Hitler's Last Witness (11 page)

4
The German Red Cross (DRK) states that it has no record of this firm report. Delegates of the International Committee of the Red Cross (IKRK) often inspected German concentration camps. In 1935, an IKRK delegation led by Carl Jakob Burckhardt received approval to inspect the concentration camps at Lichtenburg, Esterwegen and Dachau. After Burckhardt had drawn up a list of deficiencies, he was invited by the Gestapo to make a later visit to inspect the improvements. In August 1938, an inspection at Dachau by an IKRK delegation with SS escort took place. The delegate, Colonel Guillaume Favre, wrote a positive report. The DRK assessed the visit as a complete success. A Danish Red Cross delegation and the IKRK delegate Maurice Rossel were shown over the Theresienstadt camp on 23 June 1944, which had been expressly made ‘showable' for the visit. Rossel was deceived, and in his report later spoke of ‘finding in the ghetto a town living an almost normal life.'

Chapter Six

The Berghof, Hitler's Special Train and Rudolf Hess

AT THE BEGINNING OF
1940, Hitler returned to Berlin, though only for a few days. Then we were told to get everything ready, as we were going to Berchtesgaden.

Hitler was driven to Gatow airport for the flight. His Grosser Mercedes Type 770K, with valet and two adjutants, set off first; then came the SS bodyguard, also in a Mercedes; at the rear was a vehicle occupied by members of the RSD. We did not give the impression of being a convoy, as there were no motorcycle outriders or sirens. Only when we stopped at a red light might somebody have recognised Hitler.

Gatow airport at Berlin-Spandau was used only by government members. Hitler preferred the seclusion of the small airport and avoided flying out from bustling Tempelhof.
[1]
Generally, there would be two Ju 52s standing ready: one for Hitler and his entourage, and the other for us and the RSD. After three or four hours we landed at a small airport near Salzburg, from where it was only about forty kilometres to Berchtesgaden. A car fetched us; I saw nothing more of Hitler's aircraft, nor did I see him again that day.
[2]

From my period under training with the
SS-Leibstandarte
, the countryside around the Berghof was well known to me. The Berghof was an expansion of the former Haus Wachenfeld, which Hitler's half-sister Angela had once rented for him. In 1934, he bought the small house and then had it converted. Not until 1939 was the addition of the service/domestic wing completed.

A wide flight of steps led up to the main floor. To the right was the Great Hall with its gigantic window, which could be lowered for effect. The view towards the mountains was overwhelming. In front of this panoramic window was a marble table several metres long, while on the floor were valuable Persian carpets. The room had wood panelling up to waist height and a coffered ceiling. There were two areas of seating: one arranged before the great hearth; the other with red easy chairs about a round wooden table near the window. An enormous cupboard about five metres long and three metres high stored Hitler's record collection and other private possessions.

Although this room was really the finest at Berchtesgaden, the official house guests preferred the rustic, simply furnished living room of the former Haus Wachenfeld. This cosy room was separated from the Hall by a heavy curtain. A green glazed stove warmed in winter – and cooled in summer – those on the surrounding seating.

The restrooms for Hitler's personal staff and adjutants were on the ground floor. Further on were located laundry rooms, and a large kitchen near the dining room. Hitler's small private area was on the first floor. The rooms for guests, the staff, the adjutants and the housekeepers were also there. One of the guest rooms with a bathroom was separated from Hitler's suite only by a space between doors. Inside this wing, one could therefore pass from room to room without having to go into the corridor. Eva Braun lived in this particular guest room. Why would the female housekeeper at the Berghof, Eva, having been introduced to us as such, have this special access to Hitler's sleeping quarters? One soon had one's own ideas about this.

On the second floor were more guest rooms. The female secretaries and some women of the house staff also lodged there. Below, in the cellar, Hitler had had a bowling alley built. The fact that he liked to bowl he kept to himself. This passion did not seem to him to be fitting for a great statesman, and he was concerned that all the bowling clubs of the Reich, should they discover his predilection, would make him honorary chairman. To these nether regions of the house Eva would often resort with female friends or the secretaries to watch films, if Hitler had an official visit and her presence was therefore not required.

