Hitler's Last Witness (5 page)

Besides sports, there was hardly time for anything else. The most uncomfortable duty was at the barrier to the chapel. This was open to all those attending religious services and was situated in the academy grounds. There was one service a week – the evangelical alternating with the Catholic. When the service was about to begin, I would have to open the barrier and wait there until it ended. It was an unbelievable bore. Aunt Sofia was a very devout woman and went to church every Sunday. She was living then in Lichterfelde. Like our whole family, I am also Catholic and have never tried to make a secret of it.
[7]

Real military training was much too short, and many of us would have bitter regrets about this. In the first two years, we spent only two ten-day periods on the exercise grounds. Instead, we were parade-soldiers, disporting ourselves as extras in film and theatre productions. For the UFA film
Die Gelbe Flagge
(The Yellow Flag – 1937), we filmed near Berlin. Hans Albers played the star role; his partner was Olga Chekhova. Also, at the Deutsches Theatre, three colleagues and I in one performance played soldiers of Frederick the Great. I never took part in any major parades or as an honour-guard before the Reich Chancellery; that was reserved for men of more impressive height. I marched past the Führer-balcony in the Wilhelm-Strasse twice, however.

I was very averse to all this. I was an enthusiastic sportsman; being a soldier was of no interest to me. The fact that I had been selected for the
SS-Leibstandarte
from among so many, even now I did not have a bad conscience about it. Although we had had it explained to us that we were the Führer's elite, I still did not know much about this Hitler. On the barracks blackboard were listed those of us who were NSDAP members – few.
[8]
There was no kind of pressure to join the Party – it never even occurred to me. Instruction in the ‘world view' was given in the form of speeches, which enjoyed the same type of inattention as the German language lessons at school – the dry swotting of grammar. It was easy to see, however, that the political situation in Europe was changing, and many enthused over Hitler's policy of strength to oppose the Versailles dictates.

When the order came – ‘Buckle up “apes”, on the vehicles!' – we didn't ask much.
[9]
In March 1938, we headed for Vienna. For the annexation of Austria, one of the so-called Flower Wars (‘There were flowers, flowers everywhere'), I was present. The people of Vienna received us ecstatically. In jubilation, people edged the streets and bombarded our vehicles with flowers. We were equally in a relaxed mood, and when we were given quarters in a nunnery we kept on celebrating. We put a piano in the courtyard and made music and danced until late in the night. We intoned cheerful songs loudly in the manner of Russian folk songs for especially impressive intermezzos. The nuns, who had at first retired in horror, now looked out from their windows in curiosity, and occasionally they came down to us in the courtyard. ‘Where there is singing, one can go below in tranquillity; evil people know no songs,' they might have been thinking! Finally, at almost midnight, we set up our night camp in the dining hall of the nunnery. The nuns threw mattresses for us down the staircase.

We stayed three or four days in Vienna, during which we tasted the world-famous Wiener Schnitzel. We were recommended a good restaurant, but everybody fell quiet when we were told that the original Wiener Schnitzel was made from udder skin.

Once back in Berlin, everything continued as usual. On 11 July, I went with some colleagues to a police festival in Treptower Park. I wasn't keen on going but allowed myself to be persuaded. When one of my friends went up to a girl to ask her to dance, her friend remained seated. I went up to her and thus I got to know Gerda Lachmund, my wife-to-be. She had had her eighteenth birthday on 3 July 1938, and this was her first time out alone. She was 1.78 metres – taller than most women there and many of the men. She seemed a bit serious, like a schoolteacher. She was a pretty girl with short hair. I did not fall in love with her straight away, but I must have made an impression. Before we parted, she invited me to her home for the coming weekend.

After that, we met ever more frequently, although often only by chance, because Gerda could not be reached by telephone. Frequently, I would spend the whole afternoon with her parents because Gerda had gone out with a friend. I would make myself useful then. My later father-in-law was unable to move one of his thumbs properly, after an industrial accident. He was very happy for me to take an interest in his garden, and quickly took me to his heart, although not just for that alone. He stood well to the left politically: all his life he had fought for the rights of the labouring classes, and he had been a member of the USP in the First World War.
[10]
His wife had joined the SPD (German Socialist Party) in 1916.

