Some of them survived their husbands for decades, some died at the end of the war

The wives of the leaders of the Third Reich had different fates and different beliefs. They were next to those whose names are rightly ostracized today. Some of them survived their husbands for decades, some died at the end of the war.

Magda Goebbels

Magda Goebbels (Ritschel) is considered the most outstanding of the Nazi wives. The blond beauty was born in 1901. She was brought up in the monastery of the Ursulines in Vilvoorde, she loved her Jewish stepfather and kept his last name - Friedländer.

Beliefs changed as easily as men. For the sake of marriage with restaurateur Günter Quandt, she became a Protestant. Then she threw herself into the arms of Khaim Arlozorov and divorced.

In 1928, she heard the speeches of Joseph Goebbels and was carried away by him. It was the union of beauty and the beast: Goebbels was not distinguished by health and beauty, he was a clubfoot. Hitler insisted on the marriage, who believed that the appearance of the “true Aryan” would become the hallmark of the Third Reich.

The marriage was concluded on December 19, 1931. The couple were united by a lust for power, ambition and ... children. There were seven of them, and all of them were named after Hitler with the letter "H": Harold, Helga, Hilda, Helmut, Holda, Hedda and Haida.

In 1938, Magda received the German Mothers' Cross of Honor. She personified the "ideal Aryan" and made speeches on the radio.

She did not share her husband's ideas to exterminate the Jews, but remained faithful to him and the Fuhrer.

On May 1, 1945, when the collapse was obvious, she dressed all the children in cold blood, and then the doctor gave them lethal injections. Goebbels chose not to see this. Then he shot himself, and Magda poisoned herself. Why she did not leave the children alive is still a mystery.

Elsa Hess

Elsa Hess (Pröl) was the daughter of a wealthy doctor. Born in 1900. She became one of the first students at the University of Munich. Studied German philology. In 1920, she was fond of the Nazi Rudolf Hess, joined the NSDAP.

Hitler also played a major role in concluding the marriage. The marriage took place on December 20, 1927 in Munich. 10 years later, the Fuhrer became the godfather of the Hesses' son, Wolf.

She was a real companion. Visited Hitler and Hess in prison, took out and reprinted "Mein Kampf." She was not left without the support of the Fuhrer after her husband's escape to Scotland, she received a pension. In 1947 she was arrested and placed in a camp in Augsburg. A year later, being at large, she moved to Allgäu, where she opened a boarding house. Until her death in 1995, she remained a staunch fascist.

Emma Goering

Emma Goering (Sonnemann) was born in 1894 in the family of a chocolate magnate. In her youth, she became interested in theater, married the actor Karl Kestlin, and divorced. Until the age of 38, she played in the theater in Weimar.

She met Gestapo founder Hermann Goering in 1932. Thanks to him, she transferred to the Berlin theater. In 1936, Goering married her on the orders of Hitler, who believed that there were "too many bachelors" among his associates. He drowned his wife in stolen luxury after she gave birth to his daughter Edda.

A member of the party, Emma justified her husband in every possible way, but continued to be friends with the Jews and some of them owe her their lives.

After the defeat of the Nazis, Goering was convicted and committed suicide by taking cyanide. Emma was arrested in 1947 and charged with genocide, but was released in the courtroom. In 1967, she wrote the book Life with My Husband. She died in 1973.

Elsa Koch

Elsa Koch (Köhler), the wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald and Majdanek concentration camps, Karl Koch, was called the "Buchenwald Witch" and "Frau Lampshade".

Born in a Dresden worker's family, after school she worked as a librarian. Member of the NSDAP since 1932. In 1936 she married Koch, became a guard in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, then a senior warden. She was cruel to prisoners, poisoned them with dogs, and beat them. It is believed that on her orders, prisoners with tattoos were killed, from the skin of which bindings and lampshades were made.

In 1943 the Kochs were arrested by the SS. Koch was accused of murdering a doctor, corruption and executed, Elsa was acquitted.

In 1947, she was arrested by the Americans, but was soon released. She was re-arrested in 1951, she was sentenced to life imprisonment. She hanged herself in 1967 in the Eichach prison in Bavaria.

Gerda Bormann

Hitler's personal secretary Martin Bormann's wife, Gerda Bormann, was the daughter of
Chairman of the Supreme Party Court of the NSDAP, Walter Buch, and she was brought up on the ideas of Nazism. She was a head taller than her husband.

I met him at the age of 19. A year later, she got married, and at the same time joined the party. Witnesses at the wedding were Hitler and Hess. She gave birth to 9 children. She put forward the idea of ​​polygamous marriage in the interests of the state and called for several marriages at once. She did not pay attention to her husband's intrigues and gave advice on how best to turn novels.

Before the collapse of the Nazis, she fled to South Tyrol, where she contracted cancer and died from mercury poisoning, which was used in chemotherapy. The children were adopted by a priest.

Margaret Himmler

Margaret Himmler (von Boden) was a Prussian aristocrat who in 1928 had a share in a homeopathic clinic. Having married Heinrich Himmler, who was 8 years younger than her, she was forced to sell the business. Himmler bought a farm, chickens and tried to force his wife to live in subsistence farming, but it did not work out. A year later, their daughter Gudrun was born.

Himmler's career ended with a prison cell in which he committed suicide in 1945.
His widow married neo-Nazi Wulf-Dieter Burwitz and gave birth to two more "Aryans". Neither she nor her daughter renounced the ideas of fascism. In 1952, Gudrun participated in the creation of the Viking Youth organization, which was banned in 1994.

