Eva Braun

by Heike B. Görtemaker

  244. See Heinrich Hoffmann Photo Archive, hoff-12309, BSB Munich.

  245. Julius Schaub, statement at Nuremberg, June 8, 1948, KV Trials, Document 1856, Case 11, File G15, Dietrich Document No. 279, Julius Schaub Affidavit, State Archives, Nuremberg. Karl Brandt, too, addressing the “question of guilt” in the tract “The Hitler Problem #2” that he wrote in an Allied prison after the war, avoided all mention of the fate of the German Jews. He spoke only of Bolshevism, the “danger threatening Europe from the Asian sphere” against which Hitler had to secure “the Lebensraum of the German People” (“Das Problem Hitler, Nr. 2,” September 27, 1945, p. 8, in Kleine Erwerbung 441-3, BA Koblenz).

  246. Paul Schmidt, Statist auf diplomatischer Bühne 1923–45 (Bonn, 1953), p. 390.

  247. See Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, p. 98. See also Maser, Adolf Hitler, pp. 374f.

  248. Adolf Hitler, “Mein Testament,” Berlin, May 2, 1938 (copy), in Adolf Hitler Papers, N 1128/22, BA Koblenz.

  249. See Gun, Eva Braun, pp. 169–170. Nicolaus von Below mentions the will, but does not say whether he knew about it at the time (Als Hitlers Adjutant, p. 98).

  250. See Walther Darré, Aufzeichnungen 1945–1948, vol. 2, p. 377. It is possible that Bormann, as alternate executor, and Schaub also knew about the will. The latter was to examine private “books and correspondences” and decide whether or not to destroy them (Hitler, “Mein Testament,” as cited in note 248, above).

  251. See Schmidt, Statist auf diplomatischer Bühne, p. 390; Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, p. 98; Wiedemann, Der Mann, der Feldherr werden wollte, pp. 133f.; Spitzy, So haben wir das Reich verspielt, pp. 260ff. See also Kube, Pour le mérite und Hakenkreuz, p. 72.

  252. See “Auswärtiges Amt an Marga Himmler, ‘Vorläufiges Fahrtprogramm für die Damen’ vom 1. bis zum 11. Mai 1938, anlässlich des Staatsbesuches in Italien [Foreign Office to Marga Himmler, ’Provisional Travel Schedule for the Ladies for May 1–11, 1938, during the state visit in Italy],” in Himmler Papers, N 1126/20, Fol. 1, BA Koblenz. See also Wiedemann, Der Mann, der Feldherr werden wollte, p. 135.

  253. Hitler, Monologe im Führerhauptquartier, p. 247.

  254. See “Auswärtiges Amt an Marga Himmler,” as previously cited. See also Wiedemann, Der Mann, der Feldherr werden wollte, p. 139.

  255. See Gun, Eva Braun, pp. 161f; Henriette von Schirach, Frauen um Hitler, p. 228. Christa Schroeder, the only secretary “to travel with the Führer in his special train,” as it says in her memoir, never mentions Eva Braun’s presence (see Er war mein Chef, pp. 86f. and 345f.). See also Jürgen Ehlert, Das Dreesen: 100 Jahre Geschichte und Geschichten im Rheinhotel (Bonn, 1994).

  256. See Heinrich Hoffmann Photo Archive, hoff-18577, BSB Munich.

  257. See Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, pp. 150f.

  258. See Gun, Eva Braun, p. 162. Gun repeats the rumor that an unknown assassin tried to stab Eva Braun in Naples, instead wounding her companion, Maria Dreesen.

  259. Henriette von Schirach, Frauen um Hitler, p. 230. Schirach also says that Mussolini, after hearing that “Hitler’s lover was coming along on the trip,” had a “small crocodile-leather suitcase containing every imaginable kind of toiletry” brought to Eva Braun.

  260. See Wiedemann, Der Mann, der Feldherr werden wollte, p. 127. See also Otto Meissner, Staatssekretär unter Ebert—Hindenburg—Hitler: Der Schicksalsweg des deutschen Volkes von 1918–1945, wie ich ihn erlebte, 3rd ed. (Hamburg, 1950), p. 460. Cf. Joachim von Ribbentrop, Zwischen London und Moskau, pp. 136, 139 and 150.

