He watched as cyanide was slipped into his dog’s mouth. He was emotionless. He only wanted to know if it worked': Hitler's confidantes describe his last days in extraordinary never-before-seen interviews
- Filmed testimonies about Hitler were made three years after the war
- Favourite secretary revealed he received love letters from followers
- Hitler's air force aide reported the poisoning of Hitler's beloved Alsatian dog
- Butler revealed song Blood Red Roses was favourite of Hitler and Eva
- It was claimed that Hitler loved gossip in the programme broadcast this week
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Remarkable interviews with the circle of confidantes who surrounded Adolf Hitler in the days before his suicide have been shown for the first time on German television.
In testimony from beyond the grave, the group of aides, secretaries and friends described life in the squalid bunker retreat beneath the Reich Chancellery in Berlin as Russian troops moved in.
They revealed intimate domestic details of Hitler's favourite tea, the love letters from his admirers and the love song that he and Eva Braun, the woman he married in the underground hide, listened to over and over again.
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Last day: Adolf Hitler and his wife Eva Braun
pose with their pets. The dictator is holding his favourite dog Blondi
on a leash. He was to have her poisoned with cyanide
Final days: The bunker where Hitler spent his final days with his new wife Eva Braun before committing suicide
The interviews were conducted at Nuremberg three years after the war by an American film unit and carried out by US judge Michael Musmanno.
He had helped to prosecute Nazi war criminals and had been given special access to the remnants of Hitler's court because the US Navy believed rumours that the Fuehrer had escaped to Argentina after the war.
Historians had long believed that the footage was lost to history. But late last year a portion was found in an archive in Nuremberg. The rest was recovered from from relatives of Mr Musmanno
Last night the extraordinary film was broadcast for the first time in a programme called 'Witnesses to the Downfall.'
Love song: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. Arthur
Kannberg, Hitler's butler, revealed how a song called 'Blood Red Roses'
was the favourite of Hitler and Eva, a record they listened to 'over and
over'
THE LOVE LETTERS FROM ADMIRERS
Traudl Junge, who was Hitler's favourite secretary, told the cameras how her boss was receiving love letters from besotted followers right up until his suicide in the Berlin bunker in April 1945.'That was my first job for him, bringing the post from women who had nothing better to do than write to him. They were love letters, yes,' she said.
'But I only remember him as someone paternal who was always worried about me. I never saw him as the statesman, I didn't attend any of his conferences. We were summoned only when he wanted to dictate and he was as considerate then as he was in private.
'And our office, both in the Reichschancellery and in the bunkers in the Wolf's Lair or in Berklin , we were so far removed from his command quarters that we never saw or even heard any of his rages that we heard whispers about. We knew his timetable, whom he received, but except for the few men he sometimes had to meals we attended.
'My colleagues told me that in the earlier years he talked incessantly, about the past and the future, but after Stalingrad, well, I don't remember many monologues.
'We all tried to distract him, with talk about films, or gossip, anything that would take his mind off the war. He loved gossip. That was part of that other side of him, which was basically the only one we saw.
'When I came to type his final testament in the bunker during the last days of the war I thought he would justify his actions and explain why Germany is in this position. That he had a way out from our terrible tragedy. But he repeated only the old slogans which he had used in his speeches.'
Love letters: Adolf Hitler taking the salute at
Era in Thuringia during a march by his supporters. Traudl Junge, who was
Hitler's favourite secretary, said he often received love letters from
admirers
HITLER AND EVA BRAUN'S FAVOURITE LOVE SONG
Arthur Kannberg, Hitler's butler, revealed how a song called 'Blood Red Roses' was the favourite of Hitler and Eva, a record they listened to 'over and over.'He added; 'The boss was always particular about the afternoon tea. The cups and silverware always had to be pristine and he insisted that Eva was present at his holiday home on the Obersalzberg for such occasions.
'Hitler and Eva were very much in love, but perhaps not to the extent that he ever wanted children with her.
'Before the end he gave me gold and silver cigarette cases engraved with his name. When he handed them over he said; 'Look after these until we meet again.''
'He also spoke of a 'secret stash' of treasure of Hitler's which he hid near to his home at Berchtesgaden, but it has never been found.
August Wollenhaupt, the barber of Hitler, was also interviewed and he described a 'genial, soft spoken man' who enquired after his family and who always wanted to know what 'the gossip from the man in the street was.'
