On our return to Berlin the jubilation of the population was deafening. Hitler Youth had strewn the Wilhelm-Platz with flowers, draping them from the tree tops; they waved flags and applauded loudly as Hitler drove past. It was all rather too much for me. We had to endure similar receptions in 1938 on the return from Italy, in 1939 from Prague and later following the successful military campaigns in Poland and France, when Hitler was at the peak of his power.
Between 2 and 9 May 1938 I was the only secretary in the Führer’s special train[51] for the state visit to Italy. My colleague Johanna Wolf was on Rudolf Hess’s special train for the trip to Rome. She was attached temporarily to his staff. My younger colleague Gerda Daranowski came by plane. Johanna Wolf and I stayed in the Quirinal in rooms between the ground and first floors apparently meant for staff. I remember the wood-framed bay windows which went almost to the floor. We were cared for by a round signora dressed in black who curtsied whenever she spoke to us and tended our needs. We were served exquisite vegetable dishes prepared with oil and easily digestible. We saw nothing of the parades in Rome held in Hitler’s honour, but once we were driven by the chauffeur of Italian Crown Prince Umberto to Tivoli to see the wonderful gardens of the Villa d’Este. The Vatican was closed probably because of Hitler’s visit(?) but there was so much to see in Rome that Dara and I decided not to go to Naples for the naval review and went instead to Florence because the journey home was to begin there. As we strolled the Ponte Vecchio a coach containing the Duce and Hitler and drawn by the finest horses came towards us. We waved, laughed and saluted. Hitler used to say of this encounter later: ‘I was just about to say to the Duce what beautiful women there are in Florence when I recognised my secretaries.’
Scarcely had Hitler’s special train steamed out of Florence for the journey home than Hitler was dictating telegrams thanking the Italian king and the Duce. Ribbentrop was watching him. Hitler said: ‘If you can find a better way of putting it, then change the text.’ Ribbentrop then re-dictated the telegrams at least ten times but despite his best endeavours in the end he settled for the text Hitler had had in the first place.
The Italian visit was the main topic in many subsequent conversations, both in the positive and negative sense. Hitler had been inspired by Italian art, the buildings and military parades, less so by the court ceremonial. Hitler found the dryness and arrogance of the nobility a challenge to his self-control. The Duce did not have the same leading role in Italy as Hitler did in Germany and had no influence on the protocol. The demeaning treatment ‘those courtesans’ handed down to the Duce outraged Hitler. As he said, he had to suppress his instincts to break off the state visit prematurely because of the way in which Mussolini was continually humiliated. During the military parade in Rome seats had been reserved for the members of the royal house and for Hitler while Mussolini was forced to stand the whole time. ‘That made me so indignant that I almost made a public fuss. Only for the Duce’s sake did I exercise restraint,’ he said. The basis for his grudge against the Italians was founded in Rome on this visit and not later by the surprises which they had in store for him in the war.
Shortly before Czechoslovakia was incorporated into the Reich in 1939, the Czech state president, Hacha,[52] came to Berlin for a conference. The talks took place on the night of 14 March 1939 in Hitler’s large study at the new Reich Chancellery. Before Hacha was ushered in, Gerda Daranowski and I had to sit in a small office concealed by a door behind Hitler’s desk. We were to hold ourselves in immediate readiness should dictation be necessary during the conversation. We sat and sat, and the hours went by. Shortly after 0430 the door opened at last, and Hitler swept over the step, a happy expression on his face. Standing in the centre of the room he said, exuding a superabundance of endless joy: ‘So, children, now there and there,’ pointing to his left and right cheeks, ‘each of you give me a kiss.’ Since he had never made such a request of us before we were rather taken aback, but gathered ourselves and complied warmly with his wish. ‘This is the finest day of my life,’ he went on, ‘I have achieved something which has been striven for in vain for centuries. I have succeeded in unifying Czechoslovakia with the Reich, Hacha has signed the treaty. I shall go down in history as the greatest German.’
