Hitler Is Alive! Page 4

  HITLER IS ALIVE!

  Fourth Installment

  Der Fuehrer Marries Eva Braun and plans their escape from Berlin.

  Editor’s Note: Official Allied reports said that Hitler and the beautiful Eva Braun had committed suicide and been cremated in the ruined Reich Chancellory at Berlin. But an intriguing rumor circulated in Europe—and on top levels—that the suicide was a hoax, a brilliantly conceived smokescreen behind which the most-sought-after couple in the world had fled to escape Allied justice.

  Suddenly the rumor became something more when two Nazi U-boats—one of them luxuriously furnished—came out of nowhere at the Argentine naval base of Mar del Plata and surrendered to the authorities. This was late in the Summer of 1945—months after Germany had capitulated and the shooting war had ended.

  During the early part of July 1945 English and American war correspondents for the first time obtained permission to visit the site of the alleged suicide of Hitler.

  The British journalists did not hide their skepticism concerning the many versions relative to the Fuehrer’s death. Their opinion as a group was expressed in the following Reuters dispatch date-lined: Hitler’s Underground Bunker, Berlin, July 5, 1945:

  “The story of Hitler’s death is a yarn which has no point. The charred body found by Red Army Officers and examined by experts was not that of Hitler. It was the body of one of his doubles and at that, one of his second-rate doubles, according to an officer on the staff of Marshal Youkov who conducted this Reuters correspondent through the ruins of the Chancellory.

  “‘So far no trace has as yet been found of a Body resembling Eva Braun,’ this officer added. ‘We are so certain that the corpse found is not that of Hitler that orders have been issued to re-inter it in the garden of the Chancellory.’”

  The Famous English Report

  The official English report, published Nov. 1, 1945, attempted to detail the circumstances concerning the deaths of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. However, the report was far from convincing and as a result, doubts concerning its accuracy continued to linger.

  On the evening of April 23, according to eyewitnesses interviewed by the English, Hitler received at his bunker Reichs Armament Minister Speer. The Fuehrer told him of his suicide plans and asked that his body be cremated.

  By nightfall on April 26, Hitler received the Commandant of Berlin, Ritter von Greim, to whom he communicated the same plans concerning his suicide. The Fuehrer added that he had taken measures to insure the complete destruction of his and Eva Braun’s bodies, so that “they would not fall into the enemy’s hands and so that nothing recognizable would remain.”

  On April 29, as the Russian tanks rumbled onto the Potsdamer Platz, Hitler in desperation ordered an attack by the Luftwaffe which, however, had disintegrated. Also he sent Doenitz a wire full of recriminations. That same evening Hitler married Eva Braun in the small conference room of his underground bunker.

  After the ceremony the newlyweds retired to their apartment for a macabre supper. One of Hitler’s secretaries has stated that the table conversation revolved around the suicide plan and that the bride was so depressed she left the table. When she had gone, Hitler ordered his favorite Alsatian dog destroyed.

  At 2:30 a.m. Hitler summoned some 20 persons from the neighboring ruins and officially said goodbye to them, shaking hands with everybody. A little later, upon orders of Hitler, two liters of naphtha were placed at the entrance of his bunker.

  On the same day, at about 2:30 p.m., Hitler and Eva made the rounds of their bunker, saying goodbye to all others. Next, Hitler and his wife again retired to their apartment. There Hitler fired a shot, presumably into his mouth while Eva Braun swallowed a lethal dose of poison.

  Thereupon the bodies were taken to the garden adjacent to the entrance of the bunker. They were carried by Goebbels and Bormann and probably by Dr. Stumpfegger, Hitler’s personal physician, as well as by others. Hitler’s blood-covered body was draped in a flag.

  The two bodies were placed side by side about three yards from the bunker entrance, then drenched with naphtha. Constant shelling by Russian artillery forced the party to seek shelter in the very entrance to the bunker. From there a rag soaked in burning naphtha was hurled at the bodies.

  While the group stood at attention in the bunker entrance, the bodies began to burn. After a last salute to the Fuehrer the party retired into the bunker proper.

  There is no indication as to the time it took for the two bodies to burn. One of the witnesses has said that they burned until nothing whatsoever remained.

