Go here to see the previous part of this. Also make sure to check out the Hitler’s Circle of Evil documentary yourself as it includes much more information and insight, as well as good acting and visuals.
Here I continue to jot down the parts I found most interesting from where we left off in the previous part all the way to the end of World War II and the fate of Hitler and those within his inner circle.
Hess Goes off the Rails
Although Hitler is feinting peace, he knows that secretly he was preparing for war. Hess believed that instead of fighting Poland and the Soviets, they would end up fighting France and Britain, which he believed was the wrong war to fight.
Despite Hess being one of Hitler’s most fanatical and obsessed people, he feels he is now the least influential of Hitler’s inner circle, despite him holding the position of Deputy Fuhrer.
Hitler himself had also begun finding Hess’ obsessions annoying, and he was also aggravated with Hess bringing his own food to the Berghof which he viewed as rude.
Hess had become very paranoid after losing his influential ability to inner circle plots, especially after one of his own employees, Bormann, rose up very close to Hitler and never missed an opportunity to undermine Hess.
Hess had become obsessed with many strange and odd things as well, including pseudo-sciences such as astrology and horoscopes, and he was interested in things such as the occult, esoterica, magick, soothsaying, pendulums, telekinesis, and so on, which people like Bormann used to their advantage against Hess.
There was even a case where an aide found Hess in his own office attempting to exert mind control over a chair.
One of the things that served to make Hess more paranoid was when he was not invited to the meeting that planned the invasion of Poland. Hess in his attempt to gain some kind of recognition did try and persuade Britain to stop supporting Poland, but Lord Buxton, his corrospondence from Britain, also saw that Hess had little influence over Hitler, and so his attempt failed.
The Invasion of Poland
Goring himself was once again anxious, he was afraid of all out war in Europe as a consequence of an invasion in Poland, causing a two-front war that they could not win.
Hitler on the other hand believed that Britain was bluffing about intervening if they invaded Poland. Goring thought Hitler was misjudging the situation, but was incapable of changing his mind. So instead Goring decides to retire to his estate so he can distance himself if the plan goes badly, and also safeguard his relationship with Hitler.
Goebbels, as another big Hitler sycophant, is fully behind an invasion of Poland and uses his propaganda empire to create a pretext that justified the invasion. One such angle the propaganda took is that ethnic Germans living in Poland were being persecuted by the Polish.
More propaganda pumped out also blames the Polish government for organising these apparent attacks against ethnic Germans, which included killings, attacks, confiscations, discrimination, and denied rights. The propaganda helps to convince the German populace.
The final spark comes when it is claimed that a German radio station had been raided from across the Polish border, and that some of the raiders killed were found to be Polish soldiers. But this had all been staged by the SS under the direction of Himmler, the raiders were actually just SS posing in Polish uniforms, carrying Polish guns.
More sinister still were the dead bodies found, which were not Poles, but were a group of concentration camp prisoners who were taken, shot dead, and put into Polish uniforms and had Polish guns placed on them, and then these bodies were placed around the German radio station.
This fabrication was seemingly enough to be sure that the German populace would accept an invasion of Poland, and gave Hitler the excuse he needed to retaliate and invade.
Goring dreaded the coming invasion of Poland and believed it could be the end for them, but tells himself that Hitler is superior, the Polish are pawns, and that he must do Hitler’s bidding. Thus his Luftwaffe is used in the invasion to bomb targets, followed by the other forces.
Afterwards Britain does declare war, making Goring’s prediction come true, but he does not mock or go against Hitler for it, as that would be suicide.
After the invasion Himmler releases the SS into German-occupied Poland to crush any further resistance, but they go further than this and begin specifically seeking out Jews and other so-called undesirables.
Hitler Almost Gets Assassinated
In Autmn of 1939 there was a gathering in Munich that included the inner circle, the gatherings purpose was to commemorate the failed Nazi putsch of 1923. On the day fog had prevented Hitler from flying in and so he took a train instead meaning his speech would be cut short. Most crazily this series of events likely saved Hitler’s life from a bomb that blew up shortly after his shortened speech.
The bomb attack killed eight and injured many more. Instantly the members of Hitler’s inner circle begun to make moves to exploit the bombing to gain favour with Hitler.
For example Hess held an elaborate ceremnoy honouring what he called blood martyrs and lauded praise on Hitler’s ‘miraculous escape’. Goebbels used his propaganda to frame the bombing as the work of British Secret Service, which also allowed justification of war with Britain and France.
But in reality the bomb had been planted by a German called Georg Elser acting alone. Elser’s motive for the attempted assassination was that he wanted to stop the war and feared untold human suffering if it continued, something he was unfortunately quite right about.
Nazi authorities eventually capture him as he attempted to flee across the Swiss border, and they had him confess. The assassination attempt is naturally bad news for Himmler as he is in charge of Hitler’s personal security. Apparently, although not fully confirmed, Himmler was so angered he personally took out his frustration on Elser by beating him in his cell.
Elser was held as a prisoner for five years until he was executed at the Dachau Concentration Camp, only less than a month before Germany surrendered.
Goring’s Ups and Downs
As World War II plowed on the initial stages saw staggering and unprecedented successes for the Nazis in both Scandinavia and Western Europe, all of this leads to Goring, initially cautious and fearful of defeat, to become much more confident, so confident in fact that he believes he can finish off Britain when the time comes.
Hitler is ecstatic after the fall of France, as he saw at as the ultimate revenge for their loss in France during the First World War. The successes are also attributed strongly to Goring’s Luftwaffe, enabling him to keep a high up spot within the inner circle, and he is furthermore promoted to Reichsmarschall, the most senior rank in the military.
Goring also rewards himself by stealing priceless artifacts and artworks from Paris to stash in his own personal collection at his estates. Other inner circle members also have a prominent visible position during the fall of France, including Goebbels who arranges propaganda photography in Paris with Hitler, framing him as a conquering hero.
The only one not visible in all of these Nazi successes, is Hess who remains absent, again all despite being the deputy Fuhrer.
For Goring though, all does not remain well. Despite his confidence in being able to take out the British, the Royal Air Force manages to hold out against the odds during the Battle of Britain, and the Blitz also fails to weaken the British resolve. This leads to Hitler’s great British ground invasion being put on hold, and Goring’s reputation becomes tarnished, shortcomings revealed.
The Fall of Hess and His Bonkers Plan
Albert Speer remains close to Hitler, becoming even his close confidant, which enabled Speer to record down interesting insights of Hitler’s. One such insight we find out about is Hess’s fall from grace with Hitler. From what was recorded it seemed apparent that Hitler now found Hess very annoying.
Inner circle members had also started gossiping about Hess’s weird occult methods, such as trying to use psychic powers to divine good or bad news from letters. Hitler himself even hoped that Hess would never have to take over from him.
In a bid to redeem himself, Hess decides to formulate a secret plan. He begins by using his piloting experience to his advantage, and gets used to flying a prototype of the latest Messerschmitt. He modifies the plane to fly solo and fits extra fuel tanks so that it can fly out to a longer range.
Hess’s plan is to go behind Hitler’s back by flying to Britain and meeting an influential contact in a bid to be introduced to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. After that his aim was to persuade Britian to sue for peace. The influential contact would be someone Hess is thought to have met at the previous Olympic Games in Germany, Scottish aristocrat the Duke of Hamilton.
Hess plans to secretly fly to his estate in Scotland and ask for an introduction to Churchill.
Now, there is a conspiracy theory that Hitler actually knew about the plan and that there was a final meeting between Hess and Hitler before he left, but details of this meeting were never released. But evidence suggests that Hitler was totally surprised by Hess’s actions.
