Secrets of War Season 5, Ep 3: Hitler’s Last Days

[Music] [Music] one evening in 1937 at a party in berlin dr ferdinand sauer the personal physician to the german leader adolf hitler was talking with a man who would later become an informer for the allies [Music] a secret report by the office of strategic services america's wartime intelligence agency documented the doctor's description about his number one patient [Music] from my close observation of hitler for many years i believe the fuhrer to be a border case between genius and insanity i predict he will be the craziest criminal the world will ever know several years later the third reich was crumbling berlin was being loved and hitler's inner circle was disintegrating trusted colleagues were secretly betraying him and the words of dr sauer blowoff became prophetically true [Music] these were adolf hitler's last days on earth the tranquility of this western european countryside reveals no trace of what was once a decisive battlefield in the world's most devastating conflict december 16 1944 more than five years had passed since the beginning of world war ii the leader of nazi germany made one last gamble for his dream of world domination and the promised one thousand-year reich adolf hitler went against the advice of his top generals and launched his secret offensive codenamed autumn fog if you can drive a wedge through the allied lines hence the name battle of the bulge then he can break through that bulge get to antwerp and and grab a port which is vital to the supplying of the allied armies in europe he can further throw his secret weapons into antwerp and catch large concentrations of american troops with vengeance weapons and that's the plan and he starts to look like he's going to succeed on the other side of the front supreme allied commander general dwight david eisenhower believed victory was in sight and the war would be over by spring [Music] but german territorial gains across the border into belgium made the battle of the bulge one of the largest and most costly campaigns ever fought in the history of the american army however allied superiority in the skies over germany was helping to turn the tide for the americans on the ground german air power was fading for the allies total victory now appeared certain nonetheless an increasingly delusional adolf hitler still believed in an entirely different outcome some point i think he really became confirmed in the belief that his will could prevail that destiny had a place for him he was specially chosen by history and all he had to do was will and it would come true and even at the end as the world was collapsing around him hitler still thinks that somehow he can exert his will and history will change while the fuhrer walked a path of denial to his military the situation on the battleground told a different story only months before his generals tried to assassinate him he no longer listened to his advising commanders he trusted almost no one [Music] during the war the office of strategic services the predecessor to the cia compiled information for a secret report on hitler organized by psychoanalyst walter langer from books and conversations with refugees that fled germany langer and his team were able to develop a psychological profile of the german leader langer arrived at his conclusion in 1944 hitler might commit suicide this is the most plausible outcome not only has he frequently threatened to commit suicide but from what we know of his psychology it is the most likely possibility the mood state that he was afflicted with most of the time was very severe depression he became more and more depressed unable to function unable to make decisions and able to lead so he ruled by impulse the first thing that came to his mind and his generals saw this and they realized increasingly that he was going to lose the war for them on december 26 1944 a heated argument erupted between hitler and a member of his inner circle field marshal hermann gehring knew the war was lost and was ready to contact the swedish diplomat camp faulk von bernard for an armistice hitler refused and accused gering of betrayal and cowardice peter would consider suing for piece of betrayal because hitler's ego didn't allow for peace it only allowed for winning as the world ushered in the new year of 1945 the german army began a retreat from the battle of the bulge the furore withdrew from the western front and returned to the german capital hitler and his staff arrived to a berlin bombed beyond recognition the throne of the third reich had been reduced to ruins by january 1945 the allies have control of the air over all of europe and a decision is made to bomb berlin to rubble in fact make the rumble bounce because there are 21 days in one period where there's there's bombing of berlin day and night in the capital of germany hitler's seat of power was the right chancellery a palatial building designed by albert speer the fuhrer's chief architect out in the chancellery garden a tunnel led to a secret underground bunker it was prepared months earlier in 1944 and buried below tons of earth it had several levels of rooms and passageways reinforced with 12 tons of concrete this was hitler's fiera bunker on january 6 1945 hitler entered the last home of his life [Music] he was protected by an entire unit of ss troops his