His actual name was Adolf SchicklegruberIn.

April of 1945 after a long series of battles, Hitler moved into the
Fuhrerbunker, that was 50 feet below the Chancellery buildings in Berlin. In this
underground building containing nearly thirty rooms on two separate floors, Hitler
held daily talks with his generals of the unstoppable Soviet force into Berlin. He
issued orders to defend Berlin with armies that were already wiped out or were
making a hasty retreat westward to surrender to the Americans.

On April 22, during a three hour military conference in the bunker, Hitler let loose
a hysterical, shrieking blame of the Army and the 'universal treason, corruption,
lies and failures' of all those who had deserted him. The end had come, Hitler
exclaimed, his Reich was a failure and now there was nothing left for him to do
but stay in Berlin and fight to the very end with what little armies he had left.

His staff attempted to convince him to escape to the mountains around

Berchtesgaden and direct remaining troops and thus prolong the Reich but he
said no. But Hitler told them his decision was final. He even insisted a public
announcement be made that he was staying to fight.

Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels then took his entire family (wife and 6
children to live with Hitler in the bunker. Hitler was getting documents to be
burned.

people in the bunker were given permission by Hitler to leave. Most did leave and
headed south for the area around Berchtesgaden. Only a handful of Hitler's
personal staff remained like his top guy Martin Bormann, the Goebbels family,
military solders, secretaries, and his wife Eva Braun.

On April 23, Hitler's friend (the Minister of Armaments) Albert Speer arrived for his
final meeting with the him. At this meeting He bluntly informed Hitler that he had
disobeyed the Fuhrer's scorched earth policy and had preserved German
factories and industry for the post-war period. Adolf Hitler listened in silence and
had no particular reaction, much to the surprise of him.
That afternoon, Hitler received a surprise telegram from Goring who had already
reached safety in Berchtesgaden.

‘My Fuhrer!
In view of your decision to remain in the fortress of Berlin, do you agree that I
take over at once the total leadership of the Reich, with full freedom of action at
home and abroad as your deputy, in accordance with your decree of June 29,
1941? If no reply is received by 10 o'clock tonight, I shall take it for granted that
you have lost your freedom of action, and shall consider the conditions of your
decree as fulfilled, and shall act for the best interests of our country and our
people. You know what I feel for you in this gravest hour of my life. Words fail me
to express myself. May God protect you, and speed you quickly here in spite of
all.

You’re loyal.
Hermann Goring’

Hitler was angery, prompted by Bormann, sent Goring a return message saying
he had committed "a high treason." Although the penalty for this was death,
Goring was going to be spared, due to his long years of service, if he would
immediately quit all of his offices. Bormann then transmitted an order to the SS
near Berchtesgaden to arrest Goring and his staff. Before dawn on April 25,
Goring was locked up.

The next day, April 26, us artillery fire made the first direct hits on the Chancellery
buildings and grounds directly above the Fuhrerbunker. Grein sustained injures
to his foot.

Once inside the Fuhrerbunker the wounded Greim was informed by Hitler he was
to be Goring's successor, promoted to Field-Marshal in command of the
Luftwaffe.

Although a telegram could have accomplished this, Hitler had insisted Greim
appear in person to receive his commission. But now, due to his wounded foot,
Greim would be bedridden for three days in the bunker.

On the night of April 27, Soviet bombardment of the Chancellery buildings

reached its peak with numerous direct hits. Hitler sent frantic telegrams to Keitel
demanding Berlin be relieved by (now non-existent) armies.

The final blow came on the 28th when Hitler received word via Goebbels'
Propaganda Ministry that British news services were reporting SS Reichsfuhrer
Heinrich Himmler had sought negotiations with the Allies and had even offered to
surrender German armies.
According to eyewitnesses in the bunker, Hitler "raged like a madman" more than
ever seen before. Himmler had been with Hitler since the beginning and had
earned the nickname "der treue Heinrich" (faithful Heinrich) through years of
fanatical, murderous service to his Fuhrer, who now ordered Himmler's arrest.

