Another of the visits by prominent statesmen to the Berghof which Hitler was fond of describing was that by Lloyd George[127] in 1936. He had been impressed by the geographical situation of the Berghof, by the house itself, its furnishings and above all the view from the gigantic window over the mountains. German measures to curb unemployment, reduce working hours and introduce state health insurance, as well as other social advances, also impressed him. Dr Ley had acquainted Lloyd George before his visit to the Berghof with the work of the Arbeitsfront, the official workers’ organisation.
On the other hand the visit of Knut Hamsun[128] to the Berghof left a bad taste in the mouth. This happened in June 1943. During a meal, Baldur von Schirach had mentioned Hamsun’s visit to the Journalists’ Congress in Vienna and urged Hitler to invite the Norwegian to the Berghof. After initial reluctance Hitler agreed and Knut Hamsun came. During the conversation between Hamsun and Hitler, Dara Christian and I heard a heated exchange◦– we were in the lounge, which was separated from the Great Hall only by a curtain. Holding our breath we crept closer. Hamsun had had the gall to take Hitler to task over the measures introduced by Gauleiter Terboven in Norway, urging in emotional tones that Terboven be recalled. Maybe because he was rather deaf, or possibly because Hitler would tolerate no contradiction, we heard Hitler shout at him: ‘Be silent! You know nothing about it!’
Hitler had said precisely the same thing on Good Friday 1943 to Henriette Schirach at the fireplace, she told me in 1978. I remember that evening Eva Braun had sat at Hitler’s right before she went upstairs, and to the left of Henriette. I had also noticed that, while the other guests were talking, an argument developed between Henriette and Hitler, the subject of which was an occurrence in Amsterdam a few days previously. She had been awoken at night by an unusually loud disturbance and had watched from a hotel window as some weeping women were ordered forward across a bridge and disappeared into the night. From her friends she learned next day that this had been a deportation of Jewish women. She promised to bring the matter to the attention of Hitler, which she was now doing. Hitler answered her in a very brusque manner: ‘Be silent, Frau von Schirach, you understand nothing about it. You are sentimental. What does it matter to you what happens to female Jews? Every days tens of thousands of my most valuable men fall while the inferior survive. In that way the balance in Europe is being undermined,’ and here he moved his cupped hands up and down like a pair of scales. ‘And what will become of Europe in one hundred, in one thousand years?’ In a tone which made it evident that he considered the matter closed, he is said to have declared: ‘I am committed by duty to my people alone, to nobody else!’
The guests noticed that Hitler had now become morose, and there was visible relief when a waiter appeared suggesting that he might refill the glasses. Another great sigh of relief went up when just after midnight Dr Goebbels arrived, but it was misplaced, for Goebbels launched at once into a diatribe against Baldur von Schirach, accusing him of fostering Austrian policies in Vienna. Hitler said that it had been ‘a mistake to send Schirach to Vienna, and also a mistake to have annexed the Viennese into the Greater German Reich.’ When Schirach pointed out that ‘the Viennese are all for you, mein Führer’, Hitler retorted, ‘I am not in the least interested, I reject them.’ At this Schirach declared that under the circumstances he was resigning his post, but Hitler waved this aside by saying: ‘That is not your decision. You will stay where you are.’
Next morning there was a deathly stillness over the Berghof. However this had nothing to do with the departure of the Schirachs, who had driven off in the early hours without so much as a by-your-leave: on Martin Bormann’s orders it was always quiet across the entire Berg every morning because Hitler spent most of the night studying reports and other documents and slept in more or less until noon. All house guests in the floor above his had to pay heed. One had to tiptoe around the bed and not bathe until midday. All guests were also required to make no noise on the terrace, where Eva Braun liked to spend time amongst her friends in a deckchair until Hitler appeared.
Frau Schneider[129] was her friend of longest standing. Of the other women, one or another of the doctors’ and adjutants’ wives would be in favour with Eva Braun from time to time, and would be invited to Portofino with her, this being a place she adored. All the others would then be wary and maintain a reserve towards the reigning favourite. It was often an odd bunch up there on the Berg.
From 1944, enemy aircraft began to overfly Berchtesgaden. The sirens would howl frequently and the smoke batteries would conceal the region. Hitler was expecting a concentrated attack on Obersalzberg, as he did on his FHQ. In 1943 bunkers were built, ready by Christmas. They saved my life in 1945. Within a few steps of the back door of the house there was an iron door from where sixty-five steps led down to the bunker complex.
Chapter 15
The Order to Leave Berlin: My Leave-taking of Hitler
AFTER THE FÜHRER-BUNKER IN the Reich Chancellery park had been reinforced, Hitler withdrew his FHQ to Berlin in January 1945. The bunker had been intended as a temporary refuge during air attacks, but after the upper rooms of the Radziwill Palace, particularly the library, had been made uninhabitable by incendiaries, Hitler spent most of his time with his staff in the bunker.[130] It extended below ground into the Reich Chancellery park, where there was an emergency exit in the form of a small concrete turret. There were several stairways from the main building down into the bunker.
In the Radziwill Palace, the Adjutancy Wing, including the Staircase Room, was undamaged, and so at the beginning of 1945 we secretaries would take our meals during the day with Hitler behind drawn drapes with the lights on while outside the spring sun shone down on the gutted Hotel Kaiserhof and the Propaganda Ministry. The evening meal was served in the Führer-bunker in Hitler’s small, sparsely furnished room. Already narrow, it was equipped with a small writing desk, a small sofa, a table and three chairs. To move across the room required a repositioning of the chairs. The room was cold and unpleasant. On either side was a door, one leading to his bathroom, the other into a cramped bedroom. The study was dominated by a portrait of Frederick the Great[131] which hung over the writing desk. With his large, powerful eyes the old ruler glared down at Hitler. The oppressive narrowness of the room and the overall general mood in the bunker had a depressing effect.
At six in the morning, when Hitler received us after the nightly situation conference, he would usually be lying exhausted on the little sofa. His physical decline made daily advances despite his desperate attempts to hold himself together. He always managed to rise to greet us though, sinking back after a while, his manservant raising his feet for him. He was almost permanently emotional, and his talk was increasingly the monotonous repetition of the same stories. At lunch, dinner and the nightly tea sessions (i.e. in the early hours of the morning) the same again. Thus almost every day he would tell us: ‘This beast Blondi woke me again this morning. She came to my bed wagging her tail and when I asked her: ‘Do you have to do your business?’ she dropped her tail and crept back to her corner. She is a sly animal.’ Or: ‘Look, my hand is improving. It is not trembling so much, I can almost hold it out firmly.’
128
Knut Hamsun (b. 4.8.1859 Lom, Norway, d. 19.2.1952 Grimstad). Novelist; 1920 Nobel Prize winner for literature; during the Second World War Nazi sympathiser, member of Norwegian Quisling Party; after the war convicted of collaboration and fined.
129
Herta Schneider née Ostermeier (b. 4.4.1913 Nuremberg) knew Eva Braun from their primary schooldays. Eva Braun was a frequent visitor at the Ostermeier’s because her parents were not interested in her. In 1936, Herta married, and from then until 1945 spent long periods at Obersalzberg with her children. On 28.4.1945 she left for Garmisch-Partenkirchen with Margarete Fegelein, Eva Braun’s sister.
130
The
131
This was the portrait by Anton Graff. Hitler’s attitude at the end can be summarized precisely by a letter from King Frederick to Podewils on 27.4.1745, exactly 200 years before: ‘I shall either hold out or, if not, I desire that everything shall be destroyed and the Prussian name be buried with me.’