All language subtitles for H-B.13of13.Poison.Gas.Plot.in.the.Bunker.x264.AC3.MVGroup.org_track6_[eng]

Powell: Adolf Hitler caused
the deaths of 50 million people.

An entire nation
followed him to ruin.

He was hated
by those he persecuted,

and even by some of
his own commanders.

Yet in 25 years,
no one managed to kill him.

Winston Churchill
had very few bodyguards,

whilst Hitler had thousands.

He needed them.

During his travels
across Europe,

there were over 40
attempts on his life.

Now with access to captured
original SS records,

the producers of
"Churchill's Bodyguard"

can reveal for the first time
in this new series

how fate and a small number of
hand-picked bodyguards

helped this evil genius
to cheat death

on so many occasions.

Why did no one manage to
kill Adolf Hitler?

Enough people wanted to --

but as this series shows,

it was not as simple
as it sounds --

even when Hitler's regime
was in its death throes,

and his most fanatical
supporters knew the game was up.

January 1945 --

Hitler's last gasp offensive,

the Battle of the Bulge,
was over.

As the freezing fog lifted,
Allied fighters and bombers

won back their dominance
over the skies of Germany.

And US and British ground forces
pushed the Germans back.

Hitler left his
western headquarters.

He used his armored train
for the last time --

he couldn't risk
flying to Berlin.

On January 16th,

Hitler arrived back
in his bomb-blasted capital.

American and British bombers
had been

pounding it relentlessly
for more than a year.

Like so many of his subjects,

the Fuhrer had to
take cover underground.

The palatial Reich Chancellery
in Voss Strasse

was now a shattered ruin --
his last home

and military headquarters

was a bunker in its garden.

For the rest of the war,

Hitler lived
a twilight existence,

rarely emerging above ground.

On January 11, 1945,

just as the Western Allies

were counterattacking
in the Ardennes,

the Red Army launched
a massive winter offensive.

In less than three weeks,

it had smashed through
the German defenses,

advanced more than 300 miles,

and reached the river Oder,

less than 50 miles from Berlin.

Hitler's bunker
became his final sanctuary --

surrounded by
his trusted bodyguards

and those most loyal to him.

But if he thought he was safe
from all assassination attempts,

he was wrong.

Even here,
buried beneath the ground,

encased in concrete and steel,

he was still a target
for those who blamed him

for the destruction of Germany.

Planning Hitler's Fuhrerbunker

began back in 1943,

as Allied air raids
started to batter Germany.

At first,
attacks on Berlin were sporadic.

But from November 1943
to March 1944,

RAF Bomber Command mounted 16
major night attacks on the city.

And on March 6th, protected by
its new long-range fighter,

the P-51 Mustang,

the U.S. Eighth Army Air Force
joined in by day.

They took a particular delight
in bombing Hitler's capital

on his birthday --
the 20th of April.

The Fuhrer was now in
the direct line of Allied fire.

The Reich Chancellery already
had an air raid shelter.

In early 1936,
a new banqueting hall

had been completed in the garden

of the old
Reich Chancellery building.

Beneath this
was a reinforced cellar.

The construction manager
was Albert Speer,

a young Berlin architect
who soon became

one of Hitler's favorites
and a close confidante.

By early 1944,

Speer was
Reichsminister of Armaments.

He now received instructions

to extend the existing bunker
with a new "Fuhrerbunker"

in the garden behind
the banqueting hall.

Digging started in April 1944

and a pit 30-feet deep
was excavated.

The main entrance
to the new bunker

would be through what now became
known as the front bunker.

There was an emergency exit
into the garden,

and a ventilation tower
with a conical roof.

Hitler was very specific
about his requirements --

the concrete ceiling
of the bunker

was to be 10-foot thick,

and the walls over
12-foot thick.

To stop bombs
from penetrating the concrete

and exploding inside the bunker,

Hitler ordered the use of
a steel mesh.

This would lie
on top of the concrete roof,

with granite slabs
and earth above it.

Bombs should be detonated
before they got to the bunker.

Because of the high water table
in the area,

the bunker had to be built with
a concrete drainage pan beneath,

and pumps to extract any water.

Hitler feared that a bomb might
crack the concrete walls,

and water would gush into
the bunker to drown him.