As an act of immediate revenge, Hitler ordered Himmler's personal

representative in the bunker, SS Lt. Gen. Hermann Fegelein, who was also the
husband of Eva Braun's sister, to be taken up to the Chancellery garden above
the bunker and shot.

Now, with the abandonig of Goring and Himmler and the Soviets advancing deep
into Berlin, Hitler began preparing for his own death.

Late in the evening he dictated his last will and a two-part political testament in
which he expressed many of the same sentiments he had stated in Mein Kampf
back in 1923-24. He essentially blamed the Jews for everything, including the
Second World War. He also made a reference to his 1939 threat against the
Jews along with a veiled reference to the subsequent gas chambers...

"I further left no one in doubt that this time not only would millions of children of
Europe's Aryan people die of hunger, not only would millions of grown men suffer
death, and not only hundreds of thousands of women and children be burnt and
bombed to death in the towns, without the real criminal having to atone for this
guilt, even if by more humane means."

Just before midnight, he married Eva Braun in a brief civil ceremony. There was
then a celebration of the marriage in his private suite. Champagne was brought
out and those left in the bunker listened to Hitler reminisce about better days
gone by. Hitler concluded, however, that death would be a release for him after
the recent betrayal of his oldest friends and supporters.

By the afternoon of April 29, Soviet ground forces were about a mile away from
the Fuhrerbunker. Inside the bunker the last news from the outside world told of
the downfall and death of Mussolini, who had been captured by Italian partisans,
executed, then hung upside down and thrown into the gutter.

Hitler now readied himself for the end by first having his poison tested on his
favorite dog, Blondi. He also handed poison capsules to his female secretaries
while apologizing that he did not have better parting gifts to give them. The
capsules were for them to use if the Soviets stormed the bunker.

About 2:30 in the morning of April 30, Hitler came out of his private quarters into
a dining area for a farewell with staff members. With glazed eyes, he shook
hands in silence, then retired back into his quarters. Following Hitler's departure,
those officers and staff members mulled over the significance of what they had
just witnessed. The tremendous tension of preceding days seemed to suddenly
evaporate with the realization that the end of Hitler was near. A lighthearted mood
surfaced, followed by spontaneous displays of merry-making even including
dancing.

At noon, Hitler attended his last military conference and was told the Soviets
were just a block away. At 2 p.m., Hitler sat down and had his last meal, a
vegetarian lunch. His chef was then ordered to deliver 200 liters of gasoline to
the Chancellery garden.

Hitler and his wife Eva then bid a final farewell to Bormann, Goebbels, Generals
Krebs and Burgdorf, other remaining military aides and staff members.

Hitler and his wife then went back into their private quarters while Bormann and
Goebbels remained quietly nearby. Several moments later a gunshot was heard.
After waiting a few moments, at 3:30 p.m., Bormann and Goebbels entered and
found the body of Hitler sprawled on the sofa, dripping with blood from a gunshot
to his right temple. Eva Braun had died from swallowing poison.

As Soviet shells exploded nearby, the bodies were carried up to the Chancellery
garden, doused with gasoline and burned while Bormann and Goebbels stood by
and gave a final Nazi salute. Over the next three hours the bodies were
repeatedly doused with gasoline. The charred remains were then swept into a
canvas, placed into a shell crater and buried.

Back inside the bunker, with the Fuhrer now gone, everyone began smoking, a
practice Hitler had generally forbidden in his presence. They next began
collectively plotting daring (but fruitless) escapes out of Berlin to avoid capture by
the Soviets.

On the following day, May 1, Goebbels and his wife proceeded to poison their six
young children in the bunker, then went up into the Chancellery garden where
they were shot in the back of the head at their request by an SS man. Their
bodies were then burned, but were only partially destroyed and were not buried.
Their gruesome remains were discovered by the Soviets the next day and filmed,
the charred body of Goebbels becoming an often seen image symbolizing of the
legacy of Hitler's Reich.

Adolf Hitler

TIME LINE

Adolf Hitler
AKA 'Der Führer' (The Leader).

Country: Germany.

Kill tally: Directly responsible for the deaths of over 46 million Europeans as a
result of the Second World War.

