Hans - Erich Voss Hans - Erich Voss ( or Voß , see ß ) ( 30 October 1897 – 18 November 1969 ) was a German Vice Admiral and one of the final occupants of the " Führerbunker " during the battle of Berlin in 1945 . He was also among the last people to see both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels alive before they committed suicide . Military career . Voss was born in Angermünde , Brandenburg on 30 October 1897 . He graduated from the German Naval Academy in 1917 . He served on in the " Reichsmarine " and later in the " Kriegsmarine " . In 1942 , he was commander of the heavy cruiser , and met Joseph Goebbels , then Reich Propaganda Minister , when Goebbels accompanied a party of journalists on a tour of the ship . As a result of this meeting , Goebbels arranged to have Voss appointed Naval Liaison Officer to Hitler ' s headquarters in March 1943 . 20 July plot . Voss was present during the bomb plot against Hitler on 20 July 1944 . He was in the conference room at Hitler ' s Rastenburg Headquarters " Wolfsschanze " ( " Wolf ' s Lair " ) as Kriegsmarine representative . Around 12 : 30 hours as the conference began , plotter Claus von Stauffenberg made an excuse to use a washroom in Wilhelm Keitel ' s office where he used pliers to crush the end of a pencil detonator inserted into a block of plastic explosive wrapped in brown paper . The detonator , which consisted of a thin copper tube containing acid , took ten minutes to silently eat through wire holding back the firing pin from the percussion cap . The primed bomb was then placed in a briefcase under a table around which Hitler , Voss and more than 20 officers had gathered . Between 12 : 40 and 12 : 50 the bomb detonate d , destroying the conference room . Although Hitler survived with minor wounds , three officers and a stenographer were fatally injured and died soon afterwards . Voss was also wounded in the bomb blast but he quickly recovered . He became a recipient of the Wound Badge of 20 July 1944 . Initially his award class was presented in black but then it was upgraded to silver and finally gold because he was wounded a number of times after the initial award . Voss was the only member of the Wehrmacht to have received all three badges . Berlin 1945 . In his capacity as " Kriegsmarine " Liaison Officer , Voss accompanied Hitler , Goebbels , and their entourages into the " Führerbunker " under the Reich Chancellery building in central Berlin in January 1945 . In the final months of the Third Reich , Voss became a close confidante of Goebbels and his wife Magda Goebbels . He was aware that the Goebbels had decided that they would not leave the bunker , but would kill their children and then themselves once Hitler was dead . Führerbunker . On 30 April , Voss was among the group of officers whom Hitler informed that he had decided to commit suicide rather than attempt to escape from Berlin , which was surrounded by the Red Army . One of Hitler ' s security officers , Johann Rattenhuber , later testified : Interrogated by Soviet officers on 6 May , Voss recounted : On 1 May , Voss saw Goebbels for the last time : Voss then joined the group led by SS - " Brigadeführer " Wilhelm Mohnke which broke out of the bunker and tried to escape from Berlin . Most of the group were captured by Soviet forces the same day . Voss was brought back to the bunker for questioning , and to identify the partly burned bodies of Joseph and Magda Goebbels , and also the bodies of their six children , who had been poisoned . The Soviet account states : Capture . Voss was made a Soviet prisoner of war . In August 1951 , he was prosecuted by the Soviet authorities on charges that " he held a command post in Hitler ' s war fleet , that was involved in an aggressive war in breach of international laws and treaties . " In February 1952 , the Court Martial of the Moscow Military District sentenced him to 25 years ' imprisonment . By a decree of the Praesidium of the Supreme Soviet in December 1954 , however , he was released and handed over to the German Democratic Republic authorities . Death . Voss died at " Berchtesgaden " in Bavaria in 1969 .