Rumors

I wish I could say I am the writer of this but I’m not.  A friend sent it to me and it’s simply too good to pass up.  Enjoy.

This is the BBC Home Service. Here is the news for today, May 1st, 1945, read by Alvar Liddell.

Confusion continues to surround the last moments of Adolf Hitler, who died yesterday in his bunker in Berlin.

Incredibly, the world’s most-wanted man had been living in the heart of the capital of the Third Reich, in plain sight of millions of Germans who maintain they were not supporters of the Nazis and had no knowledge of the Fuhrer’s crimes again humanity.

First reports suggested that Hitler had been shot through the head in a fire-fight as special forces from the Red Army stormed the building. It was also claimed that he grabbed his long-term mistress Eva Braun, whom he had married in a secret ceremony, and used her as a human shield. Miss Braun was initially said to have suffered a flesh wound, but is now known to be dead. Subsequent statements from Supreme Allied Command indicate that the Fuhrer may have swallowed poison, before shooting himself between the eyes. The conflicting reports are attributed to ‘the fog of war.’

Hitler’s body was burned in the garden of the Reich Chancellery, although the Allies are refusing to release photographs because they are ‘too gruesome.’ Russian troops filmed the corpse, but it is feared that publication could inflame the excitable Nazi ‘street’ and lead to reprisal attacks.

A picture apparently showing Hitler lying on his back with a bullet hole in his forehead has been dismissed as a crude forgery. Conspiracy theorists claim that the body in the bunker was one of half a dozen Hitler-lookalikes recruited to throw the Allies off the scent.

But a spokesman for the Prime Minister said Mr. Churchill was satisfied it was Hitler. Although DNA testing has not yet been discovered, the Fuhrer was identified by a well-documented deficiency in the trouser department — a technique which also confirmed the identity of the propaganda minister Dr Goebbels, another who died in the bunker. The Allies say Hitler’s remains were disposed of in accordance with established Christian practice. But Hitler apologists and fifth-columnists have complained that he should have been given a proper burial, with full Nazi ceremonial honors, not chucked on to the back of a Red Army truck. There are also concerns about the legitimacy of the military operation which led to Hitler’s death. Pacifists want to know why the Fuhrer couldn’t have been captured alive and put on trial.

Some have claimed that the invasion of Germany was a clear breach of international law. Marshal Petain, formerly head of the Vichy Government, protested that Allied forces had illegally violated the borders of France, Italy, Germany and the Low Countries in their six-year pursuit of the Nazi leader.

The leading human rights lawyer, Sir Geoffrey Robertson QC, said the death of Hitler set a dangerous precedent. If a notorious despot, with the blood of millions on his hands, could be ‘assassinated’ in the bosom of his family, while in the comfort of his own bunker, then no one was safe.

Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists, called the death of Hitler a ‘war crime’. He said the evidence against the Fuhrer, including the murder of six million people in concentration camps, had been fabricated by the ‘International Zionist Conspiracy’ as part of its campaign to establish a Jewish state in Palestine.

Sir Oswald also alleged that the carpet bombing of Coventry, Plymouth and the East End of London was carried out by MI5, on the orders of Mr. Churchill, simply to discredit the Nazis. He called on all Nazis to rise up and avenge their Fuhrer, before being led away by warders for a nice lie down in his padded cell.

Meanwhile, the Allies are planning to raze the bunker to the ground to prevent it becoming a tourist attraction and a shrine to Hitler.

Questions have also been asked about the source of the information which led the Allies to Hitler’s lair. Did one of his trusted aides betray him in exchange for a huge reward, a false identity and a new life in South America? Or was it the ruddy great Swastika flag on the roof and engraved gold ‘Fuhrerbunker’ nameplate on the front door? We may never be sure.

Despite the continuing confusion and speculation, there is no doubt that Herr Hitler’s death and the prospect of an end to the war in Europe has given Mr. Churchill a considerable boost in the opinion polls and he is now on course for a landslide victory in the forthcoming general election . . .’