three-room suite in the lower bunker was fireproof and impenetrable to gas from here hitler alone directed the defense of germany [Music] like a scene out of one of his favorite wagnerian operas adolf hitler was determined to save germany from total destruction all he needed was a miracle hitler boasted to one of his secretaries that the luftwaffe would be returning to the sky in great numbers to stop allied air raids over germany nothing was further from the truth you can virtually understand everything that hitler did in the context of manic depressive disorder it offers a genuine explanation for what he did one of the things that manics are famous for is boasting hitler boasted propaganda minister joseph goebbels had been by the fuhrer's side since the beginning at the end of january 1945 with the germans in full retreat gerbils managed to retain some hope he made an entry in his personal diary which was recovered after the war the situation in the west causes me great anxiety what will happen if the enemy really makes a breakthrough there but we will not assume the worst for general eisenhower the capture of berlin was not a military objective that honor was given to the red army of the soviet union berlin was the russian army's target for total victory so the intelligence about what's in berlin is the furor in berlin what's he doing where's his headquarters was not of great concern to to the western allies stalin wants berlin he is rushing toward berlin it's almost a primitive belief you take the enemy's castle you take the enemies principal city and you win for the defense of germany's eastern flank hitler prevailed on one of the few men from his inner circle whom he still trusted with little field command experience the notorious chief of the ss for accura heinrich himmler became responsible for defending the road to berlin while hitler trusted himmler however the ss general was secretly betraying him by attempting to negotiate peace with the allies himmler was gambling that the west might accept him as a german peace partner in place of hitler you have to understand that himmler did not perceive the degree to which he would be personally held accountable for what was then called the final solution is now known as the holocaust and that he would in particular be persona non grata in the west perhaps more than anyone else within hitler's inner circle himmler was responsible for carrying out the plan to exterminate all jewish men women and children who fell under nazi occupation germany had been fighting two wars world war ii and the nazis racist war what historians called the war against the jews by the end of 1944 with the blood of nearly five million victims on his hands himmler made an offer to the west through intermediaries to release one million jewish prisoners [Music] the offer fell on deaf ears the allies goal was total and unconditional surrender and there would be no deal that might possibly interfere with that objective facing himmler and the german army at the eastern front on the odor river was the russian marshal georgie zhukov and his troops the staggering losses from stalingrad at the hands of the germans were still fresh in the minds of the russian soldiers but rather than engaging himmler's troops in battle zhukov simply diverted his army around them and raced farther west himmler had failed completely on january 27 1945 the russians crossed the odor river and were only 100 miles from berlin secrets of war will continue in a moment here on the history channel we now return to secrets of war by february 1945 following the dismal failure to slow down the soviet advance hitler reluctantly replaced heinrich himmler his longtime friend and confidante in the west the germans withdrawal continued to the rhine river the setting for the last great german defense as the american troops near the rhine the rhine becomes the symbol that once you cross that the war is practically over you're and you're moving into the heart of germany and germany is melting before you hitler issued an order to his generals the allies were not to cross the rhine anyone failing to prevent their advance would be executed [Music] all bridges up and down the river were destroyed all that is but one there's a railroad bridge in ramadan it's called the remogdon bridge there's a small german unit on the other side of the bridge that puts up feeble resistance so the infantry unit actually gets to the other side of the bridge and that becomes the funnel for starting to send troops across the rhine on march 7th for the first time in the war the americans were crossing the rhine and pouring into central germany [Music] deep underground in berlin hitler was furious eight german officers who failed to blow up the bridge were executed the following week hitler made a brief appearance on the eastern front while inspecting his troops he implored his commanders to continue the fight he was convinced that the development of a secret weapon of mass destruction would win the war one of the things he pinned his hopes on was an atomic bomb now in fact and he knew this the germans had given up a practical development of a bomb some years before but he knew it was a theoretical possibility and now in his mind it became reality again and he said don't worry everything's going to be fine we're working on a secret weapon