuban Cossacks, they certainly did not take part in the conquest of Berlin in this form - especially not on horseback ...:
All those involved in the battle - and if they are dead their relatives - will later be honored with the medal "For the Conquest of Berlin" ...:
This is one of the few appropriate propaganda posters from those days:
The small poster on the top left says "Conquest of Berlin" and below it in red letters: "Red Army - Glory".
The most important feeling of the soldiers shows the handwriting on the wall in the background: "Domnu" - "Home"!
On the same day the British-Canadian troops meet with Soviet troops at Wismar in Mecklenmburg for the first time ...:
In contrast to the exuberant meeting of the Soviets and Americans near Torgau, this meeting is much more formal!
This may be due to the fact that there are far more officers present on the British side than in Torgau - and word quickly got around on the Soviet side that many participants in the meeting with the Americans subsequently had to endure strict interrogations of the NKVD's anti-espionage officers ...
As we can see, Fieldmarshal Montgomery rushed in himself - and holds a parade together with Soviet Marshal Konstantin Rokossowski ...:
The city of Wismar is occupied by the British without a fight ...:
Today air marshal Arthur Harris says goodbye to Germany - the last attack by the British Bomber Command on Germany is recorded - the goal is the port of Kiel!
The already heavily damaged German cruiser "Admiral Hipper" gets the rest ...:
Contrary to the intentions of the new "Reich President" Admiral Dönitz, which became known the day before yesterday, to defend Hamburg to the last man and the last cartrigde, the Germans today accept an offer from Montgomery to negotiate the peaceful handover of the city of Hamburg, to save human life.
The "High Command of the Wehrmacht" in Flensburg sends a delegation to Montgomery to sign this agreement...:
Both sides arrange that Hamburg will be handed over without a fight in front of Hamburg City Hall the following morning ...:
The Americans were handed over Passau in Bavaria (here German parliamentarians, whose GI's have blindfolded) ...
... and Schwerin in Mecklenburg without a fight ...:
**continued nexct post**
Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
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- Jul 11, 2008
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- 8,995
Reims:
US Commander in Chief Eisenhower makes it clear that even with the new "government" of the "Reich President" Donitz is not negotiating a partial surrender of the Germans in the West alone.
Germany had no other way out than unconditional surrender on all fronts and against all allies!
Reutte (Austria):
Almost all important German rocket scientists are in American hands as of today! You were arrested by US troops in the village of Reutte (Tyrol, Austria).
In the picture on the left we see Generalmajor Walter Dornberger with hat, the military chief of the rocket builders...
... the scientist Herbert Axster, SS-Obersturmführer Wernher von Braun (in civilian clothes and with broken arm) and Hans Lindenberg after their arrestation ...:
The World:
The news of Adolf Hitler's death rushes around the world today - although many newspapers unchecked print the - wrong - German radio report that Hitler fell in the fight against the Soviets ...:
US Commander in Chief Eisenhower makes it clear that even with the new "government" of the "Reich President" Donitz is not negotiating a partial surrender of the Germans in the West alone.
Germany had no other way out than unconditional surrender on all fronts and against all allies!
Reutte (Austria):
Almost all important German rocket scientists are in American hands as of today! You were arrested by US troops in the village of Reutte (Tyrol, Austria).
In the picture on the left we see Generalmajor Walter Dornberger with hat, the military chief of the rocket builders...
... the scientist Herbert Axster, SS-Obersturmführer Wernher von Braun (in civilian clothes and with broken arm) and Hans Lindenberg after their arrestation ...:
The World:
The news of Adolf Hitler's death rushes around the world today - although many newspapers unchecked print the - wrong - German radio report that Hitler fell in the fight against the Soviets ...:
Hi Martin
Another great update , it's amazing how your bringing all this together ..a lot of work and it's so interesting to see and read
Are there still plans for the book ?
Thanks for sharing
Nap
Another great update , it's amazing how your bringing all this together ..a lot of work and it's so interesting to see and read
Are there still plans for the book ?
Thanks for sharing
Nap
Blind Pew
PlanetFigure Supporter
Thanks Martin. Still interesting, informative and... entertaining.
Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 8,995
I actually started the project because there are many details missing in the books that you can buy - and the choice of images is usually very limited. I also like to write and research and am interested in "history" - this may have something to do with my profession (journalist) ...
Collecting the material - especially the pictures (more than 7.000) - took several years of work.
Now the thing is here - and someday, if I can no longer paint, you will get older ...
I will publish it then.
Do not decide whether it is good until you have read the last part - and that will take a little while.
IF I publish it, I first have to find a publisher (difficult) with a good editor (even more difficult) - and then have to conduct long and complicated negotiations with all possible positions on image rights (most difficult!)
I admit that this more legal work is (still) a bit off for me at the moment.
But I think who of you stores all that stuff has a pretty decent record of that time ...
In the meantime, there is a second book in the same "knitting pattern", i.e. in calendar form (exact to the day) and with many unknown images.
It deals with the 63 days of the Warsaw Uprising in autumn 1944.
In the meantime, I am completely happy to tell you about the history of my country and in a form that hopefully is "readable" - and entertaining.
Cheers
Collecting the material - especially the pictures (more than 7.000) - took several years of work.
Now the thing is here - and someday, if I can no longer paint, you will get older ...
I will publish it then.Do not decide whether it is good until you have read the last part - and that will take a little while.
IF I publish it, I first have to find a publisher (difficult) with a good editor (even more difficult) - and then have to conduct long and complicated negotiations with all possible positions on image rights (most difficult!)
I admit that this more legal work is (still) a bit off for me at the moment.
But I think who of you stores all that stuff has a pretty decent record of that time ...
In the meantime, there is a second book in the same "knitting pattern", i.e. in calendar form (exact to the day) and with many unknown images.
It deals with the 63 days of the Warsaw Uprising in autumn 1944.
In the meantime, I am completely happy to tell you about the history of my country and in a form that hopefully is "readable" - and entertaining.
Cheers
Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 8,995
Thursday, May 3, 1945
Berlin:
The imperial capital Berlin is unusually quiet this morning!
For the first time in months, there are no more bomb explosions and grenade hits. Nevertheless, fires still rage everywhere, a suffocating cloud of fire and smoke gases lies over the city.
The force that conquered the Führer bunker and the Reich Chancellery belongs to General Bersarin's IX. Rifle Corps of the 5th Shock Army
The first thing they do is hoist a red banner on the roof of the half-destroyed building; this task is performed by a woman, Major Anna Nikolina from the political administration of the IX. Rifle Corps. She will later be awarded with the "golden star" of a "heroine of the Soviet Union"!
At the same time and "just in case", as the corps war diary says, "Sergeant Bondarenko and soldier Bondarew put a red flag on the main entrance of the building".
Then the Soviets set out to investigate the site (while some female soldiers taking dresses from Eva Hitler)...
... and Hitler's bunker in particular. One picture shows the extremely large and powerful magnifying glass that Hitler needed to read ...
They are extremely keen on the matter, since General Bersarin...
... has issued a day order that also promises the soldier who finds Hitler's body the golden star of a "Hero of the Soviet Union".
The first thing the seekers find are the murdered Goebbels children who are covered with sheets...:
Red Army soldiers hastily bring in Hitler's naval adjutant, Vice Admiral Hans-Erich Voss, who is to identify the children (photo above). Voss bursts into tears at the sight of them...:
A little later, soldiers find the half-burned bodies of Magda and Joseph Goebbels in the courtyard! They carry the Goebbels children outdoors and place them next to their parents. Admiral Voss - here in the middle next to Bersarin - must also identify the parents ..:
The message about this starts up the chain of command and reaches Stalin after a short time.
He reacts with a tantrum!
He wants to know why the entire area has not long been cordoned off for ordinary soldiers. The idea that simple "Frontowiks" become witnesses and possibly take unauthorized pictures with cameras is unbearable to him!
Stalin orders the immediate punishment (degradation) of the responsible officers!
A short time later units of the uniformed secret service "Smersh" (a Russian acronym for "Smert Shpionem!" = "Death to the spies!") are on site.
