19. Goebbels, diary entry of February 6, 1945, in Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Teil II, vol. 15, p. 320.
20. See Martin Bormann to Gerda Bormann, February 6, 1945, in Bormann, The Bormann Letters, pp. 174f. See also Besymenski, Die letzten Notizen von Martin Bormann, p. 106.
21. Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, p. 196. Schroeder says nothing in her memoir about Eva Braun’s presence in Berlin in February 1945. See also “Besprechung zwischen Herrn Albrecht und Frl. Schröder, früher Sekretärin v. Hitler,” Berchtesgaden, May 22, 1945, in MA 1298/10, Microfilm, Various Documents, DJ-13 (David Irving), IfZ Munich.
22. See Martin Bormann to Gerda Bormann, February 6, 1945, in Bormann, The Bormann Letters, pp. 174f.
23. See Schmidt, Karl Brandt, p. 499.
24. Ibid., pp. 500f.
25. Ibid., pp. 501ff.
26. Eva Braun to Herta Schneider, Berlin, April 19, 1945, in Gun, Eva Braun, pp. 247–248. Transcript in Speer Papers, N 1340, vol. 287, BA Koblenz. Walter Schellenberg, head of the secret service since 1944, even claimed in his postwar memoir that the death sentence passed on Brandt really had to do with “an intrigue in Hitler’s closest circle, including Eva Braun and her sister, Frau Fegelein” (Schellenberg, Aufzeichnungen, p. 361).
27. Speer, Inside the Third Reich, p. 465.
28. See Martin Bormann to Gerda Bormann, February 6, 1945, in Bormann, The Bormann Letters, pp. 174f.
29. See Martin Bormann to Gerda Bormann, February 9, 1945, in Bormann, The Bormann Letters, pp. 180. See also Besymenski, Die letzten Notizen von Martin Bormann, p. 107.
30. See Martin Bormann to Gerda Bormann, February 9, 1945, in Bormann, The Bormann Letters, pp. 180. See also Besymenski, Die letzten Notizen von Martin Bormann, p. 107; Heinz Linge, Bis zum Untergang: Als Chef des Persönlichen Dienstes bei Hitler, ed. Werner Maser (Munich, 1982), pp. 69f. According to Linge, Bormann’s wife and children went with Eva Braun and her sister to Munich.
31. See Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, pp. 821f.; Giesler, Ein anderer Hitler, pp. 479f. Neither Bormann, named by Giesler as one of the people present, nor Speer makes reference to this event in his notes. Cf. Hiller von Gaetringen, ed., Das Auge des Dritten Reiches, pp. 86f.; Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, p. 403.
32. Speer, Albert Speer: Die Kransberg-Protokolle 1945, p. 133. See also Wilhelm Höttl, Einsatz für das Reich (Koblenz, 1997), p. 117.
33. See Besymenski, Die letzten Notizen von Martin Bormann, p. 147; Speer, Erinnerungen, p. 468.
34. Martin Bormann to Gerda Bormann, February 18, 1945, in Bormann, The Bormann Letters, p. 183. See also Linge, Bis zum Untergang, p. 70.
35. Julius Schaub, quoted from Meissner, “Der letzte Befehl,” p. 34.
36. Besymenski, Die letzten Notizen von Martin Bormann, p. 148. Cf. Gun, Eva Braun, p. 181.
37. Henriette von Schirach, Frauen um Hitler, p. 236.
38. Speer, Inside the Third Reich, p. 465. See also Artur Axmann, “Das kann doch nicht das Ende sein”: Hitlers letzter Reichsjugendführer erinnert sich (Koblenz, 1995), p. 434. Axmann, who moved into the “Führer bunker” on April 23, reports that Eva Braun told him there “that the Führer had sent her to Munich in early March, but that she had returned to Berlin against his will on April 15.”
39. Speer, Inside the Third Reich, p. 465; Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, p. 404.
40. See Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, p. 731. Joachim von Ribbentrop, Zwischen London und Moskau, p. 268.
41. See the extensive discussion in Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, p. 732. See also Michael Bloch, Ribbentrop: A Biography (New York, 1993), pp. 421ff.; Schmidt, Albert Speer, pp. 151ff.; Fest, Speer, pp. 314ff.; Longerich, Heinrich Himmler, pp. 745ff.
42. Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, p. 198.
43. Ibid., p. 168.
44. Eva Braun to Herta Schneider, Berlin, April 19, 1945, in Gun, Eva Braun, pp. 247–248.
45. See Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, p. 199.
46. Eva Braun to Herta Schneider, Berlin, April 19, 1945, previously cited. Junge also reports that there were gunshots (Bis zur letzten Stunde, p. 182). Hitler had apparently tried again and again to persuade her to leave the bunker and get herself to safety. Heinrich Hoffmann reports that Hitler asked him to bring Eva Braun to Munich with him in early April 1945 (Hoffmann, Hitler wie ich ihn sah, pp. 230f.).
47. Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, p. 408. Speer similarly writes (Inside the Third Reich, p. 484) that Eva Braun was “the only prominent candidate for death in this bunker who displayed an admirable and superior composure.” Likewise Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, p. 169, and Axmann, “Das kann doch nicht das Ende sein,” p. 434, who wrote that Eva Braun appeared to him “like an unreal apparition.”
48. See Junge, Bis zur letzten Stunde, p. 183; Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, p. 417.
49. See Lakowski, “Der Zusammenbruch der deutschen Verteidigung zwischen Ostsee und Karpaten,” p. 648.
50. See Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, p. 411; Speer, Inside the Third Reich, pp. 474; Loringhoven, Mit Hitler im Bunker, p. 145; Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, p. 823; Frank, Der Tod im Führerbunker, pp. 34ff. Eva Braun had written to Herta Schneider on the previous day that “getting through with a car” was probably “no longer an option.” But “a way for us all to see you again would surely” turn up (Eva Braun to Herta Schneider, Berlin, April 19, 1945, previously cited).
51. Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, pp. 200ff.
52. Statement of Erich Kempka about Hitler’s last days, Berchtesgaden, June 20, 1945, MA 1298/10, Microfilm, Various Documents, DJ-13 (David Irving), IfZ Munich.
53. Cf. Junge, Bis zur letzten Stunde, p. 177, gives the line as “Blood-red roses tell you of my joy.” But this line does not appear in the 1929 song “Bluterote Rosen” [“Blood-Red Roses”]; music by Hans Hünemeyer, lyrics by Alfred Krönkemeier).
54. See Bloch, Ribbentrop p. 425. See also Speer, Inside the Third Reich, p. 483, which however does not mention a meeting between Eva Braun and Ribbentrop.
55. Eva Braun, quoted from Junge, Bis zur letzten Stunde, p. 178.
56. Hitler, quoted from Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, p. 1,032.
57. See Junge, Bis zur letzten Stunde, p. 189; Loringhoven, Mit Hitler im Bunker, p. 150. See also Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, p. 205. Eva Braun wrote to her sister Gretl on April 23, 1945: “I hope Morell has safely arrived with my jewelry. It would be terrible if something had happened.” (Eva Braun to Gretl Fegelein, Berlin, April 23, 1945, in Gun, Eva Braun, p. 254.)