Das Ende

The final days  - Pic courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter

In 1970,  a crew of Soviet KGB workers unearthed the remains of several charred bodies in Magdeberg, East Germany.   The bodies were those of Adolph Hitler, his wife Eva Braun, and the entire family of Joseph Goebbels.  The KGB incinerated the bodies and scattered the ashes in the Elbe River.   The corpses were a grim memento from the maniacal dictator’s last stand in the “Fuhrerbunker” some 25 years earlier.   Hitler was worried that his body would be desecrated like Mussolini and bade his henchmen to dispose of the bodies quietly.   Hitler and Braun had planned their suicides a month prior (his with a gun, hers via cyanide).

Such a sad demise in a dark, secluded bunker … what were the events that led up to this act of dismal self-dispatch on April 30, 1945?   The seeds of defeat were planted four years earlier, according to many historians.   It seems Hitler, who already had his hands full with Eastern Europe, decided to launch a full-scale attack on Russia – disregarding the Hitler-Stalin Non-Aggression Act of 1939.  Hitler diverted troops from the Moscow Initiative over to Leningrad and Kiev..against the advice of his generals.  Moscow took full advantage of this ill conceived fan-out and Axis soldiers took major casualties as a result.

Of note – Germany's prowess was already starting to be compromised before the USA even entered the war.  Hitler grossly underestimated the power of Russia and it was the beginning of the end.  A “take Russia lightly” turning point came in 1943 when Hitler refused to pull back from Stalingrad.  435,000 German troops were killed or captured.  Again, Hitler had gone against the advice of his top commanders.  He further exhausted Germany’s resources with his horrific Holocaust.  In addition to killing millions of innocents, the death camps tied up rail road lines and resources that were badly needed elsewhere in Germany’s war effort.

Rather than learn from his mistakes or eat humble pie, Hitler became more paranoid and deluded. He lashed out at his generals and had nay-sayers (what few there were) shot.  His vile behavior is in fact the very basis for over-the-top James Bond villains and even the tongue-in-cheek Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers franchise.    It’s suspected that Hitler suffered from untreated Parkinson’s disease which may have impaired him physically and mentally.  Not everyone in German society was a “willing executioner”.  A few conscionable men knew that he was deranged and Hell-bound.  Several assassination attempts were made (e.g., Operation Valkyrie)  but nothing succeeded and people involved were summarily executed.

Das Ende

By April 1945, the gig was pretty well up.   Hitler ordered Albert Speers to destroy German factories as part of a scorched earth plan.. Speers quietly ignored the order.  Hitler ordered General Steiner to lead a “northern flank” attack – this at a point when Russia was already surrounding Berlin.  Steiner refused.  Goring perceived that Hitler was dead or out-of-pocket and declared himself the Fuhrer.  This enraged Hitler but he was helpless to exact much revenge.  All was for naught – the Russians were closing in.  At a point when the Russians were a block away from Hitler’s bunker, Hitler and Eva committed suicide.  They had already made detailed plans for how and when it would be done. 

POST MORTEM

Hitler was (in previous lives) a watercolorist, a homeless shelter habitué and an enlisted man.  He was a man steeped in extreme prejudice and chauvinism.   Why did Germany, a European country with such a noble history of philosophy and art, put its faith in such an unaccomplished, racist person?  Germans might have likened his humble beginnings to those of America’s Abraham Lincoln, but Lincoln was noble and emancipating – he sought to share the power not take it away. It gives us reason to wonder – could Hitler happen again or happen here?   We have to hope that we have safeguards in America that would keep it from ever happening.  Reviewing the last days of the Fuhrerbunker we see a gray, gritty picture of what happens when reality intrudes on a nation’s psychotic fever dream, when a nation puts all of its hopes in one very deluded, diminished man.

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