歐洲歷史紀錄片合集 P4 - 暗殺希特勒

Georg Elser Henning von Tresckow Fabian von Schlabendorf Rudolf von Gersdorf And Klaus von Stauffenberg A simple workman and four officers, aristocrats Five men who refused to accept the unacceptable Five men of honor Five men who wanted to kill Hitler What they didn't know Was that Hitler was protected By the luck of the devil This is their story The German troops were singing When they first swept across the Russian plains Hitler called the tune As he led Germany to the brink of world conquest He had promised his men victory But he gave them hell The songs of glory soon faded in the Russian winter And Hitler's insane dreams vanished in the icy winds Hitler Hitler is an imbecile and a criminal We have to put an end to this society It's not about telling Hitler the truth It's about killing him And I'm ready to do it myself Is there not a single officer at Hitler's HQ Who is able to slay this beast History may have overlooked them But a few determined men Some of those who were closest to him Did try to slay the beast After Hitler first seized power in 1933 More than 30 attempts to eliminate him failed Hitler had the luck of the devil on his side As the new Chancellor of the Reich Hitler gave himself the title Of Führer of the German people The Guide He also declared himself To be the Supreme Chief of the Army And it was to him That soldiers had to swear obedience and loyalty The army and its officers Were bound to Hitler personally We were all very ill at ease Because according to proper Prussian military tradition We had sworn allegiance to a man Who was a foreigner to us And utterly despicable But who could have guessed That Hitler would use our oath To entrap us within criminal factions Rare were the officers Such as Baron von Gersdorf Who disapproved of the Nazis' methods In the late 1930s Hitler was adored by almost 90% Of his fellow citizens The rest remained silent Or were in prison But millions formed an ardent swastika Around their Führer In Munich, one man decided to act His name was Johann Georg Elsa A skilled carpenter And a communist sympathizer Elsa worked in secret In his workshop for three months Preparing a bomb Conditions in Germany Could only change With the elimination Of the powers that be By the powers I mean the superiors I mean Hitler, Goering and Goebbels I was convinced That the elimination Of these three men Would enable others To enter government And help to improve The social conditions Of the working classes Elsa was not alone General Beck Chief of the General Staff Along with several fellow officers Was also preparing a putsch Against the Führer they despised Hitler forced them to resign And after Austria and Czechoslovakia He launched his troops against Poland On September 1st, 1939 Nothing could resist the German armies As Stukas inaugurated The first terror attacks on Warsaw It was a full-scale dress rehearsal Where the first victims were civilians In Munich Elsa continued his preparations Now the only man Who could stop Hitler I learned that the next meeting The leaders would attend Was to be held on November 8th and 9th At the Burger Braukeller I left the smaller hall Where I almost always Sat at the same place And went through the dressing room Into the main hall Which was never locked I hid in a storeroom near the exit The door of which was hidden By a large screen After dining at the beer hall And finding a way to be locked inside Görgelse spent 35 minutes Preparing a hiding place for his bomb In a pillar near the lectern Where Hitler would give his speech Finally on November 6th He installed the bomb in the cavity Setting the timing mechanism For the device to explode On November 8th Between 9.15 and 9.30 p.m. On the evening of November 8th Hitler boarded his private plane And headed for Munich He was one of the first politicians To prefer flying to the train As it allowed him to speak At several places in a single day The plane was tailor-made For security and comfort And Hitler was able to work On his legendary speeches It was not yet eight o'clock When the Führer entered The packed Burger Braukeller He took the stage at 20.08 But surprisingly Ended his speech at 20.58 Hitler left the room at 21.09 He seemed to be in a hurry And preoccupied Hans Bauer, his pilot Had told him that weather conditions Meant he would have to take the train For a simple question of timing Hitler cut his speech in two Ruining Georg Elser's meticulous planning The bomb went off at 21.20 as planned Killing eight people And injuring 63 others Hitler was on his way to Berlin Barely an hour later Investigators discovered The remains of a homemade bomb The explosive was of a type