  261. See Hamann, Hitlers Wien, p. 15; Fest, Hitler, p. 726.

  262. See Speer, Inside the Third Reich, pp. 99–100; cf. pp. 297–298, where Speer says: “in those days, I suspect, all that was mere coquettishness.” See also Speer, Albert Speer: Die Kransberg-Protokolle 1945, pp. 112f. Speer thought at the time that Hitler wanted to retire after the war, since he was “not happy with his mission” and would “rather be an architect.” Nicolaus von Below, who stayed with Hitler at the Berghof in both April and August 1938, mentions nothing of this sort (see Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, pp. 112ff.).

  263. See Fest, Die unbeantwortbaren Fragen, p. 52. Cf. Speer, Inside the Third Reich, p. 99, where he says that “the design for the picture gallery and the stadium was to be assigned to me.”

  264. Photographs of Roderich Fick and Albert Speer’s visit to the Berghof on May 9, 1939, are in Heinrich Hoffmann Photo Archive, hoff-25259, BSB Munich.

  265. See Ingo Sarlay, “Hitlers Linz: Planungsstellen und Planungskonzepte,” http://www.linz09.info. See also Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, pp. 81 and 83; Michael Früchtel, Der Architekt Hermann Giesler: Leben und Werk (1898–1987) (Tübingen, 2008); Hermann Giesler, Ein anderer Hitler: Bericht seines Architekten Hermann Giesler, 2nd ed. (Leoni am Starnberger See, 1977), pp. 213ff.

  266. See Giesler, Ein anderer Hitler, p. 406.

  267. See Hubert Houben, Kaiser Friedrich II: Herrscher, Mensch, und Mythos (Stuttgart, 2008); Karl Ipser, Der Staufer Friedrich II: Heimlicher Kaiser der Deutschen (Berg, 1977), pp. 144ff. and 214ff.

  268. See Oskar Hugo Gugg, Castel del Monte (1942), oil on board, German Historical Museum, Berlin. See also Ipser, Der Staufer Friedrich II, p. 230.

  269. Giesler, Ein anderer Hitler, pp. 213ff.

  270. Ibid., p. 407. On April 4, 1943 Hitler traveled with Giesler, Speer, Fick, Eigruber, Karl Brandt, Heinrich Hoffmann, and Bormann to Linz, to review the progress of the project. See Heinrich Hoffmann Photo Archive, hoff-47460, BSB Munich.

  271. See Henriette von Schirach, Frauen um Hitler, p. 233.

  272. See Fest, Die unbeantwortbaren Fragen, p. 183.

  PART THREE: DOWNFALL

  9. ISOLATION DURING THE WAR

  1. Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, 173rd ed. (Munich, 1936), pp. 732 and 742. See also Christian Zentner, Adolf Hitlers Mein Kampf: Eine kommentierte Auswahl, 19th ed. (Berlin, 2007), pp. 131f.

  2. See the minutes of army adjutant Colonel Friedrich Hossbach, printed in Thilo Vogelsang, “Neue Dokumente zur Geschichte der Reichswehr, 1930–1933,” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 4 (1954), pp. 434f.; Andreas Wirsching, “ ‘Man kann nur den Boden germanisieren’: Eine neue Quelle zu Hitlers Rede vor den Spitzen der Reichswehr am 3. Februar 1933,” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 49 (2001), pp. 518f. 526ff., and 540ff.; Kershaw, Hitler 1889–1936, pp. 559ff.

  3. See Friedrich Hossbach, “Niederschrift über die Besprechung in der Reichskanzlei am 5. November 1937, Berlin, 10. November 1937,” in Bernd-Jürgen Wendt, Grossdeutschland: Aussenpolitik und Kriegsvorbereitung des Hitlerregimes (Munich, 1987); Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, p. 60.

  4. See Goebbels, diary entry, February 3, 1939, in Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Teil 1, vol. 6 (Munich, 1998), p. 247.

  5. See Reuth, Goebbels, pp. 395f.

  6. “Hitlers Rede vor Truppenkommandeuren am 10. Februar 1939,” in Klaus-Jürgen Müller, Armee und Drittes Reich 1933–1939 (Paderborn, 1987), pp. 365ff.

