As it happened

07 May 2020, The Tablet

This five-part series (4-8 May) ransacked the BBC archives for first-hand testimonies to the events of the first week of May 1945.

Witness History: The Death of Hitler
BBC world service

This five-part series (4-8 May) ransacked the BBC archives for first-hand testimonies to the events of the first week of May 1945. Naturally, many of them came from Berlin, where the European war’s last rites were being bloodily enacted. Hitler’s personal secretary, Traudl Junge, recalled the final days in the bunker; the Nazi armaments minister, Albert Speer, remembered a farewell meeting with his once-charismatic leader, now distinguished by his “pitiful appearance” and ragged clothes.

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