Chapter 189 Chapter Thirty-One Five Minutes After Midnight, or "The Captain Sinks with the Ship" (1)

1945.4.20-30 The allies celebrated the birthday of the head of state by bombing with thousands of planes.But Hitler's confidence seemed unshakable. All day on April 20, he told his birthday guests that he still firmly believed that the Russians would be defeated in Berlin.In the afternoon, he received a group of "Hitler youths" in the garden of the Chancellery, thanking them for their heroic struggle in the capital.After that, he went into the bunker and received Admiral Karl Dönitz.Doenitz felt that Hitler was like an old man with a heavy burden.Then, the Führer greeted Keitel warmly. "You saved me during Atlentat and you got me out of Rastenburg. I won't forget you. You made the right decisions and acted right."

Keitel blurted out, "Negotiations should proceed immediately, otherwise Berlin will become a battlefield." Hitler interjected: "Keitel, I know what I want. I will fight, whether it is inside or outside Berlin." After Jodl's face-to-face consultation, he left.Civil and military officials—including Bormann, Ribbentrop, and Speer—processed to see him off; he shook hands with everyone and said a word or two.Almost everyone advised him to go to Berchtesgaden while the road was still clear, but he refused.From then on, he said, the empire would be divided into two theaters, with Doenitz in command of the northern zone.The logical candidate for command of the southern sector was Albert Kesselring, commander of the western front, but he also wanted Goering to take over - perhaps as a matter of political expediency.He said he would let God decide.He suggested that the staff officers in each theater should be divided into two halves, and those selected to go to the southern region should go south to Berchtesgaden that night.Goering asked, did he go south by himself, or did he send his chief of staff, Kohler? "Go yourself," said the Führer.The two old comrades, who were so close before, parted politely and indifferently.Goering immediately set off for Karlinghall - where his butler had packed 14 cars with clothes and art treasures.

Hitler dined alone with Eva and several secretaries.They urged him to go south again, but he said that in this way, he would be like a Tibetan lama turning a prayer wheel. "I have to force a decision in Berlin—or perish?" After midnight, he took the two younger and older secretaries to his private room and told them to drive to Admiral Pukamel in half an hour or so. Together with 80 other people, headed for Obersalzburg. (*Among those who went south was Dr. Morel. He was dispatched south because he suggested that Hitler be injected with caffeine to relieve his fatigue. "You'll probably give me morphine too! After Hitler yelled, he ordered him to take off the uniform of the head of state's personal doctor on the spot. "Go away! It's like you've never seen me before." Morell collapsed at Hitler's feet on the spot and was dragged out. Shortly after the war, He breaks down and dies.) The two women stare wide-eyed in amazement.His explanation was that they were the ones who had been with him the longest.Besides, Miss Wolfe has an old mother to support. "I will join you as soon as possible." He spoke in a low voice, trying to cover up the trembling of his left hand but couldn't.He sighed, which, it seemed to Miss Schroeder, came from the mouth of despair.A moment later, he called to tell her that Berlin was under siege.She can only start at dawn.A few minutes later, he called again to say that the plane would take off as soon as the air raid siren was lifted.She didn't quite understand (because of his throat gurgling when he spoke), so she asked him to repeat it.He didn't say anything.His last words to her colleague, Miss Wolfe, were: "It's over."

When it was still early that night, after congratulating the Führer on his birthday, Himmler left the bunker and drove for several hours in the torrential rain before meeting Masur, the representative of the "World Jewish Congress".Himmler said he had been mandated to solve the Jewish problem, and his original plan was to solve it humanely through immigration.But even countries that claimed to be friendly to the Jews refused to accept them. "Through the war," Himmler said, "we reached the mass of the Jewish proletariat in the East. This created the new problem, that is, we cannot hide such an enemy behind us." These Jews were not only aiding the partisans , but also spread diseases such as typhus. "In order to stop the epidemic," he explained, "we had to build crematoriums in order to burn the bodies of the large numbers of people who died of this disease. And now they're kicking the can down the road and saying something about it to us. Four!"

"Many things have been done that cannot be undone," Masur said, "but if we are to build a bridge to the future of our people, then the Jews who are still living in the German area must continue to live. ’” protested Himmler, who had traditionally advocated the transfer of concentration camps to the Allies.Didn't he do that with Bergen-Berschen and Buchenwald?But look what he got: Americans faked photos of atrocities and distributed them everywhere!When he sent 2,700 Jews to Switzerland, foreign newspapers declared that he was doing it to excuse himself, to show that he had nothing to do with it. "I don't need to excuse myself. I've done it historically and I feel like it's what my people need. I take full responsibility. I certainly didn't get rich off of it."

