As we all know, mass murdering fuckhead Adolf Hitler ended up in a ditch covered in petrol, on fire. On his honeymoon. Most amusing. But - what if his paranoia was proved right? He apparently fed cyanide to his dog Blondi to make sure it was poison and not some SS plot.
But what if some of the bunker denizens had made a deal with the Soviets? Hitler takes what he thinks is an SS suicide pill, only to fall unconscious as his Walther PPK clicks its hammer onto an empty chamber. “Treason!” he cries, as he realises what has happened.
The plotters deliver his unconscious form into the hands of the waiting NKVD, who immediately inform Stalin of their accomplishment. But what happens next?
Do the Soviets keep their feat a secret? What does Stalin do with his greatest nemesis? Is he put on trial in Nuremberg with the other surviving Nazis - and how does his survival change the trial? With their Fuhrer alive, how do revelations of the Holocaust and their complicity in it go down? Does Eisenhower’s worst fear of a German ‘national redoubt’ and Werwolf guerilla movement come true?
Hitler alive and in the hands of the Soviets has a life expectency just slightly longer (but probably much more painful) than how it played out in real life.
If the soldiers that found him didn’t lose control in rage and kill him on the spot I think it would have been the war crime trial of all war crime trials. I just don’t see Stalin able to resist all that possible good publicity.
It’s tough to guess Stalin’s moods but I’m thinking Moscow Show Trial. Where Hitler would have testified how the western capitalists had collaborated with him in their attempt to undermine world socialism.
It’s hard to say. You’d have to judge whether it would have been in the Soviets (a.k.a. Stalin’s) best interests to quietly shoot him and dump him in a ditch or put him on trial for the people then execute him publicly. Either way, he’s dead.
Had the Germans instead turned him over to the western allies I think he’d have lived a little longer, but in the end he would have been swinging from a rope. No way would it have been covered up though…he’d have been at Nuremberg with the others.
Given Stalin’s personal fascination with his German counterpart I a quiet execution is unlikely; Hitler topped himself primarily because he didn’t want to be paraded around Moscow like some trophy. Though it is very hard to guess Stalin’s actions (he’s like a stray dog; violent but unpredictable) if his men had taken Hitler alive, he might equally have ordered Beria to have some fun with him then throw what remains in the Spree. If one of his men had summarily executed Hitler without consulting the Stavka heads would definitely have rolled.
My own best guess is that he’d be kept in NKVD custody while being not so gently questioned about Germany’s atomic bomb research; locations of uranium storage sites, files and whatnot. I also don’t think he’d have been at Nuremberg, a Soviet only show trial in Moscow would be more Stalin’s style, on trial for crimes against the Soviet people rather than the world at large or German people.
Interestingly Churchill’s opinions on the subject were that he should fry in the electric chair like a common gangster rather than face the noose.
I think Hitler was way too stubborn to play along with that. Put him on the stand and we can expect one of his usual speeches blaming all the world’s troubles on Jewish Bolshevism.
Yeah, I’m leaning towards a big Soviet show trial, followed by an elaborate execution, well publicized…maybe with a large parade tossed in as well. I doubt they would have tortured him for info…they might have done it just for fun, but nothing that would be visible for the show trial or execution. He didn’t really know anything specific that could help the Soviets that they didn’t have from other sources…the Soviets had captured lots of German scientists and lots of examples of their tech and facilities in their drive to Berlin, so nothing Hitler could tell them would be a surprise or really informative.
As for Churchill, I’m sure he did feel that way. But it was really America that was driving the show wrt the trials, and I’m pretty sure it would have been the noose, just like the other German war crimes people found guilty. There is some poetic justice in Hitler swinging from from the noose, though hopefully the folks setting it up would have gotten the calculation wrong and his neck wouldn’t have broken, and instead he’d have slowly strangled to death instead.
I think, regardless of the scenario, he was a dead man if he fell into the hands of either the Soviets or any of the other western powers. It’s just a matter of how quickly and painfully he’d have died…and for what reason. I doubt the Soviets would have cared so much about the Holocaust so much…to them, his big crime was the invasion of Russia and the vast damage he did and millions killed. On the US/UK side it would have been his war crimes, specifically what he did to the Jews that would have cinched the noose. But whatever the reason, he’d still be just as dead.