Hess also left a letter behind explaining his intentions to Hitler, which would be delivered to him to read the day after Hess had left.
Hess did manage to reach his planned destination south of Glasgow, but the fading light made it so he was unable to see where to land. So instead he just bails out of the plane like a mad man and parachutes down to the ground without injury. It sounds totally fictional, but this actually did happen, and yes the plane crashed down to land after he bailed, luckily not killing or injuring anyone.
A nearby farm worker does hear the sound of the plane crash and goes out to investigate and he finds none other than the Deputy Fuhrer of Nazi Germany, Rudolf Hess – in a field – in Scotland – near Glasgow – having parachuted down. It’s just pure madness – but it happened. It would be like the Vice-President of the United States flying themselves to Iran and parachuting down south of Tehran asking for audience with the President, or vice versa.
Anyway, Hess informs the farmer that he has an important message for the Duke of Hamilton, after this he goes with the farmer to his house – and has a cup of tea (because of course that’s what happens here). Eventually the Home Guard arrives and takes Hess to a barracks where he is held prisoner.
The issue with Hess is that he falsely believed, through his feudal mindset, that Dukes and Barons maintained tremendous influence within the British political system. Sure, they do have some limited influence and connections, but nothing what Hess had assumed.
Meanwhile Hitler does receive Hess’s letter at the Berghof. In this letter Hess does have the sanity to admit that his plan had little chance of success and that Hitler could simply deny all responsibility and say that Hess was crazy. Hitler is naturally very angry when he finds out what had happened.
Bormann receives one of his first real grillings from Hitler, as he was connected to Hess as his nominal deputy, and Hitler wanted to understand how Hess was not stopped. Bormann contacted Goebbels to see if propaganda could be used to explain away what had happened, but even Goebbels exclaimed there were some situations where propaganda was not the answer. So instead Goebbels used his media empire to say that Hess was mad and mentally deranged.
After this Hess is cleansed from any existence within the Nazi Party and is never mentioned in public again. Many in the German populace did question why Hess was kept as Deputy Fuhrer if he were deranged.
Bormann then moves to distance himself from Hess in an attempt to take over from him. Bormann interrogates Hess’s wife and threatens to evict them, but the appeal of Hitler’s wife Braun prevents this. Bormann also changes the names of his children by court order as they had been named after Hess and his wife.
Hitler abolishes the position of Deputy Fuhrer and despite objections from Goebbels and Goring, Bormann is appointed as Head of the Chancellory, officially making him Hitler’s closest aid and formal gatekeeper, something he practically already was anyway.
The British media meanwhile turned the whole fiasco into a laughing stock. Hess is taken to the Tower of London and interrogated. But despite all of this Hess continued to try and attempt to persuade the British to ally with Hitler and form an alliance against the Soviets.
Hess is later moved to a safe house, he does attempt to commit suicide, but his first attempt results in just a broken leg. Hess remains behind bars for the rest of his life, first in Britain, and then in Germany after the Nuremberg trials, until his second attempt at suicide is succesful.
The Rise of Reinhard Heydrich
As we already covered in Part 1, Reinhard Heydrich was hired by Himmler to become the head of the newly created SD, a branch of the SS geared towards gathering intelligence. Heydrich also became second in command of the SS itself, and as you shall see he goes on to become one of the inner circles most evil and ruthless members. Within the Himmler-Heydrich partnership, Himmler is the planner, while Heydrich is the doer, and so naturally they complement each other in that regard.
Inner cirle rivalry had a general aim of trying to split up the Himmler-Heydrich partnership to prevent them getting too much favour with Hitler over others, such as Goebbels and Goring for example who do not like compitition coming in the way of them and Hitler, or between them and a presitigious position, or a even more presitigious position that overrules their own.
So going back to 1931 Heydrich was originally unemployed and desparate as he had lost his officers commission in the Navy due to a love triangle affair. Due to this an influential father of one of the woman got Heydrich fired after Heydrich had dumped his daughter.
Heydrich’s desperation was further increased by The Great Depression at the time, making him skint with zero career prospects, if only it had remained that way. But the woman he had chosen to marry offered Heydrich a lifeline through her connection to the Nazi movement, and encouraged him to seek an interview with Himmler.
Although Heydrich had no knowledge of professional espionage, he used information gathered from detective fiction and spy novels to impress Himmler on how intelligence services work. Fake it to you make it, right?
Himmler, who at the time was a wannabe soldier, was impressed by the military language used by Heydrich, as well as his physical appearance like that of a typical Aryan, and so he was hired.
Heydrich went on to organise and take direct part in the purge of the SA, known as the Night of the Long Knives, while other inner circle members were at a tea party hosted by Hitler. Even though Ernst Rohm, the leader of the SA, was godfather to one of Heydrich’s children, he was nonetheless still sacrificed.
After the Night of the Long Knives, Himmler’s SS became the foremost Nazi agency for security, surveillance, and terror. Much of the SS success came from the work of Himmler and Heydrich together, who as mentioned both complemented each other in their particular areas of skill well. By 1939 Heydrich had been put in charge of every police and security agency within the new Reich.
Heydrich Ordered to Deal with ‘Jewish Problem’
During this time Goring sent Heydrich a memo that instructed him to begin work on a solution for Hitler’s ‘Jewish problem’ either by emigration or evacuation in the most convenient way possible. This gave Heydrich a massive opportunity for him to move up in Hitler’s grace.
The specific orders on dealing with Hitler’s ‘Jewish problem’ from the top were quite vague, and the invasion of Poland resulted in a further two million Jews with no clear plan on what to do with. Although Hitler did not directly order for the execution of the Jews, he did vaguely imply for them to be gotten rid of.
And so the interpretation of these vague orders were left up for Heydrich to decide. Heydrich’s first received plan is to Germanise western Poland, and he sets up a new SS task force for this, called the Einsatzgruppen. Their purpose was to terrorise the civilian population into submission, including killing the Polish elite, killing Polish priests, killing Polish professors, killing Polish politicians, killing Polish economic leaders, and so on so forth.
But even this was merely just groundwork for the larger plan of Himmler’s dream of more German living space. New orders eventually demand millions of ethnic Poles be moved to the East to make way for German settlers. The fate for ethnic Jews was less certain, with many corralled and held inside urban ghettos, awaiting future deportation. Many were loaded on to trains and taken to large centres where they were crammed into tiny rooms.
By early 1940 hundreds of thousands of Jews had been crammed inside ghettos within a newly created zone known as the General Government. A figure called Hans Frank is made the powerful new Nazi boss of this new zone, and he was not happy with Himmler and Heydrich using his new fiefdom as a holding station for Jews. He did not want his area to become a dumping ground for so-called undesirables from other occupied territories.
Hans Frank is close friends with Goring, who is one of Himmler’s inner circle rivals, and so naturally Goring finds out about the growing issue, and decides to use it as an opportunity to throw his weight around, and calls Hans and Himmler to a meeting.
Due to Gorings status as second-in-command and Minister of the Economy, he is able to force Himmler to agree that no further deportations would place undesirables into the General Government zone without Hans Frank’s consent. This remainds Himmler that Goring holds stronger sway over the inner circle than he currently does.
Heydrich’s New Idea
Heydrich had always been eager to prove himself. Even during the Nazi invasions in Western Europe he did not hold himself back, and took part in direct combat in the skies, which was risky for someone of high status.
The Fall of France gave Heydrich a new opportunity, specifically the island of Madagascar, which at the time was part of France’s colonial Empire. Heydrich wanted to use former colonial territories of France, such as Madagascar, to act as new places to put the Jews.
