The Dictator Who Tested Poison On His Own Dog

On the morning of 30 April 1945, with 2.5 million Soviet soldiers fighting street by street toward the Reich Chancellery above his head, Adolf Hitler ate lunch quietly in his underground bunker, shook hands with his remaining staff one by one, and then ordered his doctor to test the cyanide capsules Himmler had provided on his German Shepherd Blondi because he was afraid they might be fake, and the dog died immediately, and that afternoon Hitler went to his private sitting room with Eva Braun — his wife of less than 40 hours — and they killed themselves, and the staff carried their bodies into the garden, poured petrol over them, and lit them while Soviet artillery shook the ground above, and the group gave the Nazi salute as the bodies burned, and eight days later Germany surrendered unconditionally, and today a car park covers the site of the bunker, marked only by a small metal sign, and no memorial has ever been built there.

Interesting Fact: When the Soviets reached the chancellery, they removed Hitler’s ashes and continually changed their location to prevent devotees from creating a memorial at his resting place. For decades the Soviets publicly claimed they had never found his remains and that he might still be alive — fuelling conspiracy theories for years. Stalin told President Truman directly that he did not know Hitler’s fate. The truth was the Soviets had his dental records confirmed by their own forensic teams within weeks. Joseph Goebbels, whom Hitler had appointed Chancellor in his final will, killed himself the following day — but not before he and his wife poisoned their six children in the bunker. The six children ranged in age from four to twelve.

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