Eva Braun
Page 25
The end of the decades-long and almost familial connection between Hitler and the Schirachs, however it actually came about, shows the increasing tension within the inner circle in light of the desperate course the war was taking. “The Führer, on the other hand,” Goebbels dictated on August 10, 1943, “points out most forcefully Eva Braun’s calm, intelligent, and objective way of being.” He called her “a clever girl who means a lot to the Führer,” whereas Hitler was “through with Schirach, both personally and politically.”108 What had Eva Braun actually done to earn this praise? Apparently she not only stayed loyal but also continued to act unconcerned about external events. Gerda Bormann, for example, reported from the Obersalzberg to her husband in the “Wolf’s Lair” that there were constant air raids in Munich but Eva Braun was going swimming in the Königssee with her friends.109 Apparently, in an oppressive situation where the only military task was to make “the impossible possible” Eva Braun and the carefree attitude she displayed so openly was a relief for Hitler. Just like him, she had subscribed to the motto “All or nothing,” and in so doing she impressed Goebbels as well, who indulged in expressions of undying loyalty and felt that the Nazi leader’s “closest friends” now had the duty to form “an iron phalanx” around their “Führer.”110
10. THE EVENTS OF JULY 20, 1944, AND THEIR AFTERMATH
While thus in 1943 and 1944, power struggles were breaking out not only in Hitler’s political environment but also in his private circle, which even at the Berghof was showing its first signs of falling apart, resistance to the war was growing among the leading military and diplomatic circles. Many people understood that the war was lost, and they blamed Hitler’s political and strategic missteps for the loss. Among the general population, too, the defeat at Stalingrad marked a turning point in the popularity of the Nazi regime. The expectation that the state-run German press had fostered for years—that the war would be swift and victorious—had not been met. The aura of an invincible “Führer” had been shattered.1
The climax of this development was the assassination attempt that took place on July 20, 1944. On a hot and humid summer day, Lieutenant Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, who was chief of staff to the Commander of the Replacement Army, left behind a briefcase with explosives during a briefing with Hitler in the “Wolf’s Lair” headquarters, intending to kill the Nazi leader and help end the war. The attempt failed, and Hitler survived the explosion only lightly wounded.2 Stauffenberg and three other conspirators were shot the same day, and the other two hundred or so people involved in the plot were then rounded up and hanged after a show trial at the Nazis’ so-called People’s Court in Berlin.3 A camera recorded their deaths in Berlin’s Plötzensee prison. This film, and photographs of the hanged men, were at the “Wolf’s Lair” in August 1944, but no one knows for sure whether Hitler saw them. It is an authenticated fact, however, that one man was delighted by them: SS-Obergruppenführer Hermann Fegelein, Himmler’s liaison officer in the headquarters and Eva Braun’s brother-in-law.4
The Inner Circle’s Reaction
Fegelein had married Gretl Braun in Salzburg on June 3, 1944, with Bormann and Himmler as witnesses. The ensuing celebrations took place in Bormann’s house and in the teahouse on the Kehlstein peak—the “Eagle’s Nest”—and lasted three days, an inappropriately long time for a wedding party during the war. Eva Braun, who apparently brought her sister and Fegelein together, had arranged the party. Fegelein was a highly decorated member of the Waffen-SS and commander of the SS cavalry forces including the First SS Death’s-Head Cavalry Regiment. According to Speer, he had paid court to all of the single women at the Berghof, and rumors even circulated that he and Eva Braun had found favor with each other.5 Eva Braun remarked at the time, according to Christa Schroeder: “I want this wedding to be as beautiful as if it were my own.”6 Her own prospects of one day living with Hitler as his wife in Linz after the so-called final victory were looking slim. On the very night of June 3–4, the Allies took Rome, and on June 6 the long-expected invasion of the Continent began at Normandy.
