On May 5, the Soviets discovered the two charred bodies in a bomb crater outside the bunker. Head of the KGB, the later Soviet Premier Yuri Andropov ordered the remains to be thrown in the Biederitz River to prevent a burial site from becoming a place of pilgrimage for fascists.
However, the Red Army did keep a portion of the jaw and a piece of skull with a bullet wound, transferring them to the archives in Moscow. It may not have worked, but it was enough to spawn conspiracy theories, books and films like The Boys From Brazil , which kept alive the notion that Hitler somehow escaped the bunker and lived out his life elsewhere. The memoirs also describe how Mr Misch walked in on Eva in a "flimsy nightie" in the guestroom, which had a private passageway into Hitler's room, and she put a finger to her mouth telling the bodyguard to keep quiet.
Mr Misch, who thought he would be sacked over the incident, also said he heard Ms Braun and Magada Goebbels swearing to die with their respective men.
Mr Misch was kidnapped by the Soviet Red Army, and imprisoned in labour camps for eight years, after trying to escape into hiding. Frontline Books senior editor John Grehan said Mr Misch's account is remarkably impartial and non-judgemental. Mr Grehan, who has appeared on BBC's Time Team and wrote The Battle of Hastings - The Uncomfortable Truth : Revealing the True Location of England's Most Famous Battle, told The Independent : "We're publishing it because this was someone so close to Hitler during a crucial part of the war, especially given he was of a very junior rank, with no axe to grind, and someone with no need to cover up for anything he did wrong.
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Hitler's fervid beer-hall speeches began attracting regular audiences. Early followers included army captain Ernst Rohm, the head of the Nazi paramilitary organization the Sturmabteilung SA , which protected meetings and frequently attacked political opponents.
Hitler announced that the national revolution had begun and declared the formation of a new government. After a short struggle that led to several deaths, the coup known as the Beer Hall Putsch failed.
Hitler was arrested and tried for high treason and sentenced to nine months in prison. The first volume was published in , and a second volume came out in It was abridged and translated into 11 languages, selling more than five million copies by A work of propaganda and falsehoods, the book laid out Hitler's plans for transforming German society into one based on race.
The second volume outlined his plan to gain and maintain power. While often illogical and full of grammatical errors, Mein Kampf was provocative and subversive, making it appealing to the many Germans who felt displaced at the end of World War I.
With millions unemployed, the Great Depression in Germany provided a political opportunity for Hitler. Germans were ambivalent to the parliamentary republic and increasingly open to extremist options. In , Hitler ran against year-old Paul von Hindenburg for the presidency. Hitler came in second in both rounds of the election, garnering more than 36 percent of the vote in the final count. The results established Hitler as a strong force in German politics.
Hindenburg reluctantly agreed to appoint Hitler as chancellor in order to promote political balance. Hitler used his position as chancellor to form a de facto legal dictatorship. The Reichstag Fire Decree, announced after a suspicious fire at Germany's parliament building, suspended basic rights and allowed detention without trial. Hitler also engineered the passage of the Enabling Act, which gave his cabinet full legislative powers for a period of four years and allowed for deviations from the constitution.
By the end of June, the other parties had been intimidated into disbanding. Military opposition was also punished. The demands of the SA for more political and military power led to the infamous Night of the Long Knives , a series of assassinations that took place from June 30 to July 2, Rohm, a perceived rival, and other SA leaders, along with a number of Hitler's political enemies, were hunted down and murdered at locations across Germany.
The day before Hindenburg's death in August , the cabinet had enacted a law abolishing the office of president, combining its powers with those of the chancellor. Hitler thus became head of state as well as head of government and was formally named leader and chancellor.
As the undisputed head of state, Hitler became supreme commander of the armed forces. Fueled by fanaticism over what he believed was a superior Aryan race, he encouraged Germans to keep their bodies pure of any intoxicating or unclean substances and promoted anti-smoking campaigns across the country.
From until the start of the war in , Hitler and his Nazi regime instituted hundreds of laws and regulations to restrict and exclude Jews in society. On April 1, , Hitler implemented a national boycott of Jewish businesses.
The law was a Nazi implementation of the Aryan Paragraph, which called for the exclusion of Jews and non-Aryans from organizations, employment and eventually all aspects of public life. On April 1, , SA troopers urge a national boycott of Jewish businesses. Here they are outside Israel's Department Store in Berlin.
The signs read: "Germans! Defend yourselves! Don't buy from Jews. Wehrt Euch! Kauft nicht bei Juden! The store was later ransacked during Kristallnacht in , then handed over to a non-Jewish family. Additional legislation restricted the number of Jewish students at schools and universities, limited Jews working in medical and legal professions, and revoked the licenses of Jewish tax consultants. By , Jewish actors were forbidden from performing in film or in the theater.
On September 15, , the Reichstag introduced the Nuremberg Laws, which defined a "Jew" as anyone with three or four grandparents who were Jewish, regardless of whether the person considered themselves Jewish or observed the religion.
In , Hitler and his regime muted their Anti-Semitic rhetoric and actions when Germany hosted the Winter and Summer Olympic Games , in an effort to avoid criticism on the world stage and a negative impact on tourism. After the Olympics, the Nazi persecution of Jews intensified with the continued "Aryanization" of Jewish businesses, which involved the firing of Jewish workers and takeover by non-Jewish owners. The Nazis continued to segregate Jews from German society, banning them from public school, universities, theaters, sports events and "Aryan" zones.
Jewish doctors were also barred from treating "Aryan" patients. Jews were required to carry identity cards and, in the fall of , Jewish people had to have their passports stamped with a "J.
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