The death of Heinrich Himmler
Witness History
BBC
4.4 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 31 July 2020
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
One of Hitler's most important henchmen was caught by British troops in the chaos of post-war Germany just after WW2 had ended in Europe. A British soldier described to the BBC how the leading Nazi bit down on a cyanide capsule and died. Gordon Corera has been listening to the archive account of Himmler's death, and finding out more about the situation in Germany immediately after its surrender to the Allies.
Photo: Heinrich Himmler in 1939. Credit: Central Press/Getty Images
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless |
| 0:06.8 | searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the |
| 0:11.8 | telly we share what we've been watching |
| 0:14.0 | Cladie Aide. |
| 0:16.0 | Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming. |
| 0:19.0 | Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige. |
| 0:21.0 | And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less |
| 0:24.9 | searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC sounds. |
| 0:29.2 | This is the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Gordon Carrera. |
| 0:40.0 | In May 1945 the Second World War was coming to an end. |
| 0:44.1 | Conflict was still raging in Asia, |
| 0:46.2 | but in Europe the Nazis had been defeated. |
| 0:49.1 | Their soldiers were surrendering. |
| 0:50.9 | Hello BBC, this is Thomas Cadet, reporting from Supreme Headquarters. |
| 0:55.0 | Yes, I saw it. |
| 0:57.0 | In the small hours of this morning, May the 7th, 1945, I saw the formal acknowledgement by Germany's present leaders, military leaders of their |
| 1:05.5 | countries complete and utter defeat by land in the air and at sea. |
| 1:10.1 | I saw the end of the third German Reich today. It was like the last convulsions of a snake whose head has been chopped off, |
| 1:16.8 | but which still squirms desperately. The pieces were still moving at the little German port of Flensburg until 10 o'clock this morning when Grand Admiral |
| 1:24.8 | Carl Darnets and Colonel General Gustav Yodle were placed under arrest and flown to an undisclosed |
| 1:30.4 | European airport. |
| 1:31.4 | Hitler had killed himself but some of his most senior |
... |
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