Background: Following the First World War, the Treaty of Versailles penalises the
defeated Germany, annexing land, imposing large war reparations, limiting the
size of the German Army and blaming Germany and Austria-Hungary for starting
the conflict. The new German Government, a coalition of left-leaning and centrist
parties, attempts to rebuild the country but faces opposition from the right and
extreme left. The instability is exacerbated by the failure of the domestic and
global economies.

Mini biography: Born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau am Inn, Austria, into a lower
middle-class family of peasant origins. His father, a customs official, is 23 years
older than his mother, a domestic servant.

Hitler is dominated by his father and spoilt by his mother. His father dies in 1903,
his mother in 1907. He has one half-brother, one half-sister, and one full-sister. In
his youth, Hitler dreams of becoming an artist.

1903 - Following his father's death, Hitler leaves school.

1907 - He goes to Vienna, the capital of Austria, where he attempts to pursue his
dream of becoming an artist. However, he has only limited talent and is unable to
gain admission to the Academy of Fine Arts, failing the entrance examination
twice. In 1908, following the death of his mother, he moves to Vienna to live.

"I owe much to the time in which I had learned to become hard (in Vienna)," Hitler
later writes, "I praise it even more for having rescued me from the emptiness of
an easy life, that it took the milksop out of his downy nest and gave him Dame
Sorrow for a foster mother."

1913 - He moves to Munich, the capital of Bavaria, where he ekes out a living as
a painter and technical draftsman.

1914 - When the First World War breaks out Hitler volunteers for service with the
German Army, joining the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment. He serves
with some distinction and is awarded the Iron Cross, Second Class, in December
1914, and the Iron Cross, First Class, in August 1918. However, he never rises
beyond the rank of corporal. By the end of the war he has developed shell-shock
and is admitted to military hospital.
After the war, Hitler returns to Munich and begins to become involved in politics.
He believes that Jews and Marxists are responsible for Germany's defeat.

1919 - He joins the German Workers' Party in September. A gifted and inspiring
public speaker, he is soon placed in charge of the party's propaganda.

1920 - Under Hitler's direction, the party adopts the swastika as its emblem and
changes its name to the National Socialist (Nazi) Party. Its platform calls for the
removal of civil rights for Jews and for their expulsion from Germany.

As the German economy begins to buckle under the weight of the enormous war
reparations demanded by the Treaty of Versailles and debts incurred during the
war, popular support for the Nazis begins to increase. Inflation and
unemployment climb. The German Government loses its majority in the elections
of 1920, introducing a decade long period of political instability. Nazi Party
membership increases to about 3,000.

1921 - The Nazi Party's "storm troopers" are formally organised into a private
army. Called the Sturmabteilung (SA) - the 'Brownshirts' - the army is used to
protect party meetings and to attack opponents. Hitler becomes leader of the
Nazi Party in July. Party faithful begin to refer to him as the Führer (Leader).
Meanwhile, in April, the Allies present Germany with a bill of US$33 billion for war
reparations.

1923 - When the German Government defaults on its reparation payments, the
French Army occupies the Ruhr. Inflation skyrockets and is fuelled when the
government begins printing more and more money in a desperate attempt to
solve the crisis. The value of the Deutschmark plummets.

In mid-1920 US$1 is worth 40 marks. By July 1923 the exchange rate has blown
out to 160,000 marks to US$1. By August 1923 the rate is 10 million marks to the
dollar. By November 1923 the figure is 4.2 trillion marks to the dollar. Almost
overnight, Germans have lost their life savings. Social unrest begins to escalate.

Hitler exploits the situation, advocating national pride, blaming the left and Jews
for the political turmoil and claiming to have a solution to the economic crisis.
Many Germans come to see the party as a credible alternative.

On 8 November Hitler and 600 armed members of the SA stage an abortive

attempt to seize power in Munich. Hitler is arrested and tried for treason. The
Nazi Party is outlawed.

