Why Millions Believed in Hitler | The Hitler Chronicles: Blueprint for Dictators | Episode HT
You think you know Adolf Hitler? You’ve never seen him like this before. Hitler’s contemporaries, from his birth in Braunau to his death in the bunker, authentically flesh out the picture. Who was Hitler? Hitler neither finished school nor had any vocational training. He occasionally lived in homeless shelters or on the street.
He refused to pursue a regular job. To this day, it seems inexplicable that he could come to power. Out of nowhere, Hitler became the Führer, leader of the German Reich, one of the most powerful men of the 20th century, starting an inferno that engulfed the world and brought death to millions of people.
The nation worshipped him and followed him blindly into the abyss. But during his lifetime, he kept his origins and his life secret. No one should know how or who he was. Fascinating and oppressive accounts from companions, friends, and enemies, as well as the most extensive collection of archive material ever shown, much of it hitherto unpublished, reveal who Hitler was and how he could become what he was.
A notorious liar and an unscrupulous murderer. Thanks to Germany’s economic recovery, Hitler gains in popularity among those who are not members of the NSDAP or a Nazi organization. He intensifies the construction of the new Autobahn motorways and promises the Germans an affordable car, the Volkswagen, also known as the Beetle, for which an entire new industrial center is created.
The Nuremberg party rallies advanced to become bombastic shows of Hitler’s power and part of the general demonstration of reinvigorating German military strength. His private life is confidential. Thus, he can keep his relationship with Eva Braun secret. As he has always cultivated an image of living alone for the good of Germany.
History is replete with examples of men who have risen to power by employing stern, grim, wicked, and even frightful methods, but who nevertheless, when their life is revealed as a whole, have been regarded as great figures whose lives have enriched the story of mankind.
So may be the case with Hitler. Winston Churchill, Great Contemporaries, 1938. The Germans adore military show. In Nazi Germany, everyone has a uniform. If it isn’t the uniform of the army, navy, or air force, it is that of the SA, SS, or some party organization. Even the little boys and girls have been strutting about in the uniform of the Hitler Youth or the Union of German Girls.
Instructions for British Servicemen in Germany, 1944. The Nuremberg Rally of Work takes place in September 1937. After the seizure of power, there will be six further party congresses, each with a motto. The Nuremberg Rally of Peace is scheduled for September the 2nd, 1939, and is cancelled 1 day beforehand because of the Wehrmacht’s invasion of Poland.
Before the end of Culture Week, I was once again in an airplane, and even from the air, I could see the mass of people inside the party buildings on Zeppelinfeld. On the way back from the airport, the boiling heat of this uniformed public festival suddenly enveloped me. Marching music, columns of men, swirling dust, swastika flags in all possible and impossible places, and the pavements brown with people.
Paul Otto Schmidt, chief interpreter at the Foreign Ministry, experiences, “It’s impossible to describe the unique intoxication that moves the hundreds of thousands of men and women. For 8 days, the city of Nuremberg is under a spell.” André François-Poncet, French ambassador to Berlin, “I confess that I was exceptionally impressed by much of what I saw, and I was fascinated by the brilliantly smooth running of events.
” Albert Kesselring, Supreme Commander, Air Fleet 1. “Each time, I noticed how enchanted people looked, their faces full of near biblical devotion when they saw Hitler. As if delirious, they stretched out their arms and greeted him with screams and shouts of Heil.” Paul Otto Schmidt. “The march past took 4 hours.
He held his right arm out in the Nazi salute for literally the entire time. [cheering] Afterwards, I asked him how he was able to do that. His answer, ‘Willpower.'” Neville Henderson, British ambassador to Germany. “He couldn’t do it like Comrade Esser, who didn’t seem to get tired with his arm outstretched for hours and hours.
Hitler was almost envious of his stamina. Then he noticed how Esser quietly put his right arm down and raised his left. As Hitler told us later, he would have liked to have copied Esser.” Fritz Wiedemann, adjutant to Adolf Hitler. Over the years, the procedures at the Nuremberg rallies are canonized.
