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Hitler’s Last Witness Hitler's Last Witness.indb 1 01/07/2014 09:41 Also by Frontline Books AT HITLER’S SIDE The Memoirs of Hitler’s Luftwaffe Adjutant Nicolaus von Below HE WAS MY CHIEF The Memoirs of Adolf Hitler’s Secretary Christa Schroeder HITLER WAS MY FRIEND The Memoirs of Hitler’s Photographer Heinrich Hoffman I FLEW FOR THE FÜHRER The Memoirs of a Luftwaffe Fighter Pilot Heinz Knoke I WAS HITLER’S CHAUFFEUR The Memoir of Erich Kempka Erich Kempka I WAS HITLER’S PILOT The Memoirs of Hans Baur Hans Baur WITH HITLER TO THE END From the Wolf’s Lair to the Berlin Bunker Heinz Linge THE YOUNG HITLER I KNEW The Memoirs of Hitler’s Childhood Friend August Kubizek Hitler's Last Witness.indb 2 01/07/2014 09:41 Hitler’s Last Witness The Memoirs of Hitler’s Bodyguard Rochus Misch Co-authored by Michael Stehle, Professor Jörn Precht, Ralph Giordano, Regina Carstensen and Dr Sandra Zarrinbal Introduction by Roger Moorhouse Frontline Books, London Hitler's Last Witness.indb 3 01/07/2014 09:41 Hitler’s Last Witness This edition published in 2014 by Frontline Books, an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 47 Church Street, Barnsley, S. Yorkshire, S70 2AS Copyright © Michael Stehle, Überlingen, 2013 Translation © Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 2014 Introduction © Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 2014 ISBN: 978-1-84832-749-8 Publishing History Originally published in German in 2008 under the title Der Letze Zeuge. This is the first English language edition and includes an introduction by Roger Moorhouse and a new introduction by Rochus Misch. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. CIP data records for this title are available from the British Library For more information on our books, please visit www.pen-and-sword.co.uk, email [email protected] or write to us at the above address. Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY Typeset in 11/14 point Garamond by Wordsense Ltd, Edinburgh Hitler's Last Witness.indb 4 01/07/2014 09:41 Contents List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgements ix Introduction by Roger Moorhouse xi Author’s Introduction 1 1 My Childhood: 1917–1937 10 2 Conscripted Soldier: 1937–1939 19 3 The Outbreak of War: 1939 29 4 Hitler Needs a Courier 34 5 My Reich – The Telephone Switchboard 56 6 The Berghof, Hitler’s Special Train and Rudolf Hess 63 7 FHQ Wolfsschanze: 1941 84 8 FHQ Wolfsschanze, FHQ Wehrwolf, Stalingrad My Honeymoon: 1942 92 9 The Eastern Front Begins to Turn West 101 10 The Philanderer: 1944 113 11 Weddings and Treason: 1944 117 12 Preparing the Berlin Bunker: February–April 1945 132 13 Bunker Life: The Last Fortnight of April 1945 143 14 Hitler’s Last Day: 30 April 1945 169 15 Negotiations and the Goebbels’s Children: 1 May 1945 175 16 Break-out and Capture 182 17 My Nine Years in Soviet Captivity 191 18 My Homecoming and New Beginnings 205 v Hitler's Last Witness.indb 5 01/07/2014 09:41 Contents Short Biographies 217 Index 245 vi Hitler's Last Witness.indb 6 01/07/2014 09:41 Illustrations 1. Rochus Misch at age four. 2. Soldiers in the family: Rochus Misch senior with his comrades. 3. The house where Rochus Misch was born, at Alt-Schalkowitz near Oppeln (Upper Silesia). 4. Rochus Misch’s grandparents Franz and Ottilie Fronia, around 1930 celebrating their golden anniversary with relatives. 5. Rochus Misch, loner and apprentice,15 June 1932. 6. Rochus Misch pictured with his classmates and school director Demski. 7. The Olympic stadium, 1 August 1936, where Rochus Misch and his Aunt Sofia saw his later ‘boss’ for the first time. 8. Rochus Misch with his Hoyerswerda Club, 1934. 9. Wilhelm Mohnke, one of the first SS men in Hitler’s ‘SS Stabswache Berlin’ and commander, 5th Company, SS‑Leibstandarte. 10. Hitler’s sister Paula. 11. Rochus Misch at the Berghof during military training with 5th Company, SS‑Leibstandarte. 12. Wilhelm-Strasse 77, where Rochus Misch began his duties for Hitler. 13. Innsbruck main railway station, 30 July 1940: a stop off on the way to see Mussolini. 14. The lobby outside Hitler’s apartment in the Old Reich Chancellery. 15. Hitler’s study in the Old Reich Chancellery. 