  7. Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, p. 147.

  8. Adolf Hitler, “Rede vor dem Reichstag am 30. Januar 1939,” in Verhandlungen des Reichstags, 4. Wahlperiode 1939, Band 460. Stenographische Berichte 1939–1942. 1. Sitzung, Montag, 30. Januar 1939, pp. 1–21.

  9. Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, p. 147.

  10. See Sereny, Albert Speer, p. 236.

  11. Speer, Inside the Third Reich, p. 130; Gun, Eva Braun, p. 173; Breloer, Unterwegs zur Familie Speer, p. 96. Speer’s oldest son showed Breloer a chest with snapshots and architectural photographs including images of “Eva Braun Furniture” and “Old Chancellery, Eva Braun’s Ladies’ Room, Living Room, and Bedroom.”

  12. Speer, Inside the Third Reich, p. 102. Cf. Speer, Albert Speer: Die Kransberg-Protokolle 1945, pp. 223f.; Kellerhoff, Hitlers Berlin, pp. 132f.; Dietmar Arnold, Reichskanzlei und “Führerbunker”: Legenden und Wirklichkeit (Berlin, 2006), pp. 69ff.

  13. Speer, Inside the Third Reich, p. 130. It says there that Eva Braun’s bedroom was located next to Hitler’s. See also Gun, Ev
a Braun. “Room and boudoir communicated with Hitler’s library.” Eva Braun is there said to have entered her room “through the servants’ entrance,” since “officially her position was [as] one of the numerous secretaries in the offices.” Christa Schroeder, very familiar with the “Führer household” in the Old Chancellery since 1933, due to her “on-call duties,” stated that Hitler’s “work room, library, and bedroom, and later Eva Braun’s apartment next door” were located there (Er war mein Chef, pp. 60f.).

  14. “More About Evi,” Time, December 18, 1939. See also “Hitler’s Girl Evi Braun Takes His Picture,” Life, November 6, 1939; Richard Norburt, “Is Hitler Married?” Saturday Evening Post, December 16, 1939.

  15. “Spring in the Axis,” Time, May 15, 1939. It says there: “To her friends Eva Braun confided that she expected her friend to marry her within a year.”

  16. Bella Fromm, Blood & Banquets: A Berlin Social Diary (New York, 1990 [1st ed., London, 1943]), pp. 255 and 303. Bella Steuerman Fromm wrote for Ullstein Verlag (including for B.Z. Am Mittag) and The Times (London) since the mid-1920s. Her contacts extended all the way to Schleicher and Papen. See Stephan Malinowski, Vom König zum Führer: Deutscher Adel und Nationalsozialismus (Berlin, 2003), p. 556; also Louis P. Lochner, Always the Unexpected: A Book of Reminiscences (New York, 1956). Another source for such inside information was Sigrid Schultz (pseudonym “John Dickson”), Berlin correspondent for the Chicago Daily Tribune, who knew Hermann Göring personally and interviewed Hitler many times. On the monitoring and censorship of foreign reporters, see Peter Longerich, Propagandisten im Krieg: Die Presseabteilung des Auswärtigen Amtes unter Ribbentrop (Munich, 1987), pp. 290ff.

  17. See “Weisung des Führers und Obersten Befehlshabers der Wehrmacht, Geheime Kommandosache, Berlin, 21. Oktober 1938,” in Michael Freund, Weltgeschichte der Gegenwart in Dokumenten: Geschichte des Zweiten Weltkrieges, vol. 1 (Freiburg, 1954), pp. 302ff.

  18. See Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, p. 172.

  19. See Rainerf Schmidt, Der Zweite Weltkrieg: Die Zerstörung Europas (Berlin, 2008), p. 13.

  20. See Hans-Ulrich Thamer, Der Nationalsozialismus, pp. 319ff.

  21. See Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, pp. 169f.

  22. Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, p. 169. The circle around Hitler was thus neither “unsuspecting” nor “morally indifferent to his real plans,” as Sereny writes in her biography of Speer (Albert Speer, p. 223).