we're going to use it we'll win the war he would save germany and possibly even win the war but deep in the bunker when hitler was given pictures of german refugees streaming toward the west he refused to look denial can work for you in many different it's like you know it's a defense mechanism it helps one of the components of male depressive disorder it's indifference to the suffering of other people now you the thought that hitler yes we know that he was indifferent to the suffering of gypsies and jews he was also indifferent to the suffering of germans [Music] as the russians approached the german capital a call to arms summoned civilians throughout the city to continue the struggle meanwhile the nazi bureaucracy tried to raise public morale by declaring that german soldiers were coming to their rescue most berliners remained unconvinced there were no more newspapers but there were leaflets printed with the fuhrer is announcing the last fight we believe that he wanted to be buried with the city nobody talked about surrender or anything but rather it was said that the army bank a replacement army would arrive from outside and that was another diversion some believed in a rescue of some sort but i never did believe in that in austria the allies reached the village of branau arm in hitler's birthplace when the local ss unit wanted to stand up and fight someone spoke out against resisting allied forces this 83 year old woman steps forth and says i want to say something our town is going to go down in history as a condemned place as a terrible place because it will be known as hitler's birthplace turns out this 83 year old woman was the midwife who helped bring hitler into the world and she says i'm haunted by the idea that i could have put a stop to it right then and there i could have strangled him i didn't and this terrible thing has come to pass so let's do what we can now to make it right and surrender the town with any further loss of life the americans took the village peacefully hitler claimed that if germany did not stand behind him now the nation had no moral wars and deserved its own destruction he believed that the german people had let him down instead of overseeing a victory he was witnessing the invasion of the fatherland [Music] on march 19 hitler issued orders for his armaments minister albert speer to destroy the country's bridges roads and industrial sites nothing would be left but scorched earth the german people were going to be punished spear was appalled at the idea without hitler's knowledge spear went on a campaign to discourage nazi officials from carrying out the furore's orders he was out to save germany's infrastructure as spring arrived in april of 1945 russian shells were raining down on berlin propaganda minister joseph goebbels was in the bunker reading out loud to hitler about the history of frederick the great it was an attempt to raise the fuhrer's flagging spirits by recalling the glory days of the 18th century german leader some centuries before the ruler of germany actually prussia frederick the great was surrounded by the forces by the russians and it looked like it was all over and he was contemplating suicide and then a miracle happened it's called the miracle of the house of brandenburg because frederick was of the house of brandenburg the tsarina head of the russians died and this mark really did mark a reversal in their fortunes and the prussians frederick fought on and they won garbel sends for some horoscopes astrological projections and these are studied and interpreted to say that germany was going to have early successes which he did then a series of calamitous reversals but then in april there would be a miracle there would be a total reversal and the germans would win [Music] on april 12th startling news reached the bunker across the atlantic in washington dc hitler's adversary franklin roosevelt was dead four months into his fourth term as president of the united states in the bunker bottles of champagne were opened roosevelt's death provided a glimmer of hope for the collapse of the allied forces [Music] this is it we're saved hitler had his miracle his miracle of the house of brandenburg but of course it didn't make any difference the euphoria over roosevelt's death lasted just one day the next morning german troops in the ruhr the northwest region of germany surrendered to british and american forces as hitler's death camps were liberated the allies and the world learned the extent of the genocide perpetrated against the jews dwight david eisenhower visited the concentration camp voyage on april 12 1945. he wrote that he made the visit deliberately in order to be in a position to give first-hand evidence if ever in the future they deny these allegations or charge them merely to propaganda eisenhower summoned the cameras he summoned the press he summoned leaders of congress even general patton who was not particularly favorable to the jews summoned the entire town of weimar and forced them to walk through to see what they had wrought on april 16th soviet field marshal zhukov's army held up by the odor river in the east broke through german defensive lines five days later the russians were at the outskirts of berlin secrets of war will continue in a moment here on the history channel we now return to secrets of war [Music] over the objections