Free Republic

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...

Rochus Misch, Hitler's bodyguard and telephone operator, is the last surviving member of Hitler's entourage. He has just turned 90 and is publishing a book about his time with the Führer. The strangest thing was the sight of the two guitar players at the "Kaiserhof" subway station in Berlin. "I come out of this bunker of death, all that drama, and someone's playing music," recalls Rochus Misch. "They played Hawaiian music!" It was May 2, 1945, at six o'clock in the morning. Near Hitler's bunker, French SS troops and German army units were prolonging the end of World War Two....