Surprisingly, it was not the people in charge of Bersarin's 5th shock army, but the neighboring association, the 3rd shock army of General Wassilij Kusnetzow!
That only leads to the conclusion that Stalin's telephone conversation with Bersarin was overheard by the neighboring unit!
When the "Smersh" chief arrives in the courtyard of the Reich Chancellery, he is received with the message: "We have found Hitler's body!"
Almost at the same time General Alexander Wadis, the top "Smersh" commander of Shukow's army arrives ...:
Stalin summoned him to take command!
Wadis is led by "Smersh" officers - meanwhile the area is strictly shielded - to a body that looks very similar to Hitler at first glance ...:
But after a superficial examination, Wadis waves off!
The dead man is wearing torn underwear and old and multi-socked socks on both feet! And even the most proletarian internationalist cannot imagine that the leader of the Greater German Empire went around like this.
No - this is not Hitler! Incidentally, it was never clarified who the dead man really was!
**continued next post**
Berlin:
The imperial capital Berlin is unusually quiet this morning!
For the first time in months, there are no more bomb explosions and grenade hits. Nevertheless, fires still rage everywhere, a suffocating cloud of fire and smoke gases lies over the city.
The force that conquered the Führer bunker and the Reich Chancellery belongs to General Bersarin's IX. Rifle Corps of the 5th Shock Army
The first thing they do is hoist a red banner on the roof of the half-destroyed building; this task is performed by a woman, Major Anna Nikolina from the political administration of the IX. Rifle Corps. She will later be awarded with the "golden star" of a "heroine of the Soviet Union"!
At the same time and "just in case", as the corps war diary says, "Sergeant Bondarenko and soldier Bondarew put a red flag on the main entrance of the building".
Then the Soviets set out to investigate the site (while some female soldiers taking dresses from Eva Hitler)...
... and Hitler's bunker in particular. One picture shows the extremely large and powerful magnifying glass that Hitler needed to read ...
They are extremely keen on the matter, since General Bersarin...
... has issued a day order that also promises the soldier who finds Hitler's body the golden star of a "Hero of the Soviet Union".
The first thing the seekers find are the murdered Goebbels children who are covered with sheets...:
Red Army soldiers hastily bring in Hitler's naval adjutant, Vice Admiral Hans-Erich Voss, who is to identify the children (photo above). Voss bursts into tears at the sight of them...:
A little later, soldiers find the half-burned bodies of Magda and Joseph Goebbels in the courtyard! They carry the Goebbels children outdoors and place them next to their parents. Admiral Voss - here in the middle next to Bersarin - must also identify the parents ..:
The message about this starts up the chain of command and reaches Stalin after a short time.
He reacts with a tantrum!
He wants to know why the entire area has not long been cordoned off for ordinary soldiers. The idea that simple "Frontowiks" become witnesses and possibly take unauthorized pictures with cameras is unbearable to him!
Stalin orders the immediate punishment (degradation) of the responsible officers!
A short time later units of the uniformed secret service "Smersh" (a Russian acronym for "Smert Shpionem!" = "Death to the spies!") are on site.
Surprisingly, it was not the people in charge of Bersarin's 5th shock army, but the neighboring association, the 3rd shock army of General Wassilij Kusnetzow!
That only leads to the conclusion that Stalin's telephone conversation with Bersarin was overheard by the neighboring unit!
When the "Smersh" chief arrives in the courtyard of the Reich Chancellery, he is received with the message: "We have found Hitler's body!"
Almost at the same time General Alexander Wadis, the top "Smersh" commander of Shukow's army arrives ...:
Stalin summoned him to take command!
Wadis is led by "Smersh" officers - meanwhile the area is strictly shielded - to a body that looks very similar to Hitler at first glance ...:
But after a superficial examination, Wadis waves off!
The dead man is wearing torn underwear and old and multi-socked socks on both feet! And even the most proletarian internationalist cannot imagine that the leader of the Greater German Empire went around like this.
No - this is not Hitler! Incidentally, it was never clarified who the dead man really was!
**continued next post**
