Holocaust victim

During the last days of April 1945, Berlin was a fire zone city. Majority of the German officers were disposing of their uniforms and were making an attempt to vanish before the Soviet army came. And yet was there but one man (General Robert Ritter von Greim) who did so do the very reverse. He flew to the very middle of the battle to visit Hitler one more time. The flight logs and eyewitness reports of this journey have been under my study and it is among the most desperate of the whole war.

By now, the Soviet army had nearly besieged Berlin to the latter. Hitler had just dismissed his long time Air Force commander Hermann Goring accusing him of being a traitor. He would have preferred von Greim to succeed the job. Von Greim did not take a heavy bomber to get into the city. He flew in a small thin-bodied aircraft termed a Fieseler Storch. Not only was he not alone but he also had the famous female test pilot, Hanna Reitsch who was famous due to her incredible bravery.

Since they were flying at extremely low altitudes in order not to become noticed, Soviet anti-aircraft guns detected them. One of the metals tore the floor of this small aircraft and broke the foot of von Greim. This was so bad that he fainted. Hanna Reitsch was forced to go over his shoulder, take control herself and steer the damaged airplane. She was able to land it dead on a normal street right before the Brandenburg Gate, and avoid shell craters and toppled trees.

They were dragged so deep underground down to the bunker of Hitler. Although the war had clearly ended and Russian soldiers were only a few blocks away von Greim remained there three days as his bloody wound had been anesthetized by a doctor. This visit saw Hitler do something that no longer really mattered he officially raised von Greim to Field Marshal. He became the last man to receive that high ranking in the German army.

On April 28, Hitler provided them with one last order fly out of the trap and locate Heinrich Himmler and arrest him. Their tiny aircraft was on the very last to make any escape out of the city prior to eventual conquest of Berlin. It is a weird tale of devotion to a cause that was already lost.

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