Hitler, Goering and Goebbels knew that it had to appear as though everything that could be done was done. The Germans were haunted by visions of Napoleon's retreat from Moscow in 1812, and so the military defeat of the Sixth Army would be turned into a victory of the spirit, and the troops portrayed as martyrs. On the day that Paulus surrendered, Hitler promoted him to field marshal. I have no intention of shooting myself for this Bohemian corporal. When word of Paulus's surrender got back to the Fuhrer, Hitler was furious.
Life is the nation.
The individual must die anyway. . . What hurts me most, personally, is that I still promoted him to field marshal. I wanted to give him this final satisfaction. He could have freed himself from all sorrow and ascended into eternity and national immortality, but he prefers to go to Moscow. In April 1945, Hitler himself did commit suicide in Berlin.