  In conclusion the official report stated:

  “Proofs are not complete, but they are positive, circumstantial and gathered from independent sources. There is no proof that Hitler is still alive. Rumors to this effect have been studied thoroughly with the result that they have been found baseless.”

  Who Was Eva Braun?

  Hitler had known Eva Braun since 1929. The daughter of a professor, she was apprenticed to Heinrich Hoffmann, the Fuehrer’s personal photographer. At that time she was about 20.

  Thanks to precautions taken by the Gestapo, Hitler’s affair with Eva was kept secret for about 12 years. Nobody dared talk about her and magazines and papers never printed her picture. She never held any official post nor accompanied Hitler to any public receptions. Even when Hitler attended performances of his beloved Wagnerian operas, Eva remained at home. She officiated only at private gatherings in company with Emmy Goering and Mrs. Goebbels.

  She didn’t use lipstick nor did she smoke in the Fuehrer’s presence and there were tearful scenes before she got permission to wear high-heeled shoes, especially brought for her from Paris. Otherwise, she dressed to suit Hitler’s taste. On February 6, her birthday, Hitler invariably presented her with a valuable jewel.

  At Berchtesgaden, in the evenings or when it rained, Hitler and Eva Braun played cards in front of the fire place while a servant played softly on his accordion in the background of the large living room.

  Hitler always treated her as if she were his little daughter while she respectfully addressed him as “My Fuehrer” and never spoke to him frivolously.

  Thus, Adolf Hitler, puritan demigod and bachelor of mythology of the Third Reich, kept a secret mistress, just like any second-rate politician. He managed to deceive the German people and the entire world for more than 10 years, by assuming an air of austerity which was almost entirely simulated.

  Dr. Stumpfegger

  The official British report is purely circumstantial, since various “eyewitnesses” were in complete disagreement as to the exact date of Hitler’s suicide which, according to the British, occurred on April 30.

  It is logical to assume that Hitler had planned his flight and that he felt considerably relieved as soon as he was in the company of people who had been entrusted with the project. On April 22, Hitler had ordered his General Staff south. Also, he managed to keep Keitel and Jodl away from the Chancellory. By announcing his proposed suicide, Hitler managed to remove from Berlin all those who might have hindered his flight plan.

  Furthermore, the minute details furnished in the report with respect to the “macabre wedding night” are interesting. This account fixes the date of Hitler’s marriage to Eva Braun as the evening of April 29, with nothing as basis for that assumption except statements by various people. However, in the alleged marriage certificate which was found subsequently, the date and place of marriage are stricken out. And as to the final scene, nobody saw Hitler’s body because it was draped with a flag.

  But even the English report admits the attendance of a person at the funeral whose presence there is not easily explained—if it can be explained, at all.

  That person was Dr. Stumpfegger, personal physician to Hitler.

  Dr. Stumpfegger had perfected what he called the “Silk-Cord Operation.” This operation, technical details of which have never been revealed, was perfected in numerous experiments at Havesbrueck on prisoners whom Stumpfegger committed
to a state of paralysis and then returned to their normal state by means of surgical treatment. According to other Nazi doctors, Stumpfegger pursued his experiments with such success that was able to cause certain forms of brain paralyses in his victims and was equally able to restore them to health.

  Towards the end of March, 1945, Stumpfegger suddenly left Ravensbrueck with all instruments necessary for a “silk-cord” operation and took up residence in Hitler’s bunker.

  Why?

  Nobody seems to have given a plausible explanation. But some of those who spent the last days with Hitler at the Chancellory told the following story:

  As the Russian artillery barrage on the ruins of Berlin grew in intensity, the few women who, due to the nature of their jobs, had to remain in the Chancellory, were led every night to the most secure part of the building: the private sanctuary of Hitler.

  There, at 2:30 a.m. on the morning of May 1, word spread that the Fuehrer wanted to say goodbye to them. The women were surprised, since it was generally assumed that Hitler had removed himself from the scene several days before.

