Heike Görtemaker - Eva Braun

11. Junge, Bis zur letzten Stunde , p. 169.

12. See Loringhoven, Mit Hitler im Bunker , pp. 72f. The encounter is here erroneously dated to “shortly before Christmas,” at which time Hitler was at his headquarters on the western front.

13. Goebbels, entry of February 1, 1945, in Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels , Teil II, vol. 15, p. 296.

14. See Martin Bormann to Gerda Bormann, Führer Headquarters, December 28, 1944, in Bormann, The Bormann Letters , pp. 154f.

15. See Richard Lakowski, “Der Zusammenbruch der deutschen Verteidigung zwischen Ostsee und Karparten,” in Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg , vol. 10.1, pp. 588ff. See also Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant , p. 400.

16. See Seidler and Zeigert, Die Führerhauptquartiere , p. 324; Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945 , p. 793. Gun, on the other hand, claims that Eva Braun celebrated her last birthday on February 8 in Munich ( Eva Braun , p. 239).

17. See Meissner, “Der letzte Befehl,” p. 11: “The bedroom next door, originally intended as just a cloakroom was furnished with a bed, table, and chair only in February 1945 so that it could serve as a place to sleep, and then occupied by Eva Braun when she showed up in Berlin unexpectedly and against Hitler’s orders.” See also Junge, Bis zur letzten Stunde , p. 177, and Speer, Inside the Third Reich , p. 484: Eva Braun “had had some one the expensive furniture which I had designed for her years ago brought from her two rooms in the upper floors of the Chancellery.”

18. These figures are taken from the following: Horst Boog, “Die strategische Bomberoffensive der Alliierten gegen Deutschland und die Reichsluftverteidigung in der Schlussphase des Krieges,” in Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg , vol. 10.1, p. 790. See Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945 , p. 792. See also Antony Beevor, Berlin: The Downfall 1945 (London, 2002), pp. 74f.

19. Goebbels, diary entry of February 6, 1945, in Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels , Teil II, vol. 15, p. 320.

20. See Martin Bormann to Gerda Bormann, February 6, 1945, in Bormann, The Bormann Letters , pp. 174f. See also Besymenski, Die letzten Notizen von Martin Bormann , p. 106.

21. Schroeder, Er war mein Chef , p. 196. Schroeder says nothing in her memoir about Eva Braun’s presence in Berlin in February 1945. See also “Besprechung zwischen Herrn Albrecht und Frl. Schröder, früher Sekretärin v. Hitler,” Berchtesgaden, May 22, 1945, in MA 1298/10, Microfilm, Various Documents, DJ-13 (David Irving), IfZ Munich.

22. See Martin Bormann to Gerda Bormann, February 6, 1945, in Bormann, The Bormann Letters , pp. 174f.

23. See Schmidt, Karl Brandt , p. 499.

24. Ibid., pp. 500f.

25. Ibid., pp. 501ff.

26. Eva Braun to Herta Schneider, Berlin, April 19, 1945, in Gun, Eva Braun , pp. 247–248. Transcript in Speer Papers, N 1340, vol. 287, BA Koblenz. Walter Schellenberg, head of the secret service since 1944, even claimed in his postwar memoir that the death sentence passed on Brandt really had to do with “an intrigue in Hitler’s closest circle, including Eva Braun and her sister, Frau Fegelein” (Schellenberg, Aufzeichnungen , p. 361).

27. Speer, Inside the Third Reich , p. 465.

28. See Martin Bormann to Gerda Bormann, February 6, 1945, in Bormann, The Bormann Letters , pp. 174f.

29. See Martin Bormann to Gerda Bormann, February 9, 1945, in Bormann, The Bormann Letters , pp. 180. See also Besymenski, Die letzten Notizen von Martin Bormann , p. 107.

30. See Martin Bormann to Gerda Bormann, February 9, 1945, in Bormann, The Bormann Letters , pp. 180. See also Besymenski, Die letzten Notizen von Martin Bormann , p. 107; Heinz Linge, Bis zum Untergang: Als Chef des Persönlichen Dienstes bei Hitler , ed. Werner Maser (Munich, 1982), pp. 69f. According to Linge, Bormann’s wife and children went with Eva Braun and her sister to Munich.

