Heike Görtemaker - Eva Braun

197. See Speer, Albert Speer: Die Kransberg-Protokolle 1945, p. 119.

198. See Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945 , pp. 19f.; Fest, Die unbeantwortbaren Fragen , p. 240. See also Speer, Inside the Third Reich , pp. 100–101: he describes an “unbreakable wall” and writes that Hitler “was never completely relaxed and human” in others’ presence—not even with Eva Braun. Earlier, Speer claimed that Hitler tried to come across “as a good ‘paterfamilias’ ” in the private realm ( Albert Speer: Die Kransberg-Protokolle 1945 , p. 112).

199. Speer, Inside the Third Reich , pp. 92 and 123.

200. Speer, Albert Speer: Die Kransberg-Protokolle 1945, pp. 69ff., 112, and 118.

201. Seventh Army Interrogation Center, APO/758, May 26 1945, “Amann’s Control of German Press,” in David Irving Collection, “Adolph Hitler 1944–1953,” F 135/3, IfZ Munich, p. 490.

202. Walther Darré, Aufzeichnungen von 1945–1948 , vol. 2, p. 369.

203. See “Biographical Report, Nurnberg, 26 October, 1945.” Office of U.S. Chief of Counsel APO 403, U.S. Army, Interrogation Division, in ZS 1452 (Franz Xaver Schwarz), IfZ Munich.

204. Interrogation of Reich Treasurer Schwarz, 21 July 1945, 1600 Hours, in ZS 1452 (Franz Xaver Schwarz), IfZ Munich. An interview record from the same day reports: “Hitler seemed to him [i.e., to Schwarz] an honest, intelligent man of great strength of character. He maintained that his relations with women were on a high plane. Stating that Hitler became a close friend of Eva Braun as early as 1931, he insisted that the relationship was purely platonic since Hitler had decided to forgo matrimony in the interest of his country; Eva Braun frequented the Schwarz household.”

205. Report on Historical Interrogations of German Prisoners of War and Detained Persons, 20 December 1945 (Lt. Col. Oron J. Hale), War Department Historical Commission, War Department Special Staff, Historical Division, in Fh 51, IfZ Munich.

206. “Besprechung zwischen Herrn Albrecht und Frl. Schröder, früher Sekretärin von Hitler,” Berchtesgaden, May 22, 1945, p. 3, in MA 1298/10, Microfilm, Various Documents DJ-13 (David Irving), IfZ Munich.

207. Schroeder, Er war mein Chef , pp. 155f.

208. Hoffmann, “Mein Beruf,” pp. 22f.

209. Ibid., pp. 18ff. and 21f.

210. “Vernehmung des Julius Schaub am 12. 3. 1947 von 15.30 bis 16.00 durch Dr. Kempner,” pp. 6f., in ZS 137 (Julius Schaub), IfZ Munich. See also Julius Schaub, In Hitlers Schatten: Erinnerungen und Aufzeichnungen des Chefadjutanten 1925–1945 , ed. Olaf Rose (Stegen am Ammersee, 2005), p. 278.

211. See Kershaw, The “Hitler Myth,” p. 121.

212. Karl Brandt stated in September 1945 that Schaub certainly had a “very exact picture” of “Hitler’s private life.” He described the adjutant as a petty and self-important schemer who spread “gossip of the pettiest kind” and often created conflicts in Hitler’s circle with his “sneaky dealings” and “dreaded deviousness.” Schaub influenced “Hitler’s judgment of people” and therefore “even men of high and dignified office very much paid court to him” (Karl Brandt, “Julius Schaub,” September 20, 1945, “Oberursel/Alaska,”, p. 71, in Kl. Erwerbungen 441–3 [copy], BA Koblenz). On Schaub’s role see also Angela Hermann, “Hitler und sein Stosstrupp in der ‘Reichskristallnacht,’ ” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 56 (2008), pp. 603–619.

