1 MAY 1945
“Hitler is dead. He fought to his last breath for Germany against Bolshevism.”
(address by Grand Admiral Dönitz on Radio Hamburg)
Where is Hitler? In the middle of the night, in the streets of Berlin, the words rang out like a burst of machine-gun fire. The Russian soldiers had learned by heart that phrase in German: “Wo ist Hitler?” Where is Hitler? For the general staff of the Red Army, the issue was vital. Marshals Zhukov and Konev, who were in charge of the assault on the German capital, had received two missions from Stalin: to conquer the city before the arrival of the British and the Americans and to catch Hitler. Neither Zhukov nor Konev had any intention of disappointing the master of the Kremlin.
Very quickly they understood that Hitler was hiding near the New Chancellery. The crazed defence of the Nazis around the imperial quarter gave them a clue as did the size of their forces; and then there were all the witness statements from civilian and military prisoners: “Hitler declared that he would remain in the city to the end,” they said. “He would be locked in a bunker.”
It seemed inevitable now that they would catch him. The symbols of German power fell one after the other. The Reichstag had been taken the previous evening, at about ten o’clock. The flag of the Soviet Union now flew over the ruins of its dome. On the ground, the battles continued to rage with cruel intensity. In fifteen days, the battle of Berlin had claimed at least 20,000 civilian and 200,000 military lives in both camps. It was one o’clock in the morning, the last few metres leading to the government buildings were gained at the cost of the blood of hundreds of soldiers. The last SS regiments fanatically defended the smoking ruins of the New Chancellery.
Suddenly, as if by magic, silence fell. Then a single shot and no more screams. The whole area was plunged into an unreal calm. Two men in Wehrmacht uniforms felt their way across the charred stones and the shapeless rubble of what had once been one of the most beautiful streets in Berlin. The infantry general Hans Krebs spoke reasonably good Russian. It was because of this linguistic skill and his status as head of the land army that he risked his life in the middle of the worst combat zone in Berlin. The orders he received in the Führerbunker had been clear: he had to attempt to negotiate with the Soviets. Beside him, an officer, Colonel von Dufving, had been given the task of assisting him and, if necessary, of protecting him. Certainly, a few hours previously, an agreement had been concluded between the two warring forces to let them pass freely, but would the Russians respect it?
The two German soldiers were quickly led to the nearest Soviet command post, the post of the 8th Army led by General Vasily Chuikov. Of humble origins, indefatigable and intransigent with the enemy, he was the son of a Russian peasant, a colossus with rustic manners. Hans Krebs, on the other hand, embodied the German military aristocracy. Shaven-headed, he had put on his finest military costume with his Iron Cross clearly in evidence and a long, impeccable leather coat. As one last flourish he wore a monocle in his left eye. The two men were almost the same age, the Russian forty-five and the German forty-seven. But in all other respects they were opposites. Chuikov had thick black hair, his forehead furrowed with deep wrinkles mixed with startling scars, heavy, severe eyebrows, a flattened nose, his skin thick and soft from heavy drinking, and most of all, incredible teeth, all of them false, made of silvery metal. It only made his grimacing smile all the more menacing. Krebs remained rigid in the face of the animal power exuded by his enemy. In the photographs taken by the Soviets during those negotiations, the anxiety of the German general is palpable. Krebs committed one first mistake. He stood to attention and gave his best military salute. He thought he was in the presence of Marshal Zhukov. Chuikov was amused by his confusion, and turned gleefully towards his officers. Krebs managed to catch a few words that the Russians exchanged in front of him, notably when Chuikov uttered a thundering: “We’ll have to finish them all off!” which did not presage anything good.
At last the Russian general telephoned Zhukov and said, “Personally, I wouldn’t stand on ceremony. Unconditional surrender, and that’s that.” During the phone call, the attitude of the Soviet soldiers who were present worried the two Germans. Their hatred was palpable. Krebs was even violently taken aside by a colonel, who wanted to remove the pistol that he wore in his belt. It took several other officers to calm him down. For his part, Zhukov confirmed that no negotiation was conceivable in the absence of the Allies.
Krebs then played his last remaining card. He held out a document that he had taken from von Dufving’s saddlebag. It was a letter from Goebbels addressed to the “ruler of the Soviet people.” It said that Hitler had killed himself the previous day and had passed on his power to Dönitz, Bormann, and Goebbels.
Hitler dead! The Russians hadn’t expected that. Zhukov was given the news almost immediately. The information was too serious, and he decided to call Stalin straight away. It was four o’clock in the morning in Moscow and the Soviet dictator was asleep. “I’m ordering you to wake him up,” Zhukov shouted at the officer on duty. “It’s urgent, and it can’t wait till tomorrow.”* The announcement of the suicide vexed the head of the Kremlin: “So that’s the end of the bastard. Too bad he couldn’t be taken alive. Where is Hitler’s body”*
Meanwhile, at 3:18, an urgent radio telegram reached the general staff of Grand Admiral Dönitz in Plön. It was signed by Goebbels and Bormann:
Grand Admiral Dönitz (personal and secret)
To be conveyed only by officer.
Führer died yesterday, 1530 hours. In his will dated April 29 he appoints you as President of the Reich, Goebbels as Reich Chancellor, Bormann as Party Minister, Seyss-Inquart as Foreign Minister. The will, by order of the Führer, is being sent to you and to Field Marshal Schoerner and out of Berlin for safe custody. Bormann will try to reach you today to explain the situation. Form and timing of announcement to the Armed Forces and the public is left to your discretion. Acknowledge.
Signed: Goebbels, Bormann.†
A few hours later, at about seven o’clock, Radio Hamburg interrupted its schedule and broadcast an extract from Wagner’s Twilight of the Gods. Then a communiqué was read several times. It indicated that Hitler was still supported by his troops in Berlin. Two hours later, a sombre voice warned listeners that a solemn announcement was due to be broadcast. Against a background of funeral music, Dönitz’s voice rang out. “German men and women, Wehrmacht soldiers: our Führer, Adolf Hitler, has fallen. The German people bow in grief and veneration.”
End of the day in the Führerbunker in Berlin. General Krebs was back. The Russians categorically rejected his offer of a ceasefire. They demanded an unconditional surrender. Most of all they wanted Hitler’s body to prove that he was really dead and not in flight.
* Elena Rzhevskaya, Carnets, op. cit., p. 227.
* Zhukov (Marshal), Memoirs, New York, Delacorte Press, 1971, p. 622.
† Karl Dönitz, Memoirs, Ten Years and Twenty Days, Barnsley, Frontline Books, 2012, p. 452.