A staircase linked the front
bunker to the new Fuhrerbunker.

The steel doors were sealed
against gas attack.

A small room
like an airlock

then led into a passage

running through
the middle of the bunker,

divided to form
two waiting and sitting areas.

On one side of the passage

were the private rooms
used by Goebbels --

Hitler's chief of propaganda

and one of his
most ardent supporters,

various guard rooms,

the switchboard room,

and the generator room,

with a diesel engine
to provide electricity

to power lighting, heating,
and water pumps,

and an air-conditioning unit.

On the other side of the central
passage were washrooms,

which included a place
for Blondi, Hitler's dog.

And then a bedroom and bathroom

for Hitler's mistress,
Eva Braun.

Next came a little
refreshment room,

and then a conference room,

where Hitler constantly
pored over maps

and searched for units he could
throw into the front line.

Beyond these were
Hitler's study and bedroom.

Over his desk hung a portrait
of his hero,

the Prussian King Frederick II.

He hoped that his spirit
would imbue him with

the good fortune to turn the war
around, even at the last moment.

At the end of the passage
was another airlock

with steps up to
the emergency exit.

Work was still being carried out
on the new bunker

when Hitler moved in,
in early 1945.

It was not really intended

as a place to live
for any length of time.

Damp was a persistent problem.

Black mold
covered the interior walls,

and water leaked into
several rooms.

When filled with staff
and bodyguards,

the atmosphere inside the bunker
was fetid.

The sewers failed

and toilets were often blocked.

It smelled terrible,

and most people took to
smoking in the bunker,

despite Hitler's dislike
of cigarettes.

This was how Hitler,

the brutal warlord who wielded
the power of life and death

in a way not seen
since the Roman Emperors,

was now living.

It would please his enemies
to know that.

But even though the war
was nearly at its end,

there were some
who were so furious

at the ruin Hitler had brought
to their country

that they could never
forgive him.

They wanted to see him punished.

Even in his bunker,

Hitler was to be a target,

and the threat would come from
one of his oldest friends.

In 1941,
at the height of his power,

Hitler had said,
"If one day,

"the German nation is no longer
sufficiently strong

"or sufficiently ready
for sacrifice

"to stake its blood on
its existence,

then let it perish
and be annihilated."

By early 1945, as his enemies
pressed in from all sides,

Hitler finally recognized that
that day had come.

And on March 19th, 1945,

he issued what became known as
his "Nero Order" --

nothing of value in Germany

should fall into the hands of
the conquering Allies.

It was an order for
Scorched Earth,

and it provoked one of his
closest colleagues

to act against him.

The 40-year-old Albert Speer
had trained as an architect.

He joined the Nazi party
in 1931.

He displayed his creativity

by designing dazzling
special effects

for Hitler's massive
Nuremberg party rallies.

Cathedrals of light were created
by hundreds of searchlights.

Hitler was impressed.

He was a frustrated architect

and found in Speer a friend
who could share his ambition

for constructing
colossal buildings

throughout the Third Reich --

transforming Berlin into a new
imperial capital

to surpass ancient Rome.

Speer was one of the few
close colleagues

Hitler took with him
on his daring early morning tour

around Nazi-occupied Paris
in 1940.

In 1942,
following the mysterious death

of Armaments Minister Fritz Todt
in a mid-air explosion,

Speer took over his job.

He proved
an administrative genius,

and played a crucial role

in adapting
Germany's weapon production

to the demands of total war.

Despite the rising tide of
the British and U.S. bombardment

of German factories,

Speer almost trebled weapon
production by 1944.

But despite his skill

in keeping
the German war effort going,

by mid-1944 Speer was under
no illusions

that the war was lost.

The horrific reality
of Hitler's decision

to fight a war on two fronts
was coming home to roost.

As they fell back,

the Germans adopted
a scorched earth policy --

the industrial
and transport infrastructure

of occupied Europe
were to be annihilated.

Many leading Nazis supported
the idea of

a Wagnerian Crescendo
of destruction,

but Speer increasingly
argued against it,

and attempted to get round it --

not least because
he was looking forward

to the time when Germany must be
rebuilt after defeat.

