Hitler's Last Witness (14 page)

21
Vyacheslav Mikhailovitch Molotov (1890–1986) was from 1939 People's Commissar for External Affairs of the Soviet Union.

22
The visit took place on 12 November 1940.

23
Alexander Freiherr von Dörnberg (1901–1983) was chief of protocol at the Foreign Ministry and member of the Reichsführer-SS staff, 1938–1945.

24
In the second half of November 1940, Hitler spent some time on the Obersalzberg, and on 19 November received King Boris of Bulgaria. See Nicolaus von Below,
At Hitler's Side
, London 2004, p. 78.

25
The driver was Rudi Lippert.

26
The Japanese foreign minister Yosuke Matsuoka stayed in Berlin from 27 February to 19 March 1941.

27
The German National Volks Party (DNVP), which advocated the return of the monarchy, was in coalition with Hitler's NSDAP for a time, but in June 1933 disbanded itself under pressure.

28
Hess flew to Scotland and parachuted down near Glasgow. His intention was to visit Douglas, Duke of Hamilton, on his landed estate so as to use Hamilton's connections to Winston Churchill to negotiate peace. The project came to grief. Hess stated later that he had acted alone, on his own initiative and Hitler did not know. This is still debated by historians.

29
On 11 May 1941, Hitler framed an edict that the office of ‘The Führer's Representative' would be known henceforth as ‘The Party chancellery' and headed by Martin Bormann. (NB Original footnote says 10 May, Hitler did not know of Hess's defection until the morning of 11 May, hence my correction. (TN))

30
Saint-Nazaire had the only dry dock on the French coast large enough to accommodate the
Bismarck
for repairs. (NB Original footnote only mentions the bunkers for German U-boats, which had not been built in May 1941, and it was obviously not in the hope of reaching these that the
Bismarck
was heading for Saint-Nazaire, hence my replacement footnote above. (TN))

*
According to Hitler's valet Heinz Linge, adjutant Pintsch arrived at 0930 hrs. Linge said that Hitler had been awake until the early hours and was not to be disturbed until noon. When Linge knocked on his door, however, Hitler appeared dressed and shaved, leading Linge to believe that Hitler already knew. Heinz Linge,
With Hitler to the End
, London 2009, p. 97. (TN)

Chapter Seven

FHQ Wolfsschanze: 1941

ON THE AFTERNOON OF
22 June 1941, as Operation Barbarossa began, Hitler left Berlin.
[1]
Initially, he went into the newly built FHQ Wolfsschanze about ten kilometres east of the East Prussian town of Rastenburg.
[2]
The barrack camp had been built by the Organisation Todt.
[3]
It had bombproof bunkers, and the whole installation was covered with camouflage netting, so that the bunkers, paths and structures could not be seen from the air. Meanwhile, work continued on other security measures and extensions. FHQ Wolfsschanze was equipped with fully functioning logistics. Hitler could direct the state, Party and war from there. There was a daily courier service from there to the presidential Chancellery in Berlin.

OKH (Army High Command) was located near Angerburg, about twenty-five kilometres from FHQ Wolfsschanze. OKH representatives came twice daily for the military situation conferences, mostly by train, in an old railway coach, which stopped at the purpose-built Bahnhof Görlitz within the security confines of the Führer-HQ. FHQ Wolfsschanze had its own railway track and an enormous platform to receive official state visits.

FHQ Wolfsschanze was within two Sperrkreise (protected areas). All kinds of special passes existed, which gave limited entry here or there. The password was changed daily. The pass with the most extensive permission had a red diagonal stripe and allowed access to Sperrkreis
1, the Führer-Sperrkreis. None of this applied to us of the bodyguard. We had our ‘Open Sesame', which I have mentioned before, and it lived up to its name, even in the FHQ Wolfsschanze.