  Thereupon, the women lined up outside Hitler’s private apartment. Soon someone announced the coming of the Fuehrer and on the scene appeared Dr. Stumpfegger in his white surgeon’s blouse. With him was a person who seemed semi-paralyzed. That person rigidly shook the hands of every woman and finally withdrew into the Fuehrer’s private apartment. Not a word was spoken during the entire scene. Although it had been said that Hitler wanted to say goodbye, the person did not speak a single word. When some of the women addressed him, he didn’t answer.

  This person could have been one of Hitler’s doubles who had been transmitted into a semi-paralytical state by one of Dr. Stumpfegger’s silk-cord operations.

  The women as a whole thought it was Hitler. One remarked, “I am sure it was the Fuehrer. But he had changed. Maybe he had been injected with drugs. His eyes were glassy and seemed unable to focus. His spirit was different. But it was the Fuehrer all right.”

  The Russians expressed the opinion that everything had been set in motion for a gigantic plot to facilitate Hitler’s flight.

  “We know that Hitler had doubles,” one of Marshall Youkov’s aides stated. “Several of them were killed at Berlin. Also, I want to make it clear that I am certain we have NOT found the corpse of Hitler.”

  Commandant Deodor Pletonov, the Russian officer in command of the Berlin sector which took in the Chancellory, himself was at the head of the first Soviet troops who penetrated into the building. At the entrance they came across a charred body which was supposed to be Hitler’s. Pletonov said, “The body was not that of Hitler’s. It was one of his doubles.”

  From a study of the foregoing, we know that:

  (1) Two bodies were cremated in the Reich Chancellory in the early afternoon of May 1.

  (2) Nobody at any time got a closeup of the corpses supposed to be those of Hitler and Eva. Both were draped in flags.

  (3) The man in the company of Stumpfegger on the morning of May 1 was semi-paralyzed, and his movements were limited to shaking the hands of about a dozen women. These women said that the person was Hitler, although “he appeared changed and his eyes were glassy.”

  (4) The women were summoned to say goodbye and to testify later that they had seen Hitler a few hours prior to his “suicide,” thus serving as alibi witnesses for Hitler.

  There is no doubt that this miserable double who appeared as semi-paralytic and who was unconscious and deprived of his willpower, was later eliminated by means of a pistol shot, then wrapped in a flag and cremated in the company of a body supposedly that of Eva Braun.

  In the meantime, where was the real Hitler? Undoubtedly, he was already a long way from the Chancellory, the same building which General Jodl on April 22 had nicknamed a “mousetrap.”

  Hitler could have escaped by plane from the Gatow Airport, located 13 kilometers from the center of Berlin, as late as April 27, when the airport was taken by the Russians.

  Or Hitler and Eva could have escaped even later. They could have taken off directly outside the gates of the Chancellory where the Charlottenburg Highway could have served admirably as runway.

  In fact, although the Charlottenburg Highway was under the fire of Russian artillery, Hitler could have taken off from there as late as April 30. A plane piloted by the Nazi Aviatrix Hanna Reitach and carrying as passenger General Ritter von Greim took off from the highway as late as the early hours of April 30.

  On June 9, 1945 Marshal Youkov announced that Hitler and Eva Braun had been married shortly before the fall of Berlin. Several days later, a Stockholm dispatch stated that Eva Braun had two children, a son and a daughter, both of whom had been born during her long affair with Hitler.

  Hitler reportedly became a father for the first time during the night of January 1, 1938. Eva Braun bore him a son in a maternity pavilion at San Remo, Italy. During the preceding month she had not been seen, as usual, driving through Berlin in her car.

  Several hours after the birth, it was announced to Japanese journalists in Berlin in a short, unofficial statement by General Bansai, Japanese military attache. Very soon afterwards, the Japanese Ambassador summoned the correspondents to his office and said the statement had been without any factual basis. Also, he asked them to give their word of honor not to speak about the matter and especially not to breathe a word about it to their colleagues of the foreign press in Berlin.

  But the Berlin correspondent of Nichi Nichi, leading Japanese daily, decided not to keep silent. At least, he felt not bound to silence if the news was inaccurate. And so he decided to go to Munich where Eva Braun’s father lived and where also the informant of the Japanese military attache resided.

  In the course of a long talk with Eva’s father, the latter said, “There is no doubt that the Fuehrer intends to marry my daughter. That she has borne him a son or is about to do so is of little importance. The important thing is that Hitler shall not die without a successor.”