Used in quarries And the timer was made from clock parts This information Greatly facilitated the investigation And the very next day, November 9th It was all over Georg Elser was arrested As he attempted to cross the Swiss border My only considerations Involved ways in which The lot of the working classes Could be improved And war avoided I was encouraged by no one And I was never influenced By anyone else in any way I never heard conversations Of a similar nature I never heard Radio Moscow Say that the German government And regime had to be overturned I did it so that No more blood would be spilled I acted alone And was encouraged by no one I never doubted The worthiness of my action For the German authorities It was unthinkable That a single man A man of the people Could have come so close to succeeding The press published photos Of two British agents Who were said to have attempted To assassinate the Fuhrer With Elser's help It was pure propaganda Georg Elser, the loner Was sent to a prison camp To await a trial Intended to denounce The role of the British Without a change in the weather Hitler should have died And the future of the world May have been very different Elser's failed attack Was a boon for the Fuhrer He was able to say That he was protected By divine providence Soon after the funerals Of the victims of the attack A report drawn up By the SS intelligence service The SD noted The assassination attempt in Munich Has greatly strengthened The notion of solidarity Among the population And love for the Fuhrer Has intensified Despite the reticence of his staff It was time for Hitler To attack Western Europe Hitler detested the generals Who resisted him On May 10th, 1940 He sent his troops to attack Holland Belgium and France Reputed to be the best in the world The French army was swept aside In barely five weeks Audacious German planning And the brutality of the Blitzkrieg Overcame the French forces Betrayed by defective leadership The French government capitulated The appalling defeat Was consummated with Marshal Pétain's Request for an armistice On June 20th For Adolf Hitler Victory was total General Keitel Chief of the Supreme Command Now called Hitler Großer Feldherr aller Zeiten The greatest military leader Of all time Hitler's insane wager Had paid off He was now the master Of France and of Europe For the conquering hero It was time to explore his new domain On June 23rd, 1940 At six o'clock in the morning Hitler made a lightning tour of Paris Escorted by cameramen From the propaganda department The Arc de Triomphe The opera Madeleine The Amvalide and Napoleon's tomb And finally The Trocadero Esplanade Where Hitler posed for the cameras Before the Eiffel Tower A few months later Officers under Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben Planned to kill Hitler During a parade Down the Champs-Élysées But Hitler never set foot In Paris again With the war won in the West Hitler turned back to the east It was time to attack The Soviet Union Or the Judeo-Bolshevik Empire As he called it On June 22nd, 1941 At dawn Operation Barbarossa began Hitler sent 125 divisions Against the Soviet Union Preceded by thousands of planes Which devastated Soviet defences In just a few hours Three huge armies With 5 million men And 4,300 tanks Swept over the Red Army Heading north towards Leningrad East towards Moscow And south towards the Ukraine grain belt And the Caucasus oil fields The greatest military invasion of all time A warfaring steamroller Leningrad was soon within artillery range Moscow less than 100 kilometres away And Kiev already captured Nothing could stop Hitler From expanding his Lebensraum Or living space Red Army losses were colossal And millions of prisoners were taken Few of whom would survive The Nazis' barbarism At the Wehrmacht HQ Marshal Kettel handed out orders To his officers A licence to kill Permission to assassinate The most frightful document Landed on my desk It bore Hitler's signature An order that any commissar Or political leader From the Red Army Who came into our hands Should be delivered To the security services In order to be eliminated Or shot in situ The war was already brutal And led by Hitler It would only get worse Every Wehrmacht unit Was to be followed up by an SS group The Einsatzgruppen Entrusted with mopping up operations Savage arrests Mass assassinations and executions No holds were barred And they enjoyed total impunity Beyond all jurisdiction Their victims were communists And above all, the Jews We are soldiers, not assassins As long as I am Chief Operations Officer At the Army Group Centre There will be no execution Of political agents or prisoners May such