Eva Brown

The stately blonde Eva Braun was the wife of the Fuhrer for only 40 hours and had an age difference with him of 23 years. Born in the family of a school teacher in 1912. She graduated from the monastery school, went in for athletics. At the Institute of English ladies-in-waiting, she studied French and accounting. I quickly mastered the camera. Acquaintance with the Fuhrer happened in 1929 in a photo studio.

Became Hitler's mistress in 1931. Twice she tried to commit suicide - once by shooting herself in the neck, the second time - by poisoning herself with pills. In 1936 she became Hitler's personal secretary. Seriously engaged in photography and filming. In June 1944, British intelligence still considered her to be just a secretary.

She married Hitler on April 29, 1945 in a bunker in Berlin. Bormann and Goebbels became witnesses. The charred bodies of the "newlyweds" fell into the hands of the Soviet administration. The remains were finally destroyed in 1970, during the operation "Archive".

Messengers of the Devil: First Persons of the Third Reich

Rudolf Hess

In 1987, Rudolf Hess, a former friend and deputy of Hitler in the party, hanged himself in the old prison of the German city of Spandau at the age of 93. Keeping him in custody cost the Allied countries $1,000,000 a year. For the last 10 years, Hess has been the only prisoner of the castle. The circumstances of his death were as mysterious as his whole long and tragic life is mysterious.

It all started in the smoky Munich eatery Sterneckebra, where Lieutenant Rudolf Hess, dismissed from the army after the First World War, saw and heard a hitherto unknown orator of the German Workers' Party. That evening turned his whole life upside down. The orator spoke incendiary about what Hess thought about many times: about the betrayal of the people, about the fact that the Jews are to blame for everything. At the end of the speech, a few visitors to the pub gave the speaker a standing ovation.

Since then, Hess' love for Hitler has become something of a personal addiction. We note that, according to the testimony of people who knew Hess closely, for the sake of the Fuhrer, he was ready to do anything - even things that rebelled against the norms of his decency and honor. He was a unique person - probably the only one in Hitler's entourage who was completely devoid of ambition, who could always be relied upon, knowing that he would not set him up, he would not sit up. Hess was the Fuhrer's real alter ego. In the Third Reich they said: "If you want to know what Adolf is thinking, listen to what Rudolf says."

It was he, Hess, who introduced the word "Fuhrer" into circulation, which made every anti-Nazi shudder. It was he who in July 1921 formulated the goals and objectives of the national people's society. It was to him in 1933 that Hitler granted the right to make decisions on all party issues. All military actions in Germany were prepared with his participation. It was he who approved the laws that deprived the Jews of the right to vote, and it was him that Hitler in 1939 named his successor, making him the central figure of his inner circle.

By 1941, Rudolf Hess is the second person in the party after the Fuhrer and one of the most influential people in the Third Reich. Only a few weeks remain before the start of the war with the Soviet Union. All the forces of Nazi Germany are mobilized to prepare a terrible blow. It was at this moment that the man whose advice Hitler himself listened to, Reichsleiter and Minister Rudolf Hess, commits an act that made the Fuhrer call his former friend crazy, and plunged Nazi Germany into a severe shock.

In the spring of 1941, Great Britain was shaking under the blows of the Luftwaffe. The city of Coventry is destroyed by a single raid. The Midland region, the center of the country's military industry, is subjected to incessant bombing.

A small island, gaping with the wounds of war and cut off from sources of raw materials, is opposed by the whole of Europe, already working for a single country - Nazi Germany.

On the evening of Saturday, May 10, 1941, the squadron commander of the English air fleet and a member of the British Parliament, Duke Hamilton, was reported: a German Messerschmitt? 110 type aircraft was discovered off the coast of Northumberland. The Duke has no doubt that this is a mistake: never before has the 110th flown so far, for this he would not have had enough fuel. At this moment, a new message arrives: the plane has crashed and is on fire. The pilot is alive, calls himself Alfred Horn, declares that he has arrived in England on a special mission and wants to speak only with the Duke of Hamilton.

As soon as the duke crossed the threshold of the camera, the pilot reminded him that they had known each other since 1936, since the Olympics in Berlin. Finally, seeing Hamilton's bewilderment, the pilot announces that he is Reich Minister Rudolf Hess and has arrived here as a truce envoy on a mission in the name of humanity.

The incredible happened: just a few weeks before the German invasion of the USSR, in absolute secrecy from everyone, Reich Minister Hess, dressed in the form of the Luftwaffe, flew in the direction of Great Britain. Twice he had to dive into the rescue fogs over the North Sea to escape RAF interceptors. Then, fearing anti-aircraft batteries, he descended and flew at a strafing flight several hundred meters above the ground. Having reached the place where the estate of the Duke of Hamilton was marked on the map, Hess took to the skies and parachuted out of a brand-new aircraft, which rushed down in a tailspin and crashed on the ground. Almost breaking his neck, the pilot hobbled to the nearest farmhouse and was arrested by representatives of the British authorities. During a search, two business cards with the same last name were found on him: one of them belonged to Karl Haushofer, the famous author of the Lebensraum theory (“living space”), on the basis of which Hitler created his ideology of Nazism; the second - to his son Albert. At one time, these people were included by Hitler in the highest structures of the Third Reich.

Who was he - Rudolf Hess? Parliamentarian - or a traitor?

Back in 1939, shortly before Britain declared war on Germany, Marshal Goering was the first to suggest flying to visit the island nation to clarify the situation. Hitler replied that it was pointless, but you can try if you want. Goering postponed his flight for a while - the situation in the world was painfully confusing then: the European powers could not agree in any way.

Is talking publicist Roy Medvedev: “In the spring of 1941, a paradoxical situation developed in the world, and in Europe in particular, when not a single country waging war knew what to do and what to expect in the future. No one had a plan even for the next two or three months. Not even a plan of action. 'Cause no one knew how there is a war what to expect.

