Six days after realising the war was lost hitler received the news that heinrich himmler was trying to negotiate germanys surrender with the americans apoplectic with rage over this betrayal hitler declared himmler a traitor and had his ss representative the loathsome hermann fegelein taken out and shot. The last days of hitler is one of those books i have been intending to read for a number of years it fully met my expectations trevor roper was asked by the head of counter intelligence in the british zone of berlin to determine what exactly happened to hitler he filed his report and then wrote this book. His report was published in 1947 as the last days of hitler in the years immediately after the war the soviets maintained that hitler was not dead but had escaped and was being shielded by the former western allies at the end of 1945 stalin ordered the nkvd to form a second commission to investigate hitlers death. While their foul subject was fresh the first post war english historians in early before the smoke had cleared smelt the devil clive james i liked reading the last days of hitler 1947 much more than i liked watching downfalltrevor ropers reunion of english historical styles gibbons irony stracheys titter carlyles bilious verve if not his love of strongmen and germany