Fegelein was arrested by SS Obersturmbannführer

Peter Högl of the RSD in his flat at Bleibtreu-

Strasse 10-11. He was in the company of a red-
haired woman who escaped by means of a ruse
before her identity could be ascertained.
Werner Maser, Hitlers Briefe und Notizen, Sein
Weltbild in Handschriftlichen Dokumenten,
Düsseldorf 1973, p.212. There are many
inconsistencies regarding Hitler’s suicide between
the accounts of the three eye-witnesses to
survive the war. These witnesses were: SS
Obersturmbannführer Erich Kempka (manager of the
Reich Chancellery vehicle pool and Hitler’s
personal driver), SS Sturmbannführer Otto Günsche
(Hitler’s adjutant), and SS Hauptsturmführer Heinz
Linge (the author). These three SS officers
cannot evenagree the time of day when the
suicide occurred. Günsche and Linge stated
‘about 1530’; Kempka said it was ‘well before
two o’clock’. Kempka, responsible for supplying the
petrol, also stated that the bodies were burning
between 1400and 1930hours. Hitler is supposed
to haveshot himself in the headwith a Walter
PPK 7.65-mm pistol. Nobody witnessedthis. Kempka
says that Günsche told him the shot had beenheard by
Günsche, Linge and Bormann, and all three
entered the Führer’s room together; Linge said
he did not hear the shot but smelt the gas from
the discharge and went to find Bormann. Kempka saw
the deadHitler’s head‘uncovered from the nose
upward: he thought it worth mentioning the
greying hair but did not describe any dried blood
 in the hair or any headwound, while Linge
was ‘unable to describe any damage to Hitler’s
head’ because he did not look. Günsche was
silent on the matter. Therefore, if there
was a headwound, noneof the three surviving
witnesses saw it. The only thingthey do all agree on
is that Günsche and Kempka brought up the body
of Eva Hitler. However, Linge said the bodyof
Eva was carried up first, whileKempka said that
Hitler’s bodywent up first. Linge stated that he
carried upHitler’s bodywith the help of two SS
bodyguards; Kempka said that Hitler was carried up
by Linge and Dr Stumpfegger. (TN) Lew
Besymenski, Die Letzten Notizen von Martin
Bormann: Ein Dokument und Sein Verfasser,
Stuttgart 1974, pp.276ff. currently circulating
about himself within the population.
Frequently he would poke fun at himself.
Whoever was the butt of jokes and anecdotes,
he explained, was popular amongst the people, and
also loved. The extent to which he was
prepared to go is illustrated by the following:
Two flies, so went a joke current in Berlin at the
time,sat in one corner of Goebbels’ mouth. They
decided to havea bet. Whichever fly arrived
first in the other corner of his mouth would
win. One flew to the back of Goebbels’ head and
claimed he had won. When the loserasked for
an explanation, the winner replied: ‘You forgot that
he talks out of the back of his head.’
After the delighted roar of laughter which followed the
punch line, Hitler observedthat he was considering
renaming the Reich Chancellery ‘the Hotel of
the Jovial Reich Chancellor’. However much he
may haveenjoyed ironyaimed at major figures
who could defend themselves, he would reactwith
disapproval towards anybody being ‘victimised’ who
had no means of defence. Thushe criticised the
Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm I for maltreating
Jakob Paul Grundling, president of the Berlin
Academy of Sciences, by locking him in a bear
cagewith a wine barrel for the amusement of his
guests and making him wearclown’s costume.
Although to his close circle Hitler mocked
particular callings such as teachers and priests,
contrary to Friedrich Wilhelm I he did not
ridicule the academic world evenif in general
he despised the intelligentsia. Until the outbreak of
war Hitler laughed and joked often. In 1940
during the French campaign he lost the ability
relatively suddenly. Previously he had beenvery
restrainedonly before strangers. The German-Jewish
journalist Konrad Heiden, born at Frankfurt/Main,who
was especially well-known after 1933for his books
about Hitler and National Socialism,31 portrayed
Hitler - falsely in one respect - in one
of his books, which Hitler read. For Heiden,
Hitler was an unrefined artisan who, rather than
play a violin, would chopit up for its wood
to grill a cutlet. In fact, Hitler not only