Eva Braun

Koblenz. See also Winfried Suss, Der “Volkskorper” im Krieg: Gesundheitspolitik, Gesundheitsverhaltnisse und Krankenmord im nationalsozialistischen Deutschland 1939–1945 (Munich, 2003), p. 93; Fest, Die unbeantwortbaren Fragen, p. 200. In Spandau: The Secret Diaries Speer says, in an entry dated July 28, 1949, that Hitler had “forfeited all claim on [his, i.e., Speer’s] loyalty; loyalty to a monster cannot be” (p. 134).

29. See Schmidt, Karl Brandt, pp. 118ff.

30. Ibid., pp. 154ff. and 159ff.

31. Ibid., pp. 177ff. According to Schmidt, there are practically no documents about the conversations between Brandt and Hitler; almost all Hitler’s instructions were given verbally (p. 224).

32. See Rudiger Hachtmann and Winfried Suss, eds., Hitlers Kommissare: Sondergewalten in der nationalsozialistischen Diktatur, Beitrage zur Geschichte des Nationalsozialismus, vol. 22 (Gottingen, 2006), pp. 12f. and 19ff. See also Willems, Der entsiedelte Jude, pp. 77ff. 182ff.

33. Cf. Schmidt, Karl Brandt, p. 72: “they chose to be” unaware of the truth. According to Schmidt, “ignorance was at the core of” both Eva Braun’s and Karl Brandt’s “relationships with Hitler.”

34. See Fest, Speer, p. 65; Fest, Die unbeantwortbaren Fragen, pp. 54 and 86. But even Fest, in the end, cannot avoid remarking that Speer was clearly “among Hitler’s most radical followers” (p. 28).

35. See “Brandt. Report on Hitler,” in Headquarters Military Intelligence Service Center, U.S. Army, APO 757, OI Special Report 36, “Adolf Hitler: A Composite Picture (2 April 1947),” F135/4, p. 6, in David Irving Collection, “Adolph Hitler 1944–1953,” vol. 4, IfZ Munich, p. 692. Speer quotes this sentiment of Hitler’s, which he supposedly also expressed in Eva Braun’s presence, in Inside the Third Reich, where he says Hitler told him: “A highly intelligent man should take a primitive and stupid woman” (Inside the Third Reich, p. 92).

36. Karl Brandt, quoted in Schmidt, Karl Brandt, p. 72.

37. See “Originalnotizen von P. E. Schramm uber Hitler, gemacht wahrend der Befragungen von Hitlers Leibarzten, Haus ‘Alaska,’ d. h. Altersheim fur Lehrerinnen im Taunus, Sommer 1945 in USA-Kriegsgefangenschaft,” p. 169, in Kleine Erwerbung 441–3, BA Koblenz. Under “Eva Braun,” Schramm notes: “Annoyance among entourage”; “has got nothing in life”; “had to be there”; “taste, discreet”; “absolutely no pol[itical] influence”; “runs people down”; “she hated Hoffmann”; “disapproved of Morell.”

38. See “Gruppenbild auf einer Tribune: Anni Brandt, Eva Braun, Erna Hoffmann, Viktoria von Dirksen (in der Reihe dahinter Unity Mitford), Reichsparteitag der NSDAP 6.–13. September 1937, Hauptmarkt Nurnberg,” in Heinrich Hoffmann Photo Archive, hoff-16020, BSB Munich.

39. See Lang, Der Sekretar, pp. 49ff.

40. See ibid., p. 52.

41. See Martin Bormann, Leben gegen Schatten (Paderborn, 1996), pp. 12f.

42. For example, there is the following passage in a book by her father (Walter Buch, Des nationalsozialistischen Menschen Ehre und Ehrenschutz, 5th ed. [Munich, 1939], p. 15): “The National Socialist has recognized that the Jew is not a human being. The Jew is a putrid sign of decay.”

43. Fest, Das Gesicht des Dritten Reiches, p. 366. See in this regard Gerda Bormann to Martin Bormann, Obersalzberg, February 7, 1945, in Martin Bormann, The Bormann Letters: The Private Correspondence between Martin Bormann and His Wife from January 1943 to April 1945, ed. Hugh Trevor-Roper (London, 1954), pp. 176f.