16. Hitler’s private living room before the conversion. 17. The Austrian Joseph ‘Joschi’ Graf. 18. Hitler’s suite in the Old Reich Chancellery. vii Hitler's Last Witness.indb 7 01/07/2014 09:41 Illustrations 19. Life as a courier, 1941: Photograph taken by Rochus Misch of his colleagues on a flight from FHQ Wolfsschanze to Berlin. 20. Rochus Misch, with Joseph Graf, in a Ju 52, around 1941. 21. Hitler on board a Ju 52 to the Berghof, 1 June 1943. 22. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and Hitler, 1942. 23. Hitler’s study on the Obersalzberg (Berghof). 24. One of the many soirées in the Great Hall at the Berghof. 25. The 20-metre long, wooden annexe to the Berghof, with its various service rooms. 26. Guests on the Berghof terrace, as photographed by Rochus Misch in 1942. 27. Rochus Misch’s favourite photo of his fiancée Gerda. 28. The dog Blondi at play. 29. Eva Braun’s dog in the pen with the rabbits. 30. Rochus Misch on the Berghof terrace in the summer of 1941. 31. Rochus Misch at the Berghof, behind the main entrance gate, 1941. 32. Eva Braun on the Berghof terrace looking at photographer Rochus Misch. 33. The Tea House on the Berghof, where Hitler drank apple or caraway tea. 34. Obersalzberg, spring 1944; Hitler returning from the Tea House to the Berghof. 35. Warlord and bodyguard: a photo-montage of Hitler and Rochus Misch. 36. In front of the special train Amerika: Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop; Theodor Morell, Hitler’s private physician; Hitler; army adjutant Gerhard Engel; and Karl Brandt, Hitler’s accompanying physician. 37. Rochus Misch in the dining car of the special train Amerika. 38. Rochus Misch in front of the Mönichkirchen railway station, near Wiener Neustadt, 1941. 39. Rudolf Hess, ‘the Führer’s representative’, who flew to Scotland on 10 May 1941 to negotiate peace. 40. On the stairway leading to the Berghof, 7 June 1941, Hitler proceeds upwards with Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria. 41. The telephone exchange in FHQ Wolfsschanze, 1942–3. 42. Lazing at the Moysee near FHQ Wolfsschanze. Rochus Misch with his colleague Karl Weichelt and a female stenographer. viii Hitler's Last Witness.indb 8 01/07/2014 09:41 Illustrations 43. Waiting for Mussolini at Bahnhof Görlitz, specially created for FHQ Wolfsschanze. 44. The ‘reception hall’ for Mussolini’s visit to Bahnhof Görlitz. 45. In order to defeat the plague of mosquitoes, head nets were issued. Here they are appreciated by Misch and some of his colleagues. 46. The FHQ Wolfsschanze chef standing in front of the special train, Amerika, with Willy Arndt and Rochus Misch. 47. Rochus Misch sunbathing at FHQ Wolfsschanze, winter 1941. 48. Professor Theodor Morell, Hitler’s personal physician from 1936. 49. Hitler and Mussolini in the Reich government guest house at Schloss Klessheim (near Salzburg), 10 April 1943. 50. Rochus Misch ‘taking the cure’ at very fashionable Karlsbad, July 1942. 51. FHQ Wehrwolf was the largest of three such installations in the occupied Soviet Union. 52. Hitler’s study in a wooden barrack hut at FHQ Wehrwolf. 53. FHQ Wehrwolf staff and the local Ukrainians trading fresh geese for sewing needles. 54. FHQ Wolfsschanze – The Mosquito Home! Rochus Misch on sentry duty in the winter of 1942 in Sperrkreis 1, the so-called Führer Sperrkreis. 55. The inner-circle at FHQ Wolfsschanze, 1942–3: General Erhard Milch, Albert Speer, Hermann Göring, Heinrich Himmler and Colonel Nicolaus von Below. 56. Gerda and Rochus Misch on the day of their marriage, New Year’s Eve 1942. 57. Rochus Misch photographed in July 1944 at the entrance to the situation conference barrack hut at FHQ Wolfsschanze. 58. Hitler greeting General Ferdinand Schörner in the situation conference room of the bunker shortly before the end of the war. 59. Rochus Misch on sentry duty in front of Hitler’s bunker, 1944. 60. Hitler’s last visit to the troops, in Ninth Army HQ, Oderfront, 11 March 1945. 61. The area in the Führerbunker protected by gas-proof sluice doors, at the end of March and the beginning of April 1945. 62. A US soldier in the situation conference room holding the bunker key ring after the capitulation, in 1945. ix Hitler's Last Witness.indb 9 01/07/2014 09:41