Even before Hitler's Nero order

that Germany too
must be devastated,

Speer had profound doubts about
the sanity of the Fuhrer.

In February 1945,

while sheltering from
an Allied air raid,

he made a startling revelation
to one of his subordinates --

Dietrich Stahl,
head of the Main Committee

for Munitions.

Stahl recalled the conversation
while under Allied interrogation

in Nuremberg before Speer
was put on trial.

He reported that Speer said
that he could not stand it

any longer.

That he could not go on living
with a government of lunatics.

Germany would be
totally annihilated

if nothing decisive were done

to stop the insane plans
for destruction,

and that he had decided to act,
"if necessary, by force."

Stahl claimed that Speer was
planning to introduce Tabun gas

into a ventilation shaft
of the Fuhrerbunker

which came up in the garden
at ground level,

and was only covered by
a wire grating.

Tabun was a nerve gas

which, as this film
of an experiment shows,

swiftly destroys
the entire nervous system

when inhaled.

The German Army had put it
into mass production in 1942,

and by 1945 had many thousands
of shells and bombs

loaded with the gas.

Speer asked Stahl to investigate
how Tabun worked,

and how it could best be

introduced into
the ventilation system.

A few days later,
Stahl reported that

Tabun did not form
a vapor naturally,

it only dispersed
into fine particles

when it was exploded
in a shell or bomb.

He offered to look for another
more suitable gas,

but in the meantime
Speer ran into another snag --

when he inspected
the ventilation shaft

in the Chancellery garden,

he discovered that it had been
raised from ground level

to two stories high.

He could no longer deliver
the poison gas by hand.

In his memoirs Speer admitted
that this flaw to his plan

had got him off the hook

of actually carrying out
the assassination.

Man: "That was an end of it.
It was a great relief to me.

"It was an impulse of despair,

"but I never really
wanted to do it.

I couldn't have."

Powell: If Speer really had
planned to kill Hitler,

then once again,
it had been chance

which had saved the Führer.

But according to Stahl,

the failure of
the poison gas plot

was not the end of
Speer's attempts

to attack his former colleagues.

A few weeks later,
he came up with a plan

to ambush and shoot
SS chief Heinrich Himmler,

propaganda chief
Joseph Goebbels,

and Martin Bormann,
Hitler's private secretary --

while they were being
driven out of Berlin

to avoid Allied air raids.

Stahl claimed that
Speer had recruited

several Luftwaffe officers
to help him shoot up

the Nazi convoy
using machine guns,

flares, and grenades,

so that it looked as if
they had died in an air raid.

It would be
a suitably gangster end

to a gangster regime.

But events were now moving too
quickly for Speer to put

any such plan into action --

although he did continue
to see Hitler

until just a week
before the end,

making a special trip
to say goodbye.

An interview after his release
in 1966

showed that
he remained concerned

about his relationship
with the man

who had raised him
to such power --

Speer: It was more an act of
pity than anything else,

I was first going away
without saying goodbye to him,

but then I thought that this was
not only cowardice but it was,

it was, um...

it was mean.

Powell: This lack of conviction
has led many people to doubt

whether either of Speer's plots
were genuine.

Speer's plans were revealed
during the Nuremberg trials

while he was fighting
for his life --

and trying to establish
his credentials

as the only top Nazi who showed
any sign of remorse.

Stahl was ready to corroborate
his boss' claims,

but for many people
they seemed just too convenient.

But at least they managed
to save from hanging

the man who once said,

"If Hitler had been capable
of having a friend,

I would have been that friend."

On March 11, 1945,
Hitler made his last visit

to the front --
inspecting troops

on the bank of the river Oder,

who must resist the inevitable
Soviet onslaught.

Never again would his Bodyguard
be called on

to escort their Fuhrer
into a danger zone.

On the other bank,
the Red Army,

which now outnumbered
the German defenders ten to one,

was moving into position.

And just over a week later,
on the 20th,

the tired and ill-looking Fuhrer
emerged from his bunker

to view a small delegation

of Hitler Youth soldiers.

Despite the desperate situation,

their confidence
was undiminished --

as one of them, Wilhelm Huebner,
later explained.

