industrial, and food supply facilities, as well as all other resources within the Reich which the enemy might use either immediately or in the foreseeable future for continuing the war, are to be destroyed.â
Otto Skorzeny in November 1943. He fought fifteen saber duels as a young man. In one, he received a deep cut on his cheek, which left him with a scar. [Mary Evans Picture Library]
This is all Hitler can do: prepare for the end. His attempt to cleanse mankind of perceived racial imperfections is over. As will soon be his life.
So as Hitler passes the time in the bunker, sleeping most days and staying up until dawn most nights to scrutinize plans for battles that will never be fought, he finds a most unusual way to maintain his optimism.
Early in the war, Hitler confers with his propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels. [Mary Evans Picture Library]
His source of hope is the soothing voice of his propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels. Palsied tremors make it impossible for Hitler to turn the pages of a book, so he commands Goebbels to read aloud to him from Thomas Carlyleâs biography of Frederick the Great; the eighteenth-century Prussian warrior king has always been an inspiration to the F ü hrer.
Hitler specifically chooses the biography by Carlyle because he set forth the great man theory of history, which states, âThe history of the world is but the biography of great men.â
Leonidas was a great man.
Frederick was a great man.
Hitler considers himself a great man.
Reclining on the bed in his personal quarters as Goebbels sits in a nearby chair, Hitler is calmed by words that make a vivid comparison between Frederick and his own current situation. It is a passage describing the winter of 1761â62, when all seemed lost during the Seven Yearsâ War. Frederick had few allies at the time and was facing a multinational force that threatened to annihilate his Prussian troops. Hitler is also facing the end. Russian troops are poised to enter his capital city. So he finds solace in the lessons learned by this great man whom he reveres deeply.
*Â Â Â *Â Â Â *
Just days later, Adolf Hitler receives another sign that Germany could still win the war. He summons all his top generals and ministers to the bunker to show them the news. âHere, you never wanted to believe it,â he crows, distributing the report that he has just received.
The bunker erupts in cheers.
The news could not be more shocking: Hitler has outlived one of his biggest opponents.
American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is dead.
At the Yalta Conference, in February 1945, allies (front row, left to right) Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill meet to discuss the governance of postâWorld War II Axis countries. [Mary Evans Picture Library]
CHAPTER 21
BAD HERSFELD, GERMANY
APRIL 12, 1945
G EORGE P ATTON IS JUST FINISHING his daily journal entries. The hour is late, but today has been extraordinary, and he needs to put every last detail on paper before going to bed. Finally, he closes his journal and puts down his pen.
Patton notices that his wristwatch needs winding. So he turns on the radio in the small truck trailer that serves as his field bedroom. He hopes to get the exact time from the British Broadcasting Corporationâs evening broadcast. Instead, he hears the shocking news that FDR is no more.
This is the wretched conclusion to what has been the most nerve-wracking day Patton has endured thus far in the war. Just after breakfast, he met with Generals Dwight Eisenhower and Omar Bradley at his headquarters in an old Wehrmacht fort in Bad Hersfeld, one hundred miles east of the Rhine. Together they traveled to the town of Merkers, where Pattonâs army had made an incredible find.
Generals Bradley, Patton (behind Eisenhower), and Eisenhower inspect paintings stolen by the Nazis and stored in a salt mine in Merkers, Germany, April 12, 1945. [Alamy]
The three men
Otto Skorzeny in November 1943. He fought fifteen saber duels as a young man. In one, he received a deep cut on his cheek, which left him with a scar. [Mary Evans Picture Library]
This is all Hitler can do: prepare for the end. His attempt to cleanse mankind of perceived racial imperfections is over. As will soon be his life.
So as Hitler passes the time in the bunker, sleeping most days and staying up until dawn most nights to scrutinize plans for battles that will never be fought, he finds a most unusual way to maintain his optimism.
Early in the war, Hitler confers with his propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels. [Mary Evans Picture Library]
His source of hope is the soothing voice of his propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels. Palsied tremors make it impossible for Hitler to turn the pages of a book, so he commands Goebbels to read aloud to him from Thomas Carlyleâs biography of Frederick the Great; the eighteenth-century Prussian warrior king has always been an inspiration to the F ü hrer.
Hitler specifically chooses the biography by Carlyle because he set forth the great man theory of history, which states, âThe history of the world is but the biography of great men.â
Leonidas was a great man.
Frederick was a great man.
Hitler considers himself a great man.
Reclining on the bed in his personal quarters as Goebbels sits in a nearby chair, Hitler is calmed by words that make a vivid comparison between Frederick and his own current situation. It is a passage describing the winter of 1761â62, when all seemed lost during the Seven Yearsâ War. Frederick had few allies at the time and was facing a multinational force that threatened to annihilate his Prussian troops. Hitler is also facing the end. Russian troops are poised to enter his capital city. So he finds solace in the lessons learned by this great man whom he reveres deeply.
*Â Â Â *Â Â Â *
Just days later, Adolf Hitler receives another sign that Germany could still win the war. He summons all his top generals and ministers to the bunker to show them the news. âHere, you never wanted to believe it,â he crows, distributing the report that he has just received.
The bunker erupts in cheers.
The news could not be more shocking: Hitler has outlived one of his biggest opponents.
American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is dead.
At the Yalta Conference, in February 1945, allies (front row, left to right) Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill meet to discuss the governance of postâWorld War II Axis countries. [Mary Evans Picture Library]
CHAPTER 21
BAD HERSFELD, GERMANY
APRIL 12, 1945
G EORGE P ATTON IS JUST FINISHING his daily journal entries. The hour is late, but today has been extraordinary, and he needs to put every last detail on paper before going to bed. Finally, he closes his journal and puts down his pen.
Patton notices that his wristwatch needs winding. So he turns on the radio in the small truck trailer that serves as his field bedroom. He hopes to get the exact time from the British Broadcasting Corporationâs evening broadcast. Instead, he hears the shocking news that FDR is no more.
This is the wretched conclusion to what has been the most nerve-wracking day Patton has endured thus far in the war. Just after breakfast, he met with Generals Dwight Eisenhower and Omar Bradley at his headquarters in an old Wehrmacht fort in Bad Hersfeld, one hundred miles east of the Rhine. Together they traveled to the town of Merkers, where Pattonâs army had made an incredible find.
Generals Bradley, Patton (behind Eisenhower), and Eisenhower inspect paintings stolen by the Nazis and stored in a salt mine in Merkers, Germany, April 12, 1945. [Alamy]
The three men
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