120
Führerbunker
JUST AFTER MIDNIGHT, REGISTRAR Walter Wagner sat in the war room of the Führerbunker in his gray uniform with black collar and black Volkssturm armband, across from Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun, with Martin Bormann and Joseph Goebbels on either side of the couple.
“I come now to the solemn act of the marriage,” said Wagner, his voice trembling from nerves. “In the presence of the witnesses, I ask you, mein Führer Adolf Hitler, if you are so willed as to enter wedlock with Fr?ulein Eva Braun. In this case, I request that you answer with Yes.”
“Yes,” said Hitler, who had just turned fifty-six and was dressed in full uniform.
“Now I ask you, Fr?ulein Eva Braun, if you are so willed as to enter wedlock with our Führer Adolf Hitler. In this case, I request that you answer with Yes.”
“Yes,” said Eva, age thirty-three, wearing a white satin dress.
After the brief civil ceremony was concluded, the newlyweds celebrated with their guests, essentially the highest-ranking members of the government still present in the Führerbunker. They had tea and cake and sandwiches, and sipped champagne. Even the Führer had a few sips.
“It’s the least I can do for her,” Hitler told Goebbels privately before the couple retired for the night.
A few hours later, at breakfast in the Vorbunker, which consisted of nothing more than stale bread and small packets of butter and weak coffee, the news of the marriage spread quickly.
But it was no more than ten minutes before the topic returned to: When would Hitler kill himself, and should they kill themselves, too?
“I hear he’ll do it tomorrow, April 30, at 1500 hours,” said a woman named Doris, who was a secretary for Bormann. “Unless the Russians breach the bunker before then. But they don’t expect that to happen.”
Von der Haas and Bauer looked at each other. That gave them just over thirty hours.
“I’m going to keep the cyanide capsule in my mouth, in my cheek,” said one soldier. “If I think I’m okay, I won’t use it. But the moment I need to, I can bite down on it and…” He gestured to his throat in a choking motion.
“But could it dissolve?” asked another soldier. “Could the capsule start leaking the cyanide?”
“Um, I don’t think so, no. I think you have to bite it.”
“You think?” The second soldier laughed. “Frider, you better be more certain before you execute this brilliant plan.”
“I heard they check,” said one of the women. “The Russians check to see if you have cyanide on you. They sweep your mouth.”
“Did you guys hear about Mussolini?” said a third soldier. “He tried to escape Italy, but they caught him. They executed him and his mistress and hung their corpses upside down from meat hooks in the Milan town square so people could desecrate their bodies.”
“Where did you hear that?”
“A cable came in. A report from Reuters. I saw it.”
“You know,” said Bauer, “we’re showing the Führer the ultimate loyalty by staying here until the end. The least they could do is let us see the Führerbunker just once. A quick tour. Just once?”
Everyone else at the table looked at each other, then broke into laughter.
“Did I say something funny?” Bauer looked at Doris. “Couldn’t you ask Bormann if we could have a quick tour? Meet the man himself?”
Doris patted Bauer’s hand. “I’ll ask,” she said. “We’ve asked before. But the answer will be no.”
Von der Haas and Bauer stood at the edge of the conference room, looking toward the stairwell that led up to the chancellery garden and down to Hitler’s bunker.
“He’s right there,” von der Haas whispered. “He’s right down there, probably no more than twenty meters away, and he might as well be on another continent.” He dropped his head and sighed. “This isn’t going to happen, is it? We’ll never get to him.”
“Looks that way,” Bauer agreed.
“Well, then.” Von der Haas looked at Bauer. “I guess we probably shouldn’t be here when the Red Army comes through the bunker doors.”
“Probably not. It would be tough to convince them we aren’t Nazis if we’re found living in the Vorbunker.”
“And wearing OKH uniforms.”
“Got any brilliant ideas about how we can get the hell out of Berlin?” asked Bauer.
Von der Haas looked at him and smiled. “One idea,” he said.