Hitler's Charisma (47 page)

On 23 April, Himmler met the Swedish diplomat, Count Folke Bernadotte. Himmler, believing Hitler would shortly commit suicide—if he had not already done so—authorised Bernadotte to tell the Western Allies that Germany would unconditionally surrender to them, though not to the Red Army. When the news was broadcast on BBC Radio, Hitler could scarcely believe the “betrayal.” “Of course, Hitler was outraged in the extreme,” says Bernd Freiherr Freytag von Loringhoven, one of the last German officers still in the bunker. “Militarily there was no hope left. And now this move had been made by the man he probably had trusted most. This man had deserted him and had approached the Allies. As a result, the following night Hitler took the logical step and dictated his personal and political will and within two days he was dead.”
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Of all of the Nazi elite who had previously expressed belief in Hitler’s charisma, only the propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels—along with his wife and six children—chose to die in the bunker with him. Goebbels’ wife, Magda, was one of the few who probably still retained their faith in Hitler to the very end, but it is doubtful if her husband now believed in Hitler’s charismatic leadership quite so much. Most likely, Goebbels had worked through all of the various possibilities for his future and saw death alongside Hitler as the most sensible. If Goebbels had been captured by the Allies—and how could someone as physically distinctive hope to hide from discovery—he knew he faced almost certain execution. But if he stayed with Hitler then he believed he could become a hero himself. He had said as much just a few days before, on 17 April, at a meeting with his staff at the propaganda ministry, when he explained that the reason they should not try to flee from Berlin was because in a “hundred years time” a film would be made about this epic period that would mean they would then be “brought back to life.” As a result, “Everybody now has a chance to choose the part which he will play in the film a hundred years hence. I can assure you that it will be a fine and elevating picture. And for the sake of this prospect it is worth standing fast.”
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While Goebbels tried to create his own “film” ending to his life, Hitler was, according to his secretary Traudl Junge, now “leading his shadowy life” wandering “restlessly around the rooms”
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of the bunker under the garden of the Reich Chancellery. “The atmosphere in the bunker was absolutely macabre,” confirms Bernd Freiherr Freytag von Loringhoven. “The people there no longer had anything to do. They were hanging
around in the corridors, waiting for news. The enemy was close at hand. So the main topic in the bunker was ‘How do I kill myself?’ ”
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Just before midnight on 28 April, Hitler dictated a political testament—one that is remarkably consistent with his earliest expression of belief, the letter he wrote in September 1919 at the behest of Karl Mayr. Both documents exude hatred of the Jews. In his political testament Hitler blames the Jews for the outbreak of the Second World War and ends with the words, “Above all I charge the leaders of the nation and those under them to scrupulous observance of the laws of race and to merciless opposition to the universal poisoner of all peoples, international Jewry.”
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Neither document contains an iota of humanity, and they both reveal a mind fixed in certain belief. Even as he died Hitler did not blame himself for any of the calamities he had brought upon the world. Instead, he claimed that “In these three decades I have been actuated solely by love and loyalty to my people in all my thoughts, acts, and life.”

Hitler had not changed—all the elements that had enabled him to become a charismatic leader still existed within him until his last breath. What had changed was other people’s perception of him. Since charisma is only created in an interaction between an individual and a receptive audience, repeated failure and broken promises had badly damaged Hitler’s charismatic appeal not only amongst the broad German population, but amongst many of his core supporters.

Adolf Hitler committed suicide just after 3:30 in the afternoon of 30 April 1945. He shot himself in the head as he bit on a capsule of poison that had previously been supplied to him by Himmler. So distrustful of “loyal Heinrich” had Hitler been at the end of his life that he insisted that a sample of the poison first be tried on his dog, Blondi, to ensure that Himmler had not planned to deceive him and allow the Allies to capture him alive.
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There are many people I need to thank. Janice Hadlow, Controller of BBC2, and Martin Davidson, BBC History commissioner, were both enthusiastic about this idea and I am grateful for their support.

Professor Sir Ian Kershaw was historical consultant to the TV series and also read a draft of this book and offered his thoughts and criticisms. I have written elsewhere of the debt I owe him—he has been a friend and colleague for almost twenty years now—but I need to reiterate my gratitude to him here. It has been my colossal good fortune to be able to work closely with one of the most brilliant historical scholars of the last hundred years. But, I hasten to add, the views and judgements expressed in this book are entirely my own.

Another old friend and colleague, Detlef Siebert, who also worked with me for many years on various television series on Nazism, read through this book and offered his criticisms. He is as generous as he is intelligent.

I also benefited from the long discussions I had with a whole galaxy of the world’s best historians for my educational website
WW2History.com
. Also, of course, I thank the BBC, and in particular my last boss, Keith Scholey, for permission to use transcript material from my previous TV series on Nazism.

Working with me on the television series, Ann Cattini was a beacon of stability as Production Executive. In Germany, Dr. Frank Stucke was an excellent Associate Producer, and I also benefited very much from the archival research work of two talented young German academics, Fabian Wendler and Julia Pietsch. Martin Patmore, who has filmed almost
everything I have made for the last twenty years, did his usual fine job as cameraman, as did the film editors, Alan Lygo, Jamie Hay and Simon Holland. Monika Rubel and her team at 24 Frames films in Munich were a tremendous help with the drama sections of the series, and impressively endured my foibles as a drama director. John Kennedy and his son Christopher deserve special mention as Graphic Designers—their work on the TV series was quite exceptional.

At Ebury Press, my editor Albert DePetrillo, and my publisher, Jake Lingwood, were good friends to this project over several years. My American publisher, Dan Frank of Pantheon books, made a number of insightful comments, whilst my literary agent, Andrew Nurnberg, remains as important in my working life as ever. My wife, Helena, used her considerable business skills to manage our independent production company, and offered me constant support with this book as well. My children, Oliver, Camilla and Benedict, were more supportive than I deserve. They have lived with my obsession with this subject all their lives—and that’s a long time. My eldest son, Oliver, has just graduated from Cambridge and my daughter, Camilla, has a place at Oxford to read History (though not this period of history …).

I have dedicated this book to my parents, who both died at the age of forty-nine. Now that I reach my mid-fifties the idea that they died so young, in the circumstances they did, seems more obscene to me than ever.