Due to the geographical distance and the inhospitible nature of the environment on the island of Madagascar, especially for those from Central Europe not used to its climate, it is thought many would have died in the process, and that this was actually an intended part of the plan.
But this plan was highly dependent on Britain falling due to the power of the British Navy, of which its existence could not guarantee passage for Heydrich’s plan.
Goring’s Big Gamble
Goring makes the biggest gamble of his career by promising Hitler that he could bring Britain to its knees with air power alone. A part of this aim for Goring was to place his Luftwaffe on a pedastal above the German army and navy, a way for Goring to further enhance his reputation.
Goring throws the full force of the Luftwaffe at Britain, but unexpected stiff and well-organised resistance was met. Goring failed to understand Britain’s air defense system, its radar system, or how any of it was organised, and therefore he was unable to figure out its weak points, giving Britain the upper hand.
Goring continued to reasure Hitler that the Luftwaffe would eventually beat Britain’s Royal Air Force. But to Goring, it quickly becomes clear that his Luftwaffe was never ready for long range operations over the English Channel. As long as Britain held its nerve, there was basically little chance for the Luftwaffe to win.
The failure becomes a massive downside for Goring as he delivers the Nazis first major military defeat. This causes Hitler to begin to distrust Goring. Heydrich’s Madagascar plan is also shelved due to the failure. Hitler decides to turn his attention back to Eastern Europe, deciding that the Soviet Union now holds the key to supremacy over Europe. Goring see’s Hitler’s new plan as a strategic suicide, as Britain remains a threat, but due to Goring’s failure his credibility has little sway on Hitler.
Himmler and Heydrich on the other hand are happy to be fighting the Soviets as they view them as arch enemies of National Socialism. The Nazi ideology merges Jews and Bolshevism together as a combined menace. The focus on the Soviet Union presents the possibility of new limitless German living space. Himmler predicts that millions of Russian Slavs will die through starvation alone, which is just such a cartoonisly evil thing to be excited about and also ironic considering what happens, but yeah, Himmler and Heydrich are just evil incarnate.
The Jewish Genocide Escalates – and The Final Solution
The Einsatzgruppen follow behind the invasion, and it becomes clear that Heydrich ordered the escalation of violence against Jews. Killing of Jewish men of military age begins, followed by killings of Jewish women and children.
Weeks after this invasion, Heydrich meets Goring to sign off on what would become known as the Final Solution. Its terms are deliberately vague but it is clear Heydrich wants to take charge of it, and be fully responsible for its execution.
Heydrich did also have a kind of personal (and unjustifiable) vendetta for this. Back in 1932 Heydrich’s job had nearly been ended when a file claiming he was Jewish arrived on Hitler’s desk. Heydrich’s paternal grandmother had apparently remarried a man with a Jewish surname. Such an accusation had been brought against Heydrich’s father before but were proven wrong, but these accusations still haunted Heydrich.
Heydrich’s Final Solution evolved into a campaign of mass murder. Jews were rounded up from given areas, marched off to woods or a nearby field, forced to dig a deep trench, and then were shot in the head, then another group were shot and killed to land on top of their bodies, then the next, repeated on until the trench was filled, and then covered over.
This heinous and barbaric genocide had been instituted not only due to fanaticism, but also as a personal bid for power. Over just two days in September of 1941, more than 33,000 Jews were murdered. The SS leadership justified the murders as service to their people.
Heydrich and SS Try to Gain Political Power
Hitler decides that control over vast Soviet territory would be given to German civilians, and not the SS. Part of this strategy was to prevent concentration of power into too few of hands, limiting the power of the SS and other agencies under Himmler and Heydrich.
Heydrich comes up with a new plan to gain political power, which involves targeting the Nazi protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in occupied Czechoslovakia. The area is economically important to the Nazis due to major armament productions.
Following the Soviet invasion, there had been a large increase in resistance activities within the protectorate, damaging the Nazi war efforts. Heydrich sees an opportunity to exploit this along with the SS, but would also require Bormann to be on side, as he is one of the most influential people to Hitler, which included many connections to the inner circle. Bormann agrees to come on side to the plan with little persuasion, only since he wants to use it himself as a way to control Heydrich.
Heydrich uses his SD to fabricate reports that say civilian administrators in Prague are unable to control the resistance movements. Through Bormann the report reaches Hitler who agrees to take action and approves Heydrich to begin work in Prague. This allows Heydrich to begin a tough crackdown on resistance.
He rounds up resistance fighters and executes them. But this is not all he does, he also employs other strategies, such as improving worker rations to make people happy, in a bid to prevent important labourers essential to the Nazi war effort falling to the resistance and going on strike. Heydrichs plan is a success and serves to ramp production back up.
His success leads to him receiving much praise and many in the Nazi hierarchy begun seeing him as a leader in his own right. Hitler even personally congratulates Heydrich, and from then Heydrich reaches the position needed for him to be able to report directly to Hitler.
But many in the inner cirle want to exploit his success to break up the Heydrich-Himmler partnership, such as by presenting Heydrich as a threat to Himmler’s influence with Hitler.
The Wannsee Conference
Heydrich chairs a secret high level Nazi meeting in 1942 known as the Wannsee Conference. Heydrich’s aim was to gain control over anti-Jewish policies and coordinate other German state agencies for implementation of the Final Solution.
His plan involves coralling and moving 11 million people across the continent with almost dictatorial control of numerous government agencies to make it happen. The meeting also discusses how to identify and classify all of Europe’s Jewry, and how to move them to a final destination.
It is decided that the Jews would be deported to the East, but did not spell out that they would be killed, simply they would just not come back. From this meeting the Final Solution would evolve into a genocide on an industrial scale under Heydrich.
Heydrich and the Gestapo leadership are attracted to the idea of camps being used for killing and disposing of Jews, moving from face to face killing to a more abstract industrial form of killing. This would lead to concentration camps and the first stationary gas chamber being set up by March 1942. 80,000 were killed within just three months.
But in the end, millions would be dead from this, it was the pinnacle of Heydrich’s career.
Heydrich’s Sudden Fall
To celebrate his success, Heydrich organises a music concert. By this point he was in charge of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and in charge of all security apparatus in the Third Reich, and effectively in charge of the Jewish genocide.
Heydrich planned to meet Hitler the next day and hoped to take control of the security of occupied territories in both eastern and western Europe after his success in Prague. But he would not make it there.
May 1942, on the outskirts of Prague, Heydrich was travelling to a waiting plane that would have taken him to Berlin, he was in an open-top car. But while on the way a man steps out in front of his car and points a gun at Heydrich.
Unfortunately the gun jams, and Heydrich goes for his own gun, but another man runs out and throws an improvised explosive device under his car, it explodes but seemingly does little damage to Heydrich, he fires at the assassins as they run away.
It soon becomes apparent though that Heydrich had been wounded, resulting in Himmler sending his personal physician, Karl Gebhardt, to treat him, the wounds are serious but apparently not life threatening.
Heydrich does appear to recover from his operation, but then suddenly goes into shock some time later and falls into a deep coma that he never recovers from. The assassination of Heydrich sends shockwaves through the inner circle.
Himmler discovers the assassins were Czechs trained by British secret intelligence. But due to Heydrich dying under Himmler’s personal physician, rumours in the inner circle suspect Himmler purposely ordered his physician to deliberatly get Heydrich’s treatment wrong so that he would die, as it was possible Himmler may have begun to see Heydrich as a rival threat in the long-term.