  23. See Speer, Albert Speer: Die Kransberg-Protokolle 1945, pp. 224f. and 227. While the “negotiations with Russia progressed,” Speer claimed at that point, there were “vague rumors” on the Obersalzberg “that something was going on with Russia” (p. 227). In Inside the Third Reich, p. 162, Speer writes that Hitler had already, for “weeks before” in “long talks with his four military adjutants tried to arrive at definite plans.” In the German edition of his memoir, Speer specifies that talks “often went on for hours” [Erinnerungen, pp. 176–177]—“Hitler tried to arrive at definite plans.” See also Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, pp. 283 and 290: Speer, according to Kershaw, “did not discuss foreign-policy details” with Hitler. See also Lars Lüdicke, Griff nach der Weltherrschaft: Die Aussenpolitik des Dritten Reiches 1933–1945 (Berlin, 2009), pp. 124f.

  24. Speer, Inside the Third Reich, p. 162.

  25. Goebbels, diary entry, August 24, 1939, in Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Teil I, vol. 7, p. 75.

  26. Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, pp. 60f.

  27. See snapshots from Eva Braun’s photo diary, reproduced in Gun, Eva Braun, after p. 176. However, Gun falsely claims that these scenes took place in the Chancellery. Eva Braun apparently sold the negatives to Hoffmann, since all of the images can be found in the inventory of the Hoffmann Photo Archive in the Bavarian State Library [Bayerische Staatsbibliothek]; they are not labeled there as photographs by Eva Braun. In this regard see also Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, pp. 182f.

  28. Press statement in Fritz Sänger, Politik der Täuschungen: Missbrauch der Presse im Dritten Reich: Weisungen, Informationen, Notizen 1933–1939 (Vienna, 1975), p. 360.

  29. Quoted from Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, pp. 293ff. Cf. Franz Halder, Kriegstagebuch: Tägliche Aufzeichnungen des Chefs des Generalstabes des Heeres 1939–1942, ed. Hans-Adolf Jacobsen, vol. 1 (Stuttgart, 1963f.), p. 25.

  30. See Lüdicke, Griff nach der Weltherrschaft, p. 127.

  31. See Sigmund, Die Frauen der Nazis, p. 273.

  32. See Joseph Goebbels, “Ansprache an die Danziger Bevölkerung anlässlich der Danziger Gaukulturwoche am 17. Juni 1939, Danzig, Balkon des Staatstheaters,” in Goebbels Reden 1932–1945, ed. Helmut Heiber (Bindlach, 1991 [1st ed., Düsseldorf, 1971/1972]), pp. 334f. See also Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, p. 182. According to Below, Hitler expressed himself in similar terms on the afternoon of August 23. See likewise Jeffrey Herf, “ ‘Der Krieg und die Juden’: Nationalsozialistische Propaganda im Zweiten Weltkrieg,” in Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg, vol. 9.2, ed. Jörg Echternkamp for the Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt (Munich, 2005), pp. 173f.

  33. See Speer, Inside the Third Reich, pp. 163–164. Speer gives no departure date here (“a few days later”). Cf. Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, p. 184, which says that Hitler flew to Berlin on the afternoon of August 24; Goebbels, diary entry, August 25, 1939, in Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Teil I, vol. 7, p. 76: “… to Ainring by car. Flight to Berlin. The Führer in very high spirits.” On Eva Braun’s presence, see Gun, Eva Braun, pp. 180f.

  34. See Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, p. 192 (image on the following page).

  35. Adolf Hitler, “Erklärung der Reichsregierung,” in Verhandlungen des Reichstages, 4. Wahlperiode 1939, Band 460. Stenographische Berichte 1939–1942, 3. Sitzung, Freitag, 1. September 1939. Cf. Gun, Eva Braun, p. 181.

  36. See Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, p. 221; “Weisung für den Angriff auf Polen vom 31. August 1939,” in Hitler, Reden und Proklamationen 1932–1945; Kommentiert von einem deutschen Zeitgenossen (Wiesbaden, 1973), pp. 1,299f.

  37. Hitler, “Erklärung der Reichsregierung, 1. September 1939,” p. 48.

  38. Quoted from Gun, Eva Braun, p. 181. On Hitler’s appearance, see Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, p. 195.

