The Germans told only Stalin: the FSB declassified data on Hitler's suicide

The leadership of Hitler's Germany informed only Joseph Stalin about the suicide of Adolf Hitler in hot pursuit. This is stated in the testimony of the commander of the defense of Berlin, General of Artillery Helmut Weidling.

The document on the eve of Victory Day was declassified by the FSB.

Hitler shot himself on April 30, 1945, Berlin fell on May 2, on the same day the general surrendered, and testified in the intelligence department of the headquarters of the 1st Belorussian Front on May 6.

According to Weidling, at five o'clock in the evening, Berlin time, he received an order to report to the Imperial Chancellery. There he was invited to the Fuhrer's room, in which were Reich Chancellor, Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, Reichsleiter Martin Bormann and the Chief of the General Staff of the German Ground Forces, General Hans Krebs. It was Krebs who informed Weidling that "this afternoon (around 15.00) the Fuhrer committed suicide" and that his corpse was burned in the garden of the Imperial Chancellery in one of the shell craters. Weidling was warned that he must remain silent about Hitler's death until further instructions.

"The only one who was informed about the Fuhrer's suicide and about the government established in his will (Reich President Admiral Doenitz, Reich Chancellor Dr. Goebbels, etc.) is Marshal Stalin," Weidling said, RIA Novosti quotes the document.

It is noted that the details of the transmission of the message to Moscow are described in the historical literature: Stalin learned about Hitler's suicide after May 1, 03.50, parliamentary General Krebs was delivered to the command post of the Soviet 8th Guards Army. He stated that he was authorized to establish contact with the high Command of the Red Army to negotiate an armistice, and stated that Hitler had committed suicide. At four o'clock in the morning, the commander of the 8th Army, Colonel-General Vasily Chuikov, reported this by telephone to Marshal Georgy Zhukov, commander of the 1st Belorussian Front, who, in turn, immediately called Stalin in Moscow.

The rest of the world learned about Hitler's death from a German radio message on the evening of May 1, 1945. At the same time, suicide was not mentioned.

The Military Tribunal of the troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Moscow Military District at the end of February 1952 sentenced Weidling to 25 years in prison on charges of war crimes.