His thought continues Oleg Tsarev, in 1970-1992 - foreign intelligence officer: "England was in a very difficult situation, in fact, she alone fought with Germany. The Americans have not entered the war, the Soviet Union has not yet been attacked. It was very difficult for her. Germany generally believed that a war with England was undesirable, England simply kept her word when the Germans invaded Poland and declared war.

On August 21, 1939, the last meeting of the Soviet, British and French military delegations took place in Moscow. However, the main goal - the creation of an anti-Hitler coalition - was not achieved. Britain supported Poland, which did not want to make any concessions to the Soviet Union. In the evening of the same day, Stalin makes a turn in a diametrically opposite direction. He decides to conclude a peace treaty with Hitler and sends him a telegram agreeing to the arrival of German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop. Arriving in Moscow, Ribbentrop signs the famous Non-Aggression Pact. According to a secret protocol, the Soviet Union receives part of Eastern Poland.

Göring's official flight to England has been cancelled. But 20 months later, quite unexpectedly for the whole world, Hess flies to England.

Is talking Herman Graml, professor at the Institute of Contemporary History: “This flight was in the hands of Churchill. It was clear that the Germans were again trying to find allies in the West in order to confidently act against the USSR. There are documents according to which Churchill, through the British ambassador in Moscow, tried to make Stalin suspicious of Hitler. And this flight confirmed that Hitler can play a double game.

One of the largest Soviet intelligence officers of the pre-war and post-war period, Kim Philby, said that, according to the materials he had, Hess had arrived to negotiate with the British ruling circles.

In memories Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, who was next to Hitler at the moment when he was informed of the flight of his deputy, it is said: “Hitler said: “Hess has obviously lost his mind, his brain is not in order. It's clear from the letter he left me, I don't recognize him. You might think that someone else wrote it. He writes that he is going to England to end the war, using his acquaintances with influential Englishmen.

What acquaintances could help Hess make peace? They were provided by two people close to him, the very ones whose business cards were found with him - Dr. Karl Haushofer and his son Albert, who were friends with Lord Hamilton and knew about his relationship with the opposition and sympathies for Nazi Germany.

Let's go back to 1920. Then the demobilized pilot Rudolf Hess entered the University of Munich. During his studies, he wrote a work where he argued that national unity can only be restored under the rule of a people's leader, who, if necessary, does not save before bloodshed - big problems are always solved with blood and iron. The work was approved by professors and students and received a university award. One of those who singled out an outstanding student was his teacher Karl Haushofer, who taught a course in geopolitics at the university and turned out to be, in addition, a great connoisseur of Eastern philosophy, mysticism and theosophy.

It is assumed that in 1905 Haushofer met in Tibet with the famous Russian esotericist Georgy Ivanovich Gurdjieff. Gurdjieff was considered a magician who mastered the method of hypnosis and penetrated the leadership of almost all closed organizations. Some testimonies about his studies in the same theological seminary with Joseph Dzhugashvili and their subsequent meetings are very interesting. One of the theories of the great mystagogue was the theory of "lions", the purpose of which is to lead the herds.

In Germany, Dr. Haushofer publishes a journal in which he introduces the reader to his own concept of "blood and soil", where he argues that the survival of the nation requires a policy of expanding living space by occupying countries at a lower stage of development. Student Hess happily picked up the myth of the Hyperboreans and Aryans and, having become familiar with the Lebensraum concept, realized that he had found his spiritual father.

By this time, Hess had already become a member of the Thule Society, interacting with the British Golden Dawn Masonic lodge, a secret association of the high Brotherhood of Light. The founder of this lodge was a British magician and spy Aleister Crowley who repeatedly stated: "I preceded Hitler."

Were these acquaintances, who sympathized with Nazism, Hess was looking for in the UK, hoping at least that they would listen to him? After all, even before climbing into the cockpit of the Messerschmitt, he knew for sure that it was difficult to negotiate with the government of Prime Minister Churchill. It was necessary to go to his opposition. Recall that, having jumped out on a parachute, Hess asked a simple English farmer how to find the Hamilton estate. That is, he walked purposefully, knowing the address. During the first meeting with Lord Hamilton, Hess demands that negotiations be arranged, bypassing the official authorities of England. He wanted to talk about peace not with the prime minister, but with members of the royal family.

It is known that the Duke of Windsor - the most romantic of all the kings of Britain, Edward VIII, who refused the crown in the name of love - once again dreamed of establishing himself on the throne. He expressed his sympathies for Nazism aloud and fully agreed with the Führer's concept of superior races as set out in Mein Kampf. It was stated there that the Germans and the Britons were kindred nations. Maybe Hess wanted to talk about the alliance with him?

Here's what he thinks about it Roy Medvedev: “In this system of racial privileges, they singled out Swedes, Normans, Norwegians, Balts – as peoples closer to Germany. Russians and Poles must be destroyed as racially inferior peoples. Britain was racially complete. Lower than the Germans, but racially more complete than the French or any Romanians. Therefore, Hitler had certain sympathies for Britain, and he emphasized this several times.

It is known that in 1936 the Duke and his wife Mrs. Simpson paid a private visit to Germany. Hitler's proposals could sound like this: in the event of England's entry into the war, Wehrmacht troops land on the island and the Duke of Windsor becomes the monarch again. The data that for these purposes the Reich allocated 5,000,000 Swiss francs to the future royal couple is confirmed by the head of Nazi intelligence, Walter Schellenberg.