But experts are skeptical that Himmler really wanted to cut short his deputies career. Himmler did seem to be mortified by his death, as Himmler likely saw him as needed and irreplaceable.
The Nazi Revenge and Beginning of the Holocaust
This was the first time that a leading member of the inner circle had been assassinated, and many wanted revenge, including Hitler who wanted the Czechs to suffer.
Two villages, Lidice and Lezaky, were identified as being connected to the resistance, but only as a pretext for revenge. Both villages were wiped out by the Nazis, 500 men, women, and children murdered.
Meanwhile, lavish state funeral was organised and held for Heydrich.
Following Heydrich’s death, Goring aimed to move up in within the inner circle, Bormann begun scheming to play rivals off of each other, and Himmler begun taking more and more direct responsibility for the Final Solution, this included greenlighting operation Reinhard, which would lead to the murder of over six million mostly Jewish men, women, and children, starting the dreaded Holocaust.
Nazi Machine Loses Momentum and Face Set Backs
In 1942 the Nazi blitzkrieg grounds to a halt against the Soviet Union. The Nazis require more tanks and guns but the economy is not ready for a long drawn out war. Even worse, a plane crash kills Fritz Todt, the Nazis Minister of Armaments, someone who had been greatly beneficial to arming and supplying Hitler’s Nazi war machine.
Goring, following this set back, expected he or one of his men would replace Todt, and Goring hoped to use this to improve his reputation due to set backs he had faced at Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain.
But instead the inner circle is caught by surprise when Hitler names Albert Speer, his chief architect who considered himself one of Hitler’s only friends, as the new Minister of Armaments. The inner circle were surprised that Hitler would choose someone who was not an engineer or general and had no experience in the weapons industry.
But it could well have been a habit of Hitler’s, of giving jobs to people with little experience in things as a way to keep the inner circle in check. Hitler also saw Speer as someone who had not yet failed at anything he had been given, and above all else Hitler had deep trust in Speer.
With the United States choosing to enter the war, the Nazis had one last chance to knock out the Soviets before it was too late. But one of the big issues is that the Soviets were now out-producing the Nazis and were also benefitting from supplies through Arctic convoys from the US and Britain.
Goring now sees Speer as a big rival within the inner circle, with him taking the spot he had wanted for himself, his past experience with Speer was also poor as we have seen. Speer and Goring soon have a meeting where Goring lays out areas where he does not want Speer to tread. But Speer was prepared for this, having a decree directly from Hitler saying that all armaments production was under Speer’s competence, the four-year plan removed any competence from Goring.
Speer begins by bringing in reforms to the organisation and economy, he makes sure factories are being as efficient as possible and removes those that fail to toe the line. Speer confidently informs Hitler that he expects production of armoured vehicles to double by the end of the year.
Speer would have monthly calls with Hitler to report on progress, and received much praise. One of the most interesting things about these phone calls is that Speer would begin the call by saying ‘heil Hitler’, as expected, but most extraordinarily Hitler would often reply with “heil Speer”, in unprecedented jokey respect, that is not recorded with any other member of the inner circle.
All of this closeness between Speer and Hitler served to make Bormann envious, as he was Hitler’s closest aide, and he begun feeling that his access and power with Hitler may be under threat. Bormann’s relationship with Hitler, although close, was only practical and not friendly.
Operation Case Blue
Operation Case Blue was Hitler’s plan to knock the Soviets out of the war. But it presented a problem for Speer, the more men sent to the frontlines, the less were left to work in the factories. And so to obtain more labour, Speer comes up with an idea, but first he must face Himmler.
Himmler’s concentration camps could also be a cast source of labour in Speer’s mind, but Himmler wanted to keep them for himself, and wanted to exploit them to expand the economic enterprise within the SS. Himmler himself used free labour from his camps to make munitions, which was something Speer disagreed with as he saw it as inefficient.
With Speer unable to convince Himmler, he turns instead to Goebbels. During this time Goebbels found himself drifting from the centre of power and was eager to reenter Hitler’s grace. As the war turned against the Nazis, Goebbels found it more difficult to represent this in a positive light via his propaganda machine.
Goebbels had found some unlikely inspiration from Winston Churchill, being very impressed by his public speaking during Britain’s war crisis. Goebbels still despised him ultimately, but recognised him as a good orator. Goebbels believed he could continue to inspire the German populace himself to join the war effort on every front, and as such sees Speer as a potential ally.
Goebbels proposes a program of austerity measures that includes possibly solving Speer’s labour problem. They both believed women should be working in the armament factories similar to how they did in a number of enemy countries, such as Britain. They wanted to conscript women workers for the factories, but Hitler would need to first be convinced.
The plan that Goebbels and Speer present to Hitler is called Total War. But Hitler remains reluctant to let women build munitions, and he does not want anything to bring war closer to home. Hitler was gravely worried about losing the home front, and wanted to protect German civilians, such fears stemmed from his experience of the outcome of World War 1. Women working in factories went against Hitler’s views of a Germanic master race. Hitler wanted German women to focus on breeding rather than working.
But Speer and Goebbels do eventually convince Hitler to give some ground, but it would involve the condition of having to bring Bormann into the Total War project. This was deeply unwanted by Speer and Goebbels as they saw Bormann as a major inner circle rival.
Another issue was that projects involving Bormann often ended up being slowed down by committees and meetings, causing frustration. Bormann himself saw the project as a win-win, as if it failed he could spin it as a Speer and Goebbels failure, and if it succeeded he could take all the credit.
The Battle of Stalingrad
The original plan in the Battle of Stalingrad was to destroy the industrial capacity of the city and control the Volga as a strategic point, but Hitler ended up becoming completely obsessed with taking over all of Stalingrad in its entirety, pumping tons of resources into doing so, which in all was really not important to the greater war effort.
The German Army in Stalingrad became desperate for supplies. Goring saw an opportunity here to salvage his reputation and so comes up with a plan. Goring wanted to use his Luftwaffe to supply the troops. Goring tells Hitler he will be able to take the city via his supply plan, which Hitler accepts.
Goring’s plan was very bold, with pilots facing cold weather conditions that they had not experienced and also the pilots would be traveling out to a great distance, some of Goring’s senior staff become concerned that the plan was impossible. There would need to be 800 tons daily flown in to keep the army supplied. In the end they were only able to manage 100 tons per day.
With Goring’s supply mission failing, the German 6th Army now faced as many deaths by starvation and cold as by enemy bullets. Goring’s plan turns into a catastrophic failure. Their were never enough aircraft or pilots to fulfil the undertaking.
Things Get Worse for Goring
On the anniversary of Hitler’s accession to power, Goring attempts to disguise his failure by telling the perishing German troops in a radio speech that their sacrifice will not be forgotten. But during the speech the Berlin air raid sirens go off as British bombers come and bomb Berlin. This is once again a major humiliation for Goring as he had promised to prevent such a thing.
Hitler goes into a rage during the bombing of Berlin, blaming Italians, Romanians, and Hungarians fighting alongside the 6th Army for the Stalingrad failure, but in reality Hitler no longer believed Goring was up for the job after his string of failures. Goring afterwards ends up slipping back into old habits, and starts taking morphine again.
The Total War Plan
Within the Total War Plan, Bormann continued to be problematic and grow his power. Taking advantage of Hitler’s preoccupation with the Eastern Front, Bormann aimed to minimise the scope and impact of Speer and Goebbels Total War plan, some of which had been allowed to go ahead by Hitler.
