Tag Archives: Himmler

30 May 1945: Hitler’s Will, Himmler’s Pill, and Dönitz (Still)

Another Top Secret coded telegram from Berlin to Moscow, this time with the Soviet agent providing information about sweeping into Nazi command and control headquarters to search for, examine, and abscond with the “most “most interesting” documents for Stalin’s eyes. We learn some information about Hitler’s last will, including the appointment of Dönitz as hisContinueContinue reading “30 May 1945: Hitler’s Will, Himmler’s Pill, and Dönitz (Still)”

28 May 1945: Dönitz Government Apprehended, Himmler Commits Suicide

Another Top Secret cable from Berlin to Moscow to keep Stalin apprised of the rather dynamic environment post-war Germany is undergoing. In this short (and partially-redacted) declassified account from a Soviet agent in Berlin, some details are provided of the large-scale British operation to apprehend the Dönitz government, carried out on 23 May. The authorContinueContinue reading “28 May 1945: Dönitz Government Apprehended, Himmler Commits Suicide”

Declassified Soviet Eyewitness Testimony to the Lübeck Bay Tragedy

Earlier this month, the Russian FSB declassified and published a set of documents that offer eyewitness survivor testimony to the Lübeck Bay tragedy, and event that claimed the lives of thousands of prisoners of war. On 3 May 1945, with only a few days left before Germany’s final capitulation, the Royal Air Force conducted bombingContinueContinue reading “Declassified Soviet Eyewitness Testimony to the Lübeck Bay Tragedy”

Part Five and Final: Declassified Interrogation of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Commander

We continue our translation of the Russian-language record of the December 1946 interrogation of SS Standartenführer Anton Kaindl who, at the time of his arrest in May 1945, was the commandant of the infamous Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Due to its length, the translation is being published bit by bit throughout the week. In Part One Kaindl described his early yearsContinueContinue reading “Part Five and Final: Declassified Interrogation of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Commander”