Hess knew for sure: true friends of Germany remained in England, bound not only by political views, but also by bonds of a closer nature. One of these was, in his opinion, a member of the Scottish National Party, which at that time advocated independence from England, Sir Douglas Hamilton-Haushofer, being in full confidence that Douglas was an opponent of the course of the English government, supplied Hess with his coordinates. However, Hamilton preferred to pretend that he had never met Haushofer and had never met Hess, and asked to be spared conversations with an unfamiliar pilot. In a couple of days the English radio company BBC broadcast an ironic message, which was perceived in Berlin as a mockery: “Today, no new Reichsministers flew into the territory of Britain”.

Hitler understands that the best argument in the case of Hess will be a reference to mental illness. He signs an appeal to the party and the German people, where he declares his deputy Rudy crazy. This message is voiced on the radio by the head of Nazi propaganda, Goebbels.

All friends and colleagues disowned Hess. Martin Bormann, who owes Hess a career take-off from an ordinary militant to the Fuhrer's secretary, renames one of his sons, named after Hess Rudolph, - from now on the boy bears the neutral name Helmut. Also, in any case, Bormann claims that neither he nor even the Führer intended such a betrayal of the former Party Genosse. But was it possible?

Could betray Hitler his companion and most close person since the 1920s? Devoted, faithful Rudy, who selflessly loved the Fuhrer and always brought his favorite aphorism to life: "The consignment – this is the order"?

"We believe that the Fuhrer is called from above to create the German destiny". These words Rudolf Hess repeated many times at rallies and in newspaper articles. And this man, who idolized Hitler, could commit treason, decide on an unauthorized flight to England? Doubtful. Maybe this flight was planned by the Fuhrer, who was afraid to fight on two fronts before the attack on the USSR? Historians have not yet come to a consensus on this matter.

Professor at the Munich Institute for Contemporary History Herman Graml thinks: “We can say with certainty that Hitler certainly did not know anything about this flight. We know about this from a number of documents, from the diaries of Joseph Goebbels. Hitler, in private conversations, said how terrible this stupid invention of Hess was. He was in despair and was forced almost immediately after that to declare Hess crazy. It was a heavy propaganda defeat for the Third Reich. Hitler could imagine what the reaction would be and what the consequences would be."

Historian Natalya Lebedeva disagree with him: “It is clear that this was done with the knowledge of Hitler, because it was almost impossible for an airplane to fly out of Germany, just like from the USSR, without the consent of the leadership. And Hess was not a figure not to be followed. It was a proposal either for neutrality or for an alliance against the USSR.”

Is talking Rainer Schmidt, professor of modern history: “If you analyze everything, you can come to the conclusion: Hitler had nothing to do with the preparation and implementation of the flight. Firstly, if Hitler had known about the intentions of his deputy, then Hess would certainly have taken off not from the airfield near Augsburg, but from the Atlantic coast, where he could return. Secondly, Hess's flight was dangerous, because six weeks before the start of the war against Russia, this whole event could become a first-class propaganda object for the British..

So, did Hess get into the Messerschmitt of his own free will?

It is known that on May 5, 1941, Hess met with Hitler. According to the recollections of an assistant, when Hess left the Fuhrer, he put his hand on his shoulder and said: . It can be assumed that the first persons of the Reich were talking about the future flight, before which there were only five days left. But what does this conversation prove? After all, Hess and Hitler could discuss other ways to assure friendly circles in England of their readiness to stop hostilities - for example, through neutral countries. In other words, this version is not fully confirmed.

Another contradictory fact: it is on May 10, the day of Hess's flight, after a break of several months, German bomber aircraft make a devastating raid on London.

"Hess, you have always been an incorrigible stubborn"

A few days later, in Germany, those responsible for the unauthorized flight of Hess were identified. Astrologers are recognized as such, whose opinion Hess always perceived as a guide to action. One more curious touch can be added to the astrological history: the young energetic officer Ian Fleming was then working in the British Naval Intelligence Service. In the future, he will become famous all over the world as the author of books about the famous "007 agent" James Bond. And in the 40s of the last century, he was known to his colleagues as the author of extraordinary intelligence ideas, which, oddly enough, were successfully implemented. Fleming knew not only about Rudolf Hess's fanatical faith in astrology, but also that Hitler's deputy made responsible decisions only after consulting with the stars. According to one version, British intelligence was developing Hess, so that his arrival did not come as a surprise to Prime Minister Churchill.

Tells Rainer Schmidt: “Sir Ian Fleming claimed that the British intelligence agencies systematically worked with representatives of the occult sciences in Switzerland and Munich, with whom Hess communicated. Thus, they made sure that Hess received horoscopes allowing him to fly from Germany to England.

All of Hess's Nazi associates who were lucky enough to leave their memoirs agree on one thing: Hess adored Hitler. He tremblingly kept this feeling in his heart from the time of his acquaintance with Hitler and their joint stay in the Lansberg prison after the failure of the 1923 coup. Even in letters addressed to the bride - Ilse Prel, Hess does not do without mentioning his dear name. The messages of that time breathe love.

Here's what it claims Rainer Schmidt: “As far as I know, the Hess case, which was filed by the KGB, is marked “Black Berta” – it was Hess's nickname in Berlin homosexual circles. British psychiatrists, who had observed Hess for many years and wrote the conclusion of the examination, believed that in 1923 he had a homosexual relationship with Hitler in Lansberg prison. They argued that his attachment to the Fuhrer was based not only on ideology, but also on homosexual relations.

This version is supported by the fact that by 1941 the figure of Hess was relegated from the Fuhrer to the background by Bormann, Goering and Himmler. Hess was very worried about his distance and, in an attempt to return his beloved Fuhrer, decided on such an irresponsible and theatrical act as flying alone to the British shores. In his last word at the Nuremberg Trials, Rudolf Hess again confessed his love for Adolf Hitler - not knowing, in all likelihood, that four years earlier the Führer had ordered the liquidation of the former Party Genosse by SS paratroopers. Fortunately for Hess, that landing was itself destroyed.

