Posted on 09/06/2013 7:47:08 AM PDT by GoreFreeTN
BERLIN (AP) — He was Adolf Hitler's devoted bodyguard for most of World War II and the last remaining witness to the Nazi leader's final hours in his Berlin bunker. To the very end, SS Staff Sgt. Rochus Misch was proud of it all.
For years, he accompanied Hitler nearly everywhere he went, sticking by the man he affectionately called "boss" until the dictator and his wife, Eva Braun, killed themselves as defeat at the hands of the Allies drew nearer. The loyal SS officer remained in what he called the "coffin of concrete" for days after Hitler's death, finally escaping as Berlin crumbled around him and the Soviets swarmed the city.
Even in his later years, during a 2005 interview with The Associated Press in which he recounted Hitler's claustrophobic, chaotic final days, Misch still cut the image of an SS man, with a rigid posture, broad shoulders, neatly combed white hair — and no apologies for his close relationship with the most reviled man of the 20th century.
"He was no brute. He was no monster. He was no superman," Misch said.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
Me too. Ninety percent of German pows died in Soviet captivity.
5.56mm
Nobody did a better Hitler than Moe Howard.
Well....The Germans and Russians fought the perfect war. No rules, no prisoners and anything went. And if you were taken as a POW, life was going to be very hard.
Just as a question, where does that leave members of our secret service guarding the current idiot in chief?
Agreed. I wonder if the Soviets were aware of his position as Hitler’s bodyguard? 9 years in a Soviet gulag has got to have a bit less than a 10% survival rate.
Hmm - "No man is a hero to his valet" - Montaigne. I'm sure there's a little of that going on here, as well as an apparently sincere conviction that Hitler did nothing wrong himself. It's an interesting point of view considering the circumstances.
It is a little jarring to encounter someone who went through all that and who still believes in the iniquity of the Jews and the righteousness of the Nazi cause. Substitute "Islamist" for "Nazi", though, and it is an everyday occurrence. The fanaticism is actually quite familiar.
Perhaps that rigidity helped keep him alive during those years in captivity, but I can't help wondering at a fellow who saw so much and learned so little.
I don’t think Misch was a monster. Not EVERYONE who served in the SS was a killer working in concentration camps.
The SS was the elite of the Nazi regime. Because Misch was member, he had the opportunity to serve as a bodyguard to Hitler and is therefore a witness to history.
While no one would deny Hitler’s savage cruelty and evil barbarism....there were others in Hitler’s inner circle....most notably his secretary... Traudl Jung...who confirm that Hitler had his “softer” side, usually reserved for his dog, his mistress, a few close associates, and his trusted bodyguards, pilot , chauffeur , and other assorted servants.
We like to think of Hitler as a raving madman yelling and screaming at all before him. But he was also a very popular politician, who seemed to have an hypnotic effect on people as well as charisma and yes, even charm.
Not whitewashing Hitler’s evil crimes...just saying that Rochus Misch was very fortunate in that he was apparently only exposed to Hitler’s “softer” side, witnessed history, and like Traudl Jung, lived long enough to tell about it. Traudl Jung’s recollections of those final days in the bunker, served largely as the basis for the very accurate German film about the those final days-—Downfall.
” And watch that racist crap where you call a German a Kraut.”
Oh for crying out loud. Can’t you put a sock in it with the kneejerk “racist” crap?
“Kraut” is not racist. Germany is a nation, not a race. So sick of the stupid “race card.”
I think instead you should watch that racist crap where you call a Nazi - Hitler's bodyguard, no less - somebody who didn't kill anyone.
And as a Pole, I hereby deem Hitler's bodyguard a Kraut, and you can sit on that and spin.
And watch that spitting on the First Amendment too, the next time you try to restrict American opinions about their president.
In fact, maybe you're living in the wrong country altogether, friend.
"I smell sulfur."
I'm sure they did. They were pretty thorough in working to discover exactly what happened in the bunker, and everyone was thoroughly interrogated, down to Hitler's dentist. Apparently they went to the extent of making everyone reenact what happened.
I thought they were the Master Race.
Didn’t work out very well.
An interesting statistic - I wonder how it compares to the rate of survival in Nazi concentration camps? Japanese POW camps?
I suspect one could argue the Soviet gulag was even more lethal than the Nazi death camps....
-—And watch that racist crap where you call a German a Kraut.-—
Germans are not a “race”.
The term you are looking for is “ethnic slur”.
Carry on.
—Americans should also remember that it was WWI and it’s aftermath whereby German was saddled with reparations that were totally unfair and were a direct cause of the rise of the Nazis—
Yeah, those mean ol’ reparations for destroying half of the civilized world justified the Germans becoming racialist lunatics hell bent on destoying the OTHER HALF.
Give me a break.
—everyone was thoroughly interrogated, down to Hitler’s dentist.—
The dentist was needed for the obvious reasons—matching bridgework records to all the dead heads in the Reichskanzler courtyard.
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