Hitler's Last Day: Minute by Minute: The hidden story of an SS family in wartime Germany
Read Hitler's Last Day: Minute by Minute: The hidden story of an SS family in wartime Germany Online
Authors: Emma Craigie,Jonathan Mayo
Praise for
D-Day: Minute by Minute
:
‘Studded with extraordinary detail, it’s the most joltingly vivid account ever written of the day the Allies gambled everything… Heartbreaking and thrilling by turns.’
– Daily Mail
‘This blow-by-blow account of Allied troops’ storming of the Normandy beaches highlights the poignant moments, personal stories and individual scenes that make key moments in history… The chaos, the horror and the bravery of the battlefield are all here.’
– Daily Express
‘An accessible history that conveys the havoc and vast international spread of D-Day.’
– Kirkus Review, US
‘This book creates a remarkably vivid picture of one of the most important days in modern history.’
– The Good Book Guide
Praise for
The Assassination of JFK: Minute by Minute
:
‘Reads like a pacey, page-turning, cold war political thriller.’
– Dermot O’Leary
‘You forget you are reading a factual description of a historical event, as it feels like a gripping crime thriller.’
– Edinburgh Evening News
‘A blow by blow account of a moment that changed history… The pictures come thick and fast as the tragedy unfolds and some of the images painted are painfully powerful.’
– Radio Times
‘A gripping account of those blood-soaked few days in November 1963.’
– Daily Express
For David, Maud, Wilf, Myfanwy and Samuel EC
For Hannah and Charlie
In memory of Derek Mayo and Michael Scott-Joynt JM
I would like to thank John Schwartz, Dietlinde Nawrath and Annette Yoosefinejad for talking about their memories and family stories; Patrick Mueller and Myfanwy Craigie for help with translation; the late Elizabeth Bruegger for the information about Harald Quandt in Latimer House; Joanna Hylton, Richard Oldfield, Gillian Rees-Mogg and Charlotte Rees-Mogg for showing, lending and giving me books and Kate O’Brien for recommending sources. I’d also like to thank my family for allowing me to shirk domestic duties in the run-up to Christmas and Jonathan for being a great collaborator – in the best sense.
EC
Many thanks to Sibylle Harrison for her invaluable German translations; the Ruffle family, and in particular Alan Ruffle, for permission to reprint Bert Ruffle’s 1945 diary; Robin Mortimer for the book loans; Phil Critchlow for his on-going minute by minute support. Particular thanks to my family who have put up with a husband and father whose head has too often been in April 1945 rather than the present day. I couldn’t have asked for a better writing partner in Emma – whose idea this book was.
JM
Thanks to Aurea Carpenter and Rebecca Nicolson for their support and enthusiasm, and to Paul Bougourd for his wise and focused editing.
Cast of Characters
American | |
Major-General Walter | General Eisenhower’s Chief of Staff |
General Simon Bolivar | Commander of the US forces on Okinawa |
Alistair | Journalist for the |
Joseph E. | Former ambassador to Moscow |
General Dwight D. | Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces |
John | Officer in the 3323rd SIAM company; son of Dwight D. Eisenhower. |
Flight Lieutenant Alexander | P-51 pilot and POW |
John F. | Journalist for the |
Lieutenant Wolfgang F. | German-born US army soldier |
Franklin D. | President of the United States March 1933 to April 1945 |
Lieutenant Marcus J. | US army medical officer working in Dachau |
Lieutenant Colonel Felix L. | US 45th Infantry Division |
Harry | Succeeded Roosevelt as President on 12th April 1945 |
Lieutenant Bill | US 45th Infantry Division, serving under Lieutenant Colonel Felix Sparks |
Australian | |
Wing Commander Lionel ‘Bill’ | POW in Rangoon jail |
Belgian | |
Albert | Doctor for the SOE under pseudonym Pat O’Leary; POW in Dachau |
British | |
John | Journalist and son of Cabinet Minister Leo Amery |
Winston | British Prime Minister since May 1940 |
Lieutenant Commander Patrick | Member of Ian Fleming’s 30 Assault Unit |
Richard | BBC correspondent in Germany |
Major-General Sir Francis | Montgomery’s Chief of Staff |
Michael | Medical student heading to Bergen-Belsen |
Clara | Diarist and mother of POW Alan Milburn |
General Sir Bernard | Senior ground force commander for the invasion of Europe |
Alan | Daily Express |
George | Journalist and author |
Captain Sigismund | British agent for the Secret Intelligence Service |
Robert | BBC correspondent in Germany |
Corporal Bert | POW in Stalag IV-C |
Jack | Gunnery officer in the 51st Highland Division |
Wynford | BBC correspondent in Germany |
Major Elliott | POW in Stalag VII-A at Moosburg |
Second Lieutenant Alan | British Army Film and Photo Unit |
