14 Facts About Hans-Erich Voss

Hans-Erich Voss was a German Vizeadmiral and one of the final occupants of the Fuhrerbunker during the battle of Berlin in 1945.

Hans-Erich Voss was among the last people to see both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels alive before they committed suicide.

Hans-Erich Voss graduated from the German Naval Academy in 1917.

Hans-Erich Voss served in the Reichsmarine and later in the Kriegsmarine.

Hans-Erich Voss was present during the bomb plot attack against Hitler on 20 July 1944.

Hans-Erich Voss was in the conference room at Hitler's Rastenburg Headquarters Wolfsschanze as the Kriegsmarine representative.

Hans-Erich Voss was wounded in the bomb blast but he quickly recovered.

Hans-Erich Voss became a recipient of the Wound Badge of 20 July 1944.

Hans-Erich Voss was the only member of the German military to have received all three badges.

Hans-Erich Voss was aware that Goebbels had decided that they would not leave the bunker, but would kill their children and then themselves.

Hans-Erich Voss then joined the group led by SS-Brigadefuhrer Wilhelm Mohnke, which broke out of the bunker and tried to escape from Berlin.

Hans-Erich Voss was brought back to the bunker for questioning, and to identify the partly burned bodies of Joseph and Magda Goebbels, and the bodies of their six children, who had been poisoned.

Vice-Admiral Hans-Erich Voss, being asked how he identified the people as Goebbels, his wife and children, explained that he recognised the burnt body of the man as former Reichsminister Goebbels by the following signs: the shape of the head, the line of the mouth, the metal brace that Goebbels had on his right leg, his gold NSDAP badge and the burnt remains of his party uniform.

Hans-Erich Voss was released by East Germany in January 1955.