Hitler’s ‘suicide note’
Nazi leader’s call from his bunker to fight on goes up for sale at £70,000
WITH Russian shells falling around his Berlin bunker, Adolf hitler knew his days were numbered.
But to the end he refused to admit to his followers that his ‘1,000-year Reich’ was over after little more than a decade.
And in a final message – now at auction with a guide price of up to £70,000 – he insists the fighting must go on, even without him.
Dubbed hitler’s ‘suicide note’, it vainly implores one of his army commanders to try to lift the Soviet siege of the Nazi capital.
he tells Field Marshal Ferdinand Schorner, who had urged him to flee south: ‘I shall remain in Berlin, so as to take part, in honourable fashion, in the decisive battle for Germany, and to set a good example to all those remaining.
‘I believe that in this way I shall be rendering Germany the best service. For the rest of you, every effort must be made to win the struggle for Berlin. You can there help decisively, by pushing northwards as early as possible.’
the telegraph message, which is dated April 24, 1945, eight days after the start of the Battle of Berlin, is being sold by Alexander historical Auctions in Maryland.
Bill Panagopulos, the American firm’s boss, said: ‘there is no other written evidence of hitler declaring his intention to remain (and die) in Berlin that anyone has been able to locate.
‘this is essentially hitler’s suicide note. In it, he tries to portray himself as a valiant leader of his men until the end, when in actuality he shuffled into his bedroom and fired a bullet into his head.
‘he may have hoped that by some miracle Schorner would push north from Czechoslovakia and relieve Berlin, but I’m sure both of them knew that was an impossibility.’ hitler and his wife Eva Braun killed themselves on April 30 when Russian troops were yards from the bunker under the Reich Chancellery. the fighting in Berlin lasted two more days. In his last will and testament hitler, who led the Nazis to power in 1933, promoted Schorner to commander-in- chief of the army, in succession to himself. But the field marshal abandoned his post on May 8 – the day Germany surrendered – and fled to Austria where he was arrested by US forces. he was freed from jail in 1963 and moved to Munich where he died in obscurity ten years later.
I shall remain in Berlin, so as to take part, in honourable fashion, in the decisive battle for Germany, and to set a good example to all those remaining