A large number of valuable paintings were scattered about the walls of the whole house. They belonged to Hitler, and I heard that he wanted to exhibit them one day at Linz in a specially designed museum – the Führer-museum.
[3]

We of the SS bodyguard were not given quarters in the main house but in a wooden annexe about twenty metres long. We reached our service rooms by an open balcony on the valley side, which was always beautifully arranged with tubs of flowers. The commandant of the bodyguard had his room in this annexe, and the secretaries worked there too. The washing facilities were located hereabouts. Close to us was the dental surgery. Professor Hugo Blaschke, an elderly-looking gentleman, was not only Hitler's private dental surgeon but he also treated many other people in the closer circle of ‘the boss'.

From our veranda we could see in the distance the Hohensalzburg fortress on a hilltop. Below in the valley was Berchtesgaden. The annexe balcony also gave an unfettered view of the Berghof terrace, on which the numerous get-togethers and receptions were played out. Here I had a grandstand view of world history, or of Eva lounging on a sunbed.

The mood on the Obersalzberg was always unforced. The war would not be passing by this way. Even many high-ranking representatives of non-allied states seemed to forget the war completely when at the Berghof. I remember the visit of a US envoy with whom Hitler was chatting in the best of moods. It even continued when Hitler casually handed him a note, which the envoy equally casually tucked into a pocket. My colleague was of the opinion that the note had something to do with the entry of the United States into the war. In any case the two of them went on with their free and easy conversation, Hitler describing the region with alluring gestures.

Built onto our wooden annexe was another small, two-storey building. The upper floor was occupied for most of the time by Hitler's Luftwaffe adjutant Colonel Nicolaus von Below, whom I remember as a very pleasant man.

Additional to the Berghof plot of land, which belonged to Hitler personally and for which he had paid with the royalties from
Mein Kampf
, Martin Bormann had bought in trust for the NSDAP other parcels on which he had erected new structures or torn down the existing ones.
[4]
Over the course of time nearly everybody in the leadership had a domicile on the Obersalzberg: Göring,
[5]
Speer, Hitler's deputy in the Party Rudolf Hess
[6]
and many others. By 1943, almost the whole of the Obersalzberg was the property of the NSDAP.

In 1933, Bormann had bought the inn Zum Türken, which was situated above Haus Wachenfeld. Even the Platterhof, a former farm, belonged to the NSDAP and was converted into a hotel. It had a multi-purpose hall with about two thousand seats and was used by Hitler from time to time to deliver a speech. Generally on these occasions, contrary to the practice in Berlin or Munich, I would be in the hall. In any case, Obersalzberg was a long-term building site.

Duty in a Holiday Camp Atmosphere

I enjoyed the time at the Berghof very much, because my colleagues and I had very little to do. There was a permanent telephonist, who only seldom needed assistance. There were only six of us of the SS bodyguard present – more beds than that stood empty. On the Obersalzberg, therefore, I spent much more of my time as a bodyguard.

State receptions were held in the small baroque palace Klessheim, near Salzburg. From 1942, the castle served as a guest house, and I remember it particularly for a special outbreak of rage by Hitler. Apart from one other instance, this was actually the only time that I saw him infuriated. Otherwise, I never witnessed him shouting wildly. When consorting with the generals he could not let himself go in that way, and he would pull himself together. It was at Schloss Klessheim that I saw him almost raging. He had a meeting with the Hungarian envoy Admiral Nikolaus von Horthy, and I could hear from outside the door of the room in which the conversation took place the loud tones in which it was being conducted.
[7]
Suddenly they both emerged, not so much as looking at each other, Horthy going one way, Hitler the other.
[8]

At the Berghof, there was at least one military situation conference daily and there were also numerous receptions. Many guests were present almost constantly: Eva Braun; personal physician Theo Morell and his wife Hannelore; Sepp Dietrich; Margarete and Albert Speer; photographer Heinrich Hoffmann
[9]
and his second wife Erna; state secretary Hermann Esser;
[10]
medical officers Hans-Karl von Hasselbach and Karl Brandt; and others. It was almost a family environment, with grown-ups sunning themselves, children running around madly, and between them yapping dogs.