The transcripts of the same Nuremberg trials recorded a remarkable fact: at one of the meetings, Hess wished to announce his mission in England. But as soon as he managed to utter the words "in the spring of 1941", he was interrupted by the chairman of the tribunal, the Englishman Lawrence. After that, Rudolf Hess refused to answer the questions of the judges, played an insane man who had lost his memory. What did he want to say - and why was he interrupted?

It can be assumed that Churchill kept Hess as if in reserve. It is even known that the Prime Minister was going to make a statement in the House of Commons - to say: they say, yes, Hess has arrived, but we strongly reject these false attempts to make an alliance with Germany.

Is talking Natalia Lebedeva: “If, as they feared, Russia had held out for only three weeks to three months, then Hess might be needed in order to somehow negotiate with the Germans. But not before the fall of the Soviet Union.”

In all likelihood, Hess was going to say something at the trial that the British side might not like very much and cause a scandal in Nuremberg between the allies in the Second World War. Perhaps, with his silence, he saved his head from the noose at that moment. Hess was sentenced to life imprisonment.

In Spandau, where Nazi criminals sentenced to various terms were kept, he was a stranger among his own. The captives tried not to have anything to do with him, and Rudolf himself shunned them.

In a personal conversation Tagir Chekushin, attending physician of Hess in 1977-1980, said: “Hess was a peculiar person, he considered himself superior to everyone who was in Spandau. And he considered almost everyone to be his subordinates. This fact is known: when the prisoners were hanged, many of their heads were torn off, there was a lot of blood. Those who were sentenced to long terms or life sentences had to clean up the blood and everything else. Rudolf Hess refused to do this, saying: "Why would I do this when I have admirals and generals, let them clean up."

In the first years of his imprisonment, he did not leave the cell, did not exercise, did not attend church. He kept talking about not feeling well. No one came to see him on a date, and he himself did not ask anyone about it. Known cases – at least three tries – when he tried to commit suicide. He was terrified of being poisoned. He covered the drinking glasses with paper and tied them with threads.

Subsequently, when Hess was the only prisoner in prison, his behavior changed dramatically. He seemed to feel an interest in life, and it should be noted that the attitude of the prison administration towards him was more than amazing. In the history of keeping criminals of this magnitude in the twentieth century, it is difficult to find examples that are at least somewhat similar to this one.

Here's what he said Petr Lipeyko, checking the guard in Spandau in 1985-1987: “For his birthday and Christmas, he demanded grapes and some other products that he liked. From the stories of the head of the prison it follows that there were often cases when a special plane was sent to Europe for provisions.

In prison, Rudolf Hess studied the moon. There is a legend that the Americans, before landing on the moon, allegedly sent a specialist to his cell with the permission of the director, who consulted with Hess on the lunar landscape.

According to eyewitnesses, having spent a total of 46 years in prisons in England and in Spandau, Hess was not broken either mentally or physically. He still hoped to be free. The circumstances seemed to be in his favor - reports were leaked to the press that the Soviet side was ready to consider this issue.

Is talking Roy Medvedev: “Even my good friend Academician Sakharov wrote in one of his journalistic articles that the problem of the unfortunate Hess must be solved. Then the Soviet press attacked Sakharov for allegedly defending a war criminal. I asked him why he does it. “It's a pity, the helpless old man is in prison, he is guarded by four states. Senseless situation. We need to free him."

“Mr. Hess was already 92 years old, continues the story Tagir Chekushin. – And, of course, he really wanted to be released. Last years when I supervised him, he was very much looking forward to meeting his family.”

On August 17, 1987, at 6:35 p.m., a telephone rang in the house of Hess's son Wolf Rudiger. The administration of the Spandau prison officially informed him of the death of his father. By official version Prisoner No. 7, 92-year-old Rudolf Hess, committed suicide. Taking advantage of the fact that the guards left him alone for several minutes in a summer house inside the prison yard, the prisoner ties one end of a flexible cord from an electric lamp to the window, wraps the other tightly around his neck and throws himself on the ground. Death by hanging.

The first to reject the official version lawyer Hess Dr. Seidl, who stated that his client was simply not physically able to end his life in this way: “The elderly prisoner could not even raise his hand above his head and tie his shoelaces or put on a sweater on his own. His desire to free himself was very powerful. And, accordingly, I think that he died a violent death.

Casts doubt on the version of suicide and sensational statement Gennady Savin, Director of the Spandau International Prison in 1978-1983: “The prison protected by four states had a loophole, and someone used it. Hess had his own channels of communication in addition to the official ones. I had no proof, but Hess learned some things bypassing our channels. The statement of the son of Hess caused a scandal – an investigation began, during which it turned out that on the day of death, his orderly was not allowed to see Hess. He hardly breaks through to the garden house and sees two strangers above the lifeless body of his ward. One of them began to give Hess artificial respiration, and with such zeal that, as the autopsy showed, he broke nine of his ribs and tore several internal organs.

Here it is necessary to note several points. First: if a person had simply laid hands on himself, that is, suicide had taken place, his ribs would not have been broken. And Hess, as far as I know, had several broken ribs during the autopsy. So he got the injuries that led to this. Second: there were abrasions on the face, on the torso, bruises. It speaks of a physical effect. Thirdly, I think that he received these injuries when he still had normal cardiac activity, there was good blood flow, since bruises do not form in a dead person. These factors suggest that it was a violent death.”