Interpreter: No, not at all,

we boys still fought,

and we'd heard rumors
that the Fuhrer

somehow had a secret weapon
in reserve.

Powell: This was the last
occasion Hitler was ever filmed,

and even as the pathetic little
ceremony was taking place,

some of the pick of
his Bodyguard,

the six-foot-tall
Nordic supermen

of the SS-Leibstandarte,

were fighting and dying for him
on another forlorn mission.

Sepp Dietrich
and his Sixth SS Panzer Army,

which included the remnants

of the Leibstandarte
combat division

which he had founded and led
early in the war,

had spearheaded Hitler's
desperate final gamble

in the west -- the offensive
in the Ardennes.

After that campaign failed,

Dietrich and his Sixth Army
were transferred to Hungary.

The Red Army was poised to
capture the vital oil fields

south of Lake Balaton,

and Dietrich was told
to push it back.

It was an impossible task.

Operation Spring Awakening began

in hideously muddy conditions
on March 6th.

Totally outnumbered
and short of fuel,

the SS troops ground to a halt,

and the Soviets were soon
counterattacking.

By the 22nd, the 6th
SS Panzer Army was falling back.

Hitler was furious.

He ordered that all their
SS armbands bearing his name

be torn from their sleeves.

The Leibstandarte reacted

by sending their medals back in
a chamber pot.

They included a severed arm
wearing an SS armband.

Dietrich ordered his men
not to remove their armbands.

He wrote an angry letter
to Hitler,

and offered to shoot himself.

But no reply came back
from Berlin.

Now the blows were coming
thick and fast.

The Soviet assault on the Nazi
capital began on April 14th,

heralded by a massive barrage

delivered by artillery,
rockets, and aircraft.

Ironically, it was only now,

with his mortal enemy's capital
within his grasp

that Soviet dictator
Joseph Stalin

could be absolutely sure
where Hitler was.

He had twice considered
killing Hitler,

but both times backed off.

The first was in 1938,

when the Nazi annexation
of Austria

had shown that the Fuhrer
was on the warpath,

and that the Soviet Union must
eventually become his target.

Alexander Foote,

a British-born agent of
Soviet military intelligence,

the GRU, was instructed
to investigate

the possibility of
killing Hitler.

He traveled to Munich

and homed in on Hitler's
favorite restaurant,

the Osteria Bavaria.

Foote's investigation revealed

startling lapses
by Hitler's bodyguard --

The RSD,
who were responsible for

screening anyone
who had access to it,

did not seem to be
doing anything.

When Hitler was actually
eating there,

none of the Begleitkommando
appeared to be present.

Foote reported back to Moscow

that it would be easy
to plant a bomb

and eliminate
the German dictator.

But surprisingly he was told
to take no further action.

Partly, this was because
the Great Purge,

which Stalin had unleashed
in 1936

against his political rivals,

was now convulsing
his armed forces.

The Soviet Union was in chaos
and militarily exposed.

To provoke a war with Germany
by killing Hitler

seemed inadvisable.

The following year,
Hitler and Stalin made a pact --

the Soviet Union
received half of Poland

in return for not intervening

while Hitler's forces occupied
much of western Europe.

After Hitler tore up the pact
and invaded the Soviet Union,

the Soviet secret services faced
the same problem as the British.

If Hitler
were to be assassinated,

it was essential to know
where he was --

and the erratic movements
of the Fuhrer,

and the increasing size
of his bodyguard,

made it difficult
to plan an attack.

KGB sleepers living in Berlin

did investigate the possibility
of infiltrating

an assassin into the Fuhrer's
private circle --

but it proved difficult to find
a suitable person.

Then, in 1943,
after the twin disasters

of Stalingrad and Kursk,

Stalin came to
the same conclusion

as the Western Allies --

that Hitler's
strategic blundering

made him worth more alive
than dead.

The agents in Berlin were told
to abandon their project,

and the Fuhrer was safe

from direct attack
by his greatest enemy.

Hitler's birthday
was on April 20th -- he was 56.

To celebrate,

the top Nazi Chieftains braved
the Soviet bombardment

to get to the bunker --

Goebbels, Himmler, Göring
and Bormann were there.

So was Speer -- despite his
recent plans to kill them.

