The will was witnessed by Dr. Joseph Goebbels, Martin Bormann and Colonel Nicholaus von Below.

Witnessed by Dr. Joseph Goebbels, General Wilhelm Burgdorf, Martin Bormann, and General Hans Krebs.

The Volkssturm had existed, on paper, since approximately 1925, however it was only after Hitler ordered Martin Bormann to recruit six million men for this militia that the group became a physical reality.

In order for these militia units to be effective, Hitler and Bormann counted not only on strength in numbers, but also in fanaticism.

Nineteen of the 22 were convicted, and twelve of them ( Bormann absentia, Frank, Frick, Göring, Jodl, Kaltenbrunner, Keitel, Ribbentrop, Rosenberg, Sauckel, Seyss-Inquart, Streicher ), were given the death penalty ; the other three ( Funk, Hess, Raeder ) got a life term.

However, Göring sent a telegram on 23 April, asking permission to take over the leadership of the Reich — an act that Hitler, under the prodding of Martin Bormann, interpreted as a demand to step down or face a coup.

Hitler typically did not issue written orders, but gave them verbally at meetings or in phone conversations ; he also had Bormann convey orders.

Bormann used his position to control the flow of information and access to Hitler, earning him enemies, including Himmler.

He ranked along with Joachim von Ribbentrop, Göring, Himmler, and Martin Bormann as the senior Nazi with the most access to Hitler, which in an autocratic regime meant access to power.

Goebbels was forced to ally himself with Göring to thwart a bid for power by Bormann, head of the Nazi Party Chancellery and Secretary to the Führer.

Bormann exploited the disaster at Stalingrad, and his daily access to Hitler, to persuade him to create a three-man junta representing the State, the Army, and the Party, represented respectively by Hans Lammers, head of the Reich Chancellery, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, chief of the OKW ( armed forces high command ), and Bormann, who controlled the Party and access to the Führer.

Goebbels, Speer, Göring and Himmler all saw this proposal as a power grab by Bormann and a threat to their power, and combined to block it.

The alliance was shaky at best, mainly because during this period Himmler was still cooperating with Bormann to gain more power at the expense of Göring and most of the traditional Reich administration ; Göring's loss of power had resulted in an overindulgence in the trappings of power and his strained relations with Goebbels made it difficult for a unified coalition to be formed, despite the attempts of Speer and Göring's Luftwaffe deputy Field Marshal Erhard Milch, to reconcile the two Party comrades.

The result was that nothing was done – the Committee of Three declined into irrelevance due to the loss of power by Keitel and Lammers and the ascension of Bormann and the situation continued to drift, with administrative chaos increasingly undermining the war effort.

This trio – Goebbels, Himmler and Speer – became the real centre of German government in the last year of the war, although Bormann used his privileged access to Hitler to thwart them when he could.

In this Bormann was very successful, as the party gauleiters gained more and more powers, becoming Reich Defense Commissars ( Reichsverteidigungskommissare ) in their respective districts and overseeing all civilian administration.

The fact that Himmler was Interior Minister only increased the power of Bormann, as the Gauleiters feared that Himmler, who was General Plenipotentiary for the Administration of the Reich, would curb their power and set up his higher SS and police leaders as their replacement.

Goebbels saw Himmler as a potential ally against Bormann and in 1944 is supposed to have voiced the opinion that if the Reichsführer-SS was granted control over the Wehrmacht and he, Goebbels, granted control over the domestic politics, the war would soon be ended in a victorious manner.

However, the inability of Himmler to persuade Hitler to cease his support of Bormann, the defection of SS generals such as Obergruppenführer Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the Chief of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt and his powerful subordinate Gruppenführer Heinrich Müller, head of the Gestapo, to Bormann, soon persuaded Goebbels to align himself with the Secretary to the Führer at the end of 1944, thus accepting his subordinate position.

Bormann and his puppet Lammers, keen to retain their control over the Party and State administrations respectively, placed endless obstacles in Goebbels ’ s way.

By this time, Goebbels had gained the position he had wanted so long – at the side of Hitler, albeit only because of his subservience to Bormann, who was the Führers de facto deputy.

Only Goebbels and Bormann remained totally loyal to Hitler.

Instead, Hitler appointed Goebbels Reich Chancellor ; Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, who was at Flensburg near the Danish border, Reich President ; and Martin Bormann, Hitler's long-time chief of staff, Party Minister.

* 1900 – Martin Bormann, German Nazi official ( d. 1945 )

" Gustav supported the " Adolf Hitler Endowment Fund of German Industry ", administrated by Bormann, who used it to collect millions of Marks from German businessmen.

Martin Ludwig Bormann ( 17 June 1900 – 2 May 1945

On 1 May, Axmann left the Führerbunker with SS doctor Ludwig Stumpfegger and Martin Bormann as part of a group attempting to break out of the Soviet encirclement.

