The most famous of Hitler’s field headquarters was the complex of briefing rooms and blockhouses at his bunker near Rastenburg, the German word for Ketrzyn in present-day Poland. Wolfsschanze, or Wolf’s Lair, would become Hitler’s primary base of operations when away from Berlin, which became increasingly the case from the spring into the summer of 1944. Along with the Berghof, Hitler’s home in the Bavarian Alps, historians associated Hitler’s residences most often with the Wolf’s Lair.
It was built in a strategically well-chosen site in the fall of 1940. At the time, it was in the center of the Nazis’ planned occupation. The region in which it was located reminded Hitler of his beloved Bavaria—sparsely populated with a landscape of gently rolling hills and dense wooded environs. The Wolf’s Lair was remote, yet it was easily connected to roads and a railway linking to a mainline into Berlin. In addition, the complex was located on the west side of a vast network of lakes and rivers, which would certainly thwart any attack from the Soviet Red Army advancing from the east.
By July of 1944, the Wolf’s Lair was a village in and of itself. Tucked away from the locals, the infrastructure of the buildings, both above ground and below, was completely self-sufficient with its own electricity and water, sewer and heating plants, a communications center, medical facilities, cinema and soldiers’ quarters.
In the center of the complex was a heavily guarded series of bunkers that made up Hitler’s private quarters. The briefing rooms were state of the art for the period. The dining rooms and parlors were well decorated with artifacts secured by the Nazis during their conquests.
Despite the protections afforded him, Hitler had become increasingly paranoid of assassination attempts. Prior to the war, a dozen plots had either been thwarted or attempted. As the war commenced, both politicians and generals plotted to kill him on half a dozen occasions.
On July 20, 1944, mere days after Himmler and his group met at the Castle of Wewelsburg to discuss Project Tabun, a group of conspirators, who stood in opposition to Nazi policies and their territorial expansions, initiated a plan to assassinate Hitler within the Wolf’s Lair.
The attempt was carried out by Lieutenant Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, a young staff officer who’d been wounded in Rommel’s North African campaign. Known as Operation Valkyrie, Stauffenberg attended a military briefing in the Wolf’s Lair with a bomb in his briefcase.
As the briefing began, Stauffenberg excused himself to the bathroom where he opened his briefcase containing a detonator attached to the plastic explosives. Once the bomb was primed, he returned to the gathering and set the briefcase at his feet under the conference table barely a yard away from Hitler.
As planned, Stauffenberg received an important phone call and was called out of the room. After he left, another colonel standing between the briefcase and Hitler unwittingly pushed Stauffenberg’s briefcase out of the way behind the leg of the table. When the bomb was detonated, the furniture leg, and that of the colonel-turned-hero, deflected the bomb away from Hitler. The Führer sustained only minor injuries.
The attempted assassination only heightened Hitler’s paranoia, but it also served to elevate the importance of Himmler’s power. By August, after the repairs were made, Hitler’s security detail, now fully within Himmler’s purview, was greatly enhanced, including a whole new level of protection—food tasters.
Hitler had called his top generals to the Wolf’s Lair to discuss the course of the war and the defense of Berlin from General Patton’s advance known as the dash across France. It was a working dinner, but as had been the case in recent weeks, certain precautions were taken in advance.
Himmler stood against the wall next to the door leading to Hitler’s private quarters. The dining table was set, but the attendees were held in an outside waiting room. However, the seats would not remain unoccupied for long.
One by one, twelve women were escorted out of the kitchen doorway and into the room. They were brusquely ordered to sit at each of the place settings. Some of them had steeled their nerves, sitting up in their chairs with confidence and poise. Others were shaking, glancing around the room as if they were facing their execution. Perhaps they were. Only time would tell.
They were hungry. They’d not been fed in over twenty-four hours. This was by design. Himmler had ordered them to be ravenous. They could not nibble around the edges of their plates of pick at their food like birds on the street. They were expected to eat every bite and do so quickly.
Suddenly, the aroma of the cooked meal filled the room. Roasted red peppers and green beans drenched with butter adorned a plate that included peas, carrots, and steak. The plates were carried by twelve kitchen staffers, each of whom had a designated guest to serve. In unison, as if straight out of a scene in an English castle serving royalty, the staff set the plates in front of the women.
Nervously, they looked around the room, waiting for approval. Their mouths were agape and their nostrils flared. The women’s mouths watered as the best meal they’d had in many years was within reach of their hands.
Himmler could see the longing in their eyes. “Essen!”
Only a few of the women hesitated, anxiously waiting to observe the others take their first bites. This annoyed Himmler, who shouted at them once again, causing the entire contingent of testers and their kitchen-staff hosts to jump.
“Essen! Verdammt!”
A few of the women ate ravenously. If this was to be their last meal, they intended to finish it all before they died. It was, in fact, delicious. As they continued to eat, they became chatty with whoever sat next to them. As they all finished, their plates were removed, and they were served a bowl of apple cobbler. There was no hesitancy now. They had no shame. They devoured the dessert until several of them leaned