things Never be allowed to happen We must act now In hundreds of years The world will still remember What we have done People were made to undress Dig their own graves And wait for the coup de grace Almost a million men, women and children Were slaughtered In what history has called The Holocaust by bullets The men who govern us, in my view Are nothing more than common criminals Their unlawful methods Employed both within the Reich And in conquered territories Are unworthy of a civilized country They dishonoured Germany Will lead it to its ruin Schlabrendorff was adjutant To Colonel Henning von Tresckow At the Army Group Centre HQ von Tresckow had formed a group With faithful allies All prepared to eliminate Hitler Numerous attempts were made All of them failed Hitler's security was reinforced And his schedule and movements Kept secret Schmundt, Hitler's Chief of Staff Had told me that All of Hitler's vital organs Were protected from small arms fire By an effective bulletproof vest And that his cap Was lined with a metal plate The world held its breath When German and Soviet forces Faced off at Stalingrad Between July 1942 and February 1943 The Battle of Stalingrad Was the bloodiest And most costly in human lives In all military history Six months of combat Two million dead Stalingrad became a symbol Hitler forbade his troops From taking one step back Surrounded, overwhelmed And beaten by the Soviets The cold and hunger On February 2nd, 1943 More than 90,000 German soldiers surrendered Including 2,500 officers 24 generals and a marshal Friedrich von Paulus Stalingrad put an end To the myth of Hitler's invincibility In the aftermath Of the Stalingrad defeat Many officers realized They had been duped by a madman Despite their oath of allegiance Some considered turning against Their master, the Fuhrer At his headquarters in Smolensk Colonel Henning von Treskow Was waiting to take action We had learned that Hitler Was planning to visit Kluge's command post The opportunity was too good to miss I believed that the highest German military authorities Were incapable of initiating a coup d'état They would only follow orders In order to act quickly I therefore decided to take The first steps myself There was absolutely no alternative If we wanted to maintain Our dignity and self-respect It had to be done We dealt with the final Preparations ourselves Treskow had envisaged The following strategy To be sure of the effect We favored not one But two explosive devices We made a package That resembled the shape Of two bottles of cognac Then we had to rig the package So that it would be possible To set off the detonator Without damaging the box Two identical condors From eastern Prussia Were preparing to land Security precautions Meant that no one knew Which plane Hitler was on The convoy was escorted by fighters The Fuhrer spent the morning In meetings with his staff Lunch was served in the officer's mess At table we had to put up With Hitler's good mood As he was pleased to be Among real soldiers The Fuhrer had brought his personal cook And the doctor entrusted With tasting his food Hitler trusted no one Twelve food tasters Were at his service And his personal SS guard Cooks and doctor Accompanied him everywhere Hunched over his plate With his elbows on the table And only sitting up straight To take a squig from his glass He was a contemptible sight We had to act quickly The Fuhrer was about to leave I therefore approached Colonel Brandt Who was to travel on the same plane I very casually asked him If he would take a package for me I said I had lost a stupid bet With Colonel Stief From the Army Supreme Command And that it had cost me Two bottles of cognac That was my excuse Colonel Brandt agreed To transport the package All Schlaberndorff had to do Was to prime the bomb Relieved and certain Their duty was done Treskow and Schlaberndorff Watched the Fuhrer's Condor Fw. 200 Take off Hoping it was destined for hell We were aware that Hitler's plane Had a special security system It was composed of several separate cells Hitler's place was armored And designed to enable An immediate escape by parachute In our opinion The explosive charge Had to be sufficient To blow up the whole plane If, against all expectations This didn't occur The explosion would tear apart Such a considerable part of the fuselage That the plane, in any event Would crash to the ground Accompanied by its twin And under fighter escort Hitler's plane set course for Berlin Colonel Brandt was unaware He had smuggled a bomb On board his leader's aircraft Back at HQ in Smolensk Nerds were fraught As they waited by the radio The explosion was to take place After 30 