On August 24, the Spandau prison is demolished and the house is burned down. Who benefited? Wolf Rudiger is convinced: to the British intelligence services.

The Institute for Forensic Medicine in Munich, upon re-examination of the body, establishes: Rudolf Hess was strangled twice. What did he throw himself out of his chair twice? So there has been a murder.

“If my father got out of prison,- claimed Wolf Rudiger, – then, to put it mildly, problems would arise, my father was not going to remain silent ".

Hess knew that he had every chance to leave the walls of Spandau, and once told his guard that he would soon make a statement that would make the world shudder. It is possible that he could have made some statements exposing the British, revealing the essence of the negotiations that Hess conducted while in England. Such facts could be a serious blow to the prestige of the country. Thus, the British are the only ones who could be interested in removing Hess after a long stay in Spandau.

When during the investigation it became clear that the official version - suicide - was falling apart before our eyes, attorney general UK Alan Green ordered to close the investigation without explanation. What is this strange solution?

It is known that at the end of May 1941, under pressure from public opinion, Churchill was preparing a report on the purpose of Hess's arrival, which was going to be read out in parliament. However, the report was never read - its text is sent to the archive. In the part of the archive opened today, a draft was found, in the margins of which there is a curious note made by hand Churchill: "Hess also made other statements that it is not in the public interest to disclose.".

Was it not these statements that Hess wanted to report when he was interrupted by the British representative at the Nuremberg Trials? And who shut his mouth before he made another attempt after 46 years in prison? The full archives of the Hess case will only be declassified by the UK in 2017. It is unlikely that until this moment we can count on the full truth. One thing is certain: England did not accept Hitler's proposal through his close friend Rudolf Hess. But if history had decreed otherwise, perhaps the world map would now be dominated by black.

Martin Borman

He was seen in Italy and Spain, Paraguay and Australia. He was searched in Indonesia and Egypt, in Africa and Antarctica. He was greeted under different names, and different prosecutor's offices issued warrants for his arrest.

His graves are in Italy, in Argentina, and even at the Lefortovo cemetery in Moscow. Date of birth - 1900 - coincides. The name - Martin Bormann - corresponds.

The evidence for his suicide on May 2, 1945 in Berlin seems indisputable, but his long post-war life looks no less indisputable. Bormann was called the shadow of the Fuhrer. During his lifetime, he was known as a cruel pragmatist, and after his disappearance he turned into an elusive mysterious mystical creature, into a ghost, into a mirage, into a legend.

The Fuhrer Bunker, a historical monument of the 20th century, witnessed the historical events of April-May 1945. German writer Felix Kellerhof described this place as follows: “This is the place where the Fuhrer of the German Reich committed suicide. From this place began the most terrible crimes ever committed in Europe, and here the Fuhrer decided to die from responsibility and from a fair trial of the peoples. Here, at this place where the parking lot is now, there is a concrete slab at a depth of eight and a half meters. This is the only thing left of the former Reich Chancellery of the Fuhrer. Over time, this issue has become overgrown with numerous legends and myths, but what actually happened in the bunker is no less interesting and important.”

In the biography of Martin Bormann, who joined the NSDAP in February 1927 (party number 60508), Reichsleiter, SS Gruppenführer, Hitler's secretary, there were indeed many blank spots, conflicting events and facts.

Martin Bormann was born on June 17, 1900. The beginning of his biography is not of particular interest. In fact, it begins in 1924, when Bormann and several landowners from Mecklenburg were arrested for participating in the sadistic murder of the teacher Kadov. All of them, including Kadov, were members of one of the militaristic unions, of which there were dozens in Germany in those years. Such reprisals, the so-called Fehme trials, against former accomplices in these unions were not uncommon. Justice, which did not want to interfere in the affairs of the Feme courts, qualified the murder as unintentional, so the participants in the murder received 10-12 years in prison, and Bormann only a year.

In 1926, a year after his release, Bormann joined the Nazi Party, where he began his activities with small assignments. His diligence, strong-willed qualities, and quick reaction were soon noticed, and Bormann received an influential position as head of the party fund for mutual assistance. Bormann's next step is to marry Gerda Buch.

Bormann's son says Adolf Martin Bormann: “My mother was 19 when she got married. I do not think that she was a convinced Nazi from childhood, although her father was a party judge and in 1933 became the official supreme judge of the Nazi party. But in 1929, by the time of the wedding, at which Hitler was a witness from the side of the groom, that is, my father, my mother was already a fanatical follower of Hitler.

Now Bormann was among the people close to Hitler. A diligent manager, Bormann performed the most routine clerical work, which was refused by the Fuhrer's confidants. Hitler realized that he needed this efficient and dedicated performer. Determined to advance further, Bormann chose a simple tactic: to prove to Hitler that he was indispensable. The method turned out to be correct - in 1933 he already headed the office of Hess.

Hitler created the Chancellery as an apparatus of personal power, a feature of work in this position was the breadth and uncertainty of powers. This gave Bormann the opportunity to interfere in the activities of any services of the Third Reich. His influence grew. He wrote down all the thoughts of Hitler, even those spoken by chance. From his notebook notes, Bormann compiled a card file of Hitler's statements, which laid the foundation for the archive. Then the archive was replenished with dossiers on each of the members of the state and party nomenclature of the Reich, they consisted of a biography, significant and minor life facts, as well as compromising evidence.

Over time, all the Fuhrer's financial affairs passed to Bormann, he managed not only Hitler's fees, his personal finances, but also the amount of 100,000,000 Reichmarks, the contribution of German entrepreneurs to the Hitler German Industry Foundation. Even Hitler's beloved depended on Bormann, because Hitler entrusted her support to him. " I know,- said Adolf Gitler, – that Bormann does everything thoroughly. I am confident that Bormann will carry out my orders, in spite of all obstacles. Bormann's papers are so designed that I only have to answer "yes" or "no". With him, I coordinate a lot of documents in 10 minutes, for which it would take hours with other gentlemen.

