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Adjutant SS-Hauptsturmführer Otto Günsche: He is not in the bunker.
Adolf Hitler: What do you mean you can't find Fegelein? Keep searching for him! I want to see Fegelein at once! If he goes AWOL, that's desertion. Treason! Bring me Fegelein!
[slams desk]
Adolf Hitler: Fegelein! Fegelein! Fegelein!
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Adolf Hitler: Burgdorf, what's going on? Where's the firing coming from?
General der Infanterie Wilhelm Burgdorf: First of all, Happy Birthday, my Führer. My Führer, the city of Berlin is under artillery fire; grenades have hit near the Brandenburg gate, Reichstag, and the Friedrichstrasse station.
Adolf Hitler: Where is the firing coming from?
General der Infanterie Wilhelm Burgdorf: My Führer, we don't know, but I'm talking with Koller.
Adolf Hitler: Koller! Let me speak to Koller.
[takes phone]
Adolf Hitler: Koller. Do you know that Berlin is under artillery fire?
General der Flieger Karl Koller: No.
Adolf Hitler: Can't you hear the shooting?
General der Flieger Karl Koller: No, I'm in Wildpark Werder.
Adolf Hitler: The city is chaotic. The Russians have captured a railway bridge over the Oder.
General der Flieger Karl Koller: The enemy has no railway artillery in the Oder.
[takes paper from soldier]
General der Flieger Karl Koller: It's not long-ranged artillery; the divisional headquarters of the Flak and Zoo-Bunker report that the shells are ten to twelve calibers. The Russians went into position in Marzahn.
Adolf Hitler: That's only twelve miles from the city center. Are the Russians really this close? The Lufwaffe leadership must be hanged immediately!
[hangs up]
Adolf Hitler: This is outrageous. Outrageous! The Russians are twelve miles from the city center, and nobody told me anything. I had to ask.
General der Infanterie Hans Krebs: My Führer, it's probably long-range artillery, after all. You mentioned a railway bridge over the Oder.
Adolf Hitler: Nonsense.
Igor Sergeev
Extended Reading
