Final days in Hitler’s bunker: the beginning of my thriller, White Thaw: The Helheim Conspiracy

In my latest thriller, I resort to a good old standby to fill the role of evil antagonists: the Nazis from World War II. In the Prologue for my book, I follow the Müller family as they escape Hitler’s bunker in the last days of the Third Reich. The Müllers then lie in wait for another fifty years before they try again to extend Hitler’s vision. These people have patience.

The details I used in my book (in Hitler’s underground bunker) I took from Traudl Junge’s fascinating book, Until the Final Hour: Hitler’s Last Secretary (Arcade Publishing, Inc., New York, 261 pages). Junge was a young secretary to Adolf Hitler and recounts details of what occurred in those last weeks and hours before the Russians overran Berlin, until 30 April 1945, the very day when Hitler kills himself. She is the one who takes down (in shorthand) Hitler’s final statement and private will. She learns that he will marry Eva Braun before they commit suicide.

While she’s typing Hitler’s document, Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda minister, walks in and asks her to take his final testament too, to be part of an appendix to Hitler’s. Goebbels bemoans the fact that he has disobeyed Hitler’s final order, to escape while there is still time. He says that he cannot bring himself to leaving the Führer’s side and prefers death for himself and his family—including his six children.

After Hitler and his wife commit suicide, Adolf Hitler with both a cyanide capsule and a pistol (Junge hears the shot herself) and Frau Hitler with poison alone, Junge converses with Otto Günsche, Hitler’s personal adjutant. He explains that he has just burned their bodies. Later, Junge finds herself standing outside the door of the Goebbels room when large crates are removed, supposedly carrying the Goebbels family. Frau Goebbels had earlier explained to her children that they might have to be “inoculated” as a precaution against disease.

To provide realism to the beginning of my thriller, I’ve used just a few details from Traudl Junge’s book. But there is so much more. To anyone interested in a close-up accounting of those final moments of the Third Reich, I highly recommend this book.

Categorised in: White Thaw

This post was written by paulmarktag01