The form, as Hitler expresses to Albert Speer in a debriefing of the party convention in 1938, must be an irreversible ritual for as long as he lives. Canonization would provide his potential successor with Hitler’s borrowed charisma and become a liturgy of the Third Reich. But in Nuremberg, I also had the distinct feeling of imminent danger.
The conversion of the German people to National Socialism was honest and complete. Besides the Führer’s cheering masses, who seemed prepared to follow him and only him, whatever opposition that remained consisted merely of plans and the desire to oppose without any backing or force. Paul Stehlin, Air Force attaché in the French Embassy in Berlin.
William Lyon Mackenzie King, Premier Minister of Canada, diary, June the 29th, 1937, after received in audience at Reichschancellery. “When I was formally shown into the room in which Herr Hitler received me, he was facing the door as I went in. He was wearing evening dress, quietly and pleasantly said he was pleased to see me in Germany.
His face is much more prepossessing than his pictures would give the impression of. It is not that of a fiery, overstrained man, deeply and thoughtfully in earnest. His skin was smooth. His face did not represent lines of fatigue and weariness. His eyes impressed me most of all. There was a liquid quality about them, which indicate keen perception and profound sympathy.
He looked most direct at me in our talks together at the time, save when he was speaking at length on any one subject. He then sat quite composed and spoke straight ahead, not hesitating for a word, perfectly frankly, looking down occasionally towards the translator and occasionally towards myself. He went on to say, ‘So far as war is concerned, you need have no fear of war at the instance of Germany.
We have no desire for war, our people don’t want war, and we don’t want war.’ As I talked with him, I could not but think of Joan of Arc. He is distinctly a mystic. He is a teetotaler and also a vegetarian, abstemious in all his habits and ways.” Mussolini met Adolf Hitler for the first time in Venice in 1934.
Hitler was taking his first steps in international politics, while the Duce had been in power for 12 years. The first impression my husband had of Hitler was not overwhelming. Rachele Mussolini, wife of Benito Mussolini, memoirs. He was like a gramophone that only plays seven notes and once played starts all over again.
Benito Mussolini After the meeting in Venice, the relationship between Hitler and Mussolini initially remained distant. Diary, August the 4th, 1937, Wednesday, Pisa. We picked up a German boy by the name of Martin on the way to Pisa. Very interesting as he was definitely anti-Hitler. Although he couldn’t tell us much about it.
He also told us how very much the Germans hate the Russians. It looks like the next war will come from that direction. Especially as England and the rest of Europe seem to be drawing away from Russia. John F. Kennedy, student, traveling in Europe. Diary, September the 6th, 1937. The Duce held forth on America.
He called it a land of [ __ ] and Jews, an element of cultural decomposition. He’s planning to write a book, Europe in the year 2000. The races that will play an important role are the Italians, the Germans, the Russians, and the Japanese. The others will be devoured and destroyed by the acid of Jewish corruption.
They even refuse to father children because it causes pain. They do not know that pain is the only creative element in people’s lives. Galeazzo Ciano, foreign minister of the Kingdom of Italy, Benito Mussolini’s son-in-law. Diary, August the 17th, 1937. Arrived in Munich around 8:00. Went to the Hofbräuhaus, which was very interesting.
Hitler seemed so popular here as Mussolini was in Italy. John F. Kennedy The Munich traveler’s father, the multimillionaire Joseph Kennedy, holds the prestigious post of ambassador to London. He is close to Hitler-friendly circles of the British aristocracy and thus isolated from Washington and London. In 1940, he will resign.
Diary, August the 18th, 1937, Munich. Got up late and none too spry. Had to talk to the proprietor, who’s quite a Hitler fan. There was no doubt about it that these dictators are more popular in the country than outside due to their effective propaganda. John F. Kennedy At first what surprised me was that most Germans, as far as I could see didn’t seem to mind that their personal freedoms had been taken away.
