Posted on 05/12/2005 1:14:07 PM PDT by struwwelpeter
Hitler's personal secretary and telephone operator did a term of imprisonment at the Spassk POW camp
SS Oberscharfuhrer Rohus Misch was not in Karaganda long. His prisoner of war card, which 'Noviy Vestnik' found in the district archives, states: '16 May 1948 arrived, left 10 May 1950'.
The 87-year old retiree, formerly the secretary and bodyguard of Hitler, now lives in Berlin. From time to time he gives interviews to local and international journalists. Rohus Misch can boast of a superb memory, he still remembers his fuhrer's home telephone number: 12-00-50. "I answered it day and night for five years," he explained in one of his last interviews.
APOLITICAL STUDENT PAINTER
POW Rohus Misch's card is still preserved in the district governmental archives. This time-yellowed piece of cardboard is easy to read with its typewritten lines. Violet ink fixed his personal information onto the document. Last name, first name, middle - Misch Rohus Rohus. Year and place of birth - 1917, Opeln region, city of Alt-Schalkenford, Upper Silesia, Poland. In the distant past - a student artist, who finished 8th grade in the public school. No party affiliation.
During the mobilization of October, 1937, he was drafted into the army. He served in the infantry. Before capture he was registered in the 1st infantry regiment. In the place for rank is written: 'Feldwebel', title: 'radio operator'.
Taken prisoner on May 2nd, 1945. Sentenced to 25 years imprisonment in accordance with Proclamation no. 1 of April 19th, 1943.
HOW HE ENDED UP WITH HITLER
After the attack on Poland in 1939, Rohus Misch was seconded to a special military unit, which later formed the first regiment of the SS forces. In his first battle he was seriously wounded. For his superior obedience, in the spring of 1940 his company commander recommended him to the team that accompanied Adolph Hitler.
For the next 5 years Misch was practically always at Hitler's side: he was present at conferences with his brothers in arms, accompanying the fuhrer on all trips, any carrying out his personal instructions.
The title of chief personal telephonist was later added to the bodyguard's duties.
It's said! Historian Joachim Fest, author of the German best-seller 'Sunset', and Uwe Bansons, author of 'Catacomb', regard Rohus Misch is the most credible source of information about the fuhrer's inner circle. |
Marina Funtikova |
Evil to the core.
Well isn't that special.
PJB is deeply saddened.
?
Stalin, though, had no personally loyal aides, everyone served nervously out of absolute fear. It was people that didn't know Stalin that worshipped him both in the Soviet Union and abroad thanks to his internatonal propaganda machine.
They were both mass-murdering monsters during approximately the same time span, but Hitler was the mesmerizer, Stalin the terrorizer.
I keep looking, but I can't find any personal accounts from any Stalin aides. I wonder if any survived the beast.
That's Hanna Reitsch, one of the most interesting characters of the war. True Nazi, twice winner of the Iron Cross, lived until 1979 completely unrepentant.
Ah, but Stalin was also known for his personal charm when it suited him.
"Hitler was sure that the western allies would attack the USSR."
Patton thought that is what we should have done.
Both Hitler and Stalin were genocidal maniacs but Hitler seemed to treat it as something that other people did. It doesn't surprise me that Hitler had Jewish cook. Hitler only killed the "bad" Jews in his eyes. Basically all the Jews except the ones he knew.
Stalin became more personally involved. He took personal interest in wiping out people.
It is also interesting that many of Hitler's personal aides had very long lives, his nurse, Gerda Christian-one of his secretaries, and this fellow. All three were in the bunker too.
Here's a little something on the camp from the same online journal:
Soviet tankers learned to drive on the bones of the dead
Noviy Vestnik ^ | June 2nd, 2004Last Monday two new memorials appeared simulaneously at the Spassk cemetary. One was placed by the Karaganda city government, the other by the government of Lithuania.
A marker was placed at Spassk to remember all who faced repression on Kazakhstan's soil. The authors of this work were Murat Kalkabaev and Vladimir Trotsenko, who worked on the project and argued for space at the cemetary for a year and a half. Finally it was decided that the marker would not be placed alongside the other memorials, but a bit to the front. Such a composition resulted in a better visual impression than just a straight line of stone markers. So that the memorial complex gave a more unified appearance, Trotsenko decided to take down the iron fence around the cemetary. Well-known architect Aleksandr Titarev, however, was decidedly against such a move."It was I, in my day, who thought up the cemetary complex at Spassk," he reported to members of the architectural council at the time. "I know the place very well. The iron fence shouldn't be taken down from the cemetary under any circumstances. Otherwise people will set horses and sheep out to graze among the graves."
But Vladimir Trotsenko knew how to insist on his way, and the fence was taken down. True, it was not removed everywhere - only from the sides of the main entrance. After all the organizational problems were solved, the sign itself was made in about two days in a local metal-working factory.
The memorial to the Lithuanians who died at the Spassk concentraton camp was a bit simpler. A place for a memorial stone had been decided upon long ago. While the marker was sculpted by an artist in Lithuania, Karaganda had only to help with the installation. For the memorial's opening ceremony an entire delegation from Lithuania arrived. Heading it was Lithuanian secretary of labor and social services, Violeta Muruskayte, and Lithuanian Ambassador Romualdas Visokavichus. During the ceremony, it was stated that it was Lithuania that had brought the entire Spassk memorial complex into existance.
"From 1953 to 1954, I did a term in the camps here," recalled former steppe camp prisoner Antanos Seykalis. "In those days Lithuania was actively resisting the Soviet occupation, and in practically every school there was an underground organization. Ours was discovered... and so I showed up in Kazakhstan. Even now I cannot forget the horrors of day to day life in the camps. The prison uprising in Kengira, near Zhezkazgan. How they brutally put it down with the help of tanks. So many died back then. In 1990, I - with the help of comrades from the public organization of former political prisoners - once again came to Karaganda. We wanted to see in what condition was the prison cemetary in Spassk. And in horror we discovered that there wasn't a cemetary! On it's place was a tank training ground. Soviet tankers learned to drive on the bones of the dead! Under the guise of tourists, we went into this field and placed the first Catholic cross. After a few years they told me that the Kazakhstani government had closed the tank training area and built in its place a memorial complex."
Alongside the Lithuanians' memorial stone in Spassk today are markers dedicated to Germans, French, Italians, Japanese, Finns, Poles, Rumanians, Ukrainians, and Armenians. Soon Russia will dedicate a marker, though the Russian memorial will not be in the collective row, but a bit to the side.
bump
Transliterating from German to Russian and back again lets in some typographical errors. I found that Hitler's secretary (in Russian spelled as 'Rokhus Mish') is actually Rochus Misch. Roosevelt and Reitch got mangled, but I maanged to save FDR. Note that the latin versions of Khrushchev and Gorbachev come up with a few different variations as well.
I read the other day how they want to restore some of his statues over there. Unbelievable.
Mrs. Goebbels was every bit the that monster her husband and their "fuhrer" were.
Sick friggin' people.
The film "Downfall" portrays her as every bit the monster; her scenes with the children are painful.
I highly recommend seeing this movie about the last days in the bunker. Warning: graphic scenes here and there, on a par with "Saving Private Ryan".
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