Several of Hitler's loyal
generals were also there --

Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Jodl,
and Hans Krebs.

They were a dwindling bunch.

Hitler was urged to leave Berlin

and start a fight back
elsewhere in Germany.

In the mountains around
the Berghof in Bavaria,

a Nazi stronghold could keep
the Allies at bay for months

until a peace was negotiated --
on the Fuhrer's terms.

It was a far-fetched idea,

but at least escape
would be possible.

Hans Baur, Hitler's pilot,
was ready to use

a Fieseler Storch
liaison aircraft

to fly out the Fuhrer
and his top aides.

But Hitler said no.

He would stay in Berlin
until the bitter end.

As his birthday guests left
their Fuhrer behind

in the fetid atmosphere
of the bunker,

they began to think of
their own survival.

Even Heinrich Himmler, head of
the SS, was not all he seemed.

On the face of it, he had been
fanatically loyal to Hitler

throughout his rise to power.

He had turned the SS
into a ruthless machine

dedicated to the Fuhrer's
personal protection.

But defeat at Stalingrad had
shaken even Himmler's faith.

He could see the war was
no longer winnable,

and as the second most
brutal man in the Third Reich

he knew his fate
would not be good.

He had schemed ruthlessly

against men such as
Bruno Gesche,

commander of Hitler's
closest bodyguards,

the SS-Begleitkommando,
to assert his control.

But now, as Soviet shells
pounded Berlin,

Himmler had a secret...

for months, "Loyal Heinrich,"
as Hitler called him,

had been plotting
to betray his Führer.

The Reichsfuhrer SS,

supreme head of
Hitler's Bodyguard, was no fool.

He knew that if Germany
lost the war,

his key role in the whole
dreadful machinery

of the Final Solution,

the extermination
of Europe's Jews,

would make him a marked man.

As early as August 1943,

Himmler had started
putting out feelers

to the opposition to Hitler.

His contact was Johannes Popitz,

the former Prussian
minister of finance,

who suggested that perhaps

Himmler could save Germany
from ruin

by taking over the government

and doing a deal
with the Allies.

Himmler agreed that
an intermediary in Switzerland

should be contacted by radio

to see if discussions could be
opened with the Western Allies.

But unfortunately,

Himmler's own Gestapo
intercepted these messages,

and Popitz was arrested.

The Reichsfuhrer SS backed off.

In the wake of
the July 1944 bomb plot,

Himmler was in the forefront

of eliminating the remnants
of the military opposition.

But even while doing this,

Himmler sent a telegram

to British war leader
Winston Churchill.

Churchill destroyed the telegram

and never revealed what it said,

but it seems clear that Himmler
prized saving himself

above loyalty to Hitler.

But, by the end of 1944,

Soviet forces were overrunning
the death camps.

The full horror of the slaughter
carried out by the SS

was becoming apparent,

and Himmler knew that he would
soon be held responsible.

As the days counted down

towards his judgment
for these appalling crimes,

one of his elite servants
offered him a way out.

Possibly the head of the SS

could become the man
who made peace with the Allies.

During January 1945,
Walter Schellenberg,

head of Himmler's
counter-intelligence section,

arranged several meetings
between Heinrich Himmler

and Jean-Marie Musy, a former
President of Switzerland.

A deal was thrashed out that
Himmler would stop killing Jews

and allow some to be evacuated
to Switzerland.

In return, a propaganda campaign
would start

to improve Himmler's image
to the rest of the world.

Word of this got to Hitler,
and he canceled.

He was furious that the man

tasked with protecting
the Third Reich

was now protecting himself.

But Schellenberg
kept talking to Musy,

and Himmler ordered an end
to the evacuation

of all concentration camps
ahead of the Allies.

Schellenberg later claimed
that this information

was passed on to the Western
Allies' supreme commander,

General Dwight Eisenhower.

In the meantime,
in February 1945,

another avenue opened
with the arrival of

Count Folke Bernadotte,

the vice-president
of the Swedish Red Cross.

Initially,
he wanted just the release

of Scandinavian
prisoners of war.

But Schellenberg saw him
as a perfect mediator

for starting peace negotiations
with the Allies.