That so much of their splendid culture was being destroyed. Or soon became aware, to be sure that in the background there lurked the terror of the Gestapo and the fear of the concentration camps. The vast majority did not seem unduly concerned with what had happened to a few communist, socialist, pacifist, defiant priests and pastors, and to the Jews.
William Shirer, correspondent to the Universal News Service in Berlin. Departure for Cologne via Frankfurt. All towns are very attractive, showing that the Nordic race is certainly seems superior to Latins. Germans really are too good. John F. Kennedy During one of these walks, the Führer spoke in depth about traffic problems throughout the world and asserted that as a result of the development of the automobile and increased production, roads would no longer be able to handle the traffic within the next 10 years.
Within 50 years, the horse would be a showpiece of the army at best, or else be on display in a zoo or circus to be gazed at as camels and elephants are now. Gerhard Engel, army adjutant to Hitler memoirs in diary form. He considered horses to be particularly stupid animals, for example, because they [ __ ] when they see paper blowing in the wind and could thus ruin an entire parade.
He was fascinated by engines. He could talk about Autobahns and Volkswagens for hours. Reinhard Spitzy, diplomat and personal assistant to Joachim von Ribbentrop. Between 1933 and 1938, Hitler is constantly on the move with his large entourage. For this purpose, he has a motorcade, three planes, and a special train with two carriages at his disposal.
Hitler’s favorite vehicle when traveling was the car. Second came the train. Third, but only to save time, was the airplane. The motorcade consisted mostly of four to six cars, except for official journeys, when there were often more. The first car was the Führer’s. Then the SS escort adjutant cars, and the last had the luggage.
The motorcade consisted exclusively of Mercedes. Hitler didn’t like it when there was a different make of car in the motorcade. Wilhelm Krauser, personal assistant to Hitler. On my return to the Führer’s headquarters yesterday, I flew very fast in the Führer’s plane, a very spacious Fokker-Wulf. By the way, this plane is simply furnished without any ostentation.
The only special feature is a desk for Hitler at his seat. Henry Picker, senior executive officer On May the 19th, 1935, Hitler’s former bodyguard Sepp Dietrich, now commander of the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, ceremoniously opens the Frankfurt am Main-Darmstadt motorway. As early as May 1933, Hitler, who is fascinated by cars and technology, issued a program of motorway construction, which was to create a dense network of four-lane roads across Germany.
Under the responsibility of the General Inspector for German Roads, Fritz Todt, there are about 1,500 km of motorway under construction in autumn 1934. This is also designed to reduce unemployment. In 1936, around 120,000 workers are employed on the project. One of Hitler’s positive achievements was to build hundreds of miles of first-class motor roads, though his object in doing so was largely military.
These are called Autobahnen, car roads. Instructions for British servicemen in Germany, 1944. From there, headed to Utrecht on one of the new Autobahns. They are the finest roads in the world. Really unnecessary though in Germany as the traffic is so small. They would be great in the US as the speed is unlimited.
John F. Kennedy Some pre-production KDF cars at the Leipzig Spring Fair of 1936. In February 1934, Hitler had publicly demanded that the German automobile industry develop an economical and inexpensive passenger car, a Volkswagen. In June, Ferdinand Porsche was given the go-ahead by the Reich Association of the German Automotive Industry to develop a prototype.
Later, the German Labor Front with its organization KDF, or Kraft durch Freude, strength through joy takes over the management and financing of the project. On May the 26th, 1938, near Brunswick on the Mittelland Canal, the foundations for a Volkswagen plant are laid. Shortly thereafter, a new conurbation called the City of the KDF Car at Fallersleben, later Wolfsburg, is founded.
In the KDF City, no private cars will be produced. But from 1938, the military version of the Beetle, the so-called Kübelwagen, and other military equipment. The rest is propaganda, which even has an effect in far away America. In a short time, the Führer is going to plaster his great sweeps of smooth motor highways with thousands and thousands of shiny little beetles purring along from the Baltic to Switzerland and from Poland to France with father, mother, and up to three kids packed inside and seeing their fatherland for the first
time through their own windshield. New York Times, July the 3rd, 1938. The Führer then talked about the need to build a highway to Trondheim in Norway and another to the Crimea. After the war, German citizens with their Volkswagens should have the opportunity to see the conquered territories for themselves. Benno Schulenburg, adjutant to Reich Minister Alfred Rosenberg.