Thus the end was conceiveable. Nonetheless, life on the Obersalzberg continued to take its “peaceful course.” Below, Speer, Brandt, and Goebbels were among the regular guests. Eva Braun showed “a series of color films” that she had shot of Hitler in earlier years at the Berghof. “I have never seen him so relaxed on film,” Goebbels remarked.7 The Minister of Propaganda praised Eva Braun’s “critical discernment” in “questions of film and theater,” and recorded: “We sit there around the fire until 2 a.m., exchanging memories, taking pleasure in the many beautiful days and weeks that we spent together. The Führer asks about people, now this one, now that one. In short, the atmosphere is like that of the good old days.”8 For more than four months—from late February until July 16, 1944, with only brief interruptions—Hitler stayed at the Berghof. It was his last time there, and he probably suspected it would be. He postponed his departure several times. There had been hints for months that an attempt on his life from his own military was looming.9
Eva Braun and Hitler on the Obersalzberg, probably 1944 (Illustration Credit 10.1)
Eva Braun heard about the assassination attempt on the afternoon of July 20. She had once again left the Berghof to go swimming with her best friend Herta Schneider at Königssee, just five miles away. On the way back, a chauffeur fetched the women and told them what had happened. Schneider later told the American journalist Nerin E. Gun that Eva Braun, back at the Berghof, tried to phone Hitler at his headquarters in Rastenburg, and suffered a nervous crisis when she still could not reach him after many attempts. When she finally did get through to Hitler, she reportedly said: “I love you, may God protect you,” and cried tears of joy after hanging up the phone.10 Hitler had apparently already made plans with her at the Berghof for the eventuality of his death, given the rumors that had been circulating for some time of a possible assassination attempt. Goebbels noted after a discussion with the Nazi leader in Rastenburg on August 24, 1944, for example, that Hitler told him about premonitions he had had even before his departure from the Obersalzberg, which had weighed on him like a “nightmare,” and about having “told [Eva Braun] precisely” what she “needed to do upon his death.” She had apparently brushed aside “such admonitions,” however. Instead, she had told Hitler that “in such a case, there would be only one thing left for her, namely to seek her own death as well.”11
It must certainly have been quite clear to Eva Braun that without Hitler she would be in a weak and vulnerable position vis-à-vis her many enemies. But would this fear justify suicide? And why would Hitler, otherwise so silent about private matters, have given Goebbels this advance notice of his girlfriend’s plans? Eva Braun seems to have completely and utterly bound her life to that of Hitler, early on and quite consciously. She had already proven many times over that she was prepared to do the utmost for him. He, in turn, clearly valued this kind of attestation of loyalty, especially as he saw himself increasingly surrounded by “traitors,” and he therefore must have emphasized his appreciation of her. The whole episode makes clear that their double suicide nine months later was no accident. Hitler and Braun had already decided what roles they were to play in the last act. They may even have made arrangements for it together.
To Hitler’s close confidants, the assassination attempt came as a shock. They all knew, of course, how dependent they were on the “Führer.” But while his girlfriend sat waiting for news at the Berghof, Goebbels and Speer in Berlin helped crush the revolt. Goebbels took an active role by putting the “Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler” (Hitler’s Personal Bodyguard Regiment), stationed in the capital, on alert and by arranging for a special announcement to go out over the German radio: “Assassination Attempt Failed.” Speer, who had come to the Ministry of Propaganda for a meeting on the afternoon of July 20, stood at his side and offered advice.12 Still, there was not exactly rock-solid cohesion among Hitler’s henchmen in light of this threat from within, since
Speer, for instance, found his name on a government list of traitors, was exposed to numerous suspicions, and feared intrigues on the part of his rivals, Goebbels and Bormann.13
In any case, the failed attack in no way inspired doubts in Hitler’s circle about the continuation of the war. The members all explicitly declared their faith in Hitler and their belief in the “final victory.” None of Hitler’s longtime companions and convinced National Socialists saw Hitler as the cause of the human suffering in Europe. Ilse Hess, for instance, had complained of the “destruction of our beautiful, beloved Munich” after the heavy bombardment of the Bavarian capital in spring 1944, and when she heard that “the Führer had stood before the rubble, deeply shaken,” she declared:
I imagine that it must have been terribly difficult for him! To wait relentlessly until eventually the one favorable and right moment comes for the last great strike—and to have to look on as one after another of the things closest to his heart is annihilated—not to mention the loss of life! But it is 1944 and we will never give up hope!14
Among the German population as well, Hitler grew more popular after the attempt on his life became known, while the subversives reaped widespread disapproval and outrage. In fact, the events of July 20 had been, to quote German historian Hans-Ulrich Thamer, a “resistance without the people.” Yet the attack left a deep mark on the Nazi leader himself. More than ever, he saw himself as a hero chosen by Providence, the only man who could save Europe from “Bolshevism.” If anything happened to him, he had told his secretary the night before the assassination attempt, there was “no one who would be able to take over as leader.”15
A Trophy for Eva Braun
On the very afternoon of July 20, Christa Schroeder received orders from Hitler to send his uniform, shredded by the explosion, to Eva Braun on the Obersalzberg. The secretary—who said of herself that she “played a greater part [in Hitler’s life] than a member of the family”—recalled that Braun was supposed to save the pants, which “were in tatters and threads from top to bottom,” and the jacket, whose back was now missing “a square patch.” She also remarked that the Nazi leader was “in a way proud of this trophy.”16 In fact, Hitler was euphoric after the incident and transformed the damaged uniform, which at first sight testified to his vulnerability, into a kind of sign of victory with which he tried to emphasize his triumph over his enemies. He might have imagined presenting the uniform to the German public, after a victorious end to the war, as proof of his heroic struggle.
