| Original caption: “Corporal William C. LaRue, of the Bronx, N.Y., displays the New York Post and the New York World Telegram proclaiming ‘Hitler is Dead,’ on May 1, 1945.” A little after 2200 Hours on the evening of May 1, Hamburg radio interrupted the playing of a recording of Bruckner’s solemn 7th Symphony. There was a roll of military drums, and then an announcer spoke. “Our Führer, Adolf Hitler, fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism, fell for Germany this afternoon in his operational headquarters in the Reich Chancellery. On April 30, the Führer appointed Grand Admiral Dönitz his successor. The Grand Admiral, successor to the Führer, now addresses the German people.” The 3rd Reich was expiring, as it had begun, with a shabby lie. Aside from the fact that Führer und Reichskanzler (“Leader and Reichchancellor”) Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) had not died that afternoon but the previous day, which was not important, he had not fallen fighting “to the last breath.” Still, the broadcasting of this falsehood was necessary if the inheritors of his mantle were to perpetuate a legend and also if they were to hold control of the troops who were still offering resistance and who would surely have felt betrayed if they had known the truth. Großadmiral Karl Dönitz (September 16, 1891 – December 24, 1980) himself repeated the lie when he went on the air at 2220 Hours and spoke of the “hero’s death” of the Führer. Actually, at that moment, he did not know how Hitler had met his end. Reichsminister für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda (“Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda) Joseph Goebbels (October 29, 1897 – May 1, 1945) had radioed only that he had “died” on the previous afternoon. However, this did not deter the Admiral on this point or on others, for he did his best to confuse the minds of the German people in the hour of their disaster. Dönitz spoke: “It is my first task to save Germany from destruction by the advancing Bolshevik enemy. For this aim alone, the military struggle continues. As long as the achievement of this aim is impeded by the British and Americans, we shall be forced to carry on our defensive fight against them as well. Under such conditions, however, the Anglo-Americans will continue the war not for their own peoples but solely for the spreading of Bolshevism in Europe.” After this distortion, the Großadmiral, who is not recorded as having protested Hitler’s decision to make the Bolshevik nation Germany’s ally in 1939 so that a war could be fought against England and later America, assured the German people in concluding his broadcast that “God will not forsake us after so much suffering and sacrifice.” These were empty words. Dönitz knew that German resistance was at an end. Publisher Martin Andersen (January 12, 1897 – May 5, 1986), writing in his newspaper, the Orlando Sentinel, summed up the feelings of many Americans: “News of Hitler is unofficial, unconfirmed. Some say he may have died months ago. Some say he may have escaped. Everybody distrusts German broadcasts, so do we. But Hitler, dead yesterday, alive tomorrow, dead six months ago. So what? Hitler is dead – that is, the power of Hitler and all Hitler stood for is dead. So, this obituary is still good. But, God willing, we really hope and pray he is really dead and not pulling a phony.” United States Army Air Force Corporal William C. La Rue (October 30, 1924 – June 18, 2012) registered for the draft on December 2, 1942. He was an office boy in the statistician’s office of the Morris Woodruff Kellogg Company, a construction firm, before the war. He enlisted on March 16, 1943. He reenlisted in Kearns, Utah, on November 10, 1945. He stayed in the Air Force for 22 years and retired as a Master Sergeant. After his service, he became a math professor at Boise State University. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0933.jpg |
| Image Size | 236.84 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 1173 x 1767 |
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| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | May 1, 1945 |
| Location | |
| City | New York |
| State or Province | New York |
| Country | United States |
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| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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