Diary, September the 23rd, 1937. The preparations for the trip to Germany are complete. I personally took care of the details. Galeazzo Ciano The Brandenburg Gate and the Pariser Platz have been transformed into a real theater set by Benno von Arent. When we turned into Wilhelmstrasse, I had the impression that I was an actor in a gigantic opera performance.
Banner flags hung from the roof down to the ground floor on both sides of the front of the buildings. Paul Otto Schmidt Hitler had a close friendship with Mussolini almost to the end. He felt a close bond with him through the great similarities of their destinies. Christa Schroeder, Hitler’s private secretary Diary, Berlin, October the 2nd, 1937.
It was inherently a law of its own. The law governing special holidays for the state capital Berlin and the movement capital of Munich. It was determined that September the 2nd would be a holiday for Munich and September the 28th for Berlin. Thus motivated, millions poured into the streets. Erich Ebermayer, writer Diary, September the 28th, 1937.
The German people are tired of standing for hours to catch a short glimpse of any notable personality. The surging throngs of people were primarily SA men in civvies. Bella Fromm, German Jewish journalist The Duce called me. It’s unimaginable what I saw here. The German people are of an exceptional type.
With these trumps in his hand, Hitler can risk everything. Rachele Mussolini, wife of Benito Mussolini Diary, Wednesday, September the 29th, 1937. Yesterday we heard very good speeches by the Führer and Il Duce in Berlin. I feel really queasy again. Henrietta Schneider, East Prussia, housekeeper I liked the new cult.
It stood for flags, shiny police horses, gloriously colorful uniforms, torches, and music. Everything for free without having to bother my dad to take me to the puppet show. Thomas Gaertner, German Jew, prisoner in Buchenwald Hitler’s name stands for the achievements and successes of the regime in the mid-1930s. According to the propaganda, and this is what the majority of the population believes, within 3 years his genius has achieved a booming economy, the elimination of unemployment, and the restoration of peace and order.
Hitler has suspended the Treaty of Versailles and made Germany a military force to be reckoned with. Every patriotic German recognizes these achievements. Hitler is also gaining in popularity among sections of the population that were once critical of National Socialism. Those convinced by the impression of the visible accomplishment of Hitler’s politics, while still retaining a certain skepticism, do not become National Socialists.
They become Führer believers. This accounts for probably more than 90% of all Germans after the victory over France in the summer of 1940, the height of the Führer’s credibility. Diary, Kampen Sylt August the 18th, 1937. Frau Tiedemann has made her peace with the Third Reich. And she’s right. You’re not obliged as a hostess to have a world view.
She rented one of her houses in the dunes to Göring last year. Erich Ebermayer Hitler seemed modest, middle class, rather dull and self-conscious, yet with a strange tenderness and appealing helplessness. Martha Dodd daughter of US Ambassador William Dodd In private, and we as personal bodyguards belonged to his private life, he was uncomplicated.
Rochus Misch, SS bodyguard regiment Albert Speer, The Cranzburg Protocols Simple lower middle class life was not hard for him. It attracted a lot of empathy. It gave him a lot of credit for other unpopular decisions. [applause] Otherwise, his simple manner also had clear political intentions. He often emphasized, “If I’m simple and unpretentious, then my surroundings have to be pompous.
That way, my simplicity appears even stronger.” This week our city celebrated German Art Day. Young girls dressed as vestal virgins scattered flower petals in the wind. Youths dressed as Roman citizens and wearing sandals like the ancient Romans marched in the Barmherzigen for the beginning of summer. Edgar Feuchtwanger German Jewish neighbor of the Adolf Hitler With a lot of work and very good taste, Munich artists had decorated the streets through which the procession moved.
