The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler’s Germany, 1944–1945

Allied invasion (1945) 300, 316

Nazi party in 317–18

surrender 368, 369

Vienna 213, 252; Red Army in 301

Avranches 55–6, 68

Axmann, Arthur 310

Backe, Herbert (Minister for Agriculture under Dönitz) 359, 377

Bad Windsheim 325–6

Baer, SS-Sturmbannführer Richard 232

Bagramyan, Marshal Ivan 168

Balck, General Hermann 33–4, 58–9, 253

Balkans 93–4, 95, 121

Baltic area 94–5, 96, 108, 178, 183

Memel (fortified port) 105, 107, 108, 110, 151, 188

Red Army invasion (1945) 174, 250

U-boat harbours 94

Bastogne 156, 159, 160

Bavaria 255, 342–3, 368

Freedom Action of Bavaria 343–4

Upper 189

Bayreuth 297

Wächtler as Gauleiter 317, 322–3

BBC 276

Bedell Smith, General Walter 363

Act of Military Surrender (7 May 1945), present at signing of 371

Behrens, Manja (mistress of Martin Bormann) 21

Belgium 56, 59, 136

Antwerp 56, 58, 130, 132, 153, 156, 160, 388

Eupen-Malmédy German enclave 62

von Below, Nicolaus 166

Belz·ec extermination camp 214

Berchtesgaden 213, 336, 381

Göring in 342, 353

Lammers in 340–41

OKW in (April 1945) 339, 342

Bergen-Belsen concentration camp 233, 329, 330, 332, 333

British Army’s unopposed liberation of 329

numbers killed 329–30

Berger, Obergruppenführer

Gottlob 87

Berghof, Obersalzberg 21

von Berlepsch, Obersturmführer Freiherr 240

Berlin 6, 159, 223

Allied bombing 22, 190–91, 236, 239, 242, 277, 282–3, 294, 309; casualties 191

communications breakdown with 295, 316, 317

defence/siege of 226, 243, 265, 288, 293–4, 301–2, 307, 308, 336–42, 395–6; Dönitz on 339; troop numbers involved in 308–9

Döberitz troop-training ground 154

evacuation 340–41, 345

fall of (May 1945) 346, 349

food supplies 190, 191, 274, 288, 294, 318

foreign workers 226

Hitler in (Führer bunker) 243, 294, 336, 337, 339–40, 342, 345–7; his suicide (April 1945) 6, 11, 12, 118, 295, 339, 346

living conditions 189–91, 293, 294, 345

morale in 212, 258, 293–4, 344–5

Red Army advance on 168, 173, 174, 175, 250, 253, 293, 294, 300–302, 308, 315–21, 324; encirclement of 337–47

refugees in 184, 189–90, 192

Reich Chancellery building 24, 294; see also Hitler in above

suicides in (April 1945–on) 356, 357

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra 6

Bernadotte, Count Folke, Himmler’s meetings with 283, 284, 329, 336

Bernau 302

Bitburg 66

Blaskowitz, Colonel-General Johannes 59, 253–4, 263, 299

as C-in-C in Netherlands 362, 363

Bochum 235, 297

Bohemia (part of former Czechoslovakia) 368, 369–70

Prague uprising (May 1945) 370

Red Army advance (May 1945) 370, 373–4

bombing, of German cities see Allied bombing raids

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich 328

Bonn 254, 258

Bormann, Gerda (née Buch) (wife of Martin Bormann) 21, 90, 164, 242

Bormann, Martin 11, 20–22, 35, 38, 40, 51, 67, 138, 242

Manja Behrens as his mistress 21

character/personal appearance 21, 164, 337

children 21

criticism of 345

Dönitz as Reich President and 350, 351

Goebbels and 43, 317, 352; attempts to negotiate with Allies 352

Göring and 340

Himmler and 86; Volkssturm national militia founded by 86–8; see also Volkssturm

Hitler and 21, 89, 90, 242, 358, 392, 396; as Secretary to the Führer 21

Ley and 89

as Nazi Party administrative head 20–22, 40, 41, 42, 53, 75, 162, 215–16, 217–18, 319, 321

as Party Chancellery head 20–22, 40–44, 53, 75, 85, 89–91, 162, 211, 215–16, 217–19, 222–5, 241, 256, 264, 274, 279, 316, 319, 321, 337, 341, 392

sexual activities 21

his Special Action of the Party Chancellery speakers 256–8

Speer and 77, 78, 83

suicide (May 1945) 352, 356

Bosch, Werner 136

Brandenberger, General Erich 132

Brandt, Rudolf 210, 240

von Brauchitsch, Walther 32

Braun, Major Alois 343

Braun, Eva 345, 346

Braunschweig 297

Bremen 147, 299

Breslau 104, 105, 168, 172, 173, 194, 252

evacuation 182–3, 189, 192, 218

Hanke as Gauleiter 245, 262, 320–21; his escape from (May 1945) 321

Britain

Churchill government 7

Hess’s flight to 21

Hitler on 130

London 153, 236

British Army 54, 55, 70, 116, 121, 254, 255, 257, 271, 273, 297, 299, 352, 358, 366

21st Army Group 131

in Ardennes offensive 130, 131, 160

Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, liberation of 329

in Italy 364

troop numbers 364

see also Allied invasion

Bromberg, punishment of Nazi functionaries in

216–17

Bruhn, Major-General Johannes 154

Buch, Gerda see Bormann, Gerda

Buch, Walter (father of Gerda Bormann) 21

Buchenwald concentration camp 330, 331, 335

Budapest 131, 252

Buhl, General Walter 45

building materials 136

building projects 24, 243, 244

Buissonville 160

Bulgaria 94

bureaucracy see administrative systems/bureaucracy

Burgdorf, General Wilhelm 197, 200

Busch, Field-Marshal Ernst 28, 366

Busse, General Theodor 251, 301, 302, 337, 368

Caen 55

Canadian Army 254, 297, 299

Canaris, Admiral Wilhelm 328

Casablanca Conference (January 1943) 7, 50–51

casualty figures 376–7, 379

Allied 160; American 132, 156

in concentration camps see concentration camps

on death marches see death marches

German 20, 23, 41, 56, 87, 92, 93, 94, 95, 120, 131–2, 146, 148, 152, 160, 215, 247, 250, 251, 252, 253, 255, 300; in Allied bombing 191, 235, 236–40, 238, 379; Army officers 394; as Soviet prisoners of war 375; by suicide 356, 357; from Volkssturm 107