Adolf Hitler got married and signed his last will on the same day: April 29, 1945.
The next day, not to be outdone, he committed suicide along with his new bride. Thinking ahead, Hitler had arranged for his aide de camp to burn their bodies.
Millions would of liked to of had a chance to bring the German leader to justice but it wasn't to be.
He, though, who had denied justice to so many, was quick to reach for the law at his moment of desperation.
At the same time, there is evidence of emotional trauma such as his naive suggestion that his memory would be cherished by his so-called home town of Linz, Austria.
What follows is the official translation of the US Government of Hitler's will as it was found amongst his belongings:
As I did not consider that I could take responsibility, during the years of struggle, of contracting a marriage, I have now decided, before the closing of my earthly career, to take as my wife that girl who, after many years of faithful friendship, entered, of her own free will, the practically besieged town in order to share her destiny with me. At her own desire she goes as my wife with me into death. It will compensate us for what we both lost through my work in the service of my people.
What I possess belongs, insofar as it has any value, to the Party.
Should this no longer exist, to the State.
Should the State also be destroyed, no further decision of mine is necessary.
My pictures, in the collections which I have bought in the course of years, have never been collected for private purposes, but only for the extension of a gallery in my home town of Linz.... It is my most sincere wish that this bequest may be duly executed.
I nominate as my Executor my most faithful Party comrade, Martin Bormann.
He is given full legal authority to make all decisions.
He is permitted to take out everything that has a sentimental value or is necessary for the maintenance of a modest simple life, for my brothers and sisters, also above all for the mother of my wife and my faithful co-workers who are well known to him, principally my old Secretaries Frau Winter etc. who have for many years aided me by their work.
I myself and my wife - in order to escape the disgrace of deposition or capitulation - choose death.
It is our wish to be burnt immediately on the spot where I have carried out the greatest part of my daily work in the course of a twelve years service to my people.
Given in Berlin
29 April 1945, 4:00 am
A. Hitler
The executor Martin Boorman was killed by the Russians on May 1, 1945 but since it was not until 1998 that DNA evidence could prove his death, he was tried in abstentia at Nuremberg in 1946 and sentenced to death.
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