大学英语精读听力第三册 unit9

[00:00.00]In the last days of World War II
[00:26.64]Adolf Hitler and his closest associates had sought shelter
[00:31.24]in a command bunker before the fall of Berlin.
[00:35.45]He knew that defeat was close at hand
[00:38.95]and that he must prepare for his own death.
[00:42.14]Here is detailed description of how he ended his life.
[00:46.94]THE DEATH OF HITLER   William L. Shirer
[00:52.35]During the afternoon of April 29,
[00:56.84]news arrived at the bunker where Adolf Hitler
[01:00.45]and Eva Braun were separated from the outside world.
[01:05.04]Mussolini, Hitler's fellow fascist dictator and partner in aggression,
[01:11.13]had met his end, and it had been shared by his mistress, Clara Petacci.
[01:17.14]They had been caught by Italian guerrillas on April 27
[01:22.34]while trying to escape to Switzerland and executed after a brief trial
[01:28.63]On the Saturday night of April 28 the bodies were brought to Milan
[01:34.54]in a truck and dumped on the town square.
[01:38.04]The next day they were strung up by the heels
[01:42.03]from lampposts and later cut down
[01:45.43]so that throughout the rest of Sunday
[01:48.72]they lay in the gutter.
[01:50.92]On May Day Benito Mussolini was buried beside his mistress
[01:56.61]in the paupers' plot of a Milan cemetery
[02:00.32]In such a horrible climax of degradation Mussolini
[02:05.31]and Fascism passed into history.
[02:08.71]It is not known how many of the details of Mussolini's shabby end
[02:14.90]were communicated to the Fuehrer.
[02:18.29]One can only guess that if he heard many of them
[02:22.39]he was only strengthened in his resolve
[02:26.00]not to allow himself or his bride to be made a spectacle
[02:31.20]not their live selves or their bodies.
[02:34.98]Shortly after receiving the news of Mussolini's death
[02:40.68]Hitler began to make the final preparations for his
[02:45.07]He had his favorite Alsatian dog poisoned
[02:49.46]and two other dogs in the household shot.
[02:53.04]Then he called in his two remaining women secretaries
[02:58.13]and handed them capsules of poison to use if they wished to
[03:02.91]when the advancing Russians broke in.
[03:06.23]He was sorry, he said
[03:09.02]not to be able to give them a better farewell gift
[03:13.41]and he expressed his appreciation for their long and loyal service
[03:18.61]Evening had now come, the last of Adolf Hitler's life
[03:24.38]He instructed Mrs. Junge,one of his secretaries
[03:29.06]to destroy the remaining papers in his files,
[03:33.03]and he sent out word that no one in the bunker was to go to bed
[03:37.52]until further orders.
[03:40.32]This was interpreted by all as meaning that he judged the time
[03:45.41]had come to make his farewells.
[03:48.81]But it was not until long after midnight,
[03:52.99]at about 2:30 AM of April 30, as several witnesses recall,
[03:58.89]that the Fuehere emerged from his private quarters
[04:02.78]and appeared in the general dining passage where some 20 persons
[04:08.19]mostly the women members of his group of associates,were assembled
[04:13.28]He walked down the line shaking hands with each
[04:17.59]and mumbling a few words that were inaudible.
[04:21.49]There was a heavy film of moisture on his eyes and,
[04:26.08]as Mrs. Junge remembered "They seemed to be looking far away,
[04:31.36]beyond the walls of the bunker."
[04:34.76]After he retired, a curious thing happened.
[04:39.85]The tension which had been building up to an almost unendurable point
[04:45.54]in the bunker broke,
[04:48.05]and several persons went to the canteen to dance.
[04:52.55]The weird party soon became so noisy
[04:57.04]that word was sent from the Fuehrer's quarters
[05:00.54]requesting more quiet.
[05:03.33]The Russians might come in a few hours and kill them all
[05:08.01]though most of them were already thinking of how they could escape
[05:12.82]but in the meantime,
[05:15.01]for a brief spell
[05:17.62]now that the Fuehrer's strict control of their lives was over
[05:22.22]they would seek pleasure where and how they could find it.
[05:26.50]The sense of relief among these people seems to have been enormous
[05:31.89]and they danced on through the night.
[05:35.10]Berlin was no longer defensible.
[05:39.38]The Russians already had occupied almost all of the city.
[05:44.06]It was now merely a question of the defense of the Chancellery.
[05:49.07]It too was doomed
[05:52.16]as Hitler and Bormann learned at the situation conference
[05:56.65]at noon on April 30,
[05:59.65]the last that was ever to take place.
[06:03.05]The Russians were just a block away.
[06:06.84]The hour for Adolf Hitler to carry out his resolve had come.
[06:12.35]His bride apparently had no appetite for lunch that day,
[06:17.94]and Hitler took his meal with his two secretaries
[06:22.04]and with his vegetarian cook,
[06:25.25]who perhaps did not realize that she had prepared his last meal.
[06:30.24]While they were finishing their lunch at about 2:30 PM,
[06:35.34]Erich Kempka, the Fuehrer's chauffeur,
[06:39.44]who was in charge of the Chancellery garage
[06:43.36]received an order to deliver immediately 200 liters of gasoling
[06:48.74]in cans to the Chancellery garden.
[06:52.24]Kempka had some difficulty in rounding up so much fuel
[06:57.44]but he managed to collect some 180 liters
[07:01.72]and with the help of three men carried it
[07:05.33]to the emergency exit of the bunker.
[07:08.93]While the oil to provide the fire for the Viking funeral
[07:07.93]was being collected,
[07:10.31]Hitler, having done with his last meal
[07:14.30]fetched Eva Braun for another and final farewell
[07:18.88]to his most intimate collaborators Dr. Goebbels
[07:23.55]Generals Krebs and Burgdorf, the secretaries
[07:27.94]and Miss Manzialy, the cook.
[07:31.55]They finished their farewells and retired
[07:36.04]Outside in the passageway
[07:39.54]Dr. Goebbels, Bormann and a few others waited.
[07:43.74]In a few moments a revolver shot was heard.
[07:48.13]They waited for a second one, but there was only silence.
[07:53.64]After a decent interval they quietly entered the Fuehrer's quarters
[07:59.55]They found the body of Adolf Hitler sprawled on the sofa dripping blood
[08:05.35]He had shot himself in the mouth.
[08:08.64]At his side lay Eva Braun.
[08:12.35]Two revolvers had fallen to the floor
[08:16.24]but the bride had not used hers.
[08:19.53]She had swallowed poison.It was 3:30 PM on Monday
[08:25.54]April 30, 1945,ten days after Adolf Hitler's fifty-sixth birthday
[08:32.33]and twelve years and three months to the day
[08:36.12]since he had become Chancellor of Germany
[08:39.41]and had instituted the Third Reich.
[08:42.81]It would survive him but a week.