of her parents she became hitler's companion in the mid 1930s publicly ava braun acted as hitler's hostess [Music] privately she was his lover rarely appearing together in public eva led a completely isolated life spending most of her time secluded in berchtesgaden hitler's bavarian castle hidden in the alps the seemingly impenetrable mountain fortress had become the german leader's favorite retreat as the war drew to a close the mistress wanted to be with her master on april 15 1945 ava joined hitler in the bunker she arrived to her own room in the lower level to the bunker's ss guards brown's presence in the bunker signaled that the end was near they gave her the nickname todus anga the angel of death on april 20th hitler turned 56 this is probably the last time hitler came out of the bunker very likely the last time he was photographed and what he's doing if you look at these photographs is hideous he's pinching the cheeks of his home guard and these are children some of these boys are 12 years old and what this monster is doing he's sending them off to defend bridges and other positions against russian tanks down in the bunker's strategy room hitler and his generals hovered over the latest map no one knew quite what to say up above the allied forces advanced on all fronts but hitler continued to plan for berlin's successful defense and he would talk about how general wank was going to break through with this or that or so-and-so is going to break through with this division and rescue them get them out keep the war going and these divisions had existed at one time but no longer they existed in hitler's mind but in fact the troops were long gone the only organized army out there was the red army it was coming for him [Music] on april 22nd in a military briefing deep in the bunker hitler was confronted by his generals with the news no one wanted to deliver the russians could not be stopped the german leader collapsed in his chair his voice trembling his face pale the fuhrer was suffering a [Music] breakdown when he recovered he realized what had long since been obvious to everyone there the war was lost that same day a partial evacuation of the bunker was ordered under heavy fire ten planes carrying eighty right chancellory personnel flew out of berlin their destination was burt's garden in pre-dawn light albert spear also flew out of berlin for the last time under a barrage of russian fire he arranged to meet with the british army and turned himself in allied intelligence agents suspected that hitler had also fled the capital there are all kinds of rumors flying that hitler is leaving berlin or was never there he's at burch's garden in fact there's a bizarre plant which never gets anywhere close to being carried out that hitler is going to be smuggled out of the bunker put in a plane the plane the small plane will fly to an airfield where there's a larger plane and that larger plane will fly hitler to manchuria which is still under the control of the japanese and his life will be saved and he'll be placed into the care of the japanese in manchuria that of course doesn't happen the allies believe the nazis were planning to make their last stand in bertisgarden perhaps to be led by hitler himself an intelligence report by the oss speculated that the fortress was connected by underground railways and stocked with several months supplies of munitions as well as almost all of germany's poison gas reserve the report raised concerns over the presumed existence of a secret german commando unit called the werewolves guerrilla fighters that would penetrate behind allied lines the western army with eisenhower running things is really afraid of a possibility of something happening to the south because there is this southern redout report that he gets and takes seriously in reality there were only a few fanatical ss soldiers nothing had ever been fully organized on april 28th in the radio room with the german propaganda ministry an officer picked up a bbc news broadcast that stunned everyone in the bunker himmler was conducting peace talks with count bernadotte of sweden hitler seethed with anger as he received the news to him it was one of the worst acts of betrayal by a member of his inner circle while hitler ordered himmler's immediate arrest the russians had surrounded berlin and were approaching the potsdamer plots just blocks away the chancellery would be taken within the next 30 hours secrets of war will continue in a moment here on the history channel we now return to secrets of war while the heaviest bombing and shelling had targeted the rex stud in chancellery the allies did not know exactly where the bunker was located even berlin's residents had no idea of its exact location the furore bunker's existence was generally known but exactly where whether in vildham strasse the reich chancellery or wherever that was considered top secret but everybody knew it existed down below hitler made the decision to end his life he's terrified of being captured alive by the russians he figures they'll put him in a cage and march him up and down red square put him on display so he's determined to commit suicide and to destroy his body eva braun chose to join him in death but first there would be one last official act on april 29th in the midst of fierce shelling walter wagner a minor municipal official was