Mysterious Ending Of Dr. Fritz Todt!

Born into a middle class German family in 1891, he had an ambition, quite early in his youth, to become an intellectual linked to Engineering.  His 'middle-class' family circumstances could accommodate his ambition, except that World War I (1914-18) came to disrupt his plans. He was drafted into the German Army. Hitler, two years older (Austria-Born), fought in the same war for Germany, but the two didn't know each other then. In 1921, Fritz founded 'a group' of young academics and technicians who developed interest in entrepreneurship, specially conceptualising road surfacing with 'any material' then available. He hadn't as yet met Adolf Hitler. Germany, in the years of the Weimar Republic (1920-1933), was 'such an awfully rough terrain' for the youth.  Unemployment was high, provocateurs liked what they saw, and that kindled political unrest, an example of which was the Adolf Hitler-led coup d'état of  1923, which was quashed, leading to Hitler being arrested, tried, and found guilty of conspiracy to commit treason, and treason. He was sentenced to long-term imprisonment, only to be released less than one year later. Historians are not completely done with as to why. What may not be overlooked is the fear in Europe that had been created by Communism, whose repercussions Western Europe was apprehensive of! Fritz Todt found his way to joining the NAZI Party, whose ringleader and founder happened to be Adolf Hitler. What is not clearly spelt out is when his 'personal union' with Hitler took place. Dr. Todt, from Pforzheim (Germany), was handed the post of Minister of Military Production under Hitler's leadership. Such appointments came from the Fuehrer himself.  It was known that men like Herman Goering (Air Marshall), Adolf  Speer (the pluri-potential Minister, and Hitler's darling boy), Goebbels (the propaganda secretary, whose gift was truly ingrained in the art of speaking),  and Martin Bormann (the man said to have been so close to 'The Fuehrer, ' even to the last minute),  were competitors permanently under such pressure  as to how to please the Fuehrer, or not to fall into disfavour – if the situation could easily be imagined by those not quite in it, but could daily observe what was happening.  An Arab amateur historian describes it as 'comparable to a Harem of the Pasha, and the women permanently struggling to be the 'darling wife'.  Then came 1939, and Hitler was in such a hurry to attack (invade) Poland, and if the price should be World War II, so be it – Hitler was prepared. Fritz Todt, according to rumors from 'close within', saw very little to gain by going to war. The worst was yet to come. Hitler would march on the Red Army too, come 1941.  It was an engagement in which even some Nazis are said to have seen as 'partying today, but probably sobbing tomorrow.'  Dr. Todt was 'Munitionsminister', Minister of Armamentarium.  He non-the-less did not see any sense in the undertaking. But, Hitler of course, did. That was what mattered, wasn't it?  Dr. Todt was highly respected, but Hitler was feared, and he (Hitler) was the boss, and even the blind did see the difference.  In spite of Germany having the biggest ammunitions-production-factory in the entire world, mainly underground, and producing day-and-night (using slave labor), the day of victory that Hitler, Himmler and Goebbels had been drumming into the ears of those who had to listen, was by far, not yet in sight. Todt is believed, at times, to have 'come to thrash out the two years of age difference between the 'Fuehrer and himself', when the former, now and again, drew on 'that advantage' as a wedge to course ahead.  Hitler was disillusioned as to whether he had 'the right man' in charge of arms production, and with it, the conduct of the war. Meetings after meetings were held, only Adolf Speer and Dr. Todt are said to have ever been raising objections to Hitler's plans, which included total annihilation of the entire German State, plus the occupied countries, in case of Germany's defeat.  A meeting was once held in Hitler's Easter Headquarters in Rastenberg. At the tail end of it, Dr. Todt was to leave for Berlin with Adolf Speer, in one of the Fuehrer's special aircraft.  Moments before the planned flight, however, Dr. Todt alone had to fly, the excuse being that Herr 'Speer wasn't yet ready to join, as initially planned.' Not long after take-off, the aircraft was observed to have come down in a ball of fire. The official report was that there was no survivor, the sole passenger, the 'Reichsminiter' of Arms production, had perished. What made most people hold their breath was the speed with which Adolf Speer, 'Hitler's darling boy' was picked to replace the talented  technical intellectual, who happened to have found enthusiasm in Nazism.

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