So, we all know how old Adolf killed himself once he knew it was the Red Army taking Berlin. Let’s imagine an alternative scenario where the first army reaching Berlin would have been the USA or UK, am I wrong to assume he would not have shot himself?
He knew the war was long lost at this point, and he could have killed himself a very long time before that, but it clearly appears he clinged to hope that anyone else except Zhukov’s army would breach the city first. The coward clearly didn’t want to face accountability and likely humiliation which the soviets would serve.
Mussolini got killed because PCI partisans got to him first, had he gotten to the Western allies he might have lived. Same logic for Hitler. Hirohito got nothing, not even a fake punishment. The Nuremberg trials only happened because of Soviet insistence (no such thing happened after WW1, or ever again, really) and without the Fall of Berlin at the hands of the USSR would the Soviets have enough leverage to force the trials?
I think your thesis stands on all counts except, maybe the Mussolini part. I don’t know, I have a really hard time buying that Hitler cared that much about him, given the constant German superiority complex and all.
I’m not saying he was sad about it. He was scared he was going to get the same treatment.