pulled from his unit defending the city he was taken to the bunker in order to preside over an unexpected ceremony and imagine this poor man this justice of the peace who's terrified he summoned in the middle of the night by whom the fury to go where the furore bunker must be something something a monumental historic consequence and it's a marriage a few minutes past midnight while berlin burned above wagner pronounced hitler and his longtime companion eva braun man and wife and there's that odd detail which you can see the marriage documents preserve where ava signed her name ava and then she wrote b for brown and she crosses that out and then puts hitler ava hitler which i suppose is the only time she ever signed her name that way when it was over wagner left the bunker and headed back to his post the russian shell landed in his path he never reached his unit adolf hitler readied himself for death he dictated a political statement in which he announced his successors with his final words adolf hitler affirmed his hatred of jews hitler's final words in his political will and testament to his people was to join his people to continue the war against the jews he viewed the jews as cancer on the body politic of his people and on the body of his people and therefore their elimination was essential to german national salvation [Music] hitler consulted privately with one of his personal doctors dr verner haas about the best method for suicide haas recommended taking poison immediately followed by a gunshot to the head hitler and his bride had planned to poison themselves with cyanide capsules supplied to them by himmler himmler however had betrayed him by negotiating with the western allies and he thought well wait a minute the guy's a rat he betrayed me i'll bet the poison that's the way hitler's mind work i'll bet the poison isn't poison it's probably knockout drops he's gonna knock me out you see but keep me alive and then sell me to the russians that's probably part of the deal we'd better find out if the cyanide really works hitler had the cyanide tested on his dog blondie the poison was indeed lethal the animal died immediately [Music] the dawn of april 30th brought the last day of hitler's life down in the artificial light of his windowless dwelling hitler sent off a message to admiral carl dernitz find and arrest himmler the message was ignored at noon hitler attended his last military situation conference and was told the soviets were less than a block away at 2pm in the bunker's map room hitler had lunch with his secretaries and cook everyone knew that his suicide was imminent [Music] the women had their own worries russian soldiers many known for their acts of rape awaited them once they fled the bunker at 3 p.m hitler announced that he and evo were going to commit suicide they bid a final farewell then hitler followed his wife into his suite [Music] a muffled shot was heard gerbils and martin bormann hitler's secretary rushed into the room to find the furious slumped forward dead he had taken his cyanide capsule and shot himself in the right temple his wife eva set lifeless and upright on the sofa dead from cyanide poisoning [Music] the bodies were carried up to the garden in army blankets and thrown into a shallow ditch they were doused in gasoline after a nazi salute they were set ablaze hours later the partially burned remains were buried [Music] joseph goebbels his wife magda and their six children had already moved into the bunker in the final entry of his diary goebbels had promised to remain together with hitler until the end with his children by his side for these reasons i with my wife and in the name of my children who are too young to make a statement themselves but who if they were old enough would adhere to my decision unreservedly hereby declare my irrevocable decision not to leave the right capital even should it fall we prefer to bring to an end by the side of the fuhrer a life which for me personally has no further value unless i can use it in the service of the fuhrer at his side [Music] on may 1st gables left the grisly task of murdering his children to his wife she gave each child a chocolate candy laced with a sleep-inducing drug then one by one she killed her own children with an overdose of morphine after the murders magda lit a cigarette played solitaire and downed a small bottle of champagne that same evening at 8 29 pm joseph and magda carried cyanide capsules and a loaded gun up to the chancillary garden and killed themselves [Music] kubos i would argue did something that people who are in psychotic depression do when they commit suicide they have a tendency to take their wives and children with them because in their minds the future is so horribly black there is no hope in the future such horrible punishment is coming that i'm going to save my children the agony that they're going to be put through because they're my children on the evening of may 1st hamburg radio made a special announcement [Music] adolf hitler is dead the fuhrer fell for germany fighting at the head of his troops to the last breath the reich was coming to an end just as it had begun in deceit [Music] secrets of war will continue in a moment here on the history channel we now return to secrets of war on the evening of may 1st while the body of joseph goebbels was burning in the chancellery