Hitler's trial receives media coverage in and outside of Germany and his
courtroom attacks against the government are widely quoted. He is found guilty
and sentenced to five years jail, but is allowed to receive visitors when he likes
and to employ Rudolph Hess as his private secretary. His imprisonment begins
on 1 April 1924, however, he will only serve nine months of his term.

While in prison he begins to write 'Mein Kampf' (My Struggle), his political
autobiography and treatise on the superiority of the "Aryan race" and the
"menace" of the Jew. The book is published in 1927. When the Nazis come to
power it will be set as school textbook and presented to all German newlyweds.

1924 - Hitler is released a few days before Christmas. He finds there is now a
different economic and political climate in Germany. A new government has
succeeded in containing the crisis and achieving stability. Hitler is forbidden from
making public speeches across much of the country but works to further entrench
his hold over the Nazi Party.

1927 - The Nazi Party holds its first Nuremberg congress, a mass political rally
that will become the party's signature propaganda event.

1928 - Nazi Party membership now exceeds 100,000, though the grassroots
support is not reflected in the polls, with the Nazis winning only 2.6% of the vote
in a general election held in May. The party will become better known the
following year when an alliance with the conservative German National People's
Party lends it some respectability within the antirepublican right.

Hitler, meanwhile, writes a sequel to 'Mein Kampf'. However, the book is never
published during his lifetime.

1929 - The German Government is crippled when the Wall Street stock market
crash of October ushers in the Great Depression. Unemployment rises from
8.5% in 1929 to 29.9% in 1932.

Hitler again exploits the situation, spreading his propaganda nationally through
newspapers, securing support from magnates of business and industry, and
establishing a national party structure. He promises something for all - work for
the unemployed, profits to industry and small businesses, and expansion of the
army and restoration of German pride. Public support blossoms.

In 1928 the Nazis hold 12 seats in the Reichstag (parliament). By 1932 they will
have 230 seats and be the largest party in the government. Joseph Goebbels
begins to create the Führer myth around Hitler and to organise the ritualistic and
highly choreographed party rallies that help convert the masses to Nazism and
provide a platform for Hitler's accession to power in January 1933.

Meanwhile, Hitler meets Eva Braun during 1929. Braun will become Hitler's lover
in 1931 after his previous mistress, Geli Raubal, who is also his niece, commits
suicide to escape his attentions.
1933 - The Nazis reach a position from which they can seize power on 30
January when Hitler is appointed chancellor. Following the Reichstag fire on 27
February basic civil rights are suspended and the Nazis are given the right to
quash political opposition.

Germany's last election until after the Second World War is held on 5 March.
Though the Nazis win only 44% of the vote Hitler persuades the Reichstag to
pass the Enabling Law, allowing him to govern independently for four years. The
Nazis now take full control of the state apparatus.

All Nazis in prison are issued with full pardons; critics of the government and the
Nazi Party are subject to arrest; special courts are established for the trial of
political detainees. Regional governments are dissolved and then reconstituted
with governors handpicked by Hitler. Leftist political parties are banned; Germany
is declared a one-party state; Jews and leftists are purged from the bureaucracy;
and trade unions are dissolved and replaced with Nazi organisations.

The Gestapo, or secret state police, is established in April. Concentration camps

are set up for the interment of opponents. A program of public works,
rearmament and forced labour helps bring the economy under control. Inflation
comes down, the currency is stabilised and full employment achieved. Support
for Hitler increases.

On 10 May Hitler stages the "burning of the books" in Berlin. Works by Jewish,
Marxist and other "subversive" authors are publicly burned in huge bonfires. On
14 October Germany withdraws from the League of Nations.

Though rigorously oppressive, Hitler's regime is popular with average Germans,

who benefit from tax relief and strategic social investments. Taxes on working
people will never be raised during the Nazi reign. Soldiers and their families will
receive more than double the income offered to their Western counterparts. The
Nazis will commission large infrastructure projects, including the building of the
autobahn road system running across Germany.

However, the expenditure is unsustainable. It will be financed by growing debt

and the spoils of conquest.

