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By late 1944, both the Red Army and the Western Allies were advancing into Germany. Recognising the strength and determination of the Red Army, Hitler decided to use his remaining mobile reserves against the American and British troops, which he perceived as far weaker.[277] On 16 December, he launched an offensive in the Ardennes to incite disunity among the Western Allies and perhaps convince them to join his fight against the Soviets.[278] The offensive failed. Hitler's hope to negotiate peace with the United States and Britain was buoyed by the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt on 12 April 1945, but contrary to his expectations, this caused no rift among the Allies.[279][278] Acting on his view that Germany's military failures had forfeited its right to survive as a nation, Hitler ordered the destruction of all German industrial infrastructure before it could fall into Allied hands.[280] Arms minister Albert Speer was entrusted with executing this scorched earth plan, but he quietly disobeyed the order.[280][281] Front page of the US Armed Forces newspaper, Stars and Stripes, 2 May 1945, announcing Hitler's death On 20 April, his 56th birthday, Hitler made his last trip from the Führerbunker ("Führer's shelter") to the surface. In the ruined garden of the Reich Chancellery, he awarded Iron Crosses to boy soldiers of the Hitler Youth.[282] By 21 April, Georgy Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front had broken through the defences of German General Gotthard Heinrici's Army Group Vistula during the Battle of the Seelow Heights and advanced into the outskirts of Berlin.[283] In denial about the dire situation, Hitler placed his hopes on the undermanned and under-equipped Armeeabteilung Steiner (Army Detachment Steiner), commanded by Waffen SS General Felix Steiner. Hitler ordered Steiner to attack the northern flank of the salient and the German Ninth Army was ordered to attack northward in a pincer attack.[284] During a military conference on 22 April, Hitler asked about Steiner's offensive. He was told that the attack had not been launched and that the Soviets had entered Berlin. This prompted Hitler to ask everyone except Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Jodl, Hans Krebs, and Wilhelm Burgdorf to leave the room.[285] Hitler then launched a tirade against the treachery and incompetence of his commanders, culminating in his declaration—for the first time—that the war was lost. Hitler announced that he would stay in Berlin until the end and then shoot himself.[286] By 23 April the Red Army had completely surrounded Berlin,[287] and Goebbels made a proclamation urging its citizens to defend the city.[285] That same day, Göring sent a telegram from Berchtesgaden, arguing that since Hitler was isolated in Berlin, he, Göring, should assume leadership of Germany. Göring set a deadline after which he would consider Hitler incapacitated.[288] Hitler responded by having Göring arrested, and in his last will and testament, written on 29 April, he removed Göring from all government positions.[289][290] On 28 April Hitler discovered that Himmler, who had left Berlin on 20 April, was trying to discuss surrender terms with the Western Allies.[291][292] He ordered Himmler's arrest and had Hermann Fegelein (Himmler's SS representative at Hitler's HQ in Berlin) shot.[293] After midnight on 29 April, Hitler married Eva Braun in a small civil ceremony in the Führerbunker. After a modest wedding breakfast with his new wife, he then took secretary Traudl Junge to another room and dictated his will.[294][b] The event was witnessed and documents signed by Krebs, Burgdorf, Goebbels, and Bormann.[295] Later that afternoon, Hitler was informed of the execution of Mussolini, which presumably increased his determination to avoid capture.[296] On 30 April 1945, after intense street-to-street combat, when Soviet troops were within a block or two of the Reich Chancellery, Hitler and Braun committed suicide; Braun bit into a cyanide capsule[297] and Hitler shot himself.[298] Both their bodies were carried up the stairs and through the bunker's emergency exit to the bombed-out garden behind the Reich Chancellery, where they were placed in a bomb crater and doused with petrol.[299] The corpses were set on fire as the Red Army shelling continued.[300][301] Berlin surrendered on 2 May. Records in the Soviet archives, obtained after the fall of the Soviet Union, state that the remains of Hitler, Braun, Joseph and Magda Goebbels, the six Goebbels children, General Hans Krebs, and Hitler's dogs were repeatedly buried and exhumed.[302] On 4 April 1970, a Soviet KGB team used detailed burial charts to exhume five wooden boxes at the SMERSH facility in Magdeburg. The remains from the boxes were burned, crushed, and scattered into the Biederitz river, a tributary of the nearby Elbe.[303] According to Kershaw the corpses of Braun and Hitler were fully burned when the Red Army found them, and only a lower jaw with dental work could be identified as Hitler's remains.