Елена Ржевская - Memoirs of a Wartime Interpreter - From the Battle for Moscow to Hitler's Bunker

On 25 April the ring of encirclement closed around Berlin. That same day, Soviet and American infantrymen greeted each other at the River Elbe. Outside the walls of the Reich Chancellery people, deceived by Hitler, were being killed. In the underground complex, pinning their hopes on an imminent miracle, a couple of horoscopes and the Führer’s intuition, his entourage lived in an atmosphere of intrigues, upheavals and upsets, for which there was plenty of fuel.

The news of the treason of Göring, who had left Berlin and was attempting to negotiate a separate peace with the British and Americans, eclipsed everything else that was happening on the planet for those still in the complex. On 25 April, Göring sent Hitler a message stating that, in accordance with the Führer’s decree of 20 July 1941 appointing Göring his successor, and supposing that Hitler, surrounded in Berlin, lacked means of communication and was no longer able to act, he was assuming total authority in order to work ‘in the interests of Germany and the German people’. The letter concluded with assurances of unconditional loyalty.

Rattenhuber, who was present at this scene, recalls, [Hitler’s] whole face became contorted. He was totally dismayed, and only after taking himself in hand, literally shrieked, ‘Hermann Göring has betrayed me and the Fatherland… Against my instructions he has fled to Berchtesgaden and established contact with the enemy, presenting me with an insolent ultimatum that if by 9 hours 30 minutes I do not telegraph him a reply, he will take my decision to be positive.

Goebbels took up Hitler’s accusations: ‘Göring was always a traitor in his heart; he never understood anything, constantly did stupid things, and has ruined Germany.’ Hitler ordered Bormann to arrange for the traitor to be arrested. The order was radioed to the head of Göring’s bodyguard, who acted on it.

Hitler ordered his adjutant, Julius Schaub, to burn his personal papers that remained in Munich and Berchtesgaden. Schaub managed to leave in the second-last plane to take off from Gatow aerodrome.

Bormann wrote in his diary, ‘Wednesday 25 April. Göring has been expelled from the Party! First massive offensive against Obersalzberg. Berlin is surrounded!’

People were well aware of the kind of person Göring, the Reich’s ‘secondin-command’ and the only Reich marshal in German history, really was. Hans Rattenhuber, who combined the post of head of Hitler’s bodyguard with the post of chief of the security service, knew everything about Hitler’s comrades-in-arms that there was to know. ‘I have nothing more to achieve in life: my family is provided for,’ Rattenhuber quotes Göring as having said in autumn 1944. He writes of how greedily Göring enriched himself, using his power for outright theft, first in Germany itself, later in Italy, then in occupied countries. He was in charge of the project to force millions of people from the occupied territories to work as slave labourers in Germany.

Göring, the ‘economic dictator of Greater Germany’, often spent his time during the war in his Carinhall palace or his palace in Berchtesgaden, in the midst of treasures plundered and transported there from all over Europe. He would receive his visitors in a pink silk robe adorned with gold fastenings, and introduce them to his wife with a lion cub in her arms.

Göring continued to go out hunting as if nothing untoward was happening. What kind of hunting that was I heard in June 1945 from the head gamekeeper at Göring’s hunting castle. In a forested park, where trees were planted in rows and formed straight avenues with an unobstructed view, a feeding place for deer was set up and a deer trained to come there at a certain time. The perfectly groomed Göring, in red jacket and green boots, duly arrived for the hunting, settled himself in an open car and drove down the avenue, at the end of which his target, the tame deer, was already waiting for him. He left with his victim’s antlers as a hunting trophy.

Goebbels, possessed to his last moments by jealousy of his rivals in the Nazi hierarchy, kept a particularly close eye on the Führer’s successor. He noted in his diary on 28 February 1945, two months before final defeat:

Fools festooned with medals and vain, perfumed fops should not be in charge of the army. They need either to transform themselves or be written off. I will not calm down and will know no peace until the Führer puts this right. He needs to transform Göring both inwardly and outwardly, or get rid of him. For example, it is a gross violation of form when the Reich’s foremost military officer is poncing around in the current wartime situation wearing a silver-grey (dress) uniform. What sort of effeminacy is that in the light of current events? It is to be hoped the Führer will now be able to make a man of Göring again.

Goebbels tried in vain to persuade the Führer to replace Göring. ‘Göring has now again gone off on two special trains to Obersalzberg to visit his wife’ (27 March). Another month was to pass before Göring was at last out on his ear.

Finding himself under arrest, Göring backed away from his pretensions. Hitler sent him a radio-telegram to say his life would be spared if he renounced all his ranks and positions. A telegram duly arrived in the Führerbunker, stating that Göring had suffered a heart attack and asking Hitler to accept his resignation. The Berliner Frontblatt reported to the public and the army:

Reich Marshal Hermann Göring has long suffered from chronic heart disease, which has now become acute. He has accordingly asked that, at the present time which demands maximum effort, he should be relieved of the burden of leading the air force and all related duties. The Führer has granted this request.

The Führer has appointed Colonel General Ritter von Greim as the new commander-in-chief of the Air Force, simultaneously conferring on him the rank of field marshal.

The Führer yesterday received the new commander-in-chief of the Air Force in his headquarters in Berlin and discussed with him in detail the issue of bringing air units and anti-aircraft artillery into battle. (27 April 1945)

The order appointing Greim could perfectly well have been telegraphed, but Hitler, who was accustomed to spectacles and parades and not accustomed to obstacles and restrictions, particularly in matters concerning his prestige, disregarding the current situation and all expediency, dooming German pilots, ordered that Greim should attend him in the bunker in encircled Berlin solely in order to be informed of his appointment.

Escorted by forty fighters, Greim flew from Rechlin and somehow managed to make it through to Gatow aerodrome, losing fighters one after another at a time when every plane and every pilot was desperately needed. Taking off in another aircraft, he left the airfield but, a few minutes later, when he was over the Brandenburg Gate, a shell ripped the bottom of the plane and Greim suffered a leg wound. His personal pilot, Hanna Reitsch, who was accompanying Greim, replaced him at the controls and landed the aircraft in the Tiergarten park.

About the sight that presented itself to them in Hitler’s bunker, Reitsch gave detailed testimony to the US military authorities a few months later, on 8 October 1945. Her evidence contains unique details about the last days in the Führerbunker. It largely coincides with Rattenhuber’s recollections and confirms their accuracy.

Immediately Greim and Reitsch arrived, the Führer, clutching Göring’s telegram in his hand, informed them of his treachery. ‘“He gave me an ultimatum!” There were tears in the Führer’s eyes. His head was lowered, his face deathly pale, his hands shaking… It was a familiar scene, “Et tu Brute! ” full of reproaches and self-pity,’ recalled Hanna Reitsch.