Gerda's parents' house was located in a typical working-class district of Berlin. Nearly all its inhabitants were factory workers – many large organisations, such as the Henschel aircraft works and AEG, having settled in the neighbourhood. One might think that an SS man was not quite what these families would have had in mind for their daughter. My later father-in-law understood, however, that my path was nothing but a soldier's destiny. I was not in the Party, and he knew how I had come into the
SS-Leibstandarte
, and later to Hitler. Hitler and the Nazis never came between us. I was a soldier – that explained everything, even for my future father-in-law.

Gerda's father often took me to see ‘Uncle' Paul, a so-called uncle and a very good friend of the family. He was also a convinced Social Democrat and active trade unionist – as long as it was not dangerous but occasionally beyond. He got into trouble with the regime later, and I was able to help him.

Gerda and I used the formal ‘Sie' (you) to address each other for two years. When my colleagues hinted at a ‘fried potato relationship',
*
I corrected them: ‘tomato relationship'. Gerda's mother made an outstanding tomato salad. It was very unusual, but my relationship with Gerda developed basically in the shadow of the ever-closer relationship between myself and her parents. I was an orphan; Herr and Frau Lachmund were less the parents of my bride than my substitute parents.

I knew nothing of Reichskristallnacht, on 9 November 1938. It may be that we were confined to barracks to keep us from asking questions.
[11]
Hitler's valet at that time, Karl Krause, told me much later that Hitler was beside himself with rage about the events of that night.
[12]
‘What have you set in motion again!' he shouted, and would not be calmed by being informed that Goebbels had approved it.
[13]
He then drove with Krause to a burning Munich synagogue in order to see it for himself from a distance. After that he was taken home and went into his room in a rage. In a daze, Krause shrank back. Hitler then opened the door a crack and told Krause tersely when he wished to be woken the following day.

I remember the two years before the outbreak of war as very fine ones. The invasion of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, and the occupation of the Sudetenland six months earlier, did not involve war-like confrontations for us. We crossed the mountains to arrive in the Slovak part of Czechoslovakia, as far as Zilina. It had snowed and was very cold in the mountains. When the sun came out, the snow was so blinding that we could hardly see. Our company commander, Wilhelm Mohnke, distributed zinc salve: ‘Here, everybody smear this over your noses, otherwise you'll get terrible sunburn.' I did as I was told, my nose as white as the snow from the paste. At Zilina we were given a friendly reception by the inhabitants.
[14]
We were allocated quarters with civilians, and, on departure, a local family even gave me a fine knitted jacket with expensive embroidery for my girlfriend. Gerda wore it often for a long time. I remember being very impressed on a visit to a rolling mill at Vitkovice. I had never seen how steel was formed before.

In the summer of 1939, we came to Berchtesgaden for six weeks and stayed in the barracks at the Berghof. Hitler had a kind of summer retreat there. We were divided up into Führer protection squads on the Obersalzberg, had patrol duties, and received further military instruction. I still had no idea under what circumstances I should soon return to this imposing and idyllic mountain world.

1
At the instigation of Heinrich Himmler, the
SS-Verfügungstruppe
(SS-VT) was joined to the Schutzstaffel (bodyguard) as an armed component. In 1934, Hitler approved three armed SS regiments, which would undertake the role of state fighting police. When Misch was called up, the structuring of the SS-VT was already well advanced. In high summer 1936, Hitler appointed SS-Brigadeführer Paul Hausser as Inspector of the VT. Subsequently, in Munich from three companies of stormtroops, the SS regiment
Deutschland
came into being; in Hamburg SS regiment
Germania
; in Berlin the
SS-Leibstandarte
was expanded into a motorised infantry regiment; and in Vienna in 1938 the regiment Der Führer was formed. It was not until 1940 that the Waffen-SS came into being by the amalgamation of the VT with sections of the Totenkopf units: see Heinz Höhne,
Die Geschichte der SS
, Augsburg 1992 (first edn Munich 1967) pp. 404ff.