Whereas the OKH headquarters – known as Mauerwald because of its location on the Mauer Lake – offered 1,500 generals, officers and men a bed and shelter, and was accordingly the size of a small town, FHQ Wolfsschanze was extremely modest both in size and its accommodation. We in the bodyguard were given quarters in wooden barracks within the inner Sperrkreis. As time went on, the wooden walls were reinforced with concrete. Our barrack hut was the only place where one could enter the Führer-Sperrkreis uncontrolled. The barrack hut straddled Sperrkreis 2 and Sperrkreis 1.

Hitler's bunker was basically built around his ‘office'. There was a bedroom and washroom, and a very small living room equipped with a table and some chairs.

Bormann, after his appointment as chief of the Party chancellery, and naturally as befitted his more important status, had his quarters opposite those of Hitler. Göring lived near the railway line, while Himmler's own field-command post was about half an hour away and was called Hochwald (high woodland), corresponding to the scenery.

We spent the longest period of the war with Hitler at FHQ Wolfsschanze. The first days in that summer of 1941 were almost perfect, the reports from the Eastern Front were excellent, and everybody was in the best of spirits. At first, I had nothing to do. The Wehrmacht handled the telephone service, my colleague Helmuth Beermann was given responsibility for the mail and courier services, and the RSD escorted the guests. My work was limited to being within range of Hitler for possible assignments.

Nothing exciting happened, and the mood became generally more informal. To put it another way, we lazed around. Soon we sought to overcome our boredom by swimming in the nearby Moysee lake. Civilians came there from the nearby villages to bathe. They had no worries about being disturbed by us. We took the car for trips ever further afield, into the glorious countryside. The lakes of the Masurian plateau and the beauty of the scenery enchanted me.

In the evenings we sat in our barrack hut and played cards, mostly Tarock – the room hazy with the cigarette smoke of my colleagues. During my lifetime I was never a smoker, but, when off duty, nearly all my colleagues would puff away for all they were worth. Much to my distress, Helmuth Beermann organised a never-ending supply of tobacco wares of all kinds from Mitropa. Obviously, it was forbidden for the bodyguards to obtain luxury goods from the Mitropa stocks, but Helmuth had a good friend among the Mitropa people, who supplied him under the counter.

Besides Hitler, we also had time to look after a young roe fawn, which came to us one day. We fed it peanuts, and the crafty animal soon knew exactly where we kept these and was soon helping itself. It would also come up the steps to the hut, push open the door with its snout and lick up the peanuts from the floor. We would leave the door open intentionally, and often the fawn would come up to our beds for assistance if it failed to find what it was looking for.

Less pleasant experiences were had with the mosquitoes. They plagued us, and bothered us endlessly. Without the nets which covered our heads, we would have been eaten alive. For one of our colleagues, the mosquitoes provided another quite unexpected consequence. Adjutant Fritz Darges, previously adjutant to Martin Bormann, was standing one day with his hands in his trouser pockets close to Hitler awaiting his orders.
[4]
I was not far away and saw Hitler leafing through a batch of papers. Suddenly, a mosquito began buzzing stubbornly about Hitler's head. Heavy-handed and angry, Hitler hit out at the mosquito with the paperwork but without the desired result. The accursed thing appeared quite unimpressed, and after the wild gesticulations had ended would always settle again on exactly the same spot from where Hitler had attempted to shoo it away. Fritz could hardly conceal his laughter at the Führer being second best in an aerial dogfight with a mosquito. Fritz had not moved a centimetre from where he was; his hands were still in his pockets, and he was grinning. This was not overlooked by Hitler, even in his excitement. He looked at Fritz sharply: ‘If you are not even able to keep a thing like that off my body, then you have no business being here!' Fritz understood at once and went to pack his trunk. The same evening he was already on his way to the front. In the autumn of 2007, when we conversed by telephone, we discussed this incident. Fritz is older than me, but he still remembered it very clearly.

The daily routine in the FHQ Wolfsschanze soon followed the same well-rehearsed ritual as at the Berghof. Towards midday, Hitler would receive generals Keitel and Jodl for the first situation conference. After tea, towards 1800 hrs, the second one would take place, and towards midnight a third lasting around half an hour. Between these meetings, lunch would be taken at 1400 hrs and the evening meal at 1930 hrs. After the late night conference, Hitler would meet the adjutants and female secretaries. There would then be a rather festive spirit abroad and to touch on any political or military theme was strictly taboo. At this, we colleagues would usually withdraw to the mess in order to discuss the latest developments on the fronts.