Tony | BBC correspondent in San Francisco |
Danish | |
Hans Henrick | Danish Ministry of Social Welfare |
Dutch | |
Audrey | Actress |
Jacqueline | Friend of Anne Frank |
John | First cousin of Audrey Hepburn |
German | |
Ruth | Berlin resident; member of anti-Nazi resistance group |
Artur | Head of Hitler Youth |
Nicolaus | Luftwaffe officer and adjutant to Hitler; last person to leave bunker before Hitler’s death |
Gerhard | Military intelligence officer working for General Krebs; leaves bunker on mission to contact General Wenck |
Colonel Bogislav | One of the |
Martin | Hitler’s private secretary |
Eva Hitler née | Hitler’s wife |
Gretl | Hitler’s sister-in-law, Eva’s sister |
Wernher | Inventor of the V2 |
General Wilhelm | German army general; witness to Hitler’s last will and testament |
Gerda | Hitler’s secretary |
Captain Willi | U-boat captain in the |
Admiral Karl | Head of German navy, named Hitler’s successor in the Führer’s last testament |
General Alexander | Former German army Commander-in-Chief in Belgium; one of the |
Hermann | Himmler’s SS representative in the bunker, married to Eva Braun’s sister, Gretl |
Sister Erna | Nurse in Reich Chancellery emergency hospital |
Karl Hermann | Secretary of State and Chief of Police in Prague |
Lieselotte | Berlin resident and anonymous diarist |
Joseph | Hitler’s Propaganda Minister |
Magda | Wife of Joseph Goebbels |
Helga, Hilde, Helmut, Holde, Hedda, Heide | Children of Joseph and Magda |
Hermann | Recently deposed head of the Luftwaffe |
Robert Ritter | Hitler’s last Luftwaffe chief |
Clara | Prisoner at Bergen-Belsen |
Hermann | Technician in the bunker |
Otto | SS officer and adjutant to Hitler |
Dr Werner | Surgeon in Reich Chancellery emergency hospital |
Fey | One of the |
Marta | German journalist; anonymous author of memoir, |
Heinrich | Recently deposed SS chief attempting to negotiate with the Allies |
General Rudolf | General supposed to be attacking Russian forces from the north-west of Berlin |
Willi | SS officer, one of the couriers of Hitler’s last testaments |
Margaret | Wife of William Joyce; German citizen from 1940 |
William | Broadcaster for the Reich Broadcasting Company; German citizen from 1940 |
General Alfred | Chief of Operations Staff of the Armed Forces High Command; signed German unconditional surrender on behalf of Admiral Dönitz |
Traudl | Hitler’s secretary |
Erich | Hitler’s driver |
General Wilhelm | Supreme High Command of the German Armed Forces |
Karl | Luftwaffe liaison officer in the bunker |
General Hans | Chief of Army General Staff |
Armin | Hitler Youth runner |
Dr Hans Graf | Doctor in Königsberg |
Ewald | SS officer who buries Hitler’s remains |
Heinz | Hitler’s personal valet |
Heinz | Hitler’s press officer, one of the couriers of Hitler’s last testaments |
Bernd Freytag | Adjutant to General Krebs; leaves bunker with Boldt on mission to contact General Wenck |
Constanze | Hitler’s cook |
Emil | Hitler’s former chauffer |
Ernst | Former Auschwitz prisoner |
Rochus | Bunker switchboard operator |
General Wilhelm | Battle Commander of Berlin’s central government district, including the bunkers |
Heinrich | Head of the Gestapo |
Liesl | Eva Braun’s maid |
Harald | Magda Goebbels’ son from her first marriage |
Hanna | Aviatrix who flies Robert Ritter von Greim in and out of the bunker |
Walter | SS intelligence officer working for Heinrich Himmler, organising negotiations with Count Bernadotte |
Dr. Ernst | Doctor in the Berlin Reich Chancellery emergency hospital |
Anni Antonie | Munich resident |
Captain Adelbert | U-boat commander |
Field Marshal Ferdinand | Named Commander-in-Chief of the German army in Hitler’s last testament |
Claus | Lieutenant in the 79th Mountain Artillery Regiment |
Arthur | Reich Commissioner in the Netherlands |
Albert | Architect and Minister for Munitions |
Richard | Composer |
Dr Ludwig | SS doctor in the Berlin Reich Chancellery emergency hospital |
Fritz | Hitler’s dog handler |
Walther | Civil magistrate who marries Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun |
General Helmuth | Commandant of Berlin, leading the defence of the city against the Russians |
Rudolf | Assistant to General Burgdorf who leaves the bunker with Boldt and von Loringhoven on a mission to contact General Wenck |
General Walther | Commanding forces south of Berlin, Wenck was Hitler’s last hope for relief of the capital. He was actually trying to give Berliners safe passage out of the city |
Henry | Prisoner in Mauthausen concentration camp |
Sisi | Nurse escaping Vienna for her family home Moosham Castle |
August | Hitler’s barber |
Walther | Astrologer who advises Heinrich Himmler |
Wilhelm | One of the couriers of Hitler’s last testaments; assistant to Martin Bormann |
