Each unit is controlled by a GPU commissar to whom the commander is subordinate. Cut off from the leadership, what remains is a mob, totally primitive but which puts up a dour fight. This is naturally a danger in itself and leads to bitter fighting. The French, Belgians etc. were intelligent and gave up when they saw there was no point in going on, but the Russians keep fighting like madmen, trembling with fear lest something should happen to their families if they surrender◦– that is in any case what Moscow has threatened.
They cannot take advantage of having so many aircraft because they lack intelligence. In the Russian squadrons, for example, the squadron commander leads the way and the rest follow without knowing the objective, they simply stay on his tail. If he is shot down they cannot find the way back because most of them have not been trained to read a compass. Meanwhile◦– as I said previously◦– we have destroyed 3,500 Russian aircraft.
Back to the daily routine: at the end of the situation report the time passes slowly to lunch, which we take in Dining Room II. As the meal is very often stew we give that a miss particularly if peas and beans. If we have nothing important to do we take a nap for a couple of hours after lunch so that we are well rested for the remainder of the day, which usually lasts into the early hours.
Towards 1700 we are ordered to join the boss for coffee, and he treats us to cakes. Whoever eats the most gets a word of praise! The coffee hour usually lasts until 1900 but often longer. Then we go back to Dining Room II for dinner. After that we have a walk or see a film to kill time until we are invited for ‘tea’ after the evening situation conference.
In Hitler’s study, opposite the main windows, was a large fireplace with a round table before it and rattan chairs. As a rule at teatime the guests of the boss would be a medical doctor, one military and one personal adjutant, Martin Bormann, we two women and Heim,[68] Bormann’s adjutant. Heim had been given the task to record ‘secretly’ the gist of Hitler’s talk after the tea session was over. These were first published subsequently under the title Adolf Hitler: Monologe im Führerhauptquartier 1941–1944 by Werner Jochmann.
Here I have to make some observations about Dr Henry Picker.[69] For a four-month period in 1942 Picker deputised for Heim as temporary adjutant to Martin Bormann at FHQ. On Bormann’s instructions but without Hitler’s knowledge, he had to make surreptitious notes of Hitler’s conversation to keep Bormann abreast of Hitler’s thinking. Whatever one may think, the Monologe[70] (Heim) and the Tischgespräche[71] (Picker) are valuable sources for following Hitler’s thinking. Many historians have relied on them in the past, and many will in the future. What they may not know, however, is that a red line must be drawn through the Foreword and Commentary of Tischgespräche, for it is not true to claim that in 1942 Adolf Hitler gave Henry Picker the exclusive rights to write up the table talks. The facts are that Adolf Hitler had no knowledge of his monologues being secretly noted down. That he did not know, and did not wish a record to be kept, is proved by the following:
a. a conversation between Heim and Schaub after 1945. ‘In the spring of 1951 I met Julius Schaub in the street just after a magazine had published an extract from (Picker’s) Bonn book, which was on the point of being released. Schaub assured me that Hitler had had no idea that I was making notes…’;[72]
b. a letter from Gerda Christian née Daranowski to Christa Schroeder dated 19 March 1975: ‘… you know how he (Hitler) hated having his thoughts committed to paper, i.e. he strictly forbade it. I remember one night at Wolfsschanze when after some highly interesting talk you said to him something like: “I would like to have got that down in shorthand” and he replied: “No, then I would not be able to speak so freely” etc. etc, do you remember?’
c. Adolf Hitler often said that after the war he would dictate his memoirs to his two senior female secretaries Wolf and Schroeder. The events, experiences and ideas expressed in his table talks were naturally the major component of his life story. A signed statement in my possession made by stenotyist Gertraud Junge reads: ‘The worse the situation got at the fronts, in the small circle at the evening table talks the happier the Führer would be to talk about his plans for after the war. He talked about the painting gallery and reshaping the city of Linz, to where he was planning his retirement, and mentioned in this context repeatedly that he would then surround himself only with civilians, artists and academics, and never again with ‘uniforms’, so that he could then finally dictate his memoirs. His two long-serving secretaries Wolf and Schroeder would help him in this, the younger girls would probably marry and leave him. As he would then be older and slower, the women would be able to keep up with his tempo.’
d. Another myth is that Adolf Hitler allegedly instructed Martin Bormann to give Picker special treatment by ordering that his bags were not to be searched whenever he left FHQ. In fact the bags of FHQ staff were never searched: ‘AFFIDAVIT. I hereby swear on oath that during my service as personal adjutant to Adolf Hitler from 1943 to April 1945, my bags and personal effects were never subject to controls on entering or leaving FHQ. This was true for all other personnel at FHQ. There never was an order to search baggage of FHQ personnel upon entering or leaving FHQ or Sperrkreise I and II (Führer-bunker and accommodation of Adolf Hitler’s personal staff.). Upon entering Sperrkreis I (Führerbunker) after the assassination attempt of 20 July 1944, visitors from outside were required to surrender their pistols to the RSD, and their hand baggage (file and attaché cases) was examined.’ Signed, Otto Günsche, 26.3.1982.
To rebut all of Picker’s false assertions would require another volume. I point out here just three glaring examples:
a. Eva Braun was the lady of the house at the Berghof;
b. Eva Braun was Hitler’s ‘great love’; and
c. Hitler broke off his friendship with Gretl Slezak in 1932 because of her Jewish background.
All three statements lack any basis in fact and are discussed at length later in this book.
It was the custom of Dr Picker to throw a party every year to celebrate his birthday. In the Foreword and Commentary to Tischgespräche, Picker includes a tract allegedly signed by the three former military adjutants, von Puttkamer, von Below and Engel, to the effect that all have read the material of the book and vouchsafe its accuracy to the best of their knowledge and belief. In order to lend credit to this authentication, these three former officers were invited to attend the birthday parties. It is unfortunately the fact that hardly any of them had read the Foreword and Commentary. When I asked the wife of one of the former ADCs she replied: ‘Ah, you know Christa, we never read stuff like that. We put the book straight on the shelf!’[73] Thus historians may rely on the authentication and in good faith repeat Picker’s assertions as historical fact.
68
Heinrich Heim (b.15.6.1900 Munich). 1920 NSDAP Membership No. 1222; from 1927 Munich lawyer; 1928◦– end 1930 attorney on staff of Hitler’s lawyer Hans Frank; 1933 staff of Rudolf Hess; various offices at NSDAP; 1940◦– end 1942 Martin Bormann’s adjutant at FHQ (absent 21.3.1942◦– 31.7.1942); 1943 to end April 1945 head of commission in Munich investigating basic questions of law for the reconstituted Europe; 3.5.1945◦– mid 1948 interned.
69
Henry Daniel Theodor Picker (b. 6.2.1912 Wilhelmshaven, d. 2.5.1988 Starnberg). NSDAP member from 1.4.1930; Hitler Youth Bannführer and Reichsamtleiter to 1.11.1944 when relieved of his post by Hitler and Bormann; deputised for Heinrich Heim at FHQ 21.3.1942◦– 31.7.1942, secretly noting Hitler’s table talks for Bormann. Picker claimed in his book (third edition, 1976) that he was ‘Hitler’s constant guest’ and that Hitler had approved his taking verbatim notes of Hitler’s conversations (p.28). Hermann Giesler:
70
Werner Jochmann (ed.),
71
72
14.9.1953 for the BBC, London, taped recording, extract from
73
Frau von Below, wife of former Luftwaffe adjutant to Hitler Nicolaus von Below (statement by Schroeder to editor).