Revealed: secret of Hitler's slippers

Scotland on Sunday ^ | February 13, 2005 | MURDO MACLEOD

[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.

[Cacique]

I shudder to thing of what another Hitler type could do with our modern forms of media.

Give it time the 21st century is still young.

Gamal Abdel Nasser was a student of Perón. He even modeled his officer's group that overthrew Farouk after Perón's GOU. He eventually proved the best orator in the Arab world. We have not seen a replacement since his death. But the turmoil in the Arab world is beyond our control and always has been. One can only hope that when and able and charismatic leader able to sway the Arab masses arise, he will be more inclined towards western liberalism (in the classical conservative sense) than doctrinaire Islamism. Otherwise we are in trouble.

I would like to believe that we are immune from such banter. However, we must be aware that systems that allow for the democratic process also allow for pluralities in fractured elections. Examples, Lincoln garnered only 40% of the vote, Hitler only 38.6%, Bill Clinton got only 46% & 49%, Tony Blair's Labor got a "landslide" of 43% etc. You don't need majorities to win, you simply need pluralities if you can get them.

[Atlantic Friend]

But the Italian society, and indeed Germany's Weimar Republic supported and glorified some sort of eccentricity too. Berlin was one very hot city indeed in the late 1920s, and who is to say the Italians don't like to indulge in a little craziness of their own...

[Lazamataz]

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."

(quickly putting down my copy of Winnie the Pooh)

[Lazamataz]

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.

No, it's okay. We already know he's a monster. Let's hear about his quirks.

[Lazamataz]

I would like to annouce my new beverage label called Senseless Genocide.

Senseless Genocide^TM Tea
For the brutal dictator in all of us.

Senseless Genocide^TM Coffee
When killing them all just ISN'T ENOUGH

Senseless Genocide^TM Cocoa
The Ukraine may be starving, but your mug is full!

[Lazamataz]

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.

SO IT'S TRUE!

Even Hitler was Busch's fault.

[Lazamataz]

Actually, no. The striking thing about the nazis is how childish their behavior was; I mean, "death to our enemies", "we can beat anybody" and especially "no girls allowed!" are the mindsets of an eight-year-old.

Uh oh.

I'm in trouble.

[hershey]

This book is creepy, and trying to imagine how this woman's mind works even now is difficult. She didn't have a doubt in the world about Hitler until she saw piles of Jews' dentures and hair? Maybe that's unfair, but 'folksy' details about Hitler make my skin crawl.

[hershey]

Worth repeating and sets down in black and white the horrible truth that Nazis were ordinary people. Evil comes in many guises, even as the butcher, baker, or candlestick maker.

[ichabod1]

"normalcy of evil"

I believe the term Speer used was the “banality” of evil, the “man in the gray flannel suit.” I read that book once. It was fascinating.

[ichabod1]

You watch the Nuremburg rally and you can see the theatrical effects -- the burning torches, huge flags, one man gesticulating and shouting -- it IS hypnotic.

The only clips we ever see is of Hitler screeching and screaming. I understand he had the orators sense of when to swell and when to diminuendo... that he would "play" those huge crowds. Bellowing one minute, sentimental and weepy the next, they fell for it.

[ichabod1]

Lovely poem. How unexpected, that Free Republic has introduced me to the REAL poetry that my Dad tried to interest me in, but I refused.

Rock & country lyrics are SO LOUSY compared to Eliot or Kipling.

[ichabod1]

Hughie Long. William Jennings Bryan. Al Gore... No, just kidding!

[ichabod1]

Check out the works of Edward Gorey such as The Gashleycrimb Tinies, and The Fatal Lozenge.

[ichabod1]

Reagan had an intimite understanding of the small screen. You can't go over the top on television -- it's too intense. That's probably why it freaks people out to see Hitler on Television. Just a minute change in facial expression is equivalent to a gesticulation on the stage. TV has killed the time honored art of oration except... in some churches.

[p.s. that's what has done Gore and Dean in. Too over the top for television.]

[alrea]

German states were ready to colonize...but too late...the time had passed in history for that

If Hitler had not been so aggressive and had employed all the scientists in the country he could have used atomic weapons with rockets and may have been invincible for decades.

[ichabod1]

Kerry gives speeches like Hillary. They speak like they THINK an orator should speak and don't understand why it leaves some people strangely cold, even if they agree with what is being said.

[killjoy]

I understand he had the orators sense of when to swell and when to diminuendo... that he would "play" those huge crowds. Bellowing one minute, sentimental and weepy the next, they fell for it.

[Montfort]

I was NOT a monster at eight years old. Others were monstrous to me at times, but I was NOT a monster.

My existence may have been annoying to some. I was a naive kid who came from a wealthy family and seemed pretty happy and lived a sheltered life. This could be annoying enough to kids. I did some annoying things like whistling tunes and singing and humming and talking too much (like the Eddie Murphy donkey from Shrek, which was indeed annoying).

[cyncooper]

They all said he could rivit one in place with his eyes. Charles Manson's followers said similar things about him.

And so did the followers of Jim Jones. I've never understood how people can allow themselves to be manipulated and controlled like that.

The exact thing has been said about clinton (him mostly, but recently I read or heard something, I believe by some charmed Republican, who had recently experienced it with her).