Recalls Adolf Martin Bormann: “I asked what National Socialism really was, to which my father replied: “National Socialism – it is the will of the Fuhrer." That is, Hitler's will was for him a kind of higher concept, a measure of all things in the National Socialist world order. It was only later that I realized to what extent my father was at the mercy of Hitler.

Soon everyone in Hitler's entourage received a circular marked “Personally. Top secret". It explained that from now on all documents and reports to the Fuhrer should be submitted to Bormann, everyone who wants to get to Hitler must first report to Bormann the purpose of their visit. Bormann achieved power. Now personnel promotions depended on him, the successes of some and the failures of others depended on his reports to Hitler. Once, when asked by Goebbels where his report was, Bormann simply replied that he did not consider it necessary to pass it on to Hitler.

Martin Bormann - Gerde Bormann, December 12, 1943: « It is not good that wins in the world and the universe, but the strong triumphs over the weak. That is why we must cultivate firmness and determination in our people, temper them.”

The elite of the Third Reich did not like Bormann and were afraid. He was called an uncouth hillbilly, a pig in a potato field. A vivid and deadly characterization of Bormann was given by his sworn enemy Hermann Goering: "Little secretary, big schemer and dirty pig". But Bormann did not care about the opinions of others, Hitler loved him and trusted him infinitely. "A few critical words of Hitler, Reichsminister noted Albrecht Speer, – and all Bormann's enemies would have seized him by the throat. But Hitler never tired of Bormann and never uttered these critical words.

Bormann preferred the power of the gray cardinal to all kinds of power. He skillfully manipulated people, using their human weaknesses. He found a young wife for the elderly financial tycoon Hjalmar Schacht, also helped Himmler, and Bormann's wife Gerda became the best friend of the Reichsführer's young mistress. In addition, he provided Himmler with money, giving him a round sum from the party fund. Bormann subjugated Hess to his influence, taking it upon himself to supply the Führer's assistant with partners for non-traditional sexual fun.

Tells Elena Syanova, historian, writer: « He was a master of quarreling everyone, he excelled everyone in this. He quarreled between Hitler's adjutants, he quarreled with people who were to, as we would now put it, participate in the same project, and the project fell apart. He quarreled between husbands and wives, he managed to quarrel Goebbels with Magda when they had already officially reconciled, they decided that after all the conflicts they would live together, pretend that they lived together, – and he managed to quarrel them so that it was hardly possible to hush it up. That is, it was a person who had a lot of energy.”

On May 2, 1945, the game ended. Nazi Germany was crushed, ahead of the void. Bormann could not imagine that when his body collapsed onto the rails of the railway bridge near the Lehrter station, one Bormann would suddenly turn into three different people, and for a very long time it would be impossible to understand which of them was real and which was invented - a Nazi criminal who lies with glass on the teeth from a crushed vial of poison, or a great Soviet spy, quietly living out his days in Moscow, or the elusive head of the worldwide brotherhood of the Nazis, hiding in the South American jungle.

It was all over, Hitler was dead. Goebbels followed his Fuhrer with his wife and children. Goering was declared a traitor. Himmler is convicted of having links with the enemy. Friends, enemies, competitors no longer existed, and in the hands was the will of the Fuhrer, in which he, Bormann, was declared Minister for Party Affairs. The Third Reich survived last hours, and power over the Fourth Reich belonged to him. According to the official version, on the night of May 1-2, Bormann, with a group of SS men, decided on a desperate breakthrough through the location of Soviet troops. Several hours passed and he disappeared. On the morning of May 2, specially created teams from SMERSH units began combing the numerous rooms of the bunker and the surrounding area - step by step, meter by meter. Bormann was neither among the living nor among the dead. Together with Bormann, the party's gold reserves, which amounted to an astronomical amount, also disappeared.

Soon, posters were put up all over Germany with an announcement about the wanted Martin Bormann. For any information about the location of the Reichleiter, the Americans promised a fabulous amount for that time - $ 1,000. Radio Hamburg tirelessly transmitted his special signs. Soviet intelligence No. 2 preferred to remain silent about her search for a Nazi. She had in her hands those who spent the last days in the bunker, those who, together with Bormann, tried to break through: Hitler's personal chauffeur Erich Kempka, Hitler's personal pilot Bauer, the Fuhrer of the German youth Arthur Axmann, Hitler's adjutant Günsche and others.

But the interrogation of eyewitnesses only confused the picture, out of nine witnesses, eight claimed to have seen how Bormann was killed, only the place and circumstances of his death sounded different each time. One saw Bormann's corpse in the tank, another near the tank, a third on the bridge, and a fourth in the middle of Invalidenstrasse. The investigators who conducted the inquiry were convinced that they were being led by the nose, that the witnesses, who had agreed in advance to convince the Russians that Bormann was dead, for objective reasons, could not agree on the details. Interrogation of the highest ranks of the General Staff and information received from front-line intelligence provided the following information: “Secret. Marshal Soviet Union comrade Stalin. I report: a report by the head of the intelligence department of the headquarters of the First Belorussian Front about the fate of Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler, Goering and other statesmen and political figures of Germany, compiled according to the testimony of prisoners of war generals of the German army. Bormann, according to the testimony of the prisoners, is among those who broke through to present the Fuhrer's will to Grand Admiral Doenitz. Head of the Main Intelligence Directorate General Kuznetsov».

