Like 80 years ago today - on April 30, 1945 - Adolf Hitler committed suicide. A week later Germany capitulated. Thus ended World War II.
Blondi - that was the name of Adolf Hitler's puppy, who had remained loyal to the dictator for many years. The photos where they are seen together were intended to show the "human side" of Hitler, who had no human side, considering the great crimes he caused to humanity.
By the end of April 1945, Hitler had finally realized that the end was coming. Soviet troops were marching towards Berlin, the Nazis could not expect mercy from them. On April 30, around 2:00 p.m., Hitler and his girlfriend Eva Braun, whom he had married in the last moments of his life as a sign of gratitude for her loyalty, retreated to the private quarters of the bunker where Hitler was taking refuge. The dictator distributed poison ampoules to his most loyal associates and ordered them to surrender to British or American troops if possible, so as not to fall into the hands of the Soviets. Previously, such an ampoule had killed Hitler's puppy Blondi. The dictator himself committed suicide with a bullet in the mouth. Hitler probably did not want to experience the fate of Benito Mussolini. He was killed by Italian partisans on April 28, 1945, and a day later he was hanged and displayed at a gas station in Milan.
At around 3:30 p.m., a servant opened the door and announced to those present in the bunker that what had been expected had happened: Hitler had killed himself. His wife, meanwhile, had taken an ampoule of poison. Then the bodies were taken out into the bunker courtyard, doused with gasoline, and after several attempts, set on fire. The mortal remains of Hitler and his wife were buried in the bunker garden.
Hitler appointed Admiral Karl Dönitz as his successor as president of the German Reich and commander of the Wehrmacht, the German military forces. He appointed propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels as Reich Chancellor. On April 30, 1945, at around 10:40 p.m., the Soviet flag flew over the top of the Reichstag (parliament) in Berlin. It was raised by Soviet soldier Mikhail Minin. Since no photographer was present to document this iconic moment, the entire event was re-enacted on May 2, 1945. On May 1, Joseph Goebbels and his wife, before killing themselves, killed their six children. “Children, don’t be afraid, the doctor is now giving you an injection, which all children and soldiers receive,” Magda Goebbels Kunz told her children. The doctor injected them with morphine. When the children were asleep, Magda ordered the doctor to put an ampoule of poison into their mouths. Since the doctor did not have the strength to do this, another doctor was ordered to do the deed.
Although Hitler was already dead, the German public knew nothing. On May 1, between 9:00 p.m. and 10:25 p.m., the Reichssender Hamburg radio station interrupted its program three times to announce important news from the German government. In between the interruptions, excerpts from Richard Wagner’s operas (“Tannhäuser,” “Rheingold,” and “Götterdämmerung”) and Anton Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony were broadcast. At one point, the announcer’s voice was heard: “It is announced from the Führer’s headquarters that our Führer, Adolf Hitler, fell this afternoon at his command in the Reich Chancellery, fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism, for Germany.” The cause of death and the circumstances were deliberately kept secret.
Then Admiral Karl Dönitz took the floor, vowing that the war would continue to save the Germans from “Bolshevism.” The German anthem and the song of Horst Wessel, a Nazi paramilitary killed in 1930 by a German communist, were broadcast. Three minutes of silence followed, then funeral music was broadcast, including Beethoven’s “Eroica.” The radio program ended with the words: “We greet our listeners in Germany and abroad, our soldiers at sea, at the front and in the air with the German salute: Heil Hitler.” Several German generals, interned near London, called Karl Dönitz a “cow,” a “charlatan,” and “little Hitler.” Eight days later, the Nazi leaders signed the capitulation. (A2 Televizion)
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