  39. Christa Schroeder to Johanna Nusser, Berlin, September 3, 1939 (original), in ED 524, Institut für Zeitgeschichte (IfZ) Munich. Cf. Andreas Hillgruber, “Zum Kriegsbeginn im September 1939,” in Kriegsbeginn 1939. Entfesselung oder Ausbruch des Zweiten Weltkriegs? ed. Gottfried Niedhart; Wege der Forschung, vol. 374 (Darmstadt, 1976), pp. 173ff. Hitler, Speer recalled, “tersely took his leave of the ‘courtiers’ who were remaining behind” (Inside the Third Reich, p. 167).

  40. See Franz W. Seidler and Dieter Zeigert, Die Führerhauptquartiere: Anlagen und Planungen im Zweiten Weltkrieg, 2nd ed. (Munich, 2001), pp. 260 and 271.

  41. See Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, p. 223; Rochus Misch, Der letzte Zeuge: “Ich war Hitlers Telefonist, Kurier und Leibwächter” (Munich and Zürich, 2008), p. 96.

  42. Speer, Albert Speer: Die Kransberg-Protokolle 1945, p. 102.

  43. See Seidler and Zeigert, Die Führerhauptquartiere, pp. 205f.

  44. On the number of people the “Führer train” could hold (around 140), see Speer, Spandauer Tagebücher, illustration to the left of p. 305 (not reproduced in the English translation).

  45. See Heinrich Hoffmann Photo Archive, hoff-27509, BSB Munich.

  46. See Uwe Neumärker et al., Wolfsschanze: Hitlers Machtzentrale im Zweiten Weltkrieg (Berlin, 2007), p. 20.

  47. Christa Schroeder to Johanna Nusser, Führer Headquarters, September 11, 1939 (copy), in ED 524, IfZ Munich. Cf. Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, p. 328.

  48. See ibid.

  49. See Heinrich Hoffmann Photo Archive, hoff-27282, hoff-27283, hoff-27398, hoff-27445, BSB Munich. Hoffmann’s employees included the photographers Hermann Ege, Otto Schönstein, and Hugo Jäger, among others.

  50. See Heinrich Hoffmann Photo Archive, hoff-27394; hoff-27779, BSB Munich. See also Heinri
ch Hoffmann, ed., Mit Hitler in Polen (Berlin, 1939). This photo-illustrated book eventually had 325,000 copies in print (Herz, Hoffmann & Hitler, pp. 372f.). Hoffmann later justified himself by saying that his images and books were not propaganda, merely a “record of contemporary history” (Hoffmann, “Mein Beruf,” p. 36).

  51. See Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, pp. 246f.; Schmidt, Der Zweite Weltkrieg, pp. 40ff.

  52. See Heinrich Hoffmann Photo Archive, BSB Munich: arrest of Polish Jews by the SD, hoff-28297; Polish Jews in the Ghetto, hoff-28315; Polish Jews at forced labor, hoff-28325; members of the security forces cutting off Jews’ beards, hoff-28303; Polish Jews wearing yellow star, hoff-69249.

  53. See Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, pp. 246f; Schmidt, Der Zweite Weltkrieg, pp. 40ff.

  54. See Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, p. 522. See also Hildegard von Kotze, ed., Heeresadjutant bei Hitler 1938–1943. Aufzeichnungen des Majors Engel, Schriftenreihe der Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, no. 29 (Stuttgart, 1974), p. 65.

  55. See Gun, Eva Braun, p. 199. Hoffmann says that Eva Braun’s visits to Berlin were “always limited to a few days” (Hoffmann, “Mein Beruf,” p. 23).

  56. Below gives this date in Als Hitlers Adjutant, p. 219. See also Karl-Heinz Frieser, Blitzkrieg-Legende: Der Westfeldzug 1940 (Munich, 2005), pp. 22ff.

  57. See Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, p. 212.

  58. Hoffmann, Hitler wie ich ihn sah, p. 113.

  59. Ibid. Cf. Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, p. 97.; Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, pp. 101f. Kershaw follows their account (Hitler 1936–1945, p. 276).

  60. Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, p. 229. Cf. Lang, Der Sekretär, p. 157. The decision to go to war against France was made immediately after the Poland campaign, and the commanders of the army, navy, and air force were informed of it on September 27, 1939 (Schmidt, Der Zweite Weltkrieg, pp. 49f.).