Tells historian Konstantin Zalessky: “The Western allies, even after the surrender, did not actively begin to disarm the armed forces of Germany. Entire armed units simply stood in the camps, they could be used at any moment. And in this case, Martin Bormann, and Karl Doenitz, and other leaders could count on being taken for equal partners and, accordingly, not for criminals.

On July 17, 1945, Soviet radio broadcast an official message that Bormann was alive and with the Allies. Montgomery's British staff responded irritably, "We don't have it." “And we don’t have it,” the Americans hastened to respond. Thousands of people were thrown in search of the missing Nazi, they were looking for him in all the occupation zones of Germany, in Italy, in Austria, in Spain and Denmark. For the first time, American and British intelligence experts used technology based on methods of studying the enemy from a distance. This technology was based on the work of a specialist in ancient history Oxford professor Ronald Syme, who could "revive" the Roman emperor through a thorough study of his entourage. The experts' findings stunned US and British leaders. Bormann, experts insisted, had been posing as another person for many years, leading a double life.

Is talking Adolf Martin Bormann: “He was not a tyrant, he tried to be a good father, but since the beginning of the war he was almost never at home, like other fathers. I will add to this that in my father's study in the house on the Obersalzberg hung Kant's dictum, his famous categorical imperative: "Act in such a way that your behavior can serve as a moral law for everyone." The father’s mistake was that he chose Hitler as an example to follow and a moral teacher.”

Martin Bormann - Gerde Bormann, February 4, 1944: « Silence – usually the most reasonable course of action. The truth should be told only when it is really necessary. You can never be completely sure of the people around you.

The impression he made was absolutely inconsistent with the real power of the Reichsleiter. A small stocky man with a decent paunch and a head always drawn into his shoulders. Always hanging in a bag of military uniform. A shapeless briefcase, constantly sticking out from under his arm. An ordinary and harmless provincial accountant. But it was enough to look closely at his face to understand that this impression is deceptive. The head is on a short strong neck, the face of a bulldog with powerful jaws. A tightly compressed mouth, a hard strong-willed look of dark eyes. This man was extremely dangerous, everyone was afraid of him. And no wonder: many fell victim to his intrigues, from Hitler's bodyguards and influential generals to such political heavyweights as Himmler, Goebbels and Goering. It was rumored that Hitler himself was afraid of him. He was surrounded by the total hatred of the generals and the supreme rulers of the Reich. The arch-villain, the evil spirit, Hitler's Lucifer, the archangel of evil, the brown Bolshevik - this is not a complete list of the nicknames that his closest party comrades awarded him. Goebbels, about whom there was a stable opinion as a genius, could not defeat Bormann, this uncouth, unintelligent and dishonest intriguer in the struggle for the favor of the Fuhrer.

Tells Konstantin Zalessky: “He was a mysterious figure for the allies and for us too. That is, they understood that this person had great influence, and such information, of course, reached them through the line of their intelligence. Because the party apparatus knew who Bormann was, and this information was received by them and, accordingly, this caused interest – who is Mr. Bormann, who is Mr. Bormann.

The first months of searching for Bormann did not bring any result, but at the end of July 1945, the German writer Heinrich Lenau claimed that he had met the Reichsleiter on a train from Hamburg to Flensburg. The anti-Nazi writer who spent several years in a concentration camp could hardly be accused of pursuing a cheap sensation. His testimony convinced the judges of the Nuremberg Tribunal that Bormann was alive, and therefore should be tried. He was the only defendant to be tried in absentia.

From the verdict of the International Military Tribunal: “In accordance with the sections of the indictment under which the defendants were found guilty, and in accordance with Article 27 of the Charter, the International Military Tribunal sentenced: Martin Bormann – to death by hanging."

When asked where Martin Bormann, one of the defendants of the Nuremberg Tribunal, could be now, Hermann Göring, angrily replied: "I hope he's on fire right now."

This statement of one of the main Nazi criminals looks at least strange. He, like many other leaders of the Third Reich, did not like Bormann, but still he was his party ally. What could give Goering reason to hate Bormann so much? The judges did not share Goering's hope, they were sure that Bormann was somewhere nearby and was closely following the progress of the process, so the tribunal put Bormann on the international wanted list. The price for information on his whereabouts rose to 100,000 marks. And then messages poured in from all over the world. Bormann was seen in Australia, then in Egypt, then in Italy, Bormann was seen by journalists and diplomats, pilots and sailors, the ghost of the parteigenosse appeared at the same time different people in different places. All this resembled a global hoax with the participation of many voluntary false witnesses.

Recalls Andrey Martynov, candidate of philosophical sciences: “Martin Bormann was looked for everywhere, where they were buried, and how many times they were not buried. He was seen in perfect different countries and with completely different names: Manfredo Berg, Kurt Gauch, Van Klouten, José Esero, Luigi Bolivier, Eliazar Goldstein, Josef Yane, Martino Pormaggiore, these are, as it were, his names. Seen in Italy, in Rome, even a specific place was called – the monastery of San Antonio, a Franciscan monastery; Argentina, Chile, priest in Poland, Spain, Ito city in Paraguay. Years of death: 52nd year, Italy, 59th year, Paraguay, 73rd year, USSR, 75th year, Argentina, 89th year, Great Britain.

Even during the war, the US Office of Strategic Services managed to intercept radio messages exchanged between Moscow and its agents in Switzerland and Germany. Their deciphering took years, but the result justified the effort. It turned out that Moscow received operational, secret and important information from the heart of Nazi Germany. The agent, hiding under the pseudonym Werther, could instantly answer any question about the deployment and movement of Wehrmacht divisions, described in detail their staffing and weapons, and revealed strategic and operational plans.