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Revealed: secret of Hitler's slippers
Scotland on Sunday ^ | February 13, 2005 | MURDO MACLEOD

Posted on 02/12/2005 5:04:07 PM PST by MadIvan

HE PLUNGED Europe into an orgy of destruction, but his bedside reading was by a popular children’s author. He carried his luggage in a vast train of exquisite crocodile-skin suitcases, but would not sleep under a continental quilt.

Fascinating new insights have emerged into the private life of Adolf Hitler from his former chambermaid, who has admitted that she used to stand in his slippers while cleaning his room.

And the maid, who doubled as a minder for Eva Braun, has also said that the Führer’s mistress was sidelined by the wives of the Nazi leader’s henchmen.

Anna Plaim, who came from the Austrian village of Loosdorf, 50 miles from Vienna, was 20 years old when she was employed as a chambermaid for Hitler in 1941.

In a book to be published this April, she describes how she worked at the Berghof, Hitler’s mountain retreat in the Bavarian Alps.

Perched on the mountainside at well above 5,000ft, Hitler used the residence to impress foreign dignitaries and to dream of a glorious future for the Reich. He met Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister, at the Berghof in 1938 and is believed to have planned the 1941 invasion of Russia there.

Plaim has described in the book, Bei Hitlers (At the Hitlers), how the Führer slept in a Spartan bedroom.

She said: "I recall it as being a very simple bed. Even then it surprised me that the Führer did not even have a proper down quilt over his bed. He just made do with a blanket and covering. Eva Braun, on the other hand, did have a big thick down quilt.

"In front of the bed were his slippers, [UK size 10], which by the way I slipped into myself. I can’t tell you why exactly, but I had this desire to stand in the Führer’s slippers."

In contrast to the austere bed coverings, Hitler had a luggage collection which would not look out of place in the swankiest international hotel.

Plaim said: "There was this huge cupboard filled with the most exquisite cases. They were mostly made from crocodile skin leather. They were in a huge pile almost to the ceiling."

While even the world’s dictators need their slippers and their luggage, Hitler’s choice of reading material has raised eyebrows among experts in German literature.

The book on his bedside table was written by the 19th century author Wilhelm Busch, who is most famous for his satirical illustrated children’s stories.

His most famous work is Max und Moritz, written in 1865, which features the naughty deeds of two young pranksters.

Paul Bishop, Professor of German at Glasgow University, said: "This author is a very strange choice for Adolf Hitler. It’s odd to think that he had an author most known for children’s books as his bedside reading. He was a very strange man, of course."

Eva Lehr, the assistant librarian of the Glasgow branch of the Goethe Institut, the German cultural centre, said: "If anything, this makes Hitler even more incomprehensible for me. It seems quite a contradiction that a man who did such things had books by a children’s author."

Bei Hitlers, which is being published to tie in with the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, is part of a series of books and films in Germany which have attempted to ‘humanise’ the dictator and the Third Reich. A recent film, Der Untergang (The Collapse), portrayed the ageing and disillusioned Hitler as a broken man.

The film sparked a national debate in Germany when it was released last summer about whether it was fitting for a German film to portray Hitler as anything other than a monster.

But a Jewish historian said that the humanisation of the Nazis would help to communicate the reality of the Nazi terror.

Dr Nathan Abrams, a modern history lecturer at Aberdeen University, said: "As a Jewish historian, I’m personally in favour of anything which humanises the history of the Third Reich because it demystifies what happened. There’s this notion that the Nazis were some kind of inhuman personification of evil, but the fact is that the atrocities of the Holocaust were carried out by very ordinary people. In some ways, the more we realise that these were people like us, who wore slippers and read all kinds of books, the better we can be aware of the whole horrific reality."

Plaim’s account of life at the Berghof adds weight to the suggestion that Hitler did have a sexual relationship with Eva Braun, even though the two slept in separate rooms.

Some have claimed that Hitler shunned women, and may have been homosexual.

