How Did Hitler Die?
After six horrible years of war, Hitler was finally forced to retreat to an underground bunker in Berlin on January 16, 1945. The Fuhrer was also forced to admit that all hope for Germany’s resurgence in the war was gone. Hitler’s enemies were closing in on all sides and would soon storm the bunker.
Hitler may have lost all hope of winning World War II but he hadn’t lost his damnable pride. The thought of being taken prisoner by people he considered his inferiors was more than he could handle. On April 22nd, Hitler had what most historians agree was a nervous breakdown during which he decided to deny his enemies the pleasure of capturing him by taking his own life.
Despite all of the pain Adolf Hitler had caused the world, he was concerned about suffering during his suicide so he summoned his physician for advice about how to die using the most certain and painless method. The doctor suggested that he take the poison, “Cyanide” which is extremely lethal so death would be certain. Hitler decided that he would also shoot himself in the head immediately after taking the cyanide as a cyanide poisoning death is very painful.
When Hitler woke on the morning of April 30, 1945, the Soviet Army was literally “a stone’s throw” from the bunker. Hitler realized that he would be taken prisoner within 24 hours if he didn’t die soon. At around 1:00 PM, Hitler, Eva Braun/Hitler, Dr. Joseph Goebbels, Mrs. Goebbels, the Goebbels children, and others sat down for a final lunch together. Around 2:30 in the afternoon, Adolf Hitler and his wife Eva (who he had married the previous day) entered Hitler’s study and closed the door.
At around 3:30, the bunker’s occupants heard a loud “bang” from the study. Of course, everyone realized that was Hitler’s 7.65 mm Walther pistol. Hitler’s valet and a few others ran into the study and found Adolf and Eva dead on the sofa. Hitler had a wound from the gunshot on his right temple and there was blood dripping from his mouth.
Hitler had ordered the other occupants to ensure that the Soviets did not get his body to parade in the newsreels so they took his body above ground, doused it with gasoline, and set it afire. They showed their ongoing loyalty by saluting his flaming corpse!
The world has probably never seen a death that was rejoiced more than that of Adolf Hitler. By the end of the war, Germany was so covered in ruins and so many soldiers and civilians had died that the German people were perhaps more relieved than any others at Hitler’s death!
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