[304] The Holocaust Main article: The Holocaust If the international Jewish financiers outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the bolshevisation of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe![305] — Adolf Hitler addressing the German Reichstag, 30 January 1939 A wagon piled high with corpses outside the crematorium in the liberated Buchenwald concentration camp (April 1945) The Holocaust and Germany's war in the East was based on Hitler's long-standing view that the Jews were the great enemy of the German people and that Lebensraum was needed for the expansion of Germany. He focused on Eastern Europe for this expansion, aiming to defeat Poland and the Soviet Union and on removing or killing the Jews and Slavs.[306] The Generalplan Ost ("General Plan for the East") called for deporting the population of occupied Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union to West Siberia, for use as slave labour or to be murdered;[307] the conquered territories were to be colonised by German or "Germanised" settlers.[308] The goal was to implement this plan after the conquest of the Soviet Union, but when this failed, Hitler moved the plans forward.[307][309] By January 1942, it had been decided to kill the Jews, Slavs, and other deportees considered undesirable.[310][c] Hitler's order for Action T4, dated 1 September 1939 The Holocaust (the "Endlösung der Judenfrage" or "Final Solution of the Jewish Question") was ordered by Hitler and organised and executed by Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich. The records of the Wannsee Conference—held on 20 January 1942 and led by Heydrich, with fifteen senior Nazi officials participating—provide the clearest evidence of systematic planning for the Holocaust. On 22 February, Hitler was recorded saying, "we shall regain our health only by eliminating the Jews".[311] Although no direct order from Hitler authorising the mass killings has surfaced,[312] his public speeches, orders to his generals, and the diaries of Nazi officials demonstrate that he conceived and authorised the extermination of European Jewry.[313][314] He approved the Einsatzgruppen—killing squads that followed the German army through Poland, the Baltic, and the Soviet Union[315]—and he was well informed about their activities.[313][316] By summer 1942, Auschwitz concentration camp was rapidly expanded to accommodate large numbers of deportees for killing or enslavement.[317] Scores of other concentration camps and satellite camps were set up throughout Europe, with several camps devoted exclusively to extermination.[318] Between 1939 and 1945, the Schutzstaffel (SS), assisted by collaborationist governments and recruits from occupied countries, was responsible for the deaths of at least eleven million people,[319][307] including 5.5 to six million Jews (representing two-thirds of the Jewish population of Europe),[320][321] and between 200,000 and 1,500,000 Romani people.[322][321] Deaths took place in concentration and extermination camps, ghettos, and through mass executions. Many victims of the Holocaust were gassed to death, whereas others died of starvation or disease or while working as slave labourers.[323] Henriette von Schirach, wife to Baldur von Schirach, directly confronted Hitler about the Holocaust after she accidentally witnessed Jews being rounded up in Amsterdam: So I told him what I had seen. His reply was, "You are sentimental." He stood up, I stood up, [and] I said, "Herr Hitler, you ought not to be doing that." I thought I could allow myself to say such a thing because I had known him [for] so long. I have hurt him deeply, what's more in front of other men who were there. Then Hitler said, "Every day 10,000 of my best soldiers die on the battlefield, while the others carry on living in the camps. That means the biological balance in Europe is not right anymore."[324] — Henriette von Schirach Hitler's policies also resulted in the killing of nearly two million Poles,[325] over 3 million Soviet prisoners of war,[326] communists and other political opponents, homosexuals, the physically and mentally disabled,[327][328] Jehovah's Witnesses, Adventists, and trade unionists. Hitler did not speak publicly about the killings, and seems never to have visited the concentration camps.[329] The Nazis also embraced the concept of racial hygiene. On 15 September 1935, Hitler presented two laws—known as the Nuremberg Laws—to the Reichstag. The laws banned sexual relations and marriages between Aryans and Jews and were later extended to include "Gypsies, Negroes or their bastard offspring".[330] The laws also stripped all non-Aryans of their German citizenship and forbade the employment of non-Jewish women under the age of 45 in Jewish households.[331] Hitler's early eugenic policies targeted children with physical and developmental disabilities in a programme dubbed Action Brandt, and later authorised a euthanasia programme for adults with serious mental and physical disabilities, now referred to as Action T4.[332] Leadership style Hitler ruled the NSDAP autocratically by asserting the Führerprinzip ("Leader principle"). The principle relied on absolute obedience of all subordinates to their superiors; thus he viewed the government structure as a pyramid, with himself—the infallible leader—at the apex. Rank in the party was not determined by elections—positions were filled through appointment by those of higher rank, who demanded unquestioning obedience to the will of the leader.