44. See Speer, Albert Speer: Die Kransberg-Protokolle 1945, pp. 136ff.

45. See Akten der Partei-Kanzlei der NSDAP, Teil I, Regesten, vol. 1, pp. viii ff.

46. See Schmidt, Karl Brandt, p. 298.

47. Darre, Aufzeichnungen, p. 295.

48. Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, pp. 30ff.

49. See “Aufzeichnungen des Reichspressechefs Dr. Dietrich” (copy), in Kleine Erwerbung 441–3, p. 16, BA Koblenz.

50. See Robert Ley, “Abschied,” in “Aufzeichnungen in Nurnberg 1945,” p. 1, Robert Ley Papers, N 1468/4, BA Koblenz. See also Kershaw, Hitler 1889–1936, p. 476.

51. See Robert Ley, “Gedanken um den Fuhrer,” in “Aufzeichnungen in Nurnberg 1945,” pp. 13ff, Robert Ley Papers, N 1468/4, BA Koblenz.

52. See Hoffmann, “Mein Beruf,” p. 59.

53. See Robert Ley, “Gedanken um den Fuhrer,” pp. 13ff.

54. Cf. Speer, Inside the Third Reich, pp. 87 and 93; Gun, Eva Braun, p. 136; Lang, Der Sekretar, pp. 108f.

8. LIFE ON THE OBERSALZBERG

1. See Reinhard Spitzy, So haben wir das Reich verspielt: Bekenntnisse eines Illegalen, 4th ed. (Munich, 1994), pp. 128f.

2. See Henriette von Schirach, Frauen um Hitler, p. 227.

3. See Horst Moller et al., eds., Die todliche Utopie: Bilder, Texte, Dokumente, Daten zum Dritten Reich (Munich and Berlin, 1999), pp. 62f.; Chaussy and Puschner, Nachbar Hitler, p. 45.

4. See Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, p. 166. The rumor circulated among the staff that Eva Braun’s and Hitler’s rooms were connected by a “hidden door”: Eva Braun “had a room that was connected to Hitler’s bedroom by a secret door” (Therese Linke, unpublished handwritten memoir, no year [from the 1950s], in ZS 3135, vol. 1, IfZ Munich, p. 9).

5. Albert Speer to Werner Maser, n.p., January 30, 1967 (carbon copy), in Albert Speer Papers, N 1340/37, BA Koblenz. Cf. Speer, Albert Speer: Die Kransberg-Protokolle 1945, p. 146.

6. Martin Bormann to Dr. Friedrich Wolffhardt, Fuhrer Headquarters, December 27, 1941, U.S. National Archives, Washington National Records Center, Suitland, MD, quoted in Beierl, Geschichte des Kehlsteins, p. 8.

7. Ibid., p. 9.

8. Starting in 1934, Department 1 of the Reich Security Service (Reichssicherheitsdienst, RSD) and the SS- Begleitkommando under SS-Standartenfuhrer Johann Rattenhuber were responsible for Hitler’s security. See Moller, ed., Die todliche Utopie, p. 67; Chaussy and Puschner, Nachbar Hitler, p. 130. See also Peter Hoffmann, Die Sicherheit des Diktators: Hitlers Leibwachen, Schutzmassnahmen, Residenzen, Hauptquartiere (Munich and Zurich, 1975).

9. See Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, pp. 16 and 171.

10. Therese Linke, unpublished handwritten memoir, p. 9.

11. See Chaussy and Puschner, Nachbar Hitler, pp. 146ff.

12. Speer, Albert Speer: Die Kransberg-Protokolle 1945, p. 100.

13. Christa Schroeder to Johanna Nusser, Fuhrer Headquarters, August 30, 1941 (original), in ED 524, IfZ Munich. Fritz Wiedemann similarly states: “There were always the same people, proof of the consistency of the company at table” (undated notes, including “Obersalzberg,” (transcription), in Fritz Wiedemann Papers, Kleine Erwerbung Nr. 671, vol. 4, BA Koblenz.

14. Fritz Wiedemann, as cited in note 13, above. Hitler, according to Wiedemann, never worried about his own personal security. He repeatedly used to “rush off on a drive somewhere or another, or even to a play, without telling his security staff.”

15. Fritz Wiedemann, undated notes, as cited in note 13, above.

16. See Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, p. 186.