  The correspondent returned to Berlin and called on his Ambassador. He told him of the result of his trip in the hope that the diplomat would relieve him of the oath of silence. On the contrary, the Ambassador enjoined him not to reveal a single word on the matter.

  Another correspondent states that on the eve of January 1, 1939, an official of the Reich Chancellery was arrested for having stated at a party, “Today, the son of the Fuehrer celebrates his first birthday. Let us drink to his health.”

  But where are Hitler’s children? After the fall of Berlin a former attache of the Swedish legation who had remained in close contact with Hitler’s headquarters during the siege of the Reich Capital, revealed that Hitler’s children were living with Eva Braun’s parents in Bavaria. He added, “It is believed that when Hitler left Berlin on April 8 or 9, he did so not only in order to take Eva Braun out of Berlin but also to say goodbye to his children whom he wanted to be in a safer place. He spent 3 days in Bavaria at a time when his presence in Berlin was more than necessary.”

  HITLER IS ALIVE!

  Fifth of a Series

  What happened to Adolf’s three trusted messengers?—Why did Hitler write two testaments?—The Allied Headquarters continue to unravel the great mysteries surrounding the Fuehrer’s strange vanishing act—Where’s he hiding out now?

  The Nazi scheme was unfolding now and succeeding perfectly, having been conceived with typical German thoroughness. While the certainty of Hitler’s death had “crystallized” in world opinion, the underground activity of Martin Bormann in Germany had maintained its hold over a large part of the population. And this despite the many rumors that Martin Bormann had been killed trying to escape from the Reich Chancellory when his tank was blown up by a Russian shell.

  There were a large number of “eyewitnesses” who asserted they had seen Bormann in Austria, and later in South America. Others professed to know that he was engaged in reorganizing the cadres of the Nazi movement.

  At the time when the
rumor of Bormann’s capture circulated—a rumor which was inaccurate—the General Headquarters of the Third US Army announced at Nuremberg that the last will and testament of Hitler as well as his marriage certificate, dated Dec. 29, had been found. The following day the Allied military authorities published the texts of these documents and revealed the circumstances under which the documents had been found.

  Actually, the four documents were Hitler’s private testament (last will); his political testament; a note from Goebbels; and the marriage certificate of Hitler and Eva Braun. According to the declarations of an official of the British Intelligence Service, these documents fell into Allied hands under strange circumstances.

  “During the nights of April 27 and 28,” this official declared, “as the Soviets approached the center of Berlin and liaison between the various Nazi forces had been cut off entirely, the Fuehrer insisted that Walter Wagner, an official of the Berlin City Administration, should perform the civil marriage which apparently took place on April 29, at 3 a.m. Immediately after the ceremony, Hitler dictated to his secretary first his own last will and then his political testament. A little later, at about 10 a.m., three trusted messengers were selected and ordered to take copies to Admiral Doenitz at Flensburg and to Marshal Schorner who, at this moment, directed Nazi resistance at Prague. The third copy was reserved for posterity.

  “Also,” the British Intelligence Service officer continued, “a telegram was sent to Doenitz informing him that the documents were on their way. Nevertheless, the three messengers never arrived at their destinations and until the first days of December, 1945, nobody had found out just what had happened to them, despite the concerted efforts of the Allies to solve this riddle.

  “Finally, these three messengers were arrested by the Anglo-American authorities. They were Heinz Lorenz, Willy Johann Meyer and Wilhelm Zander. The latter also went by the name of Paustin. Lorenz was an employee of the Propaganda Ministry, belonging to the staff of Martin Bormann.

  “These three messengers had left the Chancellory through a secret passage and made their way towards the zone which was in Allied hands, traveling at night and hiding by day. They finally got to the outskirts of Hanover where they separated. There they learned that German resistance had collapsed, whereupon they decided to return to their own homes. Nothing was learned on that subject until early in December, 1945, when British agents in their zone of occupation arrested a man for carrying false identification papers. When the man was searched, there was found in the shoulder-padding of his coat a complete set of the much wanted documents. The man’s identity was then ascertained: he was Heinz Lorenz, one of the three messengers.