With the news in March 1945

that Hitler intended to destroy

everything in Germany
rather than surrender --

and that that included
the annihilation of

any Jews remaining in
concentration camps --

negotiations became more urgent.

And on the day of
Hitler's birthday, April 20th,

the man whom Himmler
had sworn to protect,

and the man for whom he
carried out the Final Solution,

"loyal Heinrich"
made arrangements

to meet Norbert Masur,
head of the Swedish section

of the World Jewish Congress.

Inside the bunker,
Himmler shook Hitler's hand

and wished him
a happy birthday.

The next day,
at the house of his masseur,

Himmler sat down to
talk with Masur --

the first Jew he had spoken to
on equal terms

since the Nazis came to power.

Schellenberg was there and
witnessed their conversation.

Man: "Himmler said he had tried
to solve the Jewish problem

"by expelling them from Germany.

"But the rest of the world had
refused to accept them.

Then he faced opposition
within the Nazi party."

Powell:
This was complete nonsense --

coming from the man who had
dedicated his life

to tightening his control
over the Nazi party.

Man: "Masur listened to
Himmler's points,

"but did not discuss them.

"His main purpose was to get
the following reassurances --

"that no more Jews
would be killed,

that surviving Jews should not
be evacuated from the camps."

Powell: Himmler said he had
already given such orders.

Himmler next had a meeting
at the Swedish consulate

in Lubeck,
with Count Bernadotte.

He told the Swede that all
the women and children

in Ravensbruck
concentration camp

would be released
and sent to Sweden.

When Bernadotte
left his meeting with Himmler,

Schellenberg traveled with him
part of the way.

He said Himmler hoped
he could

fix a meeting with Eisenhower to
discuss some kind of peace deal.

But Bernadotte told the Nazi
it was too late for that.

The head of the SS should look
to his own survival.

Himmler became
increasingly desperate,

and begged Bernadotte
to pass a letter on to

General Eisenhower with
an offer to surrender

to the Western Allies.

Bernadotte agreed to forward it
to the Allies.

On April 26th,
Schellenberg received news

that the Allies
would not deal with Himmler.

He delayed telling him.

The next day,
Allied newspapers published

accounts of Himmler's
failed peace negotiations.

Inside the Fuhrerbunker,
on April 28th,

a BBC radio report
was picked up.

Man: "It has been
reported by Reuters

"that unconditional surrender

"was offered by Himmler

"to Britain
and the United States only,

"further that Britain
and the United States

"have replied saying that they
will not accept

"unconditional surrender, except
on behalf of all the Allies,

including Russia."

Powell:
Hitler raged at Himmler.

The man he had trusted
completely with his life,

the man who headed all his
SS bodyguard organizations,

had stabbed him in the back.

It was unforgivable.

Hitler ordered him to be
stripped of his power

and office.

He was to be
arrested immediately.

But in his bunker,

Hitler was virtually cut off
from the outside world,

and Himmler did not get news
of this order.

But one man who did pay
the ultimate price

for the SS chiefs treachery

was Hitler's SS adjutant,

Hermann Fegelein,

the husband of
Eva Braun's sister Gretl.

It was discovered that Fegelein
had slipped out of the bunker.

But he was soon tracked down,

hiding in a nearby apartment
and dressed civilian clothes.

When Hitler heard of
Himmler's treachery,

Fegelein was presumed to be
part of the plot,

and stripped of his rank
and honors.

He was then interrogated by

the fearsome commander of
the Gestapo, Heinrich Muller --

one of the few henchmen
left in the bunker

that Hitler could rely on.

After questioning by Muller,

Fegelein admitted to
knowing about

Himmler's secret negotiations
with Bernadotte.

He was given
a summary court-martial,

and then executed
by an SS firing squad

in the Reich Chancellery garden.

His boss had joined the ranks

of the Nazi damned.

Just like Hermann Göring --
once head of Hitler's Bodyguard

back in the early days
of the party.

The Luftwaffe chief
was now accused of

betraying Hitler by suggesting
he take over control

of the Third Reich.

All the big beasts
in the Nazi party

had now let their Fuhrer down.

As Soviet soldiers ran through
the streets of Berlin,

only the most die-hard
of Hitler's Bodyguard

stayed with him in the bunker.