1934 - Hitler organises the 'Night of the Long Knives' massacre of rebellious
leaders of the SA on the night of 30 June. In August he becomes president and
chancellor, giving him supreme command of the German armed forces. Hitler is
now the Führer, the dictator of the fascist Third Reich, an empire where the
individual belongs to the state.

1935 - On 16 March the Nazis introduce conscription. A new German Army

(Wehrmacht) is being created. Hitler formally announced that Germany has
begun to rearm and rebuild its army and air force, in contravention of the terms of
the Treaty of Versailles. The 'Nuremberg Laws', meanwhile, strip Jews of the right
to citizenship and restrict their relations with Gentiles.

1936 - Hitler joins with Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in the 'Rome-Berlin
Axis' and signs the 'Anti-Comintern Pact' with Japan, an agreement to fight the
spread of communism. Italy joins the pact in 1937.

At the same time, Hitler confirms his intention to take Germany into war, telling
his cohorts that the country must be ready to fight by 1940.

The military soon get an opportunity for battle experience when Germany enters
the Spanish Civil War in support of Spanish Nationalists led by Francisco Franco.
The German contribution is vital at the very beginning of the war when German
aircraft fly Franco's troops from Morocco to Spain. Germany's ongoing support
will also be a critical factor behind Franco's eventual victory.

1938 - Support for Hitler is further buoyed by his policy of foreign expansion.
Austria is annexed on 13 March. The Sudetenland, the German-speaking area in
the north of Czechoslovakia, is ceded to Germany on 29 September under the
terms of the 'Munich Agreement' between Britain, France, Germany and Italy.

At the end of the year the persecution of the Jews intensifies. Over the days of 9-
10 November the Nazis orchestrate the Kristallnacht (Crystal Night) pogrom.
Jewish shops, houses and synagogues across Germany are burnt by both the
Schutz-Staffel (SS) - the 'Blackshirts', Hitler's personal guard - and the general
population. Ninety-one Jews are killed. Thirty thousand are arrested and
deported.

Hitler is named 'Time' magazine's person of the year. Commenting on the rise of
the Nazi Party and Hitler, the magazine says, "The situation which gave rise to
this demagogic, ignorant, desperate movement was inherent in the German
republic's birth and in the craving of large sections of the politically immature
German people for strong, masterful leadership ... Meanwhile, Germany has
become a nation of uniforms, goose-stepping to Hitler's tune, where boys of ten
are taught to throw hand grenades, where women are regarded as breeding
machines."

1939 - On 30 January Hitler declares in the Reichstag that a new world war will
lead to the destruction of the Jewish race in Europe. Bohemia and Moravia are
occupied in March, while Slovakia is made a puppet state. In May, as Germany
prepares for war, Hitler agrees to a formal military alliance with Italy, the 'Pact of
Steel'.

On 22 August Hitler briefs his senior military commanders on his plans for the
invasion of Poland.
According to one report of the meeting, Hitler says, "Our strength lies in our
quickness and in our brutality.

"Genghis Khan has sent millions of women and children into death knowingly and
with a light heart. History sees in him only the great founder of states. As to what
the weak Western European civilisation asserts about me, that is of no account.

"I have given the command and I shall shoot everyone who utters one word of
criticism, for the goal to be obtained in the war is not that of reaching certain lines
but of physically demolishing the opponent.

"And so for the present only in the East I have put my death-head formations in
place with the command relentlessly and without compassion to send into death
many women and children of Polish origin and language.

"Only thus we can gain the living space that we need. Who after all is today
speaking about the destruction of the Armenians?"

The next day, 23 August, he signs a nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union,
carving up Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence, with the
Soviets claiming Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, part of the Balkans and half
of Poland.

German troops invade Poland on 1 September. Britain and France declare war
on Germany two days later. The Second World War has begun.

Poland is overrun within a month, with Germany taking the west of the country
and the Soviets occupying the east. Denmark and Norway fall in April 1940. The
Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France are invaded the following month.
By the middle of June 1940 France has surrendered.

As the invasion progresses Jews and other "undesirables" in the occupied

territories are dispossessed and interned in work camps.