31. See Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945 , pp. 821f.; Giesler, Ein anderer Hitler, pp. 479f. Neither Bormann, named by Giesler as one of the people present, nor Speer makes reference to this event in his notes. Cf. Hiller von Gaetringen, ed., Das Auge des Dritten Reiches , pp. 86f.; Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, p. 403.

32. Speer, Albert Speer: Die Kransberg-Protokolle 1945 , p. 133. See also Wilhelm Höttl, Einsatz für das Reich (Koblenz, 1997), p. 117.

33. See Besymenski, Die letzten Notizen von Martin Bormann , p. 147; Speer, Erinnerungen , p. 468.

34. Martin Bormann to Gerda Bormann, February 18, 1945, in Bormann, The Bormann Letters , p. 183. See also Linge, Bis zum Untergang , p. 70.

35. Julius Schaub, quoted from Meissner, “Der letzte Befehl,” p. 34.

36. Besymenski, Die letzten Notizen von Martin Bormann , p. 148. Cf. Gun, Eva Braun , p. 181.

37. Henriette von Schirach, Frauen um Hitler , p. 236.

38. Speer, Inside the Third Reich , p. 465. See also Artur Axmann, “Das kann doch nicht das Ende sein”: Hitlers letzter Reichsjugendführer erinnert sich (Koblenz, 1995), p. 434. Axmann, who moved into the “Führer bunker” on April 23, reports that Eva Braun told him there “that the Führer had sent her to Munich in early March, but that she had returned to Berlin against his will on April 15.”

39. Speer, Inside the Third Reich , p. 465; Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant , p. 404.

40. See Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945 , p. 731. Joachim von Ribbentrop, Zwischen London und Moskau , p. 268.

41. See the extensive discussion in Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945 , p. 732. See also Michael Bloch, Ribbentrop: A Biography (New York, 1993), pp. 421ff.; Schmidt, Albert Speer , pp. 151ff.; Fest, Speer , pp. 314ff.; Longerich, Heinrich Himmler , pp. 745ff.

42. Schroeder, Er war mein Chef , p. 198.

43. Ibid., p. 168.

44. Eva Braun to Herta Schneider, Berlin, April 19, 1945, in Gun, Eva Braun , pp. 247–248.

45. See Schroeder, Er war mein Chef , p. 199.

46. Eva Braun to Herta Schneider, Berlin, April 19, 1945, previously cited. Junge also reports that there were gunshots ( Bis zur letzten Stunde , p. 182). Hitler had apparently tried again and again to persuade her to leave the bunker and get herself to safety. Heinrich Hoffmann reports that Hitler asked him to bring Eva Braun to Munich with him in early April 1945 (Hoffmann, Hitler wie ich ihn sah , pp. 230f.).

47. Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant , p. 408. Speer similarly writes ( Inside the Third Reich , p. 484) that Eva Braun was “the only prominent candidate for death in this bunker who displayed an admirable and superior composure.” Likewise Schroeder, Er war mein Chef , p. 169, and Axmann, “ Das kann doch nicht das Ende sein ,” p. 434, who wrote that Eva Braun appeared to him “like an unreal apparition.”

48. See Junge, Bis zur letzten Stunde , p. 183; Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant , p. 417.

49. See Lakowski, “Der Zusammenbruch der deutschen Verteidigung zwischen Ostsee und Karpaten,” p. 648.

50. See Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant , p. 411; Speer, Inside the Third Reich , pp. 474; Loringhoven, Mit Hitler im Bunker , p. 145; Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945 , p. 823; Frank, Der Tod im Führerbunker , pp. 34ff. Eva Braun had written to Herta Schneider on the previous day that “getting through with a car” was probably “no longer an option.” But “a way for us all to see you again would surely” turn up (Eva Braun to Herta Schneider, Berlin, April 19, 1945, previously cited).