My time at the Berghof was for me the finest. The daily programme was laid down a day beforehand, but which colleague did what was of little interest to our commander. The splitting up of the work was more or less left to ourselves. The main thing was to have somebody responsible for each task. Thus, one could change jobs at will with a colleague to suit some objective one had in mind, or work a longer shift so as to have a shorter one owed for another occasion.

Even on duty, however, the Berghof was like a hotel to us. It was just like being on holiday – we could even take what photos we liked with our own cameras. To capture Hitler and his guests through the lens of my Retina was possible.
[11]
Only during official visits to the Berghof would the photographs taken that day have to be submitted to Heinrich Hoffmann. This was just a formality, however. At the time I did not understand the significance of it. I took a photo of Hitler with his hands in his trouser pockets – that it was somehow unusual never occurred to me. So I just clicked the shutter whenever I wanted without really considering what might be of interest to ‘the world afterwards'.

Hoffmann also gave me the prototype of a technically improved colour film for testing. I used it to take the first colour pictures of my later wife wearing a colourful summer dress in a meadow. It has always been my favourite photo of her.

When I was off duty, usually I would walk down into Berchtesgaden. Long rambles were another way of spending time. Occasionally on Sundays, I would go to mass with a colleague. I would like to have made a regular thing of it but going alone never appealed. Therefore, my presence at mass depended on whether the colleague with whom I was sharing duty at the Berghof was a churchgoer or not. Incidentally, Eva often went to mass.
[12]

During the stays at the Berghof between 1940 and 1944, I repeatedly accompanied Hitler as his bodyguard on his many short rambles on the Obersalzberg. Almost every day after lunch, he would go alone or with guests to the Tea House, which he had had built in 1936 and 1937. It was only a twenty-minute walk there, but even on fine days he would often have himself driven, mostly choosing to go in a black Volkswagen Cabriolet.

On my first day at the Berghof, I was somewhat put out to have a pair of leather shorts pressed into my hands. Apparently, I was obliged to wear them if Hitler appeared for a ramble similarly dressed. I was very grateful that he never wore leather shorts during wartime, and so the time never came when I had to turn out in this traditional Austrian garb.

In good weather Blondi, Hitler's Alsatian bitch, would accompany her master, but only on the leash, because the countryside surrounding the Berghof was a paradise for wild animals. Blondi, by the way, had been an idea originating from within the SS bodyguard. Before Blondi, Hitler had had an almost black sheepdog called Muck. When this dog died, Hitler did not get a replacement until the Old Campaigners in the bodyguard decided that he had to have another. The old dog had always had a positive effect on Hitler, providing him with diversion and cheering him up. An RSD man had heard that the Alsatian bitch of Gerdy Troost, architect and wife of Speer's predecessor Paul Ludwig Troost, had had puppies, in Munich.
[13]
The female puppy from this brood, Blondi, so-named for her very light coat, was thus visually the opposite of Muck.

Hitler did not like only Alsatians. One day, the small dog owned by the cook Helene Marie (‘Marlene') von Exner ran across his path. She had received it as a gift from her former employer, the Romanian president Ion Antonescu.
[14]
Hitler kneeled beside the dog and said: ‘Where have you come from, you little rascal?' He then played with the joyful little animal. Eva also loved dogs. She had two Scotch terriers called Negus and Stasi. They were always around, yapping.

The Tea House was built on a small rocky plateau, which provided a glorious view over the valley. Coffee was prepared there in the tiny kitchen for guests and a fire would be lit in the hearth in winter. Hitler never drank anything but apple or caraway tea. Indulging his passion for cakes and pastry, he never needed a coffee break; he nibbled all day long on pastries and chocolates. After stuffing himself full, he would sometimes nod off in his chair, but on days when many guests arrived he would always be on top form, in high spirits and talkative. For the SS bodyguard there was a special duty room at the Tea House.