After Masur left, Himmler suddenly asked if his predecessor, Gerstein, could fly to Eisenhower's headquarters to discuss the immediate cessation of hostilities. "Please try to convince Eisenhower that the real enemy of mankind is Soviet Russia, and that we, the Germans, are the only ones fighting it. I will cede victory to the Western Allies who only need to give us time to defeat Russia. If I am equipped, I will It can still be done.” After Masur returned, Himmler said that in order to show that he kept his promise, he would immediately release 1,000 Jewish women from Ravensbruck.He stipulated that the arrival of these people in Sweden should be kept secret, and suggested that they should be called "Poles" instead of "Jews." Count Nadot was there waiting for him.The two had breakfast together.Although Himmler was tired from the ride, his appetite seemed unaffected, although he had to tap his front teeth with his fingernails from time to time.Bernadotte offered to allow Scandinavian prisoners to be transferred from Denmark to Sweden.It is inexplicable that Himmler refused such a trivial request.Bernadotte offered to hand over all the women in Ravenbruck to the Swedish Red Cross.After that, he went to bed.That afternoon, Himmler called Schulenburg to his bedroom and said he was not feeling well.The two of them got into the car and crawled along the crowded road. When they returned to the nearby headquarters, Himmler said: "Schulenburg, I am afraid that doom is doomed."

"That should give you the courage to take action." Himmler was silent.When Schulenburg criticized the unrealistic policy of evacuating all concentration camps, he pouted like a scolded child. "Schulenburg, don't do this," he said, "Hitler has been raving for days about not having completely evacuated Buchenwald and Bergen-Berschen." Himmler assured Masur that at present, all evacuation work has been terminated; Sachsenhausen, which is located in Zhukov's march on Berlin, is being driven out of the barracks and set off in the rain; 10 miles to the east, Zhukov's The artillery fire was roaring.The Red Cross demanded that the camp director hand over Sachsenhausen to them, but was refused on the grounds that Himmler had ordered that everything except the hospital be evacuated when the Russians approached.As a result, nearly 40,000 prisoners who were hungry, sick, and dressed in rags were lined up in two teams and driven out of the concentration camp.In the torrential rain, the sentries drove them towards the northwest.Anyone who could not keep up with the team was shot and thrown into the ditch.

"What can you do with a people whose women are raped and whose men don't even fight!" Goebbels admitted bitterly to his aides later that day, The war was lost irrevocably - not because of Hitler, but because of the people who failed him. "All the planning and ideas of National Socialism are too noble for a people like this... They deserve what is about to befall them. He even reprimanded his adjutant, "And you—why do you want to work with me?"Now, go cut your little throats!But when we step down, let the whole earth tremble! Throughout the day, Goebbels was disappointed and remorseful. When he heard the two secretaries fleeing the country by bicycle, he complained: "I ask you now, how could such a thing happen?"How can normal office hours be guaranteed now? "

Rumors abounded on the Eastern Front that the leaders in Berlin had given up all hope and that the High Command had fled to Berchtesgaden.On the Vistula front the Russians had opened half a dozen breaches; an advance unit of the Red Army was only twenty miles from Berlin and the Führer's bunker.By noon on April 21, it was almost within the range of the artillery, and the sound of the artillery could be heard faintly in the Führer's bunker.Jodl reported that a column of Zhukov's was encircling Mantefil's corps.To hold back the column, a small reserve under the command of SS General Felix Schmeiner was deployed 25 miles north of Berlin.

When Hitler heard this, he immediately straightened his waist.Like Skorzeny and Rudel, Steiner was a magical name; Zhukov's advance was blocked in February because of his desperate attack from the Gulf of Pomerania.Hitler leaned over and looked at the map for a while, then raised his head, his eyes sparkling. "Counterattack!" he said excitedly, "Steiner will go straight to the southeast and cut off Schkov's vanguard: with this bold blow, Berlin will be saved, and Mantefil will not be surrounded." He said. personally ordered Steiner to forbid his retreat westward. "Any officer who does not obey this order unconditionally shall be arrested and shot immediately. You, Steiner, will use your head to ensure that this order is carried out." Of all the orders, this one is the stupidest.His Panzer Corps survived only in name.He didn't want to make useless sacrifices to his troops in a hopeless cause, so he had to play tricks on the surface and make a fool of himself--a very difficult decision for a man who had considered kidnapping the Führer. easy to do.

Bowman also knew the situation was hopeless.He called his wife in Berchtesgaden to tell her he had found a "wonderful hiding place" for the children in Tyrol.She should act as a guardian for displaced children seeking refuge.He has kidnapped six children from a kindergarten in Garmisch in order to make them appear more like them.