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Originally posted by Gotthard Heinrici+Mar 23 2005, 01:36 PM--> Quote:
(Gotthard Heinrici @ Mar 23 2005, 01:36 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'> Quote:
Originally posted by Kiwiwriter@Mar 23 2005, 04:13 PM
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Is it true that Hitler thrown into fire by his own men after he killed himself
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His body was cremated on-site. There are several books on the subject, with details varying. The witnesses present were under the highest level of stress, but the convergence is the same: the body was taken up the stairs to the bomb-blasted yard near the Fuhrerbunker, doused with gasoline, and burned. They didn't do a good job of it, as it was not incinerated thoroughly, and the Soviets found enough bones to make an indentification. There was even less fuel to eliminate the cadavers of Goebbels and his wife. Of all the descriptions I've read, Joseph O'Donnell's The Bunker has the best comment on the scene, quoting the Prophet Isaiah on the bizarre tableaux.
| I've read O'Donnells book and its a good read although I have read another book containing a rebuttal of facts in "The Berlin Bunker" which I shall dig out and make reference to tomorrow (head like a sieve). The cremations were botched up, I believe the Driver Kempka and Hitler's valet Linge were the ones to do it and in order to set the bodies on fire, they threw lighted paper from the entrance to the bunker as it was dangerous to be out in the garden where the bodies were. I assume that snipers were around.
What I find ironic about Hitler's Death in Berlin is that the City had no recognised wehrmacht or German SS formations defending the leader of the 3rd Reich at the end. There was a contigent of Frenchmen under General Krukenberg and elements of SS Nordland but other than that the rest were disorganised units and patched formations of second line troops and volksturm. The Army that had taken Hitler to the shores of the Atlantic and the Volga was noticeably absent at the end.
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O'Donnell's book is good but not definitive. Two of its values are that it covers the experiences of the Bunker crew, which often are only covered in the context of thier relationship to Hitler. The second is his acidic writing, which is a suitable tone for the subject. As I said, accuracy on the final days of Hitler is tough. Everybody was tired, exhausted, and at a high level of hysteria and tension. The SS troops holding Berlin were an odd bunch, including many of the "Foreign Legions," including an English guy, Patrick Leslie Cornford, from the "Britische Freikorps!" They fought hard, with good reason...they knew that if they were caught, they would be shot -- if not by the Soviets, by their home nations, as traitors. They had nothing left to lose but their lives. Also present was Himmler's SS-Wach Battalion, fighting for the Reichstag, and a detachment of naval midshipmen in gold braid, flown down from Wilhelmshaven and other naval schools, most of whom had never seen a rifle or a rifle range. O'Donnell found only one survivor. Doenitz sent them as a birthday present to Der Fuehrer.
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