In Nymphenburg, there was a night of the Amazons. Cloth balloons transformed the scene into a fairy-like midsummer night’s dream. Leni Riefenstahl, director and actress The position of Hitler and the National Socialists on sexuality is contradictory. They value morals and discipline, but are not bourgeois.
They have no objections to healthy sensuality, especially when it provides genetically healthy offspring. After year of Puritanism, the Nazis went to the other extreme. In later years, nudism was so commonplace that a ballet girl who refused to go along with it was soon out of a job.
Friedelind Wagner, granddaughter of Richard Wagner He condemned the elegant passions of his lofty colleagues like hunting or horse racing. These were the last remnants of the feudal rule of the princes. He made fun of them a lot. Albert Speer Berlin, November 1937 In November, the hunting exhibition was opened by Reich Master Hunter Göring.
Strong foreign participation contributed to its success, causing a sensation in Berlin and impressing the visiting guests from all over the world. Our French countrymen came in droves. Paul Stehlin It has been suggested many times that Hitler had unwavering faith in his old comrades. As far as the Reichsmarschall was concerned, this assumption is true, unfortunately.
Heinz Guderian, commander of the 2nd tank division. Göring, who become fat and out of shape seemed ridiculous in his fantasy uniforms and his love of medals and decorations. His greed for earthly goods turned him into a crook. Robert Coulondre, who served as an ambassador to Berlin in autumn 1938, wrote that of all Hitler’s sinister buddies, he was still the best.
Paul Stehlin For the rest of the evening, he told jokes about Goebbels and Göring. Do you know the difference between Goebbels and Göring? He asked, and when nobody could answer, he solved the riddle himself. Goebbels is the maximum amount of nonsense a man can utter in 1 hour, and Göring is the maximum amount of sheet metal a man can hang on his chest.
Friedelind Wagner On October the 18th, 1936, Adolf Hitler issues the order to implement the four-year plan. Headed by Göring as commissioner of the four-year plan, it aims to make Germany self-sufficient and ready for war at short notice. The power of attorney for the four-year plan was the most extensive concessionary power ever granted in Germany, and all later authorizations actually came from that first power of attorney.
Even Goebbels, as the organizer of total war, was subordinate to me. Hermann Göring, conversation with Hermann Pörsch, Nuremberg 1945. The Germans have, of course, many good qualities. They are very hard-working and thorough. They are obedient and have a great love of tidiness and order. Instructions for British servicemen in Germany, 1944.
The international port of Bremen. Despite the efforts to achieve self-sufficiency, the recovery of the economy has also stimulated foreign trade. From 1937, the commissioner for the four-year plan, Hermann Göring, creates the third largest German industrial group with his own Hermann Göring Reichswerke.
Most people were in work again, but the wages and salaries were modest considering the long working hours. The mood in broad sections of the population was not exuberant, but not hostile to the regime either. Even many workers who used to vote for the left were impressed by the extent of the success.
Willy Brandt, Social Democrat in exile, later German Chancellor The German workers, like the Roman proletariat, were provided by the enterprising Dr. Ley with circuses to divert their attention from the lack of freedom and the scarcity of bread. Within the Labor Front, Ley created a gigantic organization called Kraft durch Freude, strength through joy, which provided the German worker with fun and games for his leisure at bargain rates.
It offered, for instance, dirt-cheap vacation trips on land and sea. Dr. Ley built two cruise ships and chartered 10 others to handle ocean cruises for Kraft durch Freude. They were amazingly inexpensive. William L. Shirer, journalist, The Nightmare Years At the end of the Weimar Republic, the average number of paid days holiday for workers and employees was 12 working days with Saturday being a working day.
The National Socialists extended the holidays to 3 weeks a year without a legal framework, but it was mostly only older workers with more than 25 years service who got so much leave, but they could actually travel anywhere. Germany report of the Social Democratic Party, March the 12th, 1938 In the Third Reich, it is the armaments that supply the bread, while the circuses are provided by the KDF organization.