2
On 17 March 1933, SS-Gruppenführer Josef (Sepp) Dietrich received the assignment from Hitler to form a new Stabswache (HQ guard). Six months later, at the Nuremberg rally, the Stabswache, now of regimental size, was officially named
SS-Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler
(LAH). Although nominally under Himmler's control, commander Dietrich was in fact answerable only to Hitler. It was an elite bodyguard, which stood guard in front of government buildings and played a representative role on state visits, state events and similar. The
SS-Leibstandarte
was one of the units that made up the VT. Because of its predominantly ceremonial duties, it concentrated more on sport than military training and so was known sarcastically as the
Vergnügungstruppe
(the Enjoyment company).

3
The Prussian main cadet-training institute taken over by the
SS-Leibstandarte
in 1933 was formerly the officer-training school of the Prussian army. (Previously, the SS-Stabswache
Berlin
had its quarters in the Alexander barracks near the Friedrich-Strasse tram station.)

4
Max Schmeling (1905–2005) heavyweight boxer, world champion 1930–2.

5
Josef (‘Sepp') Dietrich (1892–1966), commanding officer
SS-Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler
from
15 August 1938 to 7 April 1943.

6
Mathias Wiemann (1902–1969), German theatrical and film actor.

7
Misch often mentioned that both during his time with the
SS-Leibstandarte
and as a member of the SS bodyguard he attended religious service throughout infrequently. It is noteworthy in that it has often been reported that VT men were forced to leave the Church. See Heinz Höhne,
Die Geschichte der SS
, Augsburg 1992 (first edn Munich 1967) p. 417: ‘The VT became a stronghold of SS godlessness . . . at the end of 1938 53.6 per cent of VT soldiers had left the Church.'

8
The official statistics for the SS-VT on 1 July 1937 show that 27 per cent were non-NSDAP members, and 29 per cent of
SS-Totenkopf
units were not. Although only ‘a few' of either was an NSDAP member, the figures are striking. Heinz Höhne,
Die Geschichte der SS
, Augsburg 1992 (first edn Munich 1967), p. 64.

9
The ‘ape' (Affe) was the field pack.

10
In 1917, former SPD members who during the First World War had voted against approving war credits formed the USPD (German Independent Social Democratic Party). In 1920, most of the USPD joined up with the KPD (Communist Party). In 1922, the rump of the USPD rejoined the SPD, although a few USPD remnants led the USPD as a splinter party until 1931. In the framework of
Gleichschaltung
(‘the streamlining of Parties'), the SPD was outlawed on 22 June 1933.

11
On Himmler's orders the SS were told officially to stay clear of events. (Ian Kershaw,
Hitler 1936–1945
, Stuttgart 2000, p. 197). The commander of the 5th Company of the
SS-Leibstandarte
, Wilhelm Mohnke, was quoted as saying that a curfew had been imposed on the Berlin-Lichterfelde location as from the afternoon of 8 November 1938. Thomas Fischer,
Die Verteidigung der Reichskanzlei
, Zweibrücken 2007, p. 68.

12
Karl Wilhelm Krause (1911–?) was Hitler's valet from 1934 until 10 Sept. 1939.

13
The pogrom began before 9 November 1938. It was stirred up by the Reich Propaganda Ministry and partly directed from there; Hitler held back from it at least outwardly but was kept informed on the course of the action by Goebbels (Ian Kershaw,
Hitler 1936–1945
, Stuttgart 2000, pp. 194ff).

14
Company commander Wilhelm Mohnke was quoted as saying: ‘The troops were welcomed with jubilation by the inhabitants of German stock, the Slovaks were friendly, but the Czechs very reserved.' Thomas Fischer,
Die Verteidigung der Reichskanzlei
, Zweibrücken 2007, p. 73.

*
That is, the relationship was little more than a meal ticket. (TN)

Chapter Three