98. Below, 415. Below is confused in the chronology of Fegelein’s escapade in connection with the news of Himmler’s behaviour, but his comments otherwise fit the differing responses to the afternoon and evening reports.
99. Cit. Joachimsthaler, 182–3; and Groehler, Das Ende der Reichskanzlei, 30. See also Trevor-Roper, 198, 202; Boldt, 169; Below, 415.
100. This was the trigger to Hitler’s explosion. See the letter to Wenck (though never reaching him) from Bormann, referring to Himmler’s ‘proposal to the Anglo-Americans which delivers our people unconditionally to the plutocrats. A change can only by brought about by the Führer himself, and only by him.’ (‘… hat der Reichsführer SS Himmler den Anglo-Amerikanern einen Vorschlag gemacht, der unser Volk bedingungslos den Plutokraten ausliefert. Eine Wende kann nur vom Führer selbst herbeigeführt werden und nur von ihm!’) Cit. Groehler, Das Ende der Reich skanzlei, 31; Joachimsthaler, 185; and Olaf Groehler, Die Neue Reichskanzlei. Das Ende, Berlin, 1995, 60 (where it is referred to as a cable from Krebs and Bormann to Wenck, dispatched in the evening, not in the early hours).
101. See Below, 406.
102. The main first-hand accounts are Schellenberg, 170–87 (though touched up from the original diary; see Irving, HW, 610 n.4); and Graf Folke Bernadotte, Das Ende. Meine Verhandlungen in Deutschland im Fruhjahr 45 und ihre politischen Folgen, Zurich/New York, 1945. See also, for the Bernadotte dealings, Hesse, Das Spiel um Deutschland, 384–5, 429; Kleist, Die europäische Tragödie, 247–52; Kersten, 14–19 (introduction by H. R. Trevor-Roper) and 272–90; Trevor-Roper, 144–7, 155–6, 162–4, 170–3, 199–202; Padfield, Himmler, 565–96.
103. Padfield, Himmler, 565.
104. Padfield, Himmler, 566.
105. Padfield, Himmler, 567; Kersten, 276–83 (though of dubious authenticity; see Irving, HW, xx).
106. Padfield, Himmler, 578.
107. See Padfield, Himmler, 582, 585.
108. Padfield, Himmler, 578.
109. See Kersten, 278, 281; Guderian, 426; Padfield, Himmler, 567, 571, 579–80.
110. Padfield, Himmler, 591. Arrangements were discussed at the meeting for a Red Cross convoy to transport a number of Jewish women from Ravensbrück concentration camp. This had followed a remarkable rendezvous at 2a.m. that morning at the home of his masseur, Felix Kersten, between Himmler and a representative of the World Jewish Congress in New York, Norbert Masur, who had travelled to Germany incognito and under promise of safe conduct. Himmler, accompanied by his adjutant Rudolf Brandt, and Schellenberg, had agreed to release female Jews held in Ravensbrück, providing this was kept secret and they were described as Poles. He also consented that no further Jews would be killed, and to hold to his promise to hand over the concentration camps intact to the Allies (Kersten, 284–90; Padfield, Himmler, 590).
111. Schellenberg, 181–2.
112. Padfield, Himmler, 593; Trevor-Roper, 171.
113. Bernadotte, Das Ende, 79–85; Schellenberg, 182-5; Trevor-Roper, 171–2; Padfield, Himmler, 593–4.
114. Padfield, Himmler, 595; Trevor-Roper, 172, 200–201; Bernadotte, 85.
115. Padfield, Himmler, 595–6.
116. Boldt, 170; see also IfZ, ED 100, Irving-Sammlung, Traudl Junge Memoirs, Fols.152–3; Galante, 11 (Junge); Trevor-Roper, 202.
117. Trevor-Roper, 203–4, 277–8; Joachimsthaler, 183, 465; Padfield, 596–7; Below, 415 (who conflates events); Erich Kempka, Die letzten Τage mit Adolf Hitler, Preußisch Oldendorf, 1975, 78–83 (with inaccuracies); Boldt, 170; IfZ, ED 100, Irving-Sammlung, Traudl Junge Memoirs, Fol.153; Galante, 11–12 (Junge); Hans Baur, Hitler at my Side, Houston, 1986, 187–8 (with inaccuracies); Linge, Bis zum Untergang, 278; Koller, 95.
118. Joachimsthaler, 181 (and 174 for the communications interruption).
119. Boldt, 171.
120. Boldt, 170; Trevor-Roper, 205; Reitsch, 303–4 (without mentioning the commission concerning Himmler).
121. Koller, 93. Hanna Reitsch described her and Greim’s departure from the bunker, and her confrontation with Himmler about his betrayal of Hitler in her interview with US interrogators on 8 October 1945, NA, Washington, NND 901065, Folder 2, Fols.10–13.