Revealing: Adolf Hitler asleep, next to Eva Braun - this photo was banned during Hitlers lifetime
THE WEDDING PARTY WHERE THE FUHRER REFUSED CHAMPAGNE
Hitler's adjutant Nicholas von Below was interviewed, along with his favourite film director Leni Riefenstahl, the family of his mistress - and wife of 24 hours - Eva Braun, who committed suicide with him in his bunker, and generals Walther Wenck and Karl Koller.One bunker functionary called Lorenz said that after Hitler and Eva married on April 29 1945 'there was a little party in the bunker.
There was champagne but Hitler didn't drink any. He was concerned about getting his last will and testament down.'
Relationship: Hitler (standing third from right)
and va Braun (kneeling far right). His butler said 'Hitler and Eva were
very much in love, but perhaps not to the extent that he ever wanted
children with her'
Killed: Eva Braun with Hitler's beloved dog Blondi
HOW HITLER POISONED HIS BELOVED DOG BLONDI
Hitler's air force aide Bernd Freytag von Loringhoven told the cameras about the poisoning of Hitler's beloved Alsatian dog 'Blondi'.'He watched as cyanide was slipped into its mouth and its jaw was pushed down to break the glass,' he reported.
'Hitler was emotionless. He only wanted to know if it worked and it did. Later the propaganda minister's wife Magda Goebbels would use the capsules to murder all her children as they slept.'
Hitler was given his beloved dog as a gift and he became so fond of her that she slept in his bedroom in the bunker during his final days.
But this affection was not shared by Eva Braun who preferred her two Scottish Terrier dogs named Negus and Stasi.
According to Hitler's secretary she hated Blondi and was known to kick her under the dining table.
According eyewitness accounts, Hitler's dog-handler, Feldwebel Fritz Tornow, shot Blondi's puppies outside the bunker after Hitler and his new wife committed suicide
BURN MY BODY SO I'M NOT EXHIBITED AT A RUSSIAN FREAK SHOW
A Colonel Holsten who was in the bunker when Hitler and Eva ended their lives on April 30 1945 told how he saw the bodies being dragged up the narrow stairs to the Reich Chancellery garden where they were doused in petrol and set aflame.'I was frozen,' he said, 'then raised my arm automatically one last time in the 'Hitler Greeting' to salute him.'
Hermann Karnau, an S.S. bodyguard of the Fuehrer who escaped the bunker and tried to return to it at the last moment, said; 'I tried to get back through into the bunker through the emergency exit when I saw about 20 metres away from me the bodies of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun.
'They had been set on fire. When I went to the spot early in the evening to try to move them into a hollow in the ground, they disintegrated.
'I recognised that it was Hitler from his uniform and his distinctive moustache. I had seen the Fuehrer alive that morning sitting in his favourite wicker chair. Later in the day, before the suicides, I recalled seeing four men arrive with gasoline cans which they said was for the air conditioning system inside the bunker.
Death pact: Adolf Hitler with mistress Eva Braun - the pair died together in the bunker
Traces of the dictator: War correspondents
examining the arm of sofa stained with blood while one of them uses a
candle to search the floor for evidence of suicide in Adolf Hitler's
underground shelter
Abandoned furniture and debris: Photographer
William Vandivert was the first Western photographer to gain access to
Hitler's Führerbunker after the fall of Berlin
Examination:
LIFE correspondent Percy Knauth sifting through the dirt & debris
in the shallow shell hole where the bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun were
thought to have been burned after their suicides, in the garden of the
Reichstag.
'I last saw Hitler alive around about 4.00pm that day. I believed that the Fuehrer had been poisoned by his personal physician Dr Ludwig Stumpfegger.'
Erich Kempka, Hitler's chauffeur from the earliest days of the Nazi movement, scrounged the necessary fuel to burn the bodies in the garden of the Reichs Chancellery.
He said; 'I remember with complete sureness that I was called on April 30 by S.S. Sturmbannfuehrer Guensche while I was in the Reich Chancellery garage asking me to bring over five cans of petrol to the bunker.
'Once there Guensche told me the Fuehrer was dead and that he had been ordered to burn his corpse 'so that he would not be exhibited at a Russian freak-show.'
'I then helped carry the corpses. While Linge and an orderly whom I do not remember were carrying the corpse of Adolf Hitler, I carried the corpse of Eva Hitler. I noticed the long black trousers and the black shoes which the Fuehrer usually wore with his field-gray uniform jacket.
'The corpses were taken from the bunker to a spot about four to five metres distant from the bunker exit and at this location both bodies were cremated.
'Guensche poured the complete contents of the five cans over the two corpses and ignited the fuel. Reichsleiter Martin Bormann, Reichs minister Dr Goebbels, SS-Sturmbannfuehre Guensche, SS Sturmbannfuehrer Linge, the orderly and I stood in the bunker entrance, looked towards the fire and all saluted with raised hands .'
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