Greim, the new commander-in-chief of the Air Force, did send planes, but not a single one made it through to Berlin. Greim had accurate information that no aircraft crossed the line of encirclement to get out of Berlin either. There was, in any case, nowhere left to evacuate to: armies were advancing from every direction.
To flee from defeated Berlin, to fall like a spent pawn into the hands of the Anglo-Americans, Hitler considered out of the question. He came up with a different plan: he would enter negotiations, from Berlin, with the British and Americans, who, he believed, should be interested in preventing the Russians from capturing the capital of Germany, and obtain some tolerable conditions for himself. He believed, however, that such negotiations would only be possible if the military situation in Berlin improved.
It was an unrealistic plan with no prospect of being implemented, but it obsessed Hitler, and if we want a full picture for history of the last days of the Third Reich, it should not be overlooked. Hitler must surely have realized that even a temporary improvement in Berlin’s situation would have no major impact in the context of the catastrophic military situation of Germany. He calculated, however, that it was a political prerequisite for the negotiations on which he was pinning his last deluded hopes. That is why he kept talking so frenziedly about Wenck’s army. There is no doubt that he was completely incapable of coordinating the defence of Berlin: we are talking here only about his plans.
I read in Rattenhuber’s testimony, written shortly after he was captured in Berlin, that Hitler was profoundly shocked by the treachery of Göring and Himmler, not because they began negotiating with the Allies, but because they did so behind his back. Göring and Himmler betrayed Hitler and finally took the feet from him when they bypassed him.
Going through the materials in the Council of Ministers Archive, I found a letter signed by Bormann and Krebs and addressed to General Wenck. It is dated 29 April. Lost in our archive and lacking its explanatory note, it seems to me an important document that reveals Hitler’s last intentions. I found it in Folder 128, in which miscellaneous documents judged to be of little interest were placed without careful scrutiny. As I have mentioned, in the preceding twenty years the archive had not been adequately sorted and systematized, but that had the fortunate side effect of allowing a degree of serendipity in the course of my researches.
And here, in this file, under the category ‘Documents and items found in May in Hitler’s bunker and at Goebbels’ apartment in Berlin’, a long list that extended from ‘Certificate of Award to Goebbels, Magda, of an Olympic Badge’ to ‘Horoscope for Helmut Goebbels’ (what future would that be promising the Reich Minister’s small son?) to the uniforms of Hitler and Voss (note of identification by Rattenhuber of two caps and two tunics attached), I discovered an orphaned, unlisted sheet of paper.
22.V.45. Detained Brichzi, Josef, d.o.b. 1928, member of the Hitler Youth, apprentice electrician.
In February 1945, conscripted into the Volkssturm militia and served in an anti-tank detachment, operating in Berlin. On the night of 28 April this year. Brichzi was summoned from a barracks located on Wilhelmstrasse and, escorted by a soldier, taken to the Reich Chancellery together with a youth of approx. 16 years of age.
At the Chancellery they were brought to Bormann, who said he was entrusting them with an important mission, to cross the front line and hand to General Wenck, the commander of the Twelfth German Army, packages that Bormann would give them.
Early in the morning on 29 April Brichzi darted across the front line on a motorcycle near the Reich sports field. He was fired at but escaped the Berlin encirclement uninjured and moved towards the west because General Wenck was believed to be in the vicinity of the village of Ferch, northwest of Potsdam.
Having reached Potsdam, Brichzi talked to soldiers of the German Army but obtained no definite information on the whereabouts of Wenck’s headquarters and decided to go back to Spandau, where his uncle lived.
His uncle advised him not to carry out the mission but to report to the Soviet Military Commandant’s Office and hand the documents over, which he did on 7 May 1945.
Text of the letter:
Dear General Wenck,
As can be seen from the enclosed reports, SS Reichsführer Himmler has made a proposal to the Anglo-Americans, which unconditionally hands our nation to the plutocrats.
Such a change of policy can be made only by the Führer personally, only by him!
A prerequisite for this is the prompt establishment of contact between the Wenck Army and us, in order to provide the Führer with the domestic and foreign policy freedom to conduct negotiations.
In the last days of Hitler we see clearly the vicious falsity of his entire life, inspired by the desire to wield power over other people, and with the real aim of personal aggrandizement, primarily through the agency of the German people.
For as long as he had breath, he continued to kill. The courtyard of the Reich Chancellery became a place of execution, of firing squads. Hitler made his threats, but the treason spread.
According to testimony from Hitler’s entourage, the commander of the Berlin Defence Area, Helmuth Weidling, asked Hitler to leave the city so it could cease fighting before it had been completely destroyed. Hitler was vanquished, crushed, dead – but even so he was determined to pull everyone else down with him. Let everything perish! ‘The Allies’, he declared, ‘will find in Germany nothing but ruins, rats, famine and death.’
No matter how the Nazi district leaders trembled before Bormann, growing despair is increasingly open in the reports preserved in his folder. The reports become more perfunctory, more poignant: the enemy shelling is intolerable, there are heavy losses, a shortage of weapons. It is impossible to withstand the onslaught of Russian troops. Nobody took any notice.
Here, in the bomb shelter, what Reitsch called ‘the Suicide Committee’ had already met, but Goebbels’ Berliner Frontblatt, dated 27 April, makes a sordid, blustering appeal to Berliners. ‘Bravo, Berliners! Berlin will remain German!’ It makes knowingly false promises of help to come:
Already armies are moving in to Berlin from all directions, ready to defend the capital, to inflict a conclusive defeat on the Bolsheviks and, at the last moment, change our city’s destiny. The reports coming in from the outside world testify to their progress. The fighting units advancing here know how eagerly Berlin is waiting for them. They will continue to fight fanatically to rescue us. The Führer himself stands at the head of the defence of Berlin.
Let us take a look in Bormann’s diary. The tone of the entry for that same day, 27 April, is completely different. It is quite unlike earlier entries, which usually consist of information and, the only evidence of emotion, exclamation marks.
Friday, 27 April
Himmler and Jodl are holding back on sending divisions to us.
We shall fight and die with our Führer – devoted to him to the grave.
Others are thinking of acting in the light of ‘higher considerations’, sacrificing their Führer. Phew – what swine! They have lost all sense of honour.
Our Reich Chancellery is being destroyed.
The world is now hanging by a thread.
The Allies are demanding unconditional surrender from us – that would be a betrayal of the Fatherland!
Fegelein is going to pieces; he tried to escape from Berlin dressed in civilian clothes.