But Plaim added that Braun was sidelined at the Berghof: "Whenever Gerda Bormann, the wife of [Nazi Party chief] Martin Bormann, was there, then she was more important. The same applied to Emmy Göring, the wife of [Luftwaffe chief] Hermann Göring. Frau Göring was the First Lady of the Reich. "

Plaim admits having been a fan of Hitler at the time, but the adoration turned to loathing after the war when she learned of the horrors of the Reich and visited Auschwitz.

She said: "As soon as visits to Auschwitz were possible I went there with my husband Karl. I can still see the huge glass windows with the piles of dentures, the masses of hair and mountains of spectacles. On one suitcase I saw the address of a Jew from St Pölten, just a short distance from where I came from.

"After that visit I was completely shattered. I can no longer even understand my enthusiasm for Hitler. I don’t know. I can’t now understand why so many people were so gripped by him."

Bei Hitlers will be published this April by Droemer/Knaur (Munich) in German. Plans for any English edition have yet to be decided.


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Germany; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: hitler; secrets; slippers
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To: Cacique

Do you think that Stalin had Lenin killed? I read once that Molotov said something along the lines of if Lenin had lived he would have made Staling look like a lamb in comparison.


61 posted on 02/12/2005 9:00:04 PM PST by SilentServiceCPOWife (Romeo&Juliet, Troilus&Crisedye, Bogey&Bacall, Gable&Lombard, Brigitte&Flav)
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To: SilentServiceCPOWife

"Staling" should have been "Stalin".


62 posted on 02/12/2005 9:01:53 PM PST by SilentServiceCPOWife (Romeo&Juliet, Troilus&Crisedye, Bogey&Bacall, Gable&Lombard, Brigitte&Flav)
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To: SilentServiceCPOWife
The person with the best oratorical skills in the English speaking world today is Tony Blair. I have been told that Berlusconi in Italy is not bad either but have never heard or seen a tape of him speaking. Being only tri-lingual I can only judge english, spanish and italian. There may be speakers in other parts of the world that have just as great an effect and we are not seeing it on our radar because we are in the wrong frequency.



63 posted on 02/12/2005 9:03:24 PM PST by Cacique (quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat)
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To: MadIvan

BTTT! Great article.


64 posted on 02/12/2005 9:05:18 PM PST by wagglebee ("We are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom." -- President Bush, 1/20/05)
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To: Cacique

I'm no expert on the subject, but I would agree regarding Tony Blair.

And you're "only" tri-lingual? You slacker. ;-)


65 posted on 02/12/2005 9:05:52 PM PST by SilentServiceCPOWife (Romeo&Juliet, Troilus&Crisedye, Bogey&Bacall, Gable&Lombard, Brigitte&Flav)
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To: SilentServiceCPOWife
No, Lenin died from complications due to an assasination attempt in 1918 which led to a stroke in 1922 from which he never recovered.



66 posted on 02/12/2005 9:06:59 PM PST by Cacique (quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat)
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To: Cacique

I know about the assasination attempt and the strokes, but one of the books I read about Lenin suggested that Stalin had him poisoned.


67 posted on 02/12/2005 9:09:53 PM PST by SilentServiceCPOWife (Romeo&Juliet, Troilus&Crisedye, Bogey&Bacall, Gable&Lombard, Brigitte&Flav)
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To: MadIvan

#


68 posted on 02/12/2005 9:12:48 PM PST by sully777 (It's like my momma always said, "Two wrongs don't make a right but two Wrights make an airplane.")
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To: SilentServiceCPOWife
My father spoke 17 languages. Not uncommon for Europeans (he was Slovenian) of his day. Mostly the European ones. MY uncle (his brother) who was killed in WWII was reputed to have mastered a whole slew of oriental languages, including rabic and hebrew. Between the two of them they could speak to practically anyone. Upon immigrating to the states my father worked as an interpeter at the NYC crimninal courts upon becoming a citizen. I did not inherit the propensity to speak more languages than I do. Perhaps because I totally hated my French teahcer in high school I got turned off from languages since then. I regret that I should have looked beyond that.



