Rtn David Axon: Discovering Adolf Hitler's Political Will and Testament

Today member David Axon took us back to Hitler’s last days in the Berlin bunker. The Russian army had surrounded Berlin, trapping the remaining German troops, and Hitler finally had to admit to himself that the Germans had lost the war. At 4 pm on 28 April 1945 he called in his secretary, Traudi Junge, and dictated his last will and his political testament.

Sometime later that evening he married his long-term partner, Eva Braun.

It took Traudi Junge until 5 am the following morning to type them out. She prepared three copies. She dated them 28 April 1945 even though they weren’t signed until 29 April. Hitler signed them and the high-ranking Germans still with him acted as witnesses.

Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide the following day. Admiral Doenitz succeeded him as the German Chancellor and Germany surrendered a week later.

The Allies discovered the existence of the three copies of the will and political testament but did not know their whereabouts. Traudi Junge was interviewed but did not know what had happened to them after she handed them over.

The Allies also found out that Hitler and Braun had married on 28 April 1945 and a marriage certificate issued but it was never discovered.

David’s father was serving with MI5 in the British Sector of Occupied Germany. When the Head of MI5 there fell ill he briefly took over.

The British were approached by someone claiming to be a Luxembourg journalist who said he could tell them about the last days in Hitler’s bunker if they employed him. David’s father interviewed him but turned him away.

He later had second thoughts and had a search made for the journalist throughout the British Sector. When he was eventually tracked down it turned out that he was in fact a German, Herman Lorenz, who had acted as Hitler’s Press Officer in his final days.

David’s father interrogated him and discovered that he had been given one copy of the will and the testament to take to Admiral Doenitz. Two of his colleagues had been given the other copies to take to other high-ranking Germans.

The three of them had made their way through the Russian lines. They then mutually agreed that there was no point in trying to complete the tasks they had been given. They decided to give up and went their separate ways.

Lorenz’s copies of the will and testament were recovered and a search made for the other two couriers. They were found and their copies also recovered. The British ended up with two copies and the Americans with one.

In January 1946 copies were published in the newspapers. The Allies then decided that copies should not be published again for fear they would act as a focus for neo-Nazis. They were not available to the public again until copies appeared on the Internet.

In his will Hitler explained that he had not married Eva Braun before then because of his responsibilities as Germany’s Fuehrer but had now decided that the time was right. His effects he left to the German State.

The political testament is full of self-justification. Hitler condemns Goering and Himmler as traitors. (Himmler had contacted the Allies with a view to negotiating a surrender.)

It seems he expected the Nazi regime to continue after his death. He names those who are to fill various government roles in the Reich after his death, including Doenitz as Chancellor. He also admonishes them to continue the fight against “the conspiracy of International Jewry”.