Goebbels decides to come up with a way to bypass Bormann by going public and letting the people decide (but by doing it the Goebbels way…). In front of a carefully selected audience, Goebbels seizes the opportunity to turn Stalingrad into a story of heroic sacrifice, telling the German people it is now their turn to join the war effort. He does this not only to inspire the German people following defeat, but to show Hitler that Germans were ready to do whatever it took.
The speech also served to put Goebbels and Speer’s plan back on track, against Bormann’s attempted disruptions. The outcome of the speech also impresses Hitler as well. But Speer and Goebbels are not done yet, they decide to go a step further by targeting Bormann.
To do this they gathered likeminded individuals to resurrect the Defense Council, a body that had been in place up until 1939, but was effectively moribund. The councils powers though were still in place, and the plan was to use these powers to bypass Bormann’s bureacratic barricade around Hitler.
But one of the issues was that Goring headed the Defence Council, someone who was currently not entirely up to action due to his renewed morphine addiction following failures. Goring was also at odds with Goebbels as the Total War plan had led to… wait for it… the closure of his favourite restaurant (yep, and he was mad), and as we know, he was not particularly fond of Speer. Nonetheless Speer attempts to convince Goring to side with them.
Speer plays to Goring’s sensitivities over Bormann, someone who Goring also considers a rival (yeah, seems like Goring does not really like anyone right now). Goring is happy to take advantage of the mutual dislike of Bormann. Speer further drives the point home by convincing Goring that Bormann was probably after his number-2 spot, which seems to fully convince Goring to join their side on the issue.
A plan is put together to chip away at Bormann’s influence, with the first step being to target and discredit a Bormann stooge at a labour supply meeting. But on Speer’s arrival at this meeting, something seemed off, for one Goebbels was not present, and Bormann was sitting beside Himmler, who had not been expected to be present.
And then during the meeting Goring starts attacking Speer’s deputy, going off of the expected script. Speer becomes bewildered and begins to fear he has been set up. Goring had clearly decided to betray Speer, due to the presence of Himmler being on side with Bormann. Himmler did not want Speer to grow his influence, and Himmler used the meeting to reassert his economic sphere of influence.
The plan to undermine Bormann had failed in spectacular fashion.
Speer’s new Plan – and His Himmler Justifications
In the Summer of 1943, Germany had lost the Battle of Kursk, as the Soviets continue to beat the Nazis back. Speer tries to convice Hitler to fully mobilise the home front. Speer also wanted to stop the creation of domestic consumption products to give more room for war production, he wanted luxuries and nonessential goods to be halted.
Speer is promoted to Armaments and Production Minister, which gave him more control over the economy, which made Bormann see him as a larger threat. Many senior Nazis would also come to not be impressed with Speer’s austerity measures.
In Autumn 1943, Speer presents a new plan and has temporarily allied with a former rival to get it done, Himmler. Himmler had become aware that the war had turned decisively against Germany, and as Himmler was a strong Hitler loyalist, Speer’s promotion made him more likely to side with him.
New austerity measures included the SS ensuring all nonessential consumer goods would stop production within two weeks. During this time at the Posen Conference hall, Himmler had openly spoken of the Holocaust and the intention to eradicate people.
Speer later claimed he had not been present to hear what Himmler had said. Following the war Speer had tried his utmost to distance himself from the Third Reich and present himself as an anti-Nazi or a sort of ‘good Nazi’ figure, which many suspect was just a way for him to try and get off with a lighter sentence in the war crime trials.
To many though it was obvious Speer was ok with using Jewish and foreign slave labour, including working tens of thousands to their death for the Nazi war effort. Speer would try to justify this by saying that at least his workers had a chance to live. As many as 10k alone died during forced labour of building V2 rockets.
Speer’s factories continued to pump out more and more tanks and planes despite Allied bombing efforts and dwindling resources. But the new problem for Germany was that it no longer had the soldiers needed to use all of the new equipment and vehicles. The shift to a Total War economy had come far too late.
Speer now found himself in a very difficult situation. The new reality for him, paired with the impossibility of Hitler’s insisted offensives, and Bormann’s continued efforts to undermine him, led to Speer to begin losing it to mounting stress and anxiety from all the pressure, and the inevitable unavoidable failure.
Speer’s Fall Begins
By Mid-January 1944 Speer suffers a complete psychological collapse, and admits himself to an SS clinic. Initially, he was hospitalised for an inflamed knee, but was then kept in hospital due to exhaustion. Speer was being treated by Himmler’s personal physician Karl Gebhardt, who had a dubious reputation, he believed in a lot of alternative pseudoscience treatment, such as massage with bee venom.
Speer refuses to stop working even while in hospital, causing further anxiety and the development of depression. Speer wanted to be out of hospital as soon as possible so his rivals could not exploit him, his fear is made worse when false remours spread within his ministry that he is incurably ill. Speer attempts to write to Hitler to complain about his own staff scheming against him.
Speer continued to get more and more ill, rising concerns that his rivals may want to get rid of more than just his job. One doctor does note the oddity of Speer beginning to cough up blood, despite originally just coming in for a knee injury. It is eventually discovered that Speer had an embolism and had come very close to death.
A long serving secretary of Speer, Anne-Marie Kempf, claimed that the embolism was not an accident, she also claimed to have overheard a conversation between two men where she heard Speer mentioned, with one of the voices being Himmler, she claims to have heard him say “is he dead yet?”. The other person was apparently Gebhardt, the doctor, who was about to reply but was cut off by Himmler who said “the less said, the better”.
Speer does eventually recover, which suggests the conspiracy theory may simply have just been a creation of Speer’s. Some experts think it could have been a ploy of Speer’s to subtly rewrite history to make himself look better than he was, as if he too was a Nazi victim.
Speer’s illness did though allow his rivals to undermine him as he feared. Bormann exploited a speech made by Speer to senior Nazis on ending nonessentials, which had severe backlash. Bormann collected up all of these complaints and fed snippets to Hitler, serving to drive a wedge between Hitler and Speer. This leads to Speer falling out of Hitler’s grace.
Goebbels meanwhile begun a campaign for him to become the Minister for Total War, while Himmler continued to build up and supply his own army of SS fanatics.
The Attempted Assassination and Coup
Things were now getting desperate for the Nazis as the war in the West begun turning against them, as a new front opened up in the West with the Allies landing on the beaches. On top of that the Soviets continued coming from the East. German cities were facing constant bombardment from the air. Hitler now faced the two-front war he always tried to avoid.
Those in the inner circle now begun to get uneasy, with some choosing to remain loyal to Hitler, while others begun to develop their own ambitions in opposition to Hitler, who they begun to see as a lost cause.
There was also growing discontent on the outside including within the German Army, many of whom had never truly accepted the Nazis and had mostly remained loyal due to success of the regime. With this turning the other way now, Hitler realizes he must be careful, as plots against him from within the Army become a real possibility.
Over at the Wolf’s Lair, Hitler’s Eastern Front headquarters, Hitler is planning to hold a meeting with Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. But following a morning briefing, a bomb explodes inside of Hitler’s conference room, Hitler manages to survive with minor injuries.
An investigation determines that the attack would have to have been an inside job. Goebbels tries to use the bombing to his advantage to further prove his loyalty to Hitler, and prove his worth as a senior political figure. To do this he turns against Speer.
Goebbels is suspicious that the attempted assassination was Speer by highlighting how Speer saw his workload as an impossible task, and that he used his migrant slave labour as a way to smuggle a bomb in, such as via workers from Organisation Todt.