69 posted on 02/12/2005 9:14:38 PM PST by Cacique (quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat)
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To: Cacique

I just realized that it's after midnight, so I'm going to have to get going. I've enjoyed our conversation. It's been very informative.

Have a good night.


70 posted on 02/12/2005 9:16:04 PM PST by SilentServiceCPOWife (Romeo&Juliet, Troilus&Crisedye, Bogey&Bacall, Gable&Lombard, Brigitte&Flav)
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To: SilentServiceCPOWife

You know, in actuality I believe Billy Graham has been a great orator, fully capable of swaying the masses with his words. Many would say that Martin Luther King was a great orator also. Tony Blair is a great orator. He speaks beautifully and persuasively. Lech Walesa was a great orator in his heydey.


71 posted on 02/12/2005 9:17:13 PM PST by flaglady47
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To: SilentServiceCPOWife
It's possible but I doubdt it. Stalin's grip on the party was still tenuous in 1924. Even though he was secretary general and had many cronies in important postitions he had to share power initially after Lenin's death. In fact Lenin's untimely death was oportune for Stalin because he was about to get sacked. I would not put it beyond Stalin to have poisoned Lenin, but I sincerely doubdt it. Lenin was severely sick in the last few months, poisoning him would have been a big gamble for Stalin had he been discovered. One thing that Stalin never did was gamble.



72 posted on 02/12/2005 9:21:00 PM PST by Cacique (quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat)
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To: nmh

I grew up reading Max und Moritz at my grandparents'. My mother thought the stories horrid and wouldn't allow them in our house, but I read them wide-eyed each time I got the chance. Disney never allowed truly bad things ever to happen. It was exciting to read stories where they did.


73 posted on 02/12/2005 9:23:57 PM PST by Yaelle
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To: SilentServiceCPOWife

.... a certain unspecified "Mr. Dean" going, shall we say, a little "over the top" perchance?


(Disclaimer: any semblance to persons real, fictional or imagined is wholly and completely coincidental)


74 posted on 02/12/2005 9:24:48 PM PST by Bald Eagle777 (The Chinese military is the opposition force. Traitors at home aid and abet them.)
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To: SilentServiceCPOWife

Reagan rocks, and his one-liners are invincible, but what about ......

John Kerry!!!!!

?


HA HA HA HA HA!


75 posted on 02/12/2005 9:29:45 PM PST by Bald Eagle777 (The Chinese military is the opposition force. Traitors at home aid and abet them.)
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To: tet68

Hitler also took some of his ideas on eugenics, purity of the Aryan race & all that, from Margaret Sanger. Libs don't seem to remember that her pro-abortion stance was for the elimination of certain races & types of people. She wanted to see the forced sterilization of blacks, as well as the mentally handicapped, the poor, etc. If she were alive today, even Planned Parenthood wouldn't want her. Which is ironic, since she was its founder.


76 posted on 02/12/2005 9:50:22 PM PST by my_pointy_head_is_sharp
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To: Cacique; SilentServiceCPOWife

Thanks for the great insight into the various orators!


77 posted on 02/12/2005 9:51:25 PM PST by endthematrix (Declare 2005 as the year the battle for freedom from tax slavery!)
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To: my_pointy_head_is_sharp
"She wanted to see the forced sterilization of blacks, as well as the mentally handicapped, the poor, etc."

That did happen in the US, BTW.

78 posted on 02/12/2005 9:52:52 PM PST by endthematrix (Declare 2005 as the year the battle for freedom from tax slavery!)
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To: tet68
The Katzenjammer Kids are based on "Max und Moritz," similarly mischievous young boys created by artist Wilhelm Busch in Germany. Max und Moritz had been popular in their homeland for more than 30 years before the Americanized version first appeared in William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal Sunday supplement.


79 posted on 02/12/2005 10:24:32 PM PST by TheMole
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To: MadIvan

BTTT


80 posted on 02/12/2005 11:38:10 PM PST by lainde ( ...we are not European, we are American, and we have different principles!")
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