minutes When, according to our calculations The plane would not be far from Minsk At any moment we were hoping To receive a message From one of the fighters Escorting the Fuhrer's plane Saying it had exploded But we heard nothing 最終 After two hours A routine message Arrived from Berlin Saying that after an inspection visit On the Eastern Front Hitler had safely returned to Berlin And reached his headquarters At the appointed time So we had to face the facts As incredible as it may seem Our attempt had failed Tresckow and myself Were literally stunned For the two conspirators It was vital to recover the package That could seal their fate Schlabrendorff flew to Berlin With two real bottles of cognac And exchanged them Explained to Colonel Brandt That a mistake had been made Schlabrendorff and von Tresckow Would soon find another opportunity To use their bombs A remembrance ceremony At the military museum Was planned to celebrate Heroes' Memorial Day Helden Gedenntag It was a fine opportunity According to the schedule The Fuhrer was going to attend Accompanied by Heinrich Himmler And Hermann Göring Any of us who was determined To kill Hitler Had to be prepared To sacrifice his own life At the Zurghaus The old arsenal On Unter den Linden Hitler was welcomed By Hermann Göring General Keitel And Heinrich Himmler My friend Colonel von Gersdorff After a few moments thought Said to me I will carry out this mission I will do it For the country's salvation As every year The ceremony began With a concert in the Court of Honor On the program this year Bruckner's 7th Symphony I suggested that the volunteer Who agreed to carry out the attack Should place a bomb In each of his coat sleeves Trigger the detonators At just the right moment Then position himself As close as possible to the Fuhrer In this way The man prepared to sacrifice his own life Would at least have the greatest chance Of attaining the objective After the concert Hitler was to visit the museum To inspect trophies and weapons Taken from the Soviets Colonel Gersdorff was to act as his guide In order to be able to salute With his right arm Gersdorff placed only a single bomb In his left sleeve After triggering the chemical detonator He would need 15 minutes to act At that point Gersdorff would be close to Hitler And the mission would be accomplished When the Fuhrer entered the exhibition hall General Schmunt, Hitler's aide-de-camp Came up to me and told me That the Fuhrer would only be spending 5 minutes to inspect the trophies It was therefore no longer possible Physically to carry out the plan As I needed at least 10 minutes 5 minutes The longest 5 minutes in Gersdorff's life He had accepted the ultimate sacrifice To blow himself up with the dictator Hitler barely glanced at the trophies He raced around the exhibition In less than 10 minutes The visit was over Hitler seemed in a hurry As if sensing danger And to his staff's surprise He left the building Intact The detonator was triggered But had no time to take effect Gersdorff just had time To rush to the restroom And defuse the deadly device Gersdorff was safe and sound But the mission had failed The second failure within a week Unaware of the mortal danger He had avoided Hitler was now greeting the troops Assembled in his honour Along Unter den Linden In the weeks that followed The Fuhrer would emerge unscathed From two further assassination attempts As Germany was losing the war On the Eastern Front And the Allies prepared The Normandy landings Hitler rewarded General Rommel For his exploits with the Afrika Korps With his marshal's baton Erwin Rommel Was one of the most popular figures In the Nazis' film propaganda For the Germans He was an icon Tresckow and his fellow Anti-Hitler Wehrmacht officers Longed for the support of a man That Germany loved and would follow But Rommel Like many other high-ranking officers Felt he had to respect The oath he had sworn to his Fuhrer In the winter of 43-44 Hitler sent Rommel His favourite officer To strengthen the Atlantic Wall The defence system intended To prevent landings On the French coast The wall would fall The Allies were expected And it had arrived As Rommel himself had predicted The landings will take place in Normandy And that day will be the longest day On June 6th, 1944 1,213 warships 736 support ships 864 cargo vessels And 4,126 barges and landing craft Landed 20,000 vehicles And 156,000 men On the beaches of Normandy The Allies set foot in France And nothing could now stop them On their march towards Berlin Rommel knew that the battle was lost And even wanted to negotiate A separate peace with the Allies Montgomery from Britain Eisenhower from the USA German