In Germany the physically handicapped, mentally ill, and others with so-called
"worthless lives" are rounded up and sent to designated hospitals, where they
are killed. Referred to by the Nazis as mercy killing and planned by Hitler's office
and the Reich Interior Ministry, the "euthanasia" program will claim up to 275,000
lives when it goes into full swing.

1940 - Beginning from 10 July, the 'Battle of Britain' rages in the skies as the
British Royal Air Force (RAF) desperately combats wave after wave of aerial
attacks and bombing raids by the Luftwaffe while launching counteroffensive
bombing missions into Germany.
Though outnumbered by four to one the RAF is able to inflict enough damage to
the German forces to cause Hitler to suspend 'Operation Sealion', the proposed
invasion of Britain by sea. By the end of September the 'Battle of Britain' is
effectively over. Germany has suffered its first major defeat of the war.

Meanwhile, Germany, Italy and Japan sign the 'Tripartite Pact', an agreement to
carve up the world following victory in the war.

At the end of the year, Hitler meets with Romanian leader Ion Antonescu. Under
Antonescu's direction Romania will become one of Germany's staunchest allies.
Hitler and Antonescu will meet again in January and May 1941.

Hitler meets Spanish fascist dictator Francisco Franco on 23 October at French-

Spanish border to try to persuade Spain to enter the war, but Franco is reluctant
to become directly involved and only provides token support.

1941 - On 6 June Hitler meets Croatian fascist leader Ante Pavelic to discuss a
plan to expel much of the Serbian population of the so-called 'Independent State
of Croatia' and replace them with Croats and Slovenes from lands annexed by
the Germans. Pavelic's regime will be responsible for the genocide of 600,000 to
one million within its area of control, including 30,000 Jews, 29,000 Gipsies, and
600,000 Serbs. Hitler will meet with Pavelic again in November 1942.

Germany invades the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. The Germans advance
swiftly but are halted on 6 December by a Russian counterattack just short of
Moscow.

The 'Battle for Moscow' will be the biggest of the Second World War, involving
seven million participants and an area of operations the size of France. The
Germans' failure to capture the city will be their first military defeat of the war.

The United States enters the war when the Japanese air force bombs the US
naval base at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii on 7 December. Hitler declares war on the
US on 11 December. With the offensive in the Soviet Union stalled, he appoints
himself commander-in-chief.

"St Petersburg must disappear utterly from the Earth's surface. Moscow too.
Then the Russians will retire into Siberia," Hitler declares.

"As for the ridiculous 100 million Slavs, we will mould the best of them to the
shape that suits us, and we will isolate the rest of them in their own pig-styes;
and anyone who talks about cherishing the local inhabitant and civilising him
goes straight off into a concentration camp," he says.

On 18 December Hitler orders his troops in Russia to stand fast at their present
positions.
1942 - On 20 January the Nazis complete the planning for the Endlosung (Final
Solution), the extermination of the Jews, Gipsies, Slavs, homosexuals,
communists, and other "undesirables" and "decadents" in death camps run by
the SS and controlled by the Gestapo. About six million European Jews die in the
following 'Holocaust'. Most (about 4.5 million) of those killed come from Poland
and the Soviet Union. About 125,000 are German Jews.

The Holocaust also claims about 500,000 Gipsies, between 10,000 and 25,000
homosexuals, 2,000 Jehovah's Witnesses, up to 3.5 million non-Jewish Poles,
between 3.5 million and six million other Slavic civilians, as many as four million
Soviet prisoners of war, and up to 1.5 million political dissidents.

1943 - The war turns against Germany in the winter of 1942-43 when the Sixth
Army is defeated at Stalingrad (now Volgograd). Though the German forces are
encircled and trapped by a Soviet counteroffensive, Hitler refuses to allow them
to attempt an escape. They surrender on 2 February 1943.

The German Sixth Army has been effectively destroyed in what is at the time the
most catastrophic military defeat in German history. Over 500,000 of the
German-led troops are dead. By the end of 1943, the Soviets have broken
through the German siege of Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) and recaptured
much of the Ukrainian Republic.

Hitler orders his retreating forces to adopt a scorched-earth policy and destroy
everything that may be of use to the advancing Soviets.