First, though, Hitler was showing his girlfriend that he, too, could not escape injury, but was putting his own life and body on the line like every other soldier in battle. Of course, he stayed in his bunker in the “Wolf’s Lair” as though in a fortress, surrounded by several circles of barbed wire fences monitored by the Waffen-SS.17 But he imagined himself as a warrior, a hero making sacrifices for his People, and he made sure that Eva Braun, whom he spoke about in the headquarters “almost every day,” shared his self-image.18 It is said that she “nearly fainted” when she caught sight of Hitler’s uniform.19 But the claim that Eva Braun received a love letter along with the uniform—Hitler supposedly addressed her, using an Austrian pet name, as “dear Tschapperl” in the letter, added a sketch of the barracks, and signed it with the initials A.H.—is surely a legend. Nerin E. Gun quotes this letter from memory, but its contents and provenance are highly doubtful, and it is extremely unlikely that Hitler, who in general avoided writing personal letters, would have dedicated such a personal document for his secretary to type up in precisely the days after July 20, 1944, in an atmosphere of paranoid mistrust of the people around him.20
It is true, though, that Hitler appeared in his East Prussian headquarters right after the attack in an almost giddy mood. (The explosion had killed four people and wounded eleven.) Nicolaus von Below, who took part in the briefing on July 20 and was wounded himself, observed the “lively, almost happy expression on his face” and his “increased sense of mission.”21 Traudl Junge, the secretary Hitler sought out in his bunker immediately after the explosion, recalled that he was walking “upright and ramrod straight as he hadn’t for a long time.”22 As before, the Nazi leader rejected all thoughts of capitulation. From his point of view, it must not come to another “November 1918.” Even withdrawing from occupied areas so as to deploy the troops stationed there in defense of the Reich itself was never an option for him. The complexities of the war were beyond the dictator’s grasp: for him, there was only victory or annihilation. The “downfall was a duty.”23 And so, despite the hopeless military situation—the Red Army was already at the border of the German Reich, while the Allies were making inroads on all fronts—Hitler convinced himself that “Providence” had saved him on July 20, 1944, so that he could complete his “task.”24
Such convictions aside, Hitler’s health, unstable for years, took a dramatic turn for the worse after the assassination attempt. Even during Hitler’s last stay at the Berghof, Goebbels had noticed from Eva Braun’s movies that Hitler had “gotten older and older… during the war” and now walked “all bent over.”25 His stomach complaints had gotten worse after the war started, despite a strictly vegetarian diet. He also had higher blood pressure and was in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease, with involuntary trembling in his arms and legs.26 Bernd Freytag von Loringhoven, who as a young adjutant of the Chief of the General Staff of the Army first saw Hitler in person at a briefing on July 23, 1944, later recalled a “man of fifty-five with the posture of an old man.”27 Two months after the attack, Hitler suffered a full-blown physical collapse. Morell, his personal physician, noted in his daily calendar that “Patient A” had been feeling increasingly unwell since September 24, and was suffering from heart trouble, stomach aches, and a sore throat. “Finally,” Traudl Junge recalls, “the Führer stayed in bed one day. It was sensational news. No one had ever seen Hitler lying in bed.”28 A case of jaundice kept him on strict bed rest into mid-October; he lost a considerable amount of weight, and as a result he seemed haggard and old.29 The psychological strain increased. But since there was no way out for Hitler, and also no turning back, he devoted himself to the idea of one last great offensive in the west, despite the shortages of fuel and other supplies. He fantasized to Speer that “a single breakthrough on the western front” would “lead to collapse and panic among the Americans.”30
Eva Braun’s Will
At around the same time, on October 26, 1944, Eva Braun drew up her will in Munich.31 What made her take this step just then? Had Hitler’s illness, combined with the visible horrors of war in the destroyed city of Munich, made her aware that the end might be near? This assumption is at least plausible, especially as Gerda Bormann told her husband about a conversation with Eva Braun on the evening of October 23 on the Obersalzberg, in which Braun was deeply concerned that Hitler, who had barely recovered, was so close to the front. The Soviet troops had reached Warsaw and East Prussia in October 1944. Both women therefore hoped that Hitler would return to the Obersalzberg, because that was where, according to Gerda Bormann, it was “safest.” Martin Bormann put a damper on their hopes, however, since he knew that Hitler would under no circumstances abandon the “Wolf’s Lair.” At the same time, Bormann admitted to his wife that “sixty or eighty kilometers” was hardly a sufficient distance; he, too, wanted “more security for the Führer,” who needed a more appropriate location to recuperate.32
Proximity to the front was not the only problem. Hitler’s illness had led to conflicts and power struggles among his attending physicians. Karl Brandt and the other accompanying physicians held Morell responsible for the “Führer’s” poor state of health. Brandt accused Morell of having tried to poison Hitler with strychnine. Brandt was unable, though, to supply proof of this charge or to shake Morell’s position of trust, and as a result he was himself accused of “treason” and dismissed as accompanying physician on October 10, 1944. Despite losing this post, Brandt, who had been named Reich Commissioner for
Health and Sanitation only four weeks earlier, remained one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi regime.33
These squabbles and the rumors of Hitler’s possible death connected with them could not have remained a secret to Eva Braun. In fact, it is likely that either Hitler himself or Anni Brandt, or Morell, or maybe even Bormann, kept her informed. In any case, the whole situation in the faraway “Wolf’s Lair” clearly seemed threatening enough to her that she began to reckon with the possibility of Hitler’s death. In her own life, on the other hand, little on the outside had changed. She continued to shuttle between the Obersalzberg and Munich, where she worked in Heinrich Hoffmann’s art publishing house and liked the work very much.34 Since her house in Bogenhausen had suffered serious damage from air attacks, she lived at the Berghof, where materially she lacked for nothing. And yet the thirty-two-year-old woman was preparing for her death.