In the factories, which pay very well, KDF travel fever is particularly strong. Foreign travel is especially popular. Many spend their holidays exclusively with KDF and go on both summer and winter trips. Letter, March the 20th, 1936 To the Führer and Chancellor of Germany in Berlin As a former member of the SPD, the undersigned has followed your policies, but could not at first understand that all German national groups you came in contact with were enthusiastic about both your program and your person.
Until through your actions after the seizure of power, it became clear that the unfaltering will to fundamentally transform conditions in Germany filled a decent, honorable person with pleasure being able to live as a German in Germany. The elimination of all parties and interest groups was itself an act of greatness.
I would like to express my gratitude for this if you are interested in the thanks of a simple man. Heil, my Führer, Adolf Hitler. Signed, Wilhelm E. Trumpet at Meerz, Rhine One in four households in Germany still have no electricity. At the same time, long-range missiles are being developed in Peenemünde, aircraft for transatlantic passenger traffic built in Bremen, and experiments with jet engines undertaken in Augsburg.
Hitler was not interested in agriculture at all, apart from the Reich Farmers’ Day at Bückeberg. Fritz Wiedemann, adjutant of the NSDAP to Adolf Hitler In Hitler’s worldview, the peasantry is one of the backbones of the nation. National Socialism propagates a self-sufficient food supply in Germany.
In order to facilitate the identification of the rural population with the new regime, in 1933, the National Socialist government declares the Thanksgiving Harvest Festival, which is based on Christian or even older religious rituals, the day of the nourishment trade, an official holiday like May the 1st for industrial workers.
The number of farm workers declines by 16% between 1933 and 1938 as the rural exodus intensifies. Neither coercion nor propaganda can reduce this drain on labor. Nor can modern technology remedy the situation. What little foreign currency there is is needed for tanks, cannons, and planes, not tractors and harvesters.
Agricultural production threatens to decline. In September 1933, a heritage law for farms comes into force, which expresses the National Socialist ideology of blood and soil. The peasantry is considered the source of life of the Nordic race. The law is intended to prevent excessive debts and fragmentation in the succession regarding farms of up to 125 hectares.
Hereditary farms only go to a single heir. The excluded heirs are given modest compensation. Nearly 40% of agricultural land is affected. In rural areas of northern and eastern Germany, as well as in parts of Bavaria, peat is used for heating. Oil deposits in Germany are low. Despite all the coal in the Ruhr area, Upper Silesia, and the Saarland, and the lignite in the Rhineland and Central Germany, the German Reich is a country poor in raw materials.
German oil production only covers about 30% of domestic demand. In order to save foreign currency, benzene to For tune of 45% is added to petroleum gasoline from the coking plants of the mining industry and 10% alcohol from the distilleries. Hitler’s evil spirit was Goebbels. Ernst Hanfstaengl, head of the NSDAP foreign press bureau.
On the same evening, I saw Goebbels for the first time. A small man with an overly big head on a child’s body. He was surprisingly ugly. His defect, he has a clubfoot, barely lessened the antipathy that he aroused. He was, however, very intelligent and after Hitler, the best public speaker in the party. Paul Stehlin.
I couldn’t care less what people think and I’ll say this openly. Goebbels was an interesting man. I never disliked him. He was only dangerous towards the end. Zarah Leander, Swedish singer and actress. He was capable of recognizing the faults and weaknesses of the National Socialist system. But he wasn’t courageous enough to point these out to Hitler.
In front of Hitler, he was like Göring and Himmler, a little man. Heinz Guderian, major general. Hitler’s private apartment. The decor was lower middle class. Richly carved solid oak furniture in the study. Books behind glass doors. Embroidered pillows with homely inscriptions or vigorous party wishes. On the walls hung idyllic paintings of the Munich school.
It smelled of old cooking oil and rancid rubbish. Albert Speer, Spandau Diaries. The only decoration in the room was a portrait in oil of the Führer’s mother, painted from an old photograph. Friedland Wagner. He’s really very lonely. Doesn’t have any luck with women.
