Spoils of War: End of a Dictator
Created | Updated May 24, 2015
Every once in a while, the soldier's newspaper contains cheerful news – at least, to him. This is how Stars and Stripes reported the death of Adolf Hitler.
The End of a Dictator
From Stars and Stripes, Wednesday, May 3, 1945.
Adolf Hitler, for 12 years the master of Germany and the man who set out to conquer
the world, died yesterday afternoon, the German radio at Hamburg announced last night.
Declaring that Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, commander-in-chief of the German Navy, was
'Hitler's successor, the radio stated: "It is reported from Der Fuehrer's headquarters that Der Fuehrer, Adolf Hitler, has fallen this afternoon at his command post in the Reich Chancellery? fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism, and for Germany."
Death Is Not Explained
The announcement did not explain how Hitler, who was 56 years old 12 days ago, had
"fallen." Russian forces in recent days have been battling toward the massive Chancellery
that Hitler built in the Wilhelmstrasse, in the center of Berlin.
The broadcast reported that on April 13 Hitler named Doenitz as his successor. Then Doenitz came on the program with a fiery promise to keep up what he termed "the struggle against Bolshevism." He said the Germans would fight American and British forces to the extent that they hindered his fight against Russia.