Leaving the rest of their group, Bormann, Stumpfegger, and Axmann walked along railroad tracks to Lehrter station.

Bormann and Stumpfegger followed the railway tracks towards Stettiner Station.

When he encountered a Red Army patrol, Axmann doubled back and later insisted he had seen the bodies of Bormann and Stumpfegger near the railroad switching yard ( Stettiner Bahnhof ) with moonlight clearly illuminating their faces.

The remnants of homes of former Nazi leaders — such as Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring, and Martin Bormann — were all demolished in the early postwar years.

Some Nazi leaders, such as Martin Bormann, were anti-Christian and sympathetic to Rosenberg.

Hitler gradually adopted a more uncompromising and intolerant stance, probably under the growing influence of ideologues such as Bormann, Rosenberg and Himmler, who were loath to entertain any idea of the new Germany having a Christian foundation even in a token form.

The officers, called NS Führungsoffizier ( NSFO ), drawn from convinced officers and selected by the Nazi Party Chancellor Martin Bormann were to instil ideological conviction and reinforce combat morale through training lessons and teaching.

All except Starotska were accused of having committed such crimes at Bergen-Belsen ; Starotska, Kramer, Klein, Weingartner, Kraft, Hössler, Bormann, Volkenrath, Ehlert, Gura, Grese, Lothe, Lobauer and Schreirer were also charged with atrocities committed at Auschwitz.

* Josef Kramer, Fritz Klein, Peter Weingartner, Franz Hössler, Juana Bormann, Irma Grese, Elisabeth Volkenrath, Karl Francioh, Anchor Pichen, Franz Stofel, and Wilhelm Dorr were sentenced to death by hanging.

As State Secretary of the Parteikanzlerei ( Party Chancellery ), Klopfer represented Bormann, who was head of the Parteikanzlei, at the Wannsee Conference on January 20, 1942 in which the details of the " Final Solution of the Jewish Question " were formalized, policies that culminated in the Holocaust.

His attacks on the Nazis were so severe that Nazi official Walter Tiessler proposed in a letter to Martin Bormann that the Bishop be executed.

With the fictionally acquired gas station, Kippenberger gave Martin Bormann a camouflage address and the possibility of an income in exile ; Kippenberger allegedly installed a telephone line and employees were obliged to answer calls with ‘ Tankstelle Martin Bormann ’.

During the closing days of the war, at the age of 49, she was driven to Berchtesgaden, Germany, apparently on the orders of Martin Bormann.

Geoff Taylor's 1966 novel, Court Of Honor, features the Fehme being revived by a German officer and Martin Bormann ( a featured character in other semi-historical novels with post-war ' Nazi underground ' themes ) in the dying days of the Third Reich.

Gustloff was given a state funeral in his birthplace of Schwerin in Mecklenburg with Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Göring, Heinrich Himmler, Martin Bormann and Joachim von Ribbentrop in attendance.

Despite his failings, Ley retained Hitler's favour ; until the last months of the war he was part of Hitler's inner circle along with Martin Bormann and Joseph Goebbels.

In February 1941 he was present at a meeting along with Speer, Bormann and Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel at which Hitler had set out his views on the " Jewish question " at some length, making it clear that he intended the " disappearance " of the Jews one way or another.

" No One is Innocent " was released as a single in the UK and reached # 6 on the British singles charts, with the sleeve showing Martin Bormann playing bass with the group ( in actuality this was American actor James Jeter ).

[...] Reichführer SS Heinrich Himmler, when asked for an opinion by the staff of the office of the Führer's deputy, offered support for Fischer and Lenz in 1938 ... " Ultimately, with additional backing from Martin Bormann, Fischer officially became a Nazi on 12 / 12 / 1939.

He was joined by his senior staff, Martin Bormann, and later, Eva Braun and Joseph Goebbels with Magda and their six children, who took residence in the upper Vorbunker.

The Kehlsteinhaus was commissioned by Martin Bormann, with construction proceeding over a 13-month period.

" working sphere ", a name for the party cadre organisation outside the Reich proper ) was established in the civilian-administered parts of the occupied Soviet territories, whereupon Koch and Lohse gradually ceased communication with Rosenberg, preferring to deal directly with Hitler through Martin Bormann and the Party Chancellery.

He also stated that he had attempted to escape from central Berlin along with Martin Bormann, who he said had died during the attempt.

" No One is Innocent " was released as a single in the UK on 30 June 1978 and reached number 7 in the UK Singles Chart ; the sleeve showing a British actor posing as Martin Bormann ( Nazi Leader ) playing bass with the group.

Kube, notorious for his corruption, ruled over both provinces until he was deposed after entering into a conflict with the Nazi jurist Walter Buch, father-in-law of mighty Martin Bormann.

The ODESSA itself was incidental, says Manning, with the continuing existence of the Bormann Organization a much larger and more menacing fact.