Hitler dined in officers' mess 1, we in officers' mess 2. When the special train was at FHQ Wolfsschanze, Mitropa would keep us supplied with delicacies. Armed with these, Krümel (Crumb) the cook got to work.
[5]
He was a very small man who looked even smaller alongside us giants of the SS bodyguard. In his kitchen empire he had hung a motto: ‘
Wer den Krümel nicht ehrt, ist des Kuchens nicht wert
!' (Whoever does not honour Crumb, does not deserve a slice of the cake!) What came first, the slogan or his nickname I cannot remember. In any case, a better nickname could not have been found for him.

We used to amuse ourselves a lot over our colleague Jörg, whose surname I forget. Through injury, he had lost his sense of taste. While enjoying a Fernet-Branca, with straight faces we would pour him a similar-looking preparation made with Maggi seasoning and spices, and then smirk behind his back like schoolboys.

Models and Miniature Buildings

The good mood fell away a little when, in late summer 1941, the stream of reported successes began to trail off. I was shuttling meanwhile between Rastenburg and Berlin. Two weeks here, three weeks there; it went on for quite a while. Mostly I went by courier aircraft, a Ju 52. Meanwhile, I missed the visit of Mussolini to the FHQ Wolfsschanze.
[6]

At the Reich Chancellery, I had been allocated another service room. I had been asking for this for some time, because I was really put out at being so far from my colleagues and near to ‘the boss'. When I heard that the two nieces of house administrator Kannenberg were giving up their room, I enquired at once if I might not take it over – and I succeeded. My new service room was on the ground floor and also much nicer than my old one. It did not matter to me that I had to share it with the films controller Stein. Stein also lived at a private address in Berlin and usually drove there after duty. Our paths never crossed. Hans Junge, Hitler's servant and later the husband of Hitler's secretary Traudl Humps, had the adjoining room until his death – he fell at the front after being transferred there at his own request. Dr Blaschke also had his dental surgery in this sector.
[7]
Once a week, he left his practice on the Kurfürstendamm for the Reich Chancellery. Thus, I would often escort patients to his consulting room for their appointment. There were rare occasions when some of the clientele, perhaps Frau Goebbels, might exchange a few words with me beyond pleasantries. Perhaps fear of the drill loosened their tongues. None of this chatter has remained in my memory.

I was relieved at no longer having to pass Hitler's suite when returning to my own room. I was told that he was very sensitive to noises and heard everything. My duty brought me there at all hours of the day and night, and always having to creep by silently had been a nuisance. I had also been easily reachable there, and I did not like the idea of being the next best thing should the valet or other servant not be around. That happened often enough if I had drawn the sentry post at the small table near the trademen's entrance, Hitler wanted his valet, and the valet had gone off early to the restroom. If Hitler saw that the servant did not answer his summons and bell ringing, he would lean over the stairway banisters and call down, ‘Sentry!' to which I would reply: ‘
Jawohl
,
mein Führer
?!' Then he would send me in search of the valet or tell me what he wanted. At night, it would often be for his hot-water bottle. When that happened the first time, I thought it might be about the stomach trouble which plagued him, but he wanted it to warm his feet. This extraordinarily important bed companion, always wrapped in a snow-white cotton bag, would have to be organised by me very promptly.

In order not to disturb Hitler with unnecessary noise if at all possible, we of the bodyguard could move about everywhere with absolute freedom. Because of this, we were not informed expressly if unusual guests were announced. In November 1941, I was particularly impressed by one visitor – the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. I came across Hitler in the corridor just as he was about to disappear into his study with Mohammed Amin al-Husseini. I stared after the gentleman with the monstrous headgear in amazement – it was the first time I had seen somebody with such an attire in the flesh. As to the reason for the visit or what was talked about, I had no clue.
[8]