On April 25, 1945,

the Red Army completed

the encirclement of
central Berlin.

Over two million civilians
were now trapped.

Much of the defense
of Hitler's capital

was now in the hands of
hastily-trained old men,

young boys,
and even housewives.

But immediately around
the Reich Chancellery,

the remnants of the Bodyguard

were still defending
their Führer.

Hitler's personal adjutant,
Otto Gunsche,

a former member
of the SS-Leibstandarte,

had command of the ceremonial
and training battalions

of his former regiment,

and a few members of the army's
Fuhrer-Begleit-Regiment

who had been on leave
in the city.

Inside the Fuhrerbunker,

only the most dedicated of
Hitler's followers remained.

But even amongst them,
the atmosphere was fatalistic.

Suicide was openly discussed

as Army major
Freytag von Loringhoven

later confirmed.

Von Loringhoven: The atmosphere
was very gloomy in the bunker,

and the other people,

they talked about

how to commit suicide,

that was the main topic
about their talks --

and whether they should
take poison,

poison themselves,

or whether they should
shoot with a pistol.

Powell: Only one remained

of the original eight men

of the SS-Begleitkommando

who had been personally selected
by Hitler

in 1931 as his close escort --

Erich Kempka, who had served
for more than ten years

as his chauffeur.

With him were another veteran
member of the Begleitkommando,

Heinz Linge, Hitler's chief
personal valet,

Hans Rattenhuber,

head of the Reich Security
Service, the RSD,

and Hans Baur,
the Fuhrer's chief pilot.

But some of Hitler's
oldest comrades were gone --

Emil Maurice,

who had fought alongside Hitler

in the earliest
street-fighting days

and had been rash enough
to fancy Geli Raubal,

the niece with whom
Hitler was infatuated,

had been eased out of
the Bodyguard

in the mid-1930s.

He served as a Luftwaffe officer
and survived the savage air war.

Arrested by the Allies
at the end of the war,

he was sentenced to
four years hard labor.

Also missing was Bruno Gesche,

the former head of
the Begleitkommando

and one of its first members.

His 12-year feud

with his nominal boss
Heinrich Himmler

had finally caught up with him.

In December 1944,
Gesche drank too much again,

took out his pistol,

and fired several shots
at a colleague.

This time Himmler
personally wrote

the letter of condemnation.

Man: "You are known to me
as a notorious drunk

"from the year 1938,

"as well as from reports
in recent years and months.

"Since I cannot tolerate drunks
in the Fuhrerkorps,

"I demote you.

"Only based on
your long association

"will I allow you to
remain in the SS.

"I will give you the opportunity

"to serve in
the Dirlewanger brigade --

"and by proving yourself
before the enemy,

"it might be possible that you
will be able to wipe out

"the shame you have brought onto
yourself and the entire SS.

"I expect you to abstain
from alcohol

"for the rest of your life,
without any exceptions.

"Should your willpower be
already damaged by alcohol

"to the extent that
you cannot keep this pledge,

then I expect you to
hand in your resignation."

Powell:
It was a cruel punishment.

The Dirlewanger brigade
was a penal unit

expected to die
fighting in the front line.

It was Himmler's final blow
against the bodyguard

who had most defied him.

With just weeks left
of his power,

this may have given him
some grim satisfaction.

Gesche didn't receive the letter
until January 1945,

and by then the Third Reich was
approaching its death throes.

He probably toasted its arrival
with a stiff drink.

He could not be sent to
the Dirlewanger brigade

because it was fighting on
the Eastern Front.

The risk that he might fall
into Soviet hands

and betray vital details
of Hitler's

personal security arrangements
was too great.

Instead, Gesche fought in
the 16th SS Division

in its long and bitter retreat
through Italy, Slovenia,

and Hungary.

When the SS formations
withdrew into Austria,

Gesche is believed to have
surrendered to the Americans

and not the Soviets.

If he had been taken by
the Red Army,

his SS insignia
would have ensured

instant execution.

It was an irony for Gesche

that his drinking had probably
saved his life.

If he had abstained from alcohol
as Himmler had instructed him,

he would have ended up in
the bunker beside the Führer.

As it was,
Hitler's closest bodyguard

now disappears from history --

as did many others
with the guilt of

long association with one of
the most hated men in history.