Goebbels summons Speer to his office in Berlin and accuses him of allowing his workers to circumvent security of the Wolf’s Lair and that maybe he even allowed it to happen deliberately. But this interrogation is suddenly interrupted by the presence of troops they can see from the office window. They become unsure whether the troops were loyal or not, the troops had surrounded the building and took up positions to close the Bradenburg Gate.
It became apparent that the plot on Hitler’s life may have been part of a larger conspiracy involving a full-scale military coup.
Back at the Wolf’s Lair, Bormann had been witness to a suspicious individual who he had spotted leaving just before the bomb went off, a colonel who had a missing hand. The missing hand was a unique identifying factor, and lead to a veteran war hero called Claus von Stauffenberg coming under suspicioun.
The colonel would have been in an optimal and close position to have placed the bomb in the assassination attempt. The colonel also had an aristocratic background, was an old fashioned military type, a German nationalist, and did not want to see Germany’s name dragged through the mud. This very likely meant elements of the German Army were behind the plot.
Hitler was bent on getting revenge for the plot against him. Stauffenberg himself had sped back to Berlin, believing Hitler had been killed by the bomb. On his arrival he launched the Army takeover, known as Operation Valkyrie. This plot involved the exploitation of an existing plan where the reserve army would take over in the event of Hitler’s death – so you see the issue… Hitler NEEDS to be dead for this to fully work, and he is not.
The plotters also made another fatal mistake, by not taking into account Goebbels live telephone connection to the Wolf’s Lair, which allowed Goebbels to make plans against the coup attempt.
The inner circle descends into turmoil as they rush to figure out how deep the plot goes, they need to see if it just involves generals, or Prussian aristocrats, or if even some Nazis could be involved in the plot.
Hitler orders Himmler to return to Berlin to take control of the situation, Himmler uses the SS intelligence services to his advantage, and pursue enemies of the Reich. Himmler also uses the Gestapo to investigate possible connections between inner circle members and the plotters.
Himmler places Goring at the top of his suspect list, due to his past in the armed forces, as well as his business and aristocratic ties.
Tensions Rise and Post-Coup Purge
Despite the bomb attack and Hitler’s minor injuries, he still decides to go ahead with the Mussolini meeting. A tea party-of-sorts also took place at the Wolf’s Lair including senior Nazis and inner circle members, including Hitler, and Mussolini. Goring is one of those present, who Bormann is keeping a close eye on. A major argument soon breaks out at this gathering due to the ongoing war tensions.
One of those at the gathering, Admiral Donitz, blames the Army for the failing war effort, with Goring agreeing with him, but then Donitz goes a step further by also blaming the performance of the Luftwaffe, and ultimately blaming Goring for losing the war.
Mussolini apparently just awkwardly plays around with his food during the argument, and amidst the ongoing ruckus Hitler eventually loses his temper and launches into a raging rant that lasts an hour and a half, his tirade is ended with him wondering if the German people are even worthy of his ‘great ideals’.
Meanwhile around the same time, Operation Valkyrie was still ongoing, with the replacement army being led by Major Otto Remer, who believed Hitler was dead and as such did not realise he was acting as a part of a coup. Goebbels uses his live telephone to call Remer and wins him over very quickly, but this does not immediately end the coup attempt. Even a direct order from Himmler does not put an end to the operation.
This is due to many still believing Hitler was dead, and it had begun spilling out further to more and more people. Goebbels decides to use his propaganda machine to put an end to the belief, but the attempted broadcast is interrupted by technical difficulties, but eventually Hitler is able to speak over the radio, finally putting an end to the rumour of his death, which is finally enough to put an end to the attempted coup.
The plotters are soon rounded up and executed by firing squad. But the diversity and seriousness of the attempted coup could not be understated, as it included liberals, Christians, and concerned Conservatives.
Speer himself comes under renewed suspicioun during the post-coup purge as a document is discovered with his name on it by Himmler, this document included the names of new people who would be placed in government if the coup succeeded. Further evidence was also discovered in Stauffenbergs diary which seemed to show Speer had been invited to meet with conspirators on the same day as the assassination attempt.
Due to this new evidence, Himmler orders a stop to the ongoing executions of opposition figures so they can be interrogated to try and find further evidence on Speer’s possible involvement. Ultimately the Gestapo find evidence against Speer is inconclusive and that he had in-fact declined the meeting with the conspirators. The document found also had a question mark next to Speer’s name along with the words ‘if possible’, as if he were a possible consideration but not yet in on it.
Following the post-coup purge, thousands are executed and many are hung up like meat carcasses. Hitler even ordered some of the executions to be filmed, so that he could watch them.
Following the Coup
Following the coup Goebbels gets full backing from Hitler for his own Total War plan. This enables Goebbels to rise up in power. He moves to procure 1.2 million men from the civilian sector for front line deployment.
Also after the coup Himmler is appointed to command an army that is tasked with defending Germany’s industrial heartland, giving him a chance at one of his lifelong dreams of commanding a military force. Himmler had charge of two million men, and in a sense it had him surpass Goring as Hitler’s number one.
Some believe that Himmler’s promotion was actually a ploy by Bormann to undermine Himmler, hoping that he would fail. And if this is the case, the timing of such a ploy was good as Himmler soon finds his Army struggling for supplies and equipment. The shortage leads to a clash between Himmler and Speer, as Speer was still Head of Armaments, Himmler demanded more manpower, but Speer was against this as he wanted more working in the factories. Hitler sides with Himmler for more manpower.
Hitler’s Last Ditch Effort – The Battle of the Bulge
Hitler remained convinced that he could win the war. He had became a drug addled wreck following the attempt on his life, and his military tactics had become increasingly irrational. Hitler’s new plan was for an all out last offensive on the Western Front against the Allies, once again through the Ardennes (like how they successfully did against France near the beginning of the war). This becomes known as the Battle of the Bulge, as that is all it could achieve, a little bulge into Allied-held land.
One of the big differences this time in the operation was the lack of support from Goring’s Luftwaffe, due to his own current state, and the state of the Luftwaffe having been damaged more and more by British and American air forces. The Battle of the Bulge also simply did not have the required fuel, manpower, or military hardware to make it possible. The Winter weather also did not help.
Himmler was also involved in the operation, making it a disaster for him. But despite this failure, Hitler still tasks Himmler with defending Berlin against the advancing Soviets. This was despite their being better options than Himmler, and also the fact it was basically another impossible task.
Himmler Turns his Back on Hitler
After Himmler inevitably fails again, Hitler turns on him and accuses him of being disobedient. Himmler decides he wants to resign but does not have the courage to confront Hitler, and instead gets someone else to relay the message to Hitler.
Himmler then heads to a sanatorium to be treated for stress and stomach pains, but in reality this was just cover for Himmler’s plan, which included an attempt to rebrand himself and distance himself from mass murder.
Months before Himmler’s departure he had ordered concentration camps gas chambers and crematoria to be shut down, which was all a part of his plan for him to use at a later date as part of his rebranding, framing it as him putting an end to the mass murder. He also ordered his men to destroy evidence of his involvement in the Holocaust, including burning down accommodation blocks, often which still had prisoners inside them.
He eventually devises an escape plan, starting with sending a message via his masseuse to the Vice-President of the Swedish Red Cross, and starts using remaining concentration camp prisoners as bargaining chips to buy his freedom. These moves were dangerous for Himmler as it was direct treason towards Hitler.
Himmler hoped by framing himself as the Nazi who released the Jews, that it would lead to securing him leadership of post-war Germany, but his fantasies would remain just that, as the Allies eventually begin to discover the depth of what is the Holocaust.
