Hitler. 1936-1945: Nemesis

^{75. Hitler and Himmler take a wintry walk on the Obersalzberg in March 1944.}

^{76. The ‘White Rose’ resistance group of Munich students. Christoph Probst with Sophie and Hans Scholl in July 1942. On 22 February the following year, they were sentenced to death and beheaded on the same day for distributing leaflets in Munich University, in the wake of the disaster at Stalingrad, condemning the inhumanity of the Nazi regime.}

^{77. The brilliant tank commander Heinz Guderian. Though he clearly recognized that Hitler was leading Germany to catastrophe, he condemned the attempt to assassinate him on 20 July 1944. A day later, Guderian was appointed Chief of the General Staff, retaining the position until his dismissal on 28 March 1945.}

^{78. General Ludwig Beck, who, following his resignation — because of Hitler’s insistence on risking war over Czechoslovakia — as Chief of the General Staff in 1938, became a central figure in the conservative resistance, committing suicide on 20 July 1944 after the failure of the bomb-plot.}

^{79. Colonel Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg, the driving-force behind the conspiracy to kill Hitler on 20 July 1944, who took upon himself the responsibility both for carrying out the assassination in the Wolf’s Lair and for directing the intended coup d’etat in Berlin. On its failure, he was arrested and shot by a firing-squad late that night.}

^{80. Major-General Henning von Tresckow, one of the most courageous figures in the resistance, the inspiration of several plans, hatched within Army Group Centre, to kill Hitler in 1943. Stauffenberg regarded Tresckow as his mentor. This is one of the last photographs of him, taken in 1944. He committed suicide on 21 July on the Eastern Front on learning of the failure of the bomb-plot.}

^{81. Hitler, looking shaken, just after the assassination attempt on 20 July 1944.}

^{82. Hitler’s trousers, shredded by the bomb-blast.}

^{83. Hitler greets Mussolini at Fuhrer Headquarters — the last time they would meet — some three hours after Stauffenberg’s bomb had exploded on 20 July 1944. Hitler had to shake hands with his left hand because his right arm had been slightly injured in the blast.}

^{84. Grand-Admiral Donitz professes the loyalty of the navy in a broadcast shortly after midnight on 21 July 1944, just after Hitler and Goring had spoken to the German people. Listening to Donitz are Bormann and Jodl.}

^{85. An ageing Hitler, pictured at the Berghof in 1944.}

^{86. Wonder Weapons: a V1 flying-bomb is taken to its launch-pad.}

^{87. Wonder-Weapons: a V2 rocket, ready for launch at Cuxhaven.}

^{88. Wonder-Weapons: An American soldier stands alongside a Me 262 on the advance into Germany in April 1945. Hitler had for a long time insisted on having the jet-fighter designed as a bomber. When finally deployed as a fighter, it was far too late to be effective.}

^{89. Scraping the barrel. Ill-equipped men of the ‘German Volkssturm’ — the people’s militia proclaimed by Hitler on 18 October 1944, ordering all able-bodied men between 16 and 60 to take up arms — pictured during a swearing-in ceremony in Berlin in December 1944.}

^{90. The last ‘Heroes’ Memorial Day’, 11 March 1945. Hitler did not appear, leaving it to Goring (flanked by Donitz on his left, and Keitel on his right) to lay the wreath at the cenotaph on Unter den Linden.}

^{91. Women and children fleeing as the Red Army attacks Danzig in March 1945.}

^{92. Fantasy: In February 1945, with the Red Army within striking distance of Berlin, Hitler ponders the model of the intended postwar rebuilding of his hometown of Linz, designed for him by his architect Hermann Giesler.}

^{93. Reality: Hitler, with his adjutant Julius Schaub, standing in the ruins of the Reich Chancellery in Berlin in March 1945, a few weeks before his suicide.}

GLOSSARY OF TERMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

ADAP

Akten zur Deutschen Auswartigen Politik 1918–1945. (Serie D: 1.9.37–11.12.41; Serie ?: 1941– 1945)

Anatomie

Hans Buchheim, Martin Broszat, Hans-Adolf Jacobsen, and Helmut Krausnick, Anatomie des SS- Staates, 2 vols., Olten and Freiburg im Breisgau, 1965

AO

Auslandsorganisation (Foreign Organisation of the Nazi Party)

APZ

Aus Politik una Zeitgescbichte (Beilage zur Wochenzeitung ‘Das Parlament’)

BA

Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archives, Berlin)

BA/MA

Bundesarchiv/Militararchiv (German Federal Archives/Military Archives, Potsdam)

BDC

Berlin Document Center

BHStA

Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv (Bavarian Main State Archive)

CD

Ciano’s Diary 1939–1943, ed. Malcolm Muggeridge, London/Toronto, 1947

CP

Ciano’s Diplomatic Papers, ed. Malcolm Muggeridge, London, 1948

DAF

Deutsche Arbeitsfront (German Labour Front)

DBFP

Documents on British Foreign Policy, 1919–1939, 2nd Series, 1929–1938, 3rd Series, 1938–