Adolf Hitler’s ‘suicide note’ goes up for auction
A 1945 letter written by Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazi party during World War II Germany is set to go up for auction later this month. Many experts have dubbed the letter the ‘suicide note’ as it was written a week before Hitler committed suicide, swallowing a cyanide pill and shooting himself in the head.
Widely dubbed as his "suicide note," the final message that Adolf Hitler ever wrote has surfaced and is set to go up for auction later this month.
In the letter, the leader of the Nazi party during World War II Germany shows his defiance and insists that he will remain in the country while helping "set a good example to all those remaining."
"I shall remain in Berlin, so as to take part, in honorable fashion, in the decisive battle for Germany, and to set a good example to all those remaining," Hitler wrote in the April 24, 1945 letter to Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner. " I believe that in this way I shall be rendering Germany the best service."
AUTOGRAPH OF EVIL: HITLER-SIGNED COPY OF 'MEIN KAMPF' SURFACES
The German Fuhrer continued: "For the rest of you, every effort must be made to win the struggle for Berlin. You can there help decisively, by pushing northwards as early as possible..."
The letter was written a week before Hitler committed suicide, swallowing a cyanide pill and shooting himself in the head. Hitler's wife, Eva Braun, also committed suicide by swallowing a cyanide pill on April 30, 1945.
Adolf Hitler's final letter to Ferdinand Schörner, revealing that he would stay in Berlin, dated April 24, 1945. Schörner wrote a letter, dated April 23, 1945, pleading with Hitler to leave Berlin. (Credit: Alexander Historical Auctions)
Maryland-based Alexander Historical Auctions is auctioning off the item and has set a minimum bid at $30,000. The pre-sale estimate is between $60,000 and $80,000.
The company's president, Bill Panagopulos, described it as a rare find and essentially Hitler's "suicide note."
“There is no other written evidence of Hitler declaring his intention to remain (and die) in Berlin that anyone has been able to locate," Panagopulos said in an interview with The Sun. “This is essentially Hitler’s ‘suicide note.’"
Also included in the lot is Schörner's letter to Hitler that urged him to leave Berlin and assume command from the southern sector.
"You alone are the guarantee of the future continuance of the nation; from you alone every German man takes his orders, as does the whole of the fine German armed forces - unconditionally," Schörner' wrote in the April 23, 1945 letter. "You alone are Germany...If you fell, Germany would also."
The auction will start on April 30 and end on May 1.
HITLER'S WWII 'ESCAPE' INVESTIGATED BY THE CIA, BOMBSHELL DOCUMENT REVEALS
Hitler's letter to Schörner seems to put to rest any conspiracy theories that Hitler escaped Germany and fled elsewhere. In 2017, the CIA released declassified documents that the intelligence agency investigated the possibility that Hitler was alive in South America as late as 1955 — nearly a decade after the war ended.
The document, which appears on the CIA's website, highlighted a former SS soldier who told spies he had regularly met with Hilter in Colombia. "CITROEN [a CIA source] claimed to have contacted HITLER about once a month in Colombia on his trip from Maracaibo to that country as/an employee of the KNSM (Royal Dutch) Shipping Co. in Maracaibo," the document read.
It goes on to say that the CIA source indicated to CI MELODY-3’s [CIA informant] he had taken a picture with Hitler, but "did not show the photograph." At three pages in length, the document suggested that Hitler may have worked as a shipping company employee, prior to potentially fleeing to Argentina. On the second page is a picture of the informant, Phillip Citroen, with a person he claims is Hitler in the mid-1950s.
“CIMELODY-3’s friend states that during the latter part of September 1955, a Phillip Citroen, former German SS trooper, stated to him confidentially that Adolph Hitler (sic) is still alive," the documents stated.
In May 2018, a team of French researchers that examined Hitler's remains said the leader of the Nazi party definitely died in Berlin.
Hitler's body was eventually discovered by Soviet soldiers and buried in an unmarked spot. A German court declared Hitler dead, but not until 1956, more than a decade after the war ended.