The German offensive in North Africa is stopped at the beginning of November

1942 when Allied troops led by General Bernard Law Montgomery force the
German Afrika Korps led by General Erwin Rommel into a retreat. By 13 May
1943 275,000 Germans and Italians have surrendered. The war in North Africa is
over, leaving the Allies free to land in Sicily and Italy.

To the west, the US and British navies gain control of the Atlantic shipping lanes,
clearing the way for the 'D-Day' landings on the Normandy beaches in France on
6 June 1944 and the invasion of Germany six months later. Soviet troops,
meanwhile, advance from the east.

In the skies over Germany the Allied air forces intensify their bombing raids. The
strategy of indiscriminate area bombing will kill an estimated 600,000 civilians,
including about 75,000 children.

The Nazis call for "total war" against the Allies.

At the end of 1943 Hitler's personality comes under scrutiny in a profile written by
Dr Henry Murray of the Harvard Psychological Clinic and commissioned by the
US Office of Strategic Services, a precursor of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Titled 'Analysis of the Personality of Adolph Hitler - With Predictions of His Future
Behaviour and Suggestions for Dealing with Him Now and After Germany's
Surrender', the profile states:

"There is little disagreement among professional, or even among amateur,

psychologists that Hitler's personality is an example of the counteractive type, a
type that is marked by intense and stubborn efforts (i) to overcome early
disabilities, weaknesses and humiliations (wounds to self-esteem), and
sometimes also by efforts (ii) to revenge injuries and insults to pride."

Hitler is "possessed by what amounts to a homicidal compulsion which has no

vent in a 'weak piping time of peace' (unless he becomes an outright criminal),
and therefore he has constantly pushed events toward war, or scapegoating," the
analysis says.

"As a result of the fact that resentment is the mainspring of Hitler's career, it is
forever impossible to hope for any mercy or humane treatment from him. His
revengefulness can be satisfied only by the extermination of his countless
enemies. ...

"He is a hive of secret neurotic compunctions and feminine sentimentalities which

have had to be stubbornly repressed ever since he embarked on his career of
ruthless dominance and revenge (instigated by real or supposed insults). ...

"Hitler wants nothing so much as to arrive at the state where he can commit
crimes without guilt feelings; but despite his boasts of having transcended Good
and Evil this had not been possible. The suicidal trend in his personality is
eloquent testimony of a repressed self-condemning tendency. ...

"As soon as the time comes when repeated offensive actions end in failure, Hitler
will lose faith in himself and in his destiny, and become the helpless victim of his
repressed conscience, with suicide or mental breakdown as the most likely
outcome."

The analysis predicts that if Hitler does choose suicide "he will do it at the last
moment and in the most dramatic possible manner."

Link to a copy of the analysis at the Cornell Law Library Archives.

1944 - Following an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Hitler on 20 July by a

group of conspirators led by Wehrmacht Colonel Count Claus Von Stauffenberg
and including one field marshal and 22 generals, Nazi political officers are
appointed to all military headquarters. Several thousand people will be killed in
reprisal for the attempt on Hitler's life.

Though Hitler is not mortally injured by the bomb used in the assassination bid
he is lightly paralysed on his left side and develops a serious tremor in his left
arm. He is also psychologically affected, becoming more paranoid and
suspicious.

1945 - On 30 January advanced Soviet troops reach the Oder River, less than 70
km away from the centre of Berlin. The same day, Hitler makes his last radio
broadcast to the German people. Six weeks later, on 13 March, he makes his last
journey outside Berlin, travelling to the east to inspect the Oder front.

By March, as the Western forces reach the Rhine River, Soviet armies have
overrun most of Eastern Europe and are converging on Berlin, where Hitler waits
in his bunker. The Soviets march under the slogan, "There will be no pity. They
have sown the wind and now they are harvesting the whirlwind."

Few are spared. As the Soviets move through Germany they rape at least two
million German women in an undisciplined advance that is now acknowledged as
the largest case of mass rape in history.