Hitler’s Downfall Begins
We enter into January 1945. Bormann is still at Hitler’s side. As they enter Berlin they are horrified by the magnitude of destruction, the Reich Chancellory was also in ruins. Hitler is relocated to the unfinished Fuhrerbunker under the Chancellory garden. The bunker had been designed by Speer, who Hitler did still trust. Hand picked SS guards defended the bunker at all times.
Hitler is now a shell of a man, reliant on drugs. He begins developing a tremor in his left hand. But members of the inner circle were still scared to go against him, one of the big reasons for this was due to Bormann’s continued loyalty, who would dispose of people Hitler no longer wanted.
Meanwhile, Speer realises it’s over as the Soviets take Upper Silesia, losing them heavy industry and crucial coal fields. He prepares a memo for Hitler outlining the hopeless situation of armaments production. With the loss of 60% of Germany’s coal source, there is only enough stockpiled to last two weeks.
On receving the memo Hitler’s mental state deteriorates further, he issues what is called the Nero Decree, a scorched Earth policy that aims to leave nothing for the Allies when they arrive, basically he is punishing his own people as well through this. Hitler even declares that the German people failed to win the war and do not deserve infrastructure to survive.
For Speer this decree is the last straw and he begins to turn against Hitler, as the decree goes against everything his life is built around. Speer even initially could not quite believe the order and travels to Hitler’s bunker to hear the orders directly.
After finding out that the order did come from Hitler, Speer claims from that point he begun planning for a world without Hitler. And during interrogation by the Allies Speer even claimed he was part of an assassination plot against Hitler. He claimed that since he designed the bunker, he knew strategically placing a gas bomb within one of the air vents would kill everyone inside, including Hitler.
But Speer claimed he was unable to carry out the attempt as the air intakes had been moved, apparently Hitler had raised them to avoid a Soviet gas attack. There is continued debate to this day on whether Speer actually did intend to assassinate Hitler, or whether he said it to try and frame himself in a favourable light.
What is the Inner Circle Doing Now?
During the 12th anniversary of Goebbels appointment as Minister of Propaganda, a huge armada of Allied bombs appear in the sky, one of hundreds of air raids in the month, this particular raid wipes out Goebbels ministry building.
Goring himself knows the game is up, he begins storing away his stolen artwork to stop it falling into Allied hands. Goring still has an ambition of becoming a future Reich Chancellor of a post-war Germany and wishes to display the artwork at his home.
Himmler, in his own continuing plan, releases 1,200 concentration camp prisoners to the Swedish Red Cross, as part of his plan to show himself in a good light. In return he demanded payment of five million Swiss francs, all part of his takeover plan in a post-war Germany.
Goebbels is unable to see a future without Hitler, and continues to pump out propaganda right to the end, which also included a public appearance by Hitler.
Bormann also continues to stick close to Hitler as well, although he is hoping to escape to the bunker in the Alps that he had oversaw the construction of, but Hitler refuses to leave his bunker in Berlin. Bormann remains with Hitler as he feels that he would lose the power he had without him.
Goebbesl eventually enters Hitler’s bunker along with his wife and children, his wife also being a passionate supporter of Hitler and who declared she could not live in a world without National Socialism. Both Goebbels and his wife knew death was coming.
Final Throes of the Nazi Regime
It is the fateful year of 1945 and the Nazi regime is now in its final death throes. The Red Army was closing in on Berlin, while Allied forces crossed the Rhine and advanced into the German heartland. The SS and other military police organisations had begun to hunt down and assassinate deserters.
Adolf Hitler, as we know by this point, is a drug addled, physical wreck, his daily routine involved having breakfast, and then cocaine eye drops. But even now Hitler still had crazed moments where he believed it might be possible to some how breakthrough the advancing Allies. He kept getting his hopes up, the people around him refused to confront him with the reality of his situation.
Only Bormann and Goebbels of the inner circle were left with him now within the bunker.
Eventually Hitler’s 56th birthday rocks around, his birthday had always been made a big deal, with lots of presents sent by the German people, and celebrations with inner circle members. This time it would not be quite the same.
But even despite the situation a birthday gathering for Hitler was still held. Even Himmler, amidst his ongoing backstabbing, made the effort to visit Hitler in his bunker for the birthday. This was risky, as travelling into Berlin at the time was dangerous due to Soviet artillery barrages. But Himmler was determined to give the illusion of allegiance to Hitler, for his own safety.
Even Speer still risked the treacherous flight into Berlin for Hitler’s birthday. This move of his is also seen as odd if his memoirs of a scheme to assassinate Hitler were true. There is some speculation that Speer believed there was a chance that Hitler would hand power of Germany to him.
Goring also turned up for the birthday celebration, but for him it was more an opportunity to look for any way he could seize power.
The meeting area for Hitler’s birthday takes place in a wrecked room of the bombed out Reich Chancellory, despite ongoing heavy shelling that normally had people avoiding such upper floors, and the room contained no furniture.
Hitler arrives at his birthday gathering alongside his girlfriend Eva Braun, which the inner circle members percieve as a sign the end is near, as despite Hitler being with Braun for 12-years by this point, the Nazis maintained an illusion of him being single, as a way to show he was only devoted to the German nation. Hitler was also observed in poor physical stature.
The birthday celebration was awkward and depressing, along with the constant sound and shaking caused by distant artillery shells. During the birthday Hitler announces that he will remain in Berlin and if needed die within the bunker.
For Bormann this news is devastating, as he had wished for the Nazi leadership to relocate to Hitler’s mountain retreat, the Berghof. This was because a network of impenetrable bunkers had been constructed under his watch deep within the Alps.
For Goring, he views the announcement as an effective resignation of Hitler and an opportunity for him to take control of the leadership. Goring himself was eventually planning to flee, and had already moved all his spoils of war, including 5,000 stolen works of art, and had moved all of his money out of German bank accounts. Goring had also rigged his country residence, Carinhall, with 20-tons of explosives as he no longer had any use for it.
Goring was the first to leave the birthday celebration, which was noted by those in the inner circle, Himmler followed not long afterwards. Goring corners Himmler after leaving, as he also wanted to contact the West and try to negotiate a way out, such as by trying to convince the Allies that the Soviets were the true threat to everyone.
Himmler promptly informs Goring that he has been beaten in the game, and says he is meeting Count Folke Bernadotte, VP of the Swedish Red Cross, and further says they had been sent to negotiate by Eisenhower, a US General (and future US President) who had planned and conducted the invasion of North Africa (Operation Torch) and the Normandy landings.
During their little conversation, Himmler realises they were being watched by Bormann, and becomes incredibly anxious of being found out. This causes Himmler to quickly leave for his meetings, the first with a representative of the World Jewish Congress.
Up until now Himmler had tried to distance himself from being the mastermind of the Holocaust, but it was impossible to do so entirely. In his first meeting he promises the killings would stop and the camps would be handed over to the Allies intact (a lie).
In the 2nd meeting with Bernadotte, who was also a Swedish diplomat, Himmler becomes increasingly paranoid, to the point he even kept his pistol in his pocket, even within the meetings. He for some reason was worried that men of Bormann could burst through the door at any moment, something totally unrealistic to worry about considering where he was, but paranoia does odd things I guess.
In the end Himmler leaves the meeting thinking he is one step closer to meeting Eisenhower, but remains very paranoid.
Hitler Finally Realises it is Over
On April 22nd 1945, Hitler received a briefing in the bunker on the military situation. The meeting includes senior members of the inner circle and various generals. It is this meeting where Hitler finally fully realises that the military situation is hopeless and that they have lost the war.
