By the way, Munich was lovely, great enthusiasm. Dara and I got a lot of surprised looks in our field-grey costumes with the Deutsche Wehrmacht armbands. Meanwhile the boss was in the room where he dictated the appeal for the newspapers. He composed the radio programme himself…
Explaining why he had not destroyed the BEF at Dunkirk, Hitler told his intimate circle: ‘Their army is the backbone of Britain and the empire. If we had destroyed the BEF, the empire would follow. As we neither wish to be, nor can be, its successor, we had to give it a chance. My generals have not been able to understand that.’ Hitler was scuppered, so to speak, by his spurned love for Great Britain. That day in Bruly de Pêsche Hitler was very relaxed and happy. The news of the French offer of peace was given to him while standing with his officers on the road between the church and the schoolhouse. He gave himself a lively slap on the upper thigh and his laugh of relief carried to us two secretaries. A little to one side we watched the scene as Walter Frentz filmed it. Then Keitel gave an address in which he hailed Hitler as the greatest warlord of all times.
Hitler visited the trenches where he had served in the First World War, finding them to be exactly as he remembered them. Later he went to Paris to see the Invalides cathedral, the Opera House and other buildings.[61] After his return he claimed with pride that he knew his way about their corridors better than the guides did: during his youth in Vienna he had made a thorough study of its ground plan and had retained all the architectural details in his head.
A few days later Dara and I were taken by a Wehrmacht driver, whom Oberst Schmundt had placed at our disposal, to Brussels where we were involved in a minor accident. It was nothing serious but Dara was thrown against the car roof and suffered concussion. I found her a hotel to change before our return a couple of hours later. Hitler heard about this accident and banned us from riding in Wehrmacht cars. He showed such concern for us. It was a good relationship and one felt protected, even at the beginning of the Russian campaign before much changed.
At the outbreak of war I had a large trunk made with compartments for the office material and stocks of headed stationery. These had the sovereign emblem (eagle with swastika) and the words Der Führer below it in gold, while the private notepaper had Adolf Hitler instead of Der Führer. There were also cards with the same design.
Since we were now constantly at FHQ, Hitler wanted us to wear uniform. On Hitler’s directive the president of the Guild of Stage Designers, Benno von Arent, designed for us a costume in Italian officers’ grey cloth with gold buttons and cord trim. In place of the round Party badge Dara and I wore on the left lapel the silver sovereignty emblem designed by Hitler himself and cast by goldsmith Otto Gahr. It consisted of a slim eagle clasping a swastika in its claws. Permission to wear this badge was granted by Hitler only to a chosen few.
Even later Benno von Arent visited Hitler frequently at FHQ and also received invitations to join the evening tea sessions. Hitler would talk with him about the artists they knew. When Arent left, Hitler would always shake his hand warmly and say: ‘I am glad to have you visit me from time to time in my loneliness. You are for me a bridge into a better world.’
Letter, Berghof, 22 February 1941:
We have been continually on the move since 21 December 1940. Christmas on the French coast, Calais, Dunkirk, etc. On 23 December at Boulogne, while at dinner in the dining car of our special train, the British bombed us and our flak roared back. Although we were sheltered in a secure tunnel I had ‘funny feelings’. I have already told you about Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, where the mood was less than pleasant.
The six days I spent in Paris with Schaub, Dara and Kempka were free of duty. We had almost too many invitations, from the German embassy and the staff of General Hanesse, and scarcely had time to come up for air. We should have arranged for a rest day afterwards, that would have made it better… Probably we will not be staying up here too long. At the moment Daranowski is resting, I am here with (Johanna) Wolf.
Since we shall be spending the whole year sitting in the bunker with nothing to eat day after day but thick pasty stew I would like to take the cure at Niederlindenwiese, even if only for fourteen days. Up here we have an unpleasant thaw with gloomy overcast sky. The boss is in Munich today and so it is really desolate…
Letter, Berghof, 7 March 1941:
I am pleased your holiday was so harmonious and that you were able to be with so many nice people. I think it would also be good for me to spend a few weeks with normal people, therefore I really do envy you. One should also definitely maintain contact. By being so cut off from things I feel lonely, dull and ossified. It is time we went back to Berlin, we have been here long enough. We shall be in Berlin probably mid-month.
At the moment it looks as though I shall not be going to Niederlindenwiese. Now we have to be immunised against cholera and typhus (this happened before all our big journeys). Well, if I cannot go, I accept it. War is war. I have just heard today of the heavy work the women have to do in the bomb factories, it makes one feel quite insignificant.
I hope you received my letter from Vienna. We went there on Saturday for the signing of the Bulgarian Pact.[62] On Sunday we were travelling and I could not call you. Meanwhile we had a hefty snowfall which spoiled our spring mood. I do not think it will settle long, it is too wet and the sun is trying to break through to melt it.
I am returning Lav’s letter to you with this one. He does not seem to be very satisfied but this pessimistic undertone you find in all his letters. Rather skilfully he sent me a few short lines directly through a business friend who visited him there. He seems to be very disappointed not to have heard from me. He ought to be able to understand the problem in itself, but of course he knows nothing about the OKW and Gestapo investigations… and if you have not passed on my aquamarine ring I would be glad if I could hold on to a memento of Brückner. Imagine it, Wernicke was also swept out with another colleague in the whirlpool of clearance and reorganisation. I did not hear of it until he had already gone. Nothing surprises me any more. We are all sitting on a powder keg.
Letter, Berlin, 28 April 1941:
I was hoping that the boss would not come back so soon.[63] On this last journey he gave Wolfen a rare outing but now he has arrived and probably we will be off south again in the next few days. The fourteen days when I was alone in Berlin simply sped by…
Gretl Slezak[64] secretly married three months ago without her parents’ knowledge. He is six years her junior, a conductor who composes heavy and light works, has a terrific temperament and is in the Luftwaffe. She is happy, looks years younger and keeps advising me to do the same. All I am short of is somebody suitable.
A short while ago I got from L(av) a small packet which somebody sent me in Berlin of his behalf. Ahrens at FHQ forwarded it for me to Niederlindenwiese and now I have received it by this roundabout route. It contains twelve socks and a kilo pack of tea with the note: ‘On behalf of Herr L.A. with warmest greetings.’ No date or other message. Probably he will have handed it over in February. I expect it will be the last sign of life from him, for now he will scarcely dare write.
Owambo[65] has now finally cleared out his room this week. I kept him company and got the last bits of information I was missing. Also the certainty that in our circle there is nobody who will lift a finger to help if one falls into disfavour. I was very sorry for Owambo, apparently nothing military has been arranged for him. He is completely in the dark, nobody amongst his comrades who once sent him photos signed ‘in undying friendship’ will have anything to do with him, and here I mean those who were once degraded[66] themselves. But that is all forgotten. It is disgusting when people are so selfish and have no sympathy for the sufferings of others, and do not even have the will to imagine what it must be like in the other’s shoes. Well, there is still much to be said about it. Damn, now I have to stop, they are laying the table. The boss joins us for coffee every afternoon…
61
Hitler made a lightning visit to Paris first on 23 June 1940. Architects Speer, Giesler and Breker were with him. Next, on 25 and 26 June 1940, he travelled with First World War comrades Max Amann and Ernst Schmidt to the former German trenches on the Somme.
63
Hitler was in Munich 21–24 March 1941, and in Vienna on 25th, when Yugoslavia joined the Axis. He left immediately afterwards for Berlin, where he arrived on 26th.
66
In a footnote to her papers Schroeder commented: ‘Schaub’. What Schaub had done to merit this note was not recorded.