After three days of savage
fighting in central Berlin,

German resistance
was collapsing.

On April 29th,
Hitler married

his long-time mistress
Eva Braun.

Goebbels and Bormann
acted as witnesses.

When Eva came
to sign the register,

she began to sign Braun,

then crossed out the "B"
to sign as Hitler.

Her new husband was now
determined to kill himself

to avoid capture by the Soviets.

That same day,
his German shepherd dog Blondi

was used to test the poison

which the Fuhrer and his
new wife would take.

Rochus Misch,

one of the bunker's
radio operators,

witnessed it.

Interpreter: The dog handler
Herr Tornow

brought Blondi to the toilet
opposite my room,

and Dr. Stumpfegger came
to put her down.

I went over and watched
out of morbid curiosity.

Dr. Stumpfegger
opened the dog's mouth,

put something inside,

and then pressed
the jaws closed --

and then Blondi keeled over.

Powell: The following morning,

Hitler received the news
that his fellow dictator

Mussolini had been shot
and strung up publicly

in a Milan square alongside

his mistress Clara Petacci.

This humiliation
only strengthened

Hitler's determination,

as his secretary
Traudl Junge witnessed.

Junge: I asked Hitler

why he didn't fight
in the battle

as a commander
should in the war,

and he said,
"No, it's impossible,

"I'm much too weak to fight,

and I would never risk
to get captured alive."

Because he knew
what happened to Mussolini,

he saw the pictures,

and he was very, very frightened

to have the same fate
if he would be captured.

Powell: At 3:30 p.m.,
Hitler and Eva Braun

entered his study in the bunker.

Inside the room,
Eva Braun took poison.

Hitler pulled out his
Walther 7.65mm pistol

and shot himself in the head.

Hitler had finally achieved

what no assassin had been able
to do over the past two decades.

Heinz Linge witnessed
the final moments.

Linge: I was the last

who said goodbye to him,

and the first to see the bodies.

He and Eva Braun died alone.

Powell:
Gunsche and Hitler's doctor,

Ludwig Stumpfegger, then wrapped
Hitler's body in a blanket

and carried it up to
the Reich Chancellery garden.

Martin Bormann carried Braun.

Hitler's body
was tipped into a shallow grave

with Braun's next to him.

Gunsche and Kempka then
poured petrol over them.

A lighted rag
was then thrown in,

and as the bodies burned,

the last remaining bodyguards

raised their arms
in a final Nazi salute.

After attempting last-minute
negotiations with the Soviets,

Goebbels gave up
and shot himself.

His wife poisoned
their six children

and then killed herself.

"Gestapo" Muller
had already disappeared

before Hitler's death.

His fate is unknown.

Bormann took his chances in
an escape bid with Hans Baur.

He disappeared --
his body was never found.

Baur was wounded
and captured by the Russians.

As the Soviet tanks rolled in,

Gunsche, Kempka and Linge
also attempted to get away.

Kempka managed to
get through enemy lines

and made his way
to Berchtesgaden

before giving himself up
to the Americans.

Gunsche and Linge
were captured by the Russians,

but all survived
to live into old age.

Hermann Göring,
full of bluster,

strode into American captivity

expecting to be treated
with all the respect

due to a senior leader
of his country.

He was put on trial

and condemned to death.

He poisoned himself

to avoid the hangman's noose.

Heinrich Himmler
fled for his life.

He shaved off his moustache,
wore an eye patch,

and tried to pretend he was just
an ordinary soldier.

He was arrested by
the British at Bremervorde,

just north of Bremen.

While being examined by
a doctor at Luneburg,

he bit on a capsule of cyanide
hidden inside his mouth.

Thus ended the life of
the second most evil man

in the Third Reich --
chief of the SS --

the machine that had contrived

to keep Hitler alive
for so long.

Ironically, Hitler's Bodyguard
and the organizations

it spawned had succeeded
in their duty to keep him alive.

At the end, their master
was left to make the choice --

should he kill himself,

since no one else
had succeeded in doing it,

or should he face the wrath
of the world he had devastated.

Hitler chose suicide.

Cyanide and a bullet succeeded

where more than forty attempts
on his life had failed.

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