ABSTRACT
A major problem for the Admiral Donitz government was to decide what to do with the incriminated Nazi leaders. Martin Bormann and J. Goebbels told Donitz that Adolf Hitler was dead and that he was now President. Donitz faced the exceptionally difficult task of saving what he could from the ruins of the Third Reich. Donitz suspected that the copy of Hitler’s will might not be genuine and resented the fact that he was given no freedom to choose his own cabinet. Donitz was far from pleased at these developments since his strategy of moving as many troops and refugees as possible west depended on a carefully conducted series of surrenders in the west. Donitz complained bitterly that Eisenhower was blind to the danger from the Soviet Union but saw no alternative but to order Alfred Jodl to sign the surrender documents. Donitz and Schwerin von Krosigk were unable to follow demarcation line of argument.