resistance had sounded Rommel out But he hesitated Knowing that an attempt Was to be made on Hitler's life Perhaps he sympathised with the conspiracy But he imposed his own conditions Hitler should be arrested and tried He was resolutely opposed to assassination July 17th And as usual Rommel was inspecting his troops on the front As ever, Adjutant Daniel was driving as Captain Helmut Lang watched the skies Allied planes were everywhere And it was almost impossible to move around But Rommel didn't care The Desert Fox had seen worse It was 5pm when a Spitfire patrol spotted Rommel's car on the road to Vimoutiers The two pilots decided to descend and strafe the vehicle Captain Lang saw the planes bearing down on them It was too late to seek shelter Rommel ordered Daniel to accelerate and to take evasive action The long straight road offered no safe haven and the car was already in the fighters' sights Machine guns crackled and bullets ripped through the car Daniel was hit and killed instantly The car skidded and spun and hurtled into a ditch The fighters were already soaring into the clouds above Rommel lay on the Normandy grass with a severe head wound For Stauffenberg von Tresckow and the resistance it was an irredeemable loss They were deprived of the most popular and competent officer who they could have rallied to the cause The generals have achieved nothing so now it's up to the colonels to act As officers it's our duty to save Germany We've accepted that challenge before God in our consciences and it has to be done because that man Hitler is pure evil 20th July 1944 was destined to be the big day In Berlin Colonel von Stauffenberg and his aide-de-camp Werner von Heften set off for the Wolf's Lair near Rastenburg In his bag Stauffenberg had two bombs The same bombs that had been used for the failed attacks in Smolensk and Berlin A colonel and a count from old Prussian aristocracy von Stauffenberg was one of the military nobles who had welcomed Hitler's rise to power He was a brilliant officer and served under Rommel in North Africa In 1943 he was seriously wounded and lost an eye his right hand and two fingers of his left hand His long convalescence was a period of painful soul searching His conscience and sense of honour led him to act and he joined the resistance led by von Tresckow His appointment to the Army HQ made him a valuable asset as he could approach Hitler quite regularly It was he who brought to the Führer the version of Operation Valkyrie that had been modified by General Ulbricht Colonel Tresckow and himself As usual Hitler signed the documents without reading them The trap was set as the modified plans enabled those who possessed them to take control of Berlin if need be Kill Hitler launch Operation Valkyrie and set up a new government Germany's fate now rested on Colonel von Stauffenberg's knees After a flight of two-and-a-half hours Stauffenberg and von Haften arrived at the Wolf's Lair Before them stood Hitler's bunker It was behind these thick concrete walls that strategy meetings usually took place and it was here that Stauffenberg wanted to strike The concrete would intensify the blast from the explosion making it an ideal location However because of the heat and reconstruction work Hitler had decided to hold the meeting in one of the barracks 12.20 After greeting Hitler and his staff Stauffenberg asked for permission to freshen up and change his clothes as the heat was stifling Hitler and his entourage immediately headed for the barrack's conference room In a further blow to Stauffenberg the meeting had been brought forward an hour due to a visit from Mussolini that afternoon I asked to go to the washroom It was very hot and my very visible war wounds meant that no one asked any questions The conference room would be less likely to intensify the explosion than the underground bunker So it seemed more prudent to prime both explosive devices Von Heften handed me the briefcase containing the bombs We placed two detonators in the explosive and I began to set the first timer Suddenly I heard someone calling me through the door There was a call for me from General Felgibel The first charge was set There was no time for the second It was in Von Heften's briefcase Only one bomb Never mind It should be enough 12.25 Around 20 Reich dignitaries and generals gathered in the room around Adolf Hitler Marshal Kettel presented a report on the situation in the East Hitler followed attentively studying troop positions on maps At 12.30 Stauffenberg sat down at the end of the table to the Fuhrer's right He greeted his neighbour Colonel Heinz Brandt and placed his briefcase on the floor under the table I put my