Page 8 - Jim Marrs - The Rise of the Fourth Reich: The Secret Societies That Threaten to Take Over Americ

2 THE RISE OF THE FOURTH REICH

escape the disgrace of deposition or capitulation—choose death.” He or-
dered that their bodies be burned immediately. But Hitler, decorated
World War I soldier and hardened political fighter, made it clear that he
and his philosophies would not leave the world stage quietly. He added,
“From the sacrifice of our soldiers and from my own unity with them
unto death will in any case spring up in the history of Germany the seed
of a radiant renais sance of the National Socialist movement and thus of
the realization of a true community of nations.”
Hitler then passed along a line of his entourage, mostly women, and
shook their hands while mumbling inaudibly. Frau Traudl Junge, one of
the secretaries present, recalled that Hitler’s eyes “seemed to be looking far
away, beyond the walls of the bunker.”
At about three P.M. on April 30, members of Hitler’s entourage heard
a single shot from their leader’s quarters. Some time later, Hitler’s valet,
SS Sturmbannfuehrer Heinz Linge, and an orderly emerged with a
blanket-covered body. Martin Bormann, Hitler’s private secretary, head
of the Nazi Party and the most powerful man in the Reich aft er Hitler,
followed with the body of a woman. The corpses were carried up to a gar-
den area, placed in a shell crater, and burned with gasoline. However,
these remains were never found, reportedly due to the constant shelling.
By evening, a Soviet flag was flying atop the Reichstag. It appeared that
Hitler and his Third Reich were finished.

THE ESC A P E OF ADO L F HIT LER

It was well known and publicly reported that Hitler often made use of
doubles, men who closely resembled him, for use at certain public pre sen-
tations. Pauline Koehler, a maid at Hitler’s Berghof in Berchtesgaden, in-
sisted that she knew of at least three men who doubled for Hitler.
Did Hitler make use of one fi nal double in the bunker? After all, the
few persons who testified that he was dead were ardent Nazis who were ea-
ger to please their captors—whether Rus sian, British, or American—with
accounts of the leader’s death. Was the strange execution of Eva Braun’s
brother-in-law, Hermann Fegelein, due to his knowledge of Hitler’s escape