[333] Hitler's leadership style was to give contradictory orders to his subordinates and to place them into positions where their duties and responsibilities overlapped with those of others, to have "the stronger one [do] the job".[334] In this way, Hitler fostered distrust, competition, and infighting among his subordinates to consolidate and maximise his own power. His cabinet never met after 1938, and he discouraged his ministers from meeting independently.[335][336] Hitler typically did not give written orders; instead he communicated them verbally, or had them conveyed through his close associate, Martin Bormann.[337] He entrusted Bormann with his paperwork, appointments, and personal finances; Bormann used his position to control the flow of information and access to Hitler.[338] Hitler personally made all major military decisions. Historians who have assessed his performance agree that after a strong start, he became so inflexible after 1941 that he squandered the military strengths Germany possessed. Historian Antony Beevor argues that at the start of the war, "Hitler was a fairly inspired leader, because his genius lay in assessing the weaknesses of others and exploiting those weaknesses". From 1941 onward, "he became completely sclerotic. He would not allow any form of retreat or flexibility among his field commanders, and that of course was catastrophic".[339] Legacy Further information: Consequences of Nazism and Neo-Nazism Outside the building in Braunau am Inn, Austria, where Hitler was born, is a memorial stone placed as a reminder of the horrors of World War II. The inscription translates as: For peace, freedom and democracy never again fascism millions of dead remind [us] Hitler's suicide was likened by contemporaries to a "spell" being broken.[340][341] Public support for Hitler had collapsed by the time of his death and few Germans mourned his passing; Ian Kershaw argues that most civilians and military personnel were too busy adjusting to the collapse of the country or fleeing from the fighting to take any interest.[342] According to historian John Toland National Socialism "burst like a bubble" without its leader.[343] Hitler's actions and Nazi ideology are almost universally regarded as gravely immoral;[344] according to historian Ian Kershaw, "Never in history has such ruination—physical and moral—been associated with the name of one man".[345] Hitler's political programme brought about a world war, leaving behind a devastated and impoverished Eastern and Central Europe. Germany itself suffered wholesale destruction, characterised as "Zero Hour".[346] Hitler's policies inflicted human suffering on an unprecedented scale;[347] according to R.J. Rummel, the Nazi regime was responsible for the democidal killing of an estimated 19.3 million civilians and prisoners of war.[319] In addition, 29 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of military action in the European Theatre of World War II,[319] and Hitler's role has been described as "... the main author of a war leaving over 50 million dead and millions more grieving their lost ones ...".[345] The total number of civilians killed during the Second World War (much of them attributable to Hitler) was an unprecedented development in the history of warfare.[348] Historians, philosophers, and politicians often use the word "evil" to describe the Nazi regime.[349] Many European countries have criminalised both the promotion of Nazism and Holocaust denial.[350] Historian Friedrich Meinecke described Hitler as "one of the great examples of the singular and incalculable power of personality in historical life".[351] English historian Hugh Trevor-Roper saw him as "among the 'terrible simplifiers' of history, the most systematic, the most historical, the most philosophical, and yet the coarsest, cruelest, least magnanimous conqueror the world has ever known".[352] For the historian John M. Roberts, Hitler's defeat marked the end of a phase of European history dominated by Germany.[353] In its place emerged the Cold War, a global confrontation between the Western Bloc, dominated by the United States and other NATO nations, and the Eastern Bloc, dominated by the Soviet Union.[354] Historian Sebastian Haffner avows that without Hitler and the displacement of the Jews, the modern nation state of Israel would not exist. He contends that without Hitler, the de-colonization of former European spheres of influence would not have occurred as quickly and would have been postponed.[355] Further, Haffner claims that other than Alexander the Great, Hitler had a more significant impact than any other comparable historical figure, in that he too caused a wide range of worldwide changes in a relatively short time span.[356] Religious views Main article: Religious views of Adolf Hitler He was born to a practising Catholic mother and an anticlerical father, but after leaving home Hitler never again attended Mass or received the sacraments.[357][358][359] Speer states that Hitler made harsh pronouncements against the church to his political associates and though he never officially left it, he had no attachment to it.