garden a group of people broke away from the bunker [Music] the next day the capital of the reich surrendered to the russian army the battle of berlin was over [Music] this one there was a long silence for three four five hours where nothing happened other than artillery fire and after that stopped we suddenly saw those russian wagons arriving together with motorized units but i was so impressed that they had come all the way from russia by horse for the handful of jews of mixed marriages who survived the russian occupation was not entirely a blessing [Music] especially women were afraid for me personally it was a thing between liberation and fear of what was to come on one hand i admired the russians for having made it to berlin after what the germans did to the russians on the other hand it was really terrible there was not one woman that was not raped [Music] german soldiers were rounded up at noon the russians began the search for hitler's body when the russians come into berlin they want hitler i mean a whole special unit is set up to find hitler or find his body they find the bunker and they further find all of the evidence that hitler's body is lying there near the bunker along with the body of ava [Music] the invasion of germany was nearly complete on may 4th the americans reached bechtesgarden the castle of the third reich had been reduced to rubble any lingering speculation of a red doubt had ended on may 8 germany officially surrendered the guns across the continent fell silent for the first time in six years the war in europe was over it's fine it's i thought it was the end of the world although for me personally since i'm half jewish it was like a starting shot we were not conquered we were liberated and again there were things but the liberation wasn't exactly as i'd imagined since the russians made no difference between half jewish and german they were all enemies of the survivors of hitler's inner circle the ss reichfiora heinrich himmler and field marshal gehring were captured alive both committed suicide while in captivity [Music] while the world celebrated ve day five forensic scientists from the red army confirmed the identities of two badly charred corpses dental records proved they were adolf hitler and eva brahm but that was not the end of the story and then comes what i think is one of the first great mysteries of the cold war stalin decides that he's not going to tell his western lies about hitler two months later in july 1945 president harry truman met with soviet premier joseph stalin and prime minister winston churchill in potsdam germany to decide the future of europe while the map of defeated germany was being redrawn dividing east from west stalin revealed some startling information the soviets put out a story that hitler and eva brown escaped berlin and were perhaps in spain or south america false reports of sightings were everywhere the cold war had begun it's one of the many seeds that are sown at that time of enmity between uh the soviets and the west and you know we're going to see it grow pretty rapidly but the first seeds are planted there in the rumble of berlin while the russians had a corpse the allies had x-rays of hitler's skull that were captured by military intelligence agents the allies confirmed what the russians already knew but it wasn't until almost 20 years after the war that the soviet government finally ended the controversy in 1964 the russians copped and said he's dead he's been dead since 1945 and we knew it all along and we've got his jaw bone while the mystery surrounding adolf hitler's body was finally laid to rest his state of mind continues to be the subject of analysis many psychiatrists agree that hitler displayed the classic signs of manic depression a diagnosis for which today there is treatment [Music] it is really obvious by the time hitler was a child that he was quite conspicuously manic depressive a few doses of lithium could have completely changed history and there's no doubt about that whatever [Music] forty-four years after the end of the war germany reunited scars of war remain while the last remnants of the bunker have been buried the final home for the man who ignited the most destructive war the world has ever known has been covered over by a parking lot and a children's playground and the bunker becomes his tomb and becomes a tomb of germany and for that reason there's no particular interest in anyone seeing the bunker anymore i mean it will never become a a place where any kind of spirit of of hitler could be regenerated there is no shrine for adolf hitler or national socialism in germany he is generally regarded as an aberration of german history but to dismiss hitler is merely an aberration rather than to remember the horrific consequences of his acts would be perhaps more tragic than the price the world has already played for his philosopher george santayana said those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it [Music] you

Channel: Secrets of War - Full Episodes

Views: 25,340

Rating: 4.5999999 out of 5

Keywords: Charlton Heston, War, Non-fiction, Documentary, Series, Anti-Semitic, Nazi, Joseph Goebbels, Goebbels, Third Reich, Genocide, Jew, Jewish, Diary, World War II, WWII, World War, FilmRise

Id: nSBdMTYZsX8

Length: 45min 38sec (2738 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 20 2016