briefcase on the floor under the table next to Colonel Brandt's foot I told him I was leaving it there for a moment as I had an urgent call to make to Berlin No one was surprised as all the officers at this type of meeting are very busy and there were lots of calls to be made to the front That was it Everything was in place It was merely a question of time I found a new excuse to leave the room The briefcase was in Brandt's way and he moved it placing it against a thick pillar that supported the heavy oak table With his casual but fateful gesture Colonel Heinz Brandt unintentionally deflected the blast away from Hitler 12.40 Stauffenberg had left the building It was only a matter of time I felt the blast on my cheeks Hitler was dead No one could have survived such an explosion The conference room was blown apart There was total confusion as guards and soldiers rushed to remove the wounded from the wreckage Stauffenberg was convinced that Hitler was dead He saw his body on a stretcher 12.47 Stauffenberg and von Heften rushed to their car They had to reach Berlin as soon as possible The conspirators believed their accomplices had cut all communications between the Wolf's Lair and Berlin But in their haste a number of possibilities had been overlooked Contradictory reports were already circulating At 1.15 Klaus von Stauffenberg took off from the aerodrome heading for Berlin For him the operation was a success Hitler was dead In Berlin the sealed orders for Operation Valkyrie had been distributed in the provisional government formed by General Beck But nothing was to go as planned Co-conspirators General Ulbricht and Colonel Quenheim were waiting for confirmation to launch the operation Three precious hours were lost before Stauffenberg finally landed and told them that Hitler was dead At 4pm Operation Valkyrie was launched at last All the officers mobilized for Valkyrie had received a sealed envelope containing brief orders All the heads of the SS were to be arrested immediately and their men disarmed As well as Goering Bormann Himmler and Goebbels But nothing was to go as planned Suddenly towards the end of the afternoon a voice rang out from every loudspeaker in the city The Führer's A very small clique of ambitious and unscrupulous officers formed a conspiracy to do away with me Hitler was alive and kicking He put on a new uniform to welcome his friend Mussolini at the station only hours after the explosion Hitler told Ilducci I regard this as a confirmation of the task imposed upon me by Providence Nothing is going to happen to me Everything can be brought to a good end A misplaced briefcase a solid table leg wooden walls that absorbed the blast and a few minutes for Stauffenberg to prime the second bomb Those were the reasons for Hitler's miraculous escape As Hitler said goodbye to Mussolini reprisals were already well underway in Berlin and they would be brutal Major Otto Remmer the Guard Regiment Commander had been ordered to arrest Goebbels Goebbels phoned Hitler who then spoke to Remmer confirming he was alive The hunt for the insurgents began and Operation Valkyrie was doomed That evening General Ulbricht Colonel von Kärnheim Lieutenant von Heften and Colonel von Stauffenberg were arrested and sentenced to death without trial by General Fromm Fighting for his own survival Fromm betrayed his fellow conspirators The witnesses to his collaboration had to disappear Close to midnight Stauffenberg and his friends were executed They were initially given a soldier's burial with their uniforms and medals But Hitler, furious had their bodies dug up stripped of their medals and cremated For Count Henning von Tresckow recently promoted general the soul and brains behind the resistance to Hitler it was time to make his will To protect his wife Erika and their children he decided to disguise his suicide as an ambush There were numerous Russian partisans in the forests who made frequent raids On July 21st despite the morning mist it was a fine day in Ostrow on the Eastern Front In his parting words Tresckow said He who can keep his childhood dreams alive and pure who can preserve them in his bare, defenseless heart who, despite the world's mockery dares to live as he dreamed as a child until his final days Then he is a man a true, complete man The whole world will attack and vilify us now But as ever I am still totally convinced that we did the right thing Hitler is the archenemy not only of Germany but of the entire world When, in few hours' time I go before God to account for what I have done and left undone I know I will be able to justify what I did in the struggle against Hitler In the same way that God promised