The Suicide Of Eva Braun And Adolf Hitler
 
 
Eva Braun had spent most of her life waiting for Adolf Hitler and she had       agreed to share his fate. She was much more than a dumb blonde reading       romance novels and watching films - and she would now be with him forever. It was Hitler's wish that she should be with him in death as she had       been for so many years in life. Shortly before his suicide, Hitler said of Eva: "Miss Braun is,       besides my dog Blondi, the only one I can absolutely count on ..."
On the morning of April 28, 1945, Eva Braun confided in Hitler's       secretary, Frau Traudl Junge: "That day Eva Braun said something       strange to me: she said, you will be shedding tears for me before today is       over ... what she actually meant was her marriage to Hitler."
A minor official of the Propaganda Ministry, Walther Wagner, married them       in the early hours of April 29, 1945, as       a crowning award for her loyalty to the end, while Soviet troops closed on       the Reichstag and Chancellery.
The marriage document survived. Eva started to sign her name "Eva       Braun" but stopped, crossed out the "B" and wrote "Eva       Hitler, born Braun." Goebbels and Bormann signed as witnesses.
On       the same morning Hitler retired to a       room with his secretary, Traudl Junge, and hastily       dictated his last will and a Political Testament. He did not show the       slightest trace of regret or remorse for the millions of lives he had       destroyed. In his will, he stated specifically who was to be the       executor of his will, what he wanted done with his body, and who was to       receive his possessions.
The       Last Will
As I did not consider that I could take responsibility, during the years       of struggle, of contracting a marriage, I have now decided, before the       closing of my earthly career, to take as my wife that girl who, after many       years of faithful friendship, entered, of her own free will, the       practically besieged town in order to share her destiny with me. At her       own desire she goes as my wife with me into death. It will compensate us       for what we both lost through my work in the service of my people.
What I possess belongs - in so far as it has any value - to the Party.       Should this no longer exist, to the State; should the State also be       destroyed, no further decision of mine is necessary.
My pictures, in the collections which I have bought in the course of       years, have never been collected for private purposes, but only for the       extension of a gallery in my home town of Linz on Donau.
It is my most sincere wish that this bequest may be duly executed.
I nominate as my Executor my most faithful Party comrade, Martin       Bormann. He is given full legal authority to make all decisions. He is       permitted to take out everything that has a sentimental value or is       necessary for the maintenance of a modest simple life, for my brothers and       sisters, also above all for the mother of my wife and my faithful       co-workers who are well known to him, principally my old Secretaries Frau       Winter etc. who have for many years aided me by their work.
I myself and my wife - in order to escape the disgrace of deposition or       capitulation - choose death. It is our wish to be burnt immediately on the       spot where I have carried out the greatest part of my daily work in the       course of a twelve years' service to my people.
Given in Berlin, 29th April 1945, 4:00 a.m.
Signed:
Martin Bormann
Colonel Nicholaus von Below
The next day Adolf Hitler held his final staff conference being told that       the Russians now were only a few blocks away. He had lunch as usual at 2       o'clock in the afternoon with his two secretaries and his cook. He now       began making systematic preparations to commit suicide. He supervised the poisoning of his beloved dog       Blondi and her pups and shortly after 3 p.m. he and Eva Braun bade       farewell to the staff, assembled in the bunker, and retired to their private room to carry out their decision.
They bit into thin glass vials of       cyanide - as he did so, Hitler       also shot himself in the head with a 7.65 mm Walther pistol.
Heinz Linge, Hitler's personal valet, later recalled how he entered Hitler's suite       and saw him almost upright in a sitting position on a blood-soaked sofa. Eva       Braun lay on the sofa beside him, but she had made no use of the revolver       at her side, preferring to take the poison instead. A small hole showed on       his right temple and a trickle of blood ran slowly down over his check.       The pistol lay on the floor where it had dropped from his right hand.
No mark showed on Eva Braun's face: "It was as though she had fallen       asleep ..", Linge remarked.
Hitler       - The Last Photo
Hitler had given precise instructions for disposal of the bodies - they       were wrapped in a blanket and placed in the garden of the chancellery.       Hitler's SS adjutant Otto Gï¿½nsche poured gasoline over the two corpses       and set fire to them with a lighted rag. While a heavy Russian bombardment       was in progress, Joseph Goebbels, Bormann, Burgdorf, Kempke, and Gï¿½nsche       stood at attention and for the last time gave the Hitler salute.
On the evening of the following day Radio Hamburg announced that "our       Fuhrer Adolf Hitler died for Germany in his command post in the Reich       Chancellery this afternoon, fighting to his last breath against       Bolshevism".
Hitler had founded the Third Reich 12 years and three       months before. It would survive him for one week ...