Hitler's Last Witness by Rochus Misch

Author:Rochus Misch
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HIS000000, BIO000000, BIO008000
Publisher: Scribe Publications
Published: 2014-08-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Weddings and Treason: 1944

ON 3 JUNE 1944, Eva Braun’s sister Gretl married Major General Hermann Fegelein. The festivities were held on the Obersalzberg. Fegelein had been the Waffen-SS liaison officer to Hitler since the beginning of the year and had, as one heard, distinguished himself in the field.[1] Above all, however, Fegelein was a dare-devil, braggart, pretentious boorish ape, for whom women fell one after another. Eva, herself not without tangible feelings for the heart-breaker, coupled him up to her younger sister Gretl.

On the night of 5 June 1944, the Allied invasion of Normandy began. Hitler was not informed until midday on 6 June. He believed for quite some time that it could be halted. When it quickly became clear that the coastal sectors could not be held, he became absolutely convinced that the whole operation was connected to treason.

He saw himself confirmed in this opinion when, some weeks later, photos were released in Sweden in which a German colonel commanding an Abwehr fortified bunker installation was seen clinking glasses with two British officers – obviously without a shot having been fired. Damn – how could they have given up without a fight? They had guns there, which could have hit Plymouth, so we were told. Nothing, absolutely nothing, had gone right on the German side in connection with the invasion. There was, therefore, only one explanation – treason and sabotage. Hitler imagined it behind almost every action that failed. In fact, from the information coming in to us, it actually was possible to perceive that something of that kind was often the case. Now we began to receive reports more frequently of sabotage in sectors of armaments production. There were constant altercations with the Wehrmacht command staff, and Hitler did not exclude even Jodl and Keitel from his suspicions of manipulation. I knew many of Hitler’s moods, but he always remained friendly towards me. As the war situation deteriorated, however, I also no longer believed in Final Victory.

Under the pressure of this mood impregnated with distrust, on 22 June 1944 Hitler addressed 280 high-ranking officers and generals on the Platterhof. It was very moving. Hitler implored them to show their unity and their loyalty as German officers. If they left him in the lurch, no longer believed in victory, no longer gave their all, then Germany was lost. Victory or defeat; that lay in their hands, not in his. If they wanted to give it up, how would he operate the rudder alone? Hitler was several times close to tears. The speech moved me very much; I really felt sorry for Hitler. On the evening of that June day, I saw the popular General Eduard Dietl at the Berghof. He gave Hitler the up-to-date picture of the situation in Norway and Finland. The following day, I learnt that Dietl’s aircraft had crashed at Semmering near Vienna, and all aboard had been killed. I was very upset at the news.

Because of the situation on the Eastern Front, Hitler wanted

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