Just a couple of hours later we were aboard Hitler’s special train and heading for Czechoslovakia. We got out at Leipa in Bohemia where the great convoy of Mercedes from Hitler’s vehicle park was already waiting. Then we drove for Prague past endless columns of German soldiers. Snow whirled around us but Hitler ignored it. Most of the time he stood up in the Mercedes saluting. In Prague we went to the Hradschin fortress, like a fairytale castle set deep in snow above the houses of the city. Something was not right. The great wrought-iron gates were shut, and the SS bodyguard had to get out and open them, for me a clear sign that we were not welcome. Inside the Hradschin it was like an army camp. In collaboration with interior minister Frick and Secretary of State Stuckart, Hitler worked until late in the night preparing decrees which he dictated to me at the typewriter. It was so hectic that I failed to notice the photographers there. Many years later I chanced across a photo of myself which appeared at the head of a series of ‘Christa Schroeder Exclusive’ articles in Corriere della Sera.
It was difficult for the Czech officials in the Hradschin to hide their hatred for us. No wonder! They found it impossible even to offer us a snack, and about two in the morning the SS bodyguard went to the Deutsches Haus in Prague and rustled up some white bread, ham and Pilsner. We did the food justice and praised the icy cold beer. This made Hitler curious and he asked for a glass. He did not like the beer, however, for he pulled a face and said that it was ‘too bitter’ for him.
We returned to Berlin on the Führer-train on 19 March, my birthday, and Hitler invited his closest staff to a celebratory coffee afternoon in the saloon coach. He was in the best of spirits and presented me with a bouquet of long-stemmed roses which he had ordered by wire to be sent to a station along the way. He also gave me the present of a gold penholder and pencil engraved with the date and his name. In 1946 this gift gave pleasure to some American souvenir hunter in the Mannheim-Seckenheim internment camp.
From 1939 onwards we did more travelling. In contrast to earlier years when Hitler nearly always went by car, now he began to extol the greater comfort of his pleasant, tastefully furbished special train. It became his habit on these journeys to invite his intimate staff to the saloon coach in the afternoon and evening, when meals and tea would be taken. His female secretaries were never overlooked. If one or other of us slipped away to avoid one of these sessions, often hours long, he would mount an enquiry into her whereabouts and the manservant distributing the invitations soon learned not to accept No for an answer. Accordingly I spent a great deal of my existence in the saloon coach of the Führer-train.
The coach was mahogany-panelled with a large rectangular table, red leather chairs and indirect lighting. A gramophone and radio were on hand. When stopped at stations the signals crew hooked into the telephone network, or telegraphic messages could be sent. On these train journeys Hitler would insist on having the curtains drawn in the saloon coach even in blinding sunshine. He wanted only electric light because he found bright sunshine unpleasant. Possibly he also liked Dara’s make-up better under artificial light. He was for ever paying her compliments which led to the Hitler-impersonators amongst the officers staging their usual impressions once Hitler had retired.
51
In 1933 as Reich Chancellor, Hitler ordered a special train built. By 1943 it had no less than forty coaches available. From 1937 it was stationed at Berlin Anhalter Bahnhof and had ten coaches initially, from 1938 also a command coach and two flak wagons. Named
No. 1 saloon coach (the
Hitler used the train as his FHQ during the campaigns in Poland and the Balkans, and travelled across France in it on several occasions, including to the Spanish border for his talks with Franco in 1940. During the Russian campaign it was stationed at Görlitz within FHQ Wolfsschanze. It was destroyed on Hitler’s orders at Mallnitz on 1 May 1945.
52
Emil Hacha (b.12.7.1872 Budweis, Czechoslovakia, d. 26.6.1945 in a Prague prison). 1925 president of administrative court, Vienna; 1939 Czech state president; 15.3.1939 signed the Berlin document making Bohemia and Moravia into a protectorate of the Third Reich; 27 May 1945 as state president of Bohemia and Moravia arrested by the Allies.