He’s too soft with them. Women don’t like that. They need a man to lord it over them. Joseph Goebbels. In October 1938, Willy Fritsch shoots Bellamy in the Ufa studios in Berlin. Speech to the Nazi Women’s League in Nuremberg. There was a time when liberalism fought for the equal rights of women, but the faces of German women, of German girls, lacked joy.
They were gloomy and sad. And today, today we see countless beaming, laughing faces. Adolf Hitler. He knew that he could have any number of women. He refused because he didn’t know, as he said jokingly, whether they favored him as Reichschancellor or as Adolf Hitler. Albert Speer. One evening in 1929, Heinrich Hoffmann came to his photo studio accompanied by a man.
The stranger introduced himself as Herr Wolf. After he left, Eva Braun wanted to know who the stranger was. Hoffmann declared that he was the Führer of the NSDAP, Adolf Hitler. Eva didn’t come across as an archetypal German girl. Rochus Misch, SS bodyguard regiment. He didn’t want clever women near him.
Albert Speer. Privately, Hitler was very nice. Eva Braun loved him very much and he loved her. Herta Schneider, friend of Eva Braun. Hitler had got used to his girlfriend’s character, but he didn’t give in to everything she wanted. She was subject to a lot of strict rules. When she danced, she did so secretly because Hitler disliked dancing.
Christa Schroeder. The efforts my wife and I made to encourage Hitler to take private dancing lessons weren’t crowned with success. No, he said categorically. For a statesman, dancing is an undignified activity. All of these balls are purely a waste of time. And besides, the waltz is far too effeminate for a man.
It’s exactly this waltz mania that made me hate Vienna so much and how it contributed to the downfall of the Habsburg empire. Ernst Hanfstaengl, from 1937 in exile. She had an extremely beautiful figure and was well proportioned. Gertraud Traudl Junge, Hitler’s private secretary from 1942. According to my observations, sexual relations between Hitler and Eva Braun were sporadically very active.
I don’t know who was the more active of the two. Eva Braun came across as very sexy. But Hitler, too. Heinz Linge, valet to Adolf Hitler. I never observed any intimacy between Hitler and Eva. Neither did my comrades. Rochus Misch. Diary, November the 18th, 1934. I don’t want it to be my fault if he doesn’t like me anymore.
Eva Braun. For several months in the years 1934 and 1935, Eva Braun keeps a diary. The diary includes the period when she attempts suicide, probably to get Hitler to commit to her. Diary, March the 11th, 1935. If only I’d never met him. I’m in despair. I’m buying sleeping powders again. He only needs me for certain purposes.
Nothing else is possible. When he says he loves me, he means it only at that moment. Eva Braun. That was when Eva Braun attempted her first suicide. This act of desperation moved Hitler deeply. Christa Schroeder. Diary, April the 29th, 1935. The weather’s so beautiful and I, lover of the greatest man in Germany and the world, can enjoy the sun.
Eva Braun. Politically, she had no idea. You often heard Eva Braun complaining, “I don’t know anything. Everything’s kept secret from me.” Christa Schroeder. As for Eva Braun, no one outside the inner circles of the party and the SS knew of her until the last year of the war. Charles Bewley, Irish Envoy Extraordinary to Berlin, 1933 to 1939.
The existence of Hitler’s girlfriend doesn’t remain totally unknown. The news magazine Time and the Saturday Evening Post write about Hitler’s romance. December the 16th, 1939. In the closing days of last August, a blonde Bavarian girl named Eva Helen Braun moved into the great chancellery of Wilhelmstrasse. There she conducts herself as if she were the wife of the Nazi dictator.
Of course, European intelligence services have long known about the relationship between Eva and Hitler. Richard Nordburg, Saturday Evening Post. When he retires, Hitler plans to build a residence in the Austrian town of Linz. Albert Speer revealed that Hitler intended to live out his final years there with Eva Braun.
Besides Fraulein Braun, I’ll take nobody else with me. Fraulein Braun and my dog. I will be lonely. Everyone will be running after my successor. Adolf Hitler to Albert Speer.