[360] He adds that Hitler felt that in the absence of the church the faithful would turn to mysticism, which he considered a step backwards.[360] According to Speer, Hitler believed that either Japanese religious beliefs or Islam would have been a more suitable religion for the Germans than Christianity, with its "meekness and flabbiness".[361] Historian John S. Conway states that Hitler was fundamentally opposed to the Christian churches.[362] According to Bullock, Hitler did not believe in God, was anticlerical, and held Christian ethics in contempt because they contravened his preferred view of "survival of the fittest".[363] He favoured aspects of Protestantism that suited his own views, and adopted some elements of the Catholic Church's hierarchical organisation, liturgy, and phraseology in his politics.[364] Hitler viewed the church as an important politically conservative influence on society,[365] and he adopted a strategic relationship with it "that suited his immediate political purposes".[362] In public, Hitler often praised Christian heritage and German Christian culture, though professing a belief in an "Aryan" Jesus—one who fought against the Jews.[366] Any pro-Christian public rhetoric was at variance with his personal beliefs, which described Christianity as "absurdity"[367] and nonsense founded on lies.[368] According to a US Office of Strategic Services report, "The Nazi Master Plan", Hitler planned to destroy the influence of Christian churches within the Reich.[369][370] His eventual goal was the total elimination of Christianity.[371] This goal informed Hitler's movement very early on, but he saw it as inexpedient to express this extreme position publicly.[372] According to Bullock, Hitler wanted to wait until after the war before executing this plan.[373] Speer wrote that Hitler had a negative view of Himmler and Alfred Rosenberg's mystical notions and Himmler's attempt to mythologise the SS. Hitler was more pragmatic, and his ambitions centred on more practical concerns.[374][375] Health Researchers have variously suggested that Hitler suffered from irritable bowel syndrome, skin lesions, irregular heartbeat, coronary sclerosis,[376] Parkinson's disease,[270][377] syphilis,[377] and tinnitus.[378] In a report prepared for the Office of Strategic Services in 1943, Walter C. Langer of Harvard University described Hitler as a "neurotic psychopath".[379] In his 1977 book The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler, historian Robert G. L. Waite proposes that Hitler suffered from borderline personality disorder.[380] Historians Henrik Eberle and Hans-Joachim Neumann judge that while Hitler suffered from a number of illnesses including Parkinson's disease, he did not experience pathological delusions and was always fully aware of, and responsible for, the decisions he was making.[381] Theories about Hitler's medical condition are difficult to prove, and placing too much weight on them may have the effect of attributing many of the events and consequences of the Third Reich to the possibly impaired physical health of one individual.[382] Kershaw feels that it is better to take a broader view of German history by examining what social forces led to the Third Reich and its policies rather than to pursue narrow explanations for the Holocaust and World War II based on only one person.[383] Hitler followed a vegetarian diet.[384] At social events he sometimes gave graphic accounts of the slaughter of animals in an effort to make his dinner guests shun meat.[385] Bormann had a greenhouse constructed near the Berghof (near Berchtesgaden) to ensure a steady supply of fresh fruit and vegetables for Hitler throughout the war.[386] Hitler publicly avoided alcohol, but occasionally drank beer and wine in private. However, in 1943 he gave up drinking due to weight gain.[387] He was a non-smoker for most of his life, but smoked heavily in his youth (25 to 40 cigarettes a day). He eventually quit, calling the habit "a waste of money".[388] He encouraged his close associates to quit by offering a gold watch to any who were able to break the habit.[389] Hitler began using amphetamine occasionally after 1937 and became addicted to it in the autumn of 1942.[390] Speer linked this use of amphetamines to Hitler's increasingly inflexible decision making (for example, rarely allowing military retreats).[391] Prescribed ninety medications during the war years, Hitler took many pills each day for chronic stomach problems and other ailments.[392] He suffered ruptured eardrums as a result of the 20 July plot bomb blast in 1944, and 200 wood splinters had to be removed from his legs.[393] Newsreel footage of Hitler shows tremors of his hand and a shuffling walk, which began before the war and worsened towards the end of his life. Hitler's personal physician, Theodor Morell, treated Hitler with a drug that was commonly prescribed in 1945 for Parkinson's disease. Ernst-Günther Schenck and several other doctors who met Hitler in the last weeks of his life also formed a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease.[392][394] |
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