By 25 April the Soviet forces have encircled Berlin. The city now becomes the
"Reichssheiterhaufen" - the "Reich's funeral pyre".

A street by street battle to capture Berlin begins. The infantry attack is

accompanied by an unrelenting artillery barrage, with 1.8 million shells being
fired on the city between 21 April and 2 May. Tanks are also sent in, although at
first the losses are extremely high, with over 800 tanks being destroyed.

The three and a half million civilians that remain in the city are caught in
crossfire. Nearly 110,000 German soldiers and civilians die during the battle. A
further 134,000 are taken prisoner. About 130,000 women are raped.

On 28 April Hitler marries his mistress, Eva Braun. On the afternoon of 30 April
he shoots himself in the head. Braun also suicides, taking poison. In accordance
with his instructions, Hitler's body is burned. Braun's body is burned next to his.

"You must never allow my corpse to fall into the hands of the Russians," Hitler
tells his valet prior to his suicide. "They would make a spectacle in Moscow out of
my body and put it in waxworks."

In his final will and testament, written just before his suicide, he calls on the
German Government and people "to uphold the race laws to the limit and to
resist mercilessly the poisoner of all nations, international Jewry".
Berlin falls to the Soviet forces on 2 May. The assault on the city has cost the
Red Army 78,291 killed and 274,184 wounded.

On 7 May Germany surrenders unconditionally. The Second World War officially

ends on 2 September when Japan formally signs documents of unconditional
surrender.

Hitler's charred body is discovered by the Soviet forces occupying Berlin shortly
after the city falls. It is smuggled back to the Soviet Union, where its upper and
lower jaws and the cranium are said to still exist in official archives. The rest of
the body is hidden under a parade ground at Magdeburg, in what is to become
Eastern Germany. In 1970 these remains are secretly dug up, cremated and
flushed down a sewer.

Postscript

Over 46 million Europeans have died as a result of the war, including:

Over 26 million Soviets,

Over seven million Germans,
About 6.8 million Poles,
Between one million and 1.7 million Yugoslavs,
985,000 Romanians,
810,000 French,
750,000 Hungarians,
525,000 Austrians,
520,000 Greeks,
410,000 Italians,
400,000 Czechs,
388,000 British,
250,000 Dutch,
88,000 Belgians,
84,000 Fins,
22,000 Spaniards,
21,000 Bulgarians,
10,000 Norwegians, and
4,000 Danes.
The war has also claimed over 13 million people from other lands, including:
About 11.3 million Chinese,
Almost two million Japanese,
298,000 Americans,
118,000 Filipinos,
42,000 Canadians,
36,000 Indians,
29,000 Australians,
12,000 New Zealanders, and
9,000 South Africans.
Beginning in November 1945, 22 surviving Nazi leaders considered responsible
for the crimes committed by Germany during the war are tried before an
international military tribunal sitting in Nuremberg. Among those brought before
the tribunal are Hermann Göring, Wilhelm Keitel, Joachim von Ribbentrop,
Rudolf Hess, and Albert Speer. Twelve of the accused are sentenced to death,
seven receive prison sentences, and three are acquitted.
Following the high-profile Nuremberg trials, lower-ranking Nazi war criminals are
also brought to justice.
2005 - On 10 May a national memorial to the Holocaust is opened in Berlin. The
'Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe' is located near the Brandenburg Gate
in the centre of the city. It includes a museum with exhibits on the Nazi's
campaign to wipe out European Jews.
Comment: Adolf Hitler, the undisputed, all-time, world champion of killers. Directly
responsible for the deaths of over 46 million Europeans and the destruction of
much of Europe. But he never would have got there without the support of the
people. After the abortive attempt to take power by force in 1923 and his
subsequent arrest, trial and imprisonment, Hitler realised that the way to top was
through the democratic process. But soon after he was elected democracy was
violated so he could secure his grip. I guess you had to be there to understand
his appeal. The gloss is all gone today, although there are still plenty out there
who think he was just "misunderstood". Personally I think if it looks like evil,
sounds like evil and behaves like evil, it's evil.

Kyle Ivory 9S 14/03/2009 2:39:31 a3/p3