Abraham that he would not destroy Sodom if just ten righteous men could be found in the city I hope that for our sake out of respect for us God will not destroy Germany I would have liked for you to witness my death I have no wish to allow my enemies to take me from this life Farewell We shall meet again in a better place stripped of their rank and discharged the conspirators appeared in court There would be a single verdict for them all Death The court was presided by Judge Roland Freisler already responsible for sentencing thousands of Germans to death for opposing the regime Almost 200 of them would be sentenced to death including a marshal 19 generals 26 colonels 2 ambassadors 7 diplomats 1 minister 3 secretaries at state and the Reich's chief of police Hitler said he wanted to see their bodies hung up like slabs of meat on butcher's hooks To make the hangings more painful and above all slower the hemp rope was replaced by piano wire And for the Fuhrer's personal pleasure the executions were filmed Death was not immediate The agony could go on for 20 minutes The reels of film were taken each night to Hitler's headquarters A bill for 500 Reichsmarks was sent to each of the families by the Berlin administration 125 Reichsmarks were set aside for the hangman's wages On October 18, 1944 Hitler offered a state funeral to his favorite field marshal Erwin Rommel In his eulogy Marshal von Rundstedt said his heart belonged to the Fuhrer But only four days previously at midday 2 generals had arrived at Rommel's home to propose a rather sinister deal During the post-Valkyrie investigation Rommel's name was said to have been mentioned during certain interrogations Hitler therefore ordered that Rommel should face the ignominy of a trial or commit suicide with honor and the guarantee that nothing would happen to his family After kissing his wife and his son Manfred Rommel climbed on board the general's car 5 minutes later he swallowed two cyanide capsules The Germans' greatest military hero had just officially died from an embolism Hitler had threatened to unleash a storm on the world But now it was over Germany that the storm raged Since his failed attack at the Beer Hall on November 8, 1939 Georg Elst had been locked up He was known as the secret prisoner or Hitler's prisoner At the Dachau concentration camp on April 9, 1945 on orders from the Fuhrer himself two SS officers shot Elst in his cell 20 days later American forces liberated the camp 20 days too late to save the man who tried to kill Hitler On April 20, 1945 Hitler's 56th birthday the first Soviet shells fell on Berlin 2 million more would follow them In an attempt to stop the Soviets' T-34 tanks arms were distributed to old men and young boys Hitler's last army was made up of children not yet 12 years old After saluting them and sending them to their deaths Hitler returned to his bunker He would not leave it again alive The Battle of Berlin raged for more than 10 days A bitter, desperate fight but the Soviets were irresistible Losses on both sides were appalling 2,000 Soviet tanks were rendered ineffective some by unarmed children The city had no intention of surrendering to the Russians but it was too late The Reich due to last for 1,000 years collapsed At 1 o'clock in the morning on April 29, 1945 Hitler's mistress of 13 years Eva Braun finally married her Fuhrer at a short ceremony The witnesses were Goebbels and Bormann assisted by a Nazi civil official The guests shared some sparkling wine with the newlyweds Eva Braun, delighted was now Frau Hitler Around 3 o'clock in the morning Hitler dictated his private will to his secretary 3 typed pages where he announced I, myself and my wife in order to escape the disgrace of deposition or capitulation choose death It is our wish to be burnt immediately April 30 The red flag flies over the Reichstag At 3.30 p.m. Hitler retires to his room with his wife, Eva She is chosen poison He fires a bullet into his temple At 3.50 the two bodies are taken outside 200 liters of petrol are poured over them and ignited Many people wanted to kill Hitler but he died by his own hand when he wanted and where he wanted in the heart of his capital city, Berlin War is madness We have to prevent it The key figure is Hitler He has to be killed The world has to be saved from the greatest criminal of all time We have to kill him like a mad dog threatening all humanity They were guided by their courage and their honor Tresckow Schlabendorf Gersdorf Stauffenberg Elsa They all wanted to kill Hitler They all failed If but one of these men had succeeded Millions of lives could have been saved And the history of the world may have been very different