Goebbels who remained loyal to Hitler is devastated, for him there is no future without Hitler either for him or his family.
During the meeting Hitler explodes into an enormous rant, one that could be heard throughout most of the bunker complex. Cyanide capsules are distributed to all of Hitler’s staff. Bormann in a panic realises that he is now expected to die for the cause.
Goring Attempts to Take Over
Despite Himmler’s own plan to take over, Goring still aimed for the top job himself, as to him it was techinically his duty as number two if Hitler died or was rendered incompetent to take over the governance of Germany.
Goring writes a tactful message to Hitler expressing his concern, and that if he did not hear back within 24-hours he would take over. Goring knows if this goes wrong, he would likely be assassinated.
Bormann as usual is the first to take receipt of Goring’s telegram. Bormann always played to prevent others from becoming too powerful, and even now he still did not want Goring to become the next leader. This was also down to Bormann still not really liking Goring.
Bormann frames the telegram as an act of betrayal to Hitler, and thus it becomes a disaster for Goring. Bormann even writes a reply telegram under Hitler’s name, directing Goring not to take any action.
Goring replies by saying he would step back and resign, and to cover up the situation propaganda is released to the public saying Goring had suffered from a massive heart attack.
Despite this, Bormann was still not satisfied, and goes further by ordering the arrest and execution of Goring. Goring is arrested by SS troops, but to his luck a group of Luftwaffe soldiers walk past, and Goring manages to signal to them to help him, and they rescue Goring.
Himmler’s Fall and the Successor
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Bormann had also been sniffing around Himmler, but was unable to find anything himself. Nonetheless disaster still strikes for Himmler when his clandestine deals are broadcast to the world via Allied news media.
Hitler had trusted Himmler more than many and was shocked at his betrayal. Bormann encourages Hitler to strip Himmler of his offices and order his arrest.
To Bormann now it felt like he had finally made it by striking down his two remaining rivals. Now it was just him and Goebbels trusted most by Hitler. Hitler planned now to name a successor to his regime.
Although Bormann and Goebbels seemed the two most likely people, Hitler chooses neither of them, and instead chooses Admiral Karl Donitz.
Donitz at this time was in the far north of Germany in the port of Flensburg. He was not a part of Hitler’s inner circle, but Hitler felt he was the only man he could truly trust as so many closest to him had since betrayed him.
Hitler also trusted Donitz as he had kept his promise of a ‘revoulution at sea’, which were new Uboats that could submerge for longer periods, Hitler and Donitz had got closer since the beginning of 1945.
Goebbels is still given the cursory title of Reich Chanellor of Germany, and Bormann is made head of the Nazi Party, which they both see as a great honour. Bormann did still want to survive, but there seemed to be no way out for him now.
The Closing Moments of Nazi Germany
After his promotion, Goebbels pens a suicide letter to his stepson. As Goebbels and his wife are so obssessed with Hitler, they are both willing to die for him.
Also while in the bunker, Hitler and Eva finally get married, in a depressing and bizarre wedding ceremony. Before this Hitler had told Eva Braun to leave the bunker, but she had apparently refused to do so, saying she could not live without him and would rather die. The wedding rings used had been obtained from a Gestapo prison in Berlin, and were possessions of Jewish prisoners that had been confiscated.
A celebration was held in the bunker following the wedding, but Hitler did not remain present for long.
While all that crazines is going on, the people of Berlin are now living rough, many close to starving and in constant danger. The people there now desperatley wanted peace and also begun destroying evidence of the Nazis, including tearing up photos of loved ones dressed in uniform.
The last remnant of Berlin’s defence mostly depended now on the Hitler Youth, young boys trying to defend the city with barely any weapons.
The last 24-hours in the bunker did away with discipline, people were drunk and plotting ways of how they would commit suicide or escape. News also reaches the bunker that Hitler’s fellow fascist and one time ally Benito Mussolini had been captured by Italian partisans, and executed.
This news horrifies Hitler, especially the detail about him being strung up in a Milan square along with his partner. Hitler was determined not to have this happen to him, and did not want the Soviets getting their hands on his body.
Hitler and Eva go to their sitting room in the bunker, with cyanide capsules and a pistol, Hitler commits suicide by pistol, while Eva poisons herself to death. Bormann is the first to witness their bodies.
Bormann disposes of their bodies to avoid them ending up like Mussolini and his partner, they are carried out and burned. Despite this, a facade is still kept to keep the populace and others believing that Hitler was still alive.
The Fate of the Inner Circle
Bormann and Goebbels use the remaining time to plan a negotiated surrender to the Red Army, without consulting with the designated Head of State Donitz, but the attempts utterly fail.
Bormann later informs Donitz that he is the designated Head of State, which causes the news to spread and people to realize Hitler was dead. Speer wept at a picture of Hitler on hearing of the news, but would write that is where his bond with Hitler officially ended.
In the telegram that Bormann had sent Donitz, Bormann still made an attempt to hold on to power, he informed Donitz that he is Reich President, but also says he must still bring written authorization to make it official, even though this was not true. This gave Bormann a reason to try and escape the bunker and Berlin.
Meanwhile, Goebbels wife Magda sedates their children and poisons them to death with cyanide. She then played a game of cards, smoked lots, and later took her cyanide and is then shot in the back of the head by Goebbels. Goebbels then takes his own cyanide and shoots himself dead.
SS guards attempt to burn their bodies, but there was not enough fuel to fully do so, and so unlike Hitler, they were able to still be discovered and identified.
This also means the final active member of the inner circle left was Bormann. He attempts to travel to Donitz along with Hitler’s last Will and Testament, in the hope of becoming a similar figure to Donitz as he was with Hitler, still lusting that power.
But Bormann never makes it to him, witnesses claimed he was silent, terrified, and disorientated due to the presence of the Red Army, and it is believed he took his own life seeing no way to get around Soviet forces and escape Berlin without being captured and tortured.
Five days after this Donitz makes total and unconditional surrendor, and three weeks after that, Himmler who was on the run, is captured in May 1945 by British forces in Northern Germany. Himmler manages to commit suicide during a medical examination via cyanide he was carrying.
Goring was also captured by Allied forces, he was searched by them which offended and distressed him as he believed as a soldier and air force leader he should be treated with honour (deranged). He is imprisoned in a converted luxury hotel, but still believes he can talk his way out of a harsh sentence.
The Nuremberg Trials
Six months later the Nuremberg trials begin. Goring and Speer were put on trial. Hess was also put on trial having been held in prison within Britain up until then after he had flown to Britain in a mad attempt to make peace.
In the trial Goring denied knowledge of what had happened within the concentration camps, and tried to frame himself as a peaceful diplomat and that he did all that he had done due to patriotism. Goring is sentenced to death for his war crimes, but he manages to commit suicide via cyanide which is thought to have been smuggled in by a guard.
Speer also denies knowledge of the Holocaust, and denounces crimes of Hitler and the Nazi regime. He is jailed for 20-years and following his release would try and reinvent himself as the ‘good Nazi’, he would die in London in 1981 from a stroke.
Hess was the last of the former member’s of Hitler’s inner circle to die, he had been sentenced to life in Spandau, Berlin. He lived to 93 until he commit suicide by hanging himself at the prison in 1987.
Thank you for checking this out, I know it was a long read, but it has a lot of interesting stuff a part of it. But I still 100% recommend checking out Hitler’s Circle of Evil on netflix as it contains more information as well as good visuals, and insights from experts.
It was fun doing this research, learning new stuff I never knew about the evil Nazi regime, and then typing up what I had learned and discovered here for others. I hope to do more stuff like this in the future.
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