213. Herta Schneider, “Aussage vom 23. Juni 1949, Öffentliche Sitzung der Hauptkammer München zur mündlichen Verhandlung in dem Verfahren gegen Herta Schneider, geb. Ostermayr,” in Denazification Court Records, box 1670, State Archives, Munich.

214. Heinrich Hoffmann, “Aussage vom 1. Juli 1949, Öffentliche Sitzung der Hauptkammer München zur mündlichen Verhandlung in dem Verfahren gegen Eva Hitler, geb. Braun,” in Denazification Court Records, box 718 (Eva Hitler, geb. Braun), State Archives, Munich. Braun’s sister, Ilse Fucke-Michels, stated that Eva Braun “worked in Herr Hoffmann’s sales office until 1945 and also took photographs for the love of it”; Eva Braun “earned a net monthly salary of 400 reichsmarks in the later years.” Her “special photographs” were paid for “separately” by Hoffmann. See Ilse Fucke-Michels, Aussage vom 31. Mai 1949, Öffentliche Sitzung der Hauptkammer München, in Denazification Court Records, box 718 (Eva Hitler, geb. Braun), State Archives, Munich. See also Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Liste , p. 466. Eva Braun shot movies with a 16 mm Agfa-Movex camera.

215. See the reproduced receipt in the German edition of Gun, Eva Braun (Eva Braun-Hitler , p. 128 [g]). See also Herta Schneider, statement of June 23, 1949 (previously cited): Braun, Schneider said, still “worked” in Munich “during the first year of the war.”

216. Heinrich Hoffmann, statement of July 1, 1949, previously cited. See also Sigmund, Die Frauen der Nazis , p. 254: “Eva stopped working at the end of 1935.”

217. On corruption among Hitler’s entourage, see Bajohr, Parvenüs und Profiteure , pp. 58ff.

218. Speer, Inside the Third Reich , p. 93. In late June 1939, Eva Braun traveled with her mother and younger sisters on a cruise through the Norwegian fjords, aboard the KdF ship the MS Milwaukee (Lambert, The Lost Life of Eva Braun , p. 372; see also Gun, Eva Braun , p. 179). The fact that Eva Braun traveled independently contradicts Speer’s claim that Eva Braun had no freedom or latitude and always had to be present whenever Hitler was on the Obersalzberg.

219. See Speer, Inside the Third Reich , p. 82. Speer claims that he himself suffered under the need to always be at Hitler’s beck and call.

220. Statement from Adolf Widmann, “Protokoll der Öffentlichen Sitzung vom 15. Oktober 1948 zur mündlichen Verhandlung in dem Verfahren gegen Eva Anna Paula Hitler, geb. Braun,” Munich District Court 1, in Denazification Court Records, box 718 (Eva Hitler, geb. Braun), State Archives, Munich. See also in this regard Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Liste , pp. 459ff.

221. “Berufungskammer für München, Abteilung Ermittlung an den Generalkläger beim Kassationshof im Bayerischen Ministerium für Sonderaufgaben, München, 13. September 1948,” in Denazification Court Records, box 718 (Eva Hitler, geb. Braun), State Archives, Munich.

222. See Munich District Court, land register of Bogenhausen, vol. 90, Bl. 2574, p. 6. A sales contract no longer exists, and the original files were also destroyed, in an air raid on December 17, 1944. Munich District Court, Div. 3, to the General Prosecutor at Kassationshof in the State Ministry for Special Tasks, Munich, March 11, 1948, in Denazification Court Records, box 718 (Eva Hitler, geb. Braun), State Archives, Munich.

223. Hoffmann, “Mein Beruf,” p. 22. See also Heinrich Hoffmann’s statement of July 1, 1949—he was in prison at the time, and classified as a Class 1 Major Offender—for the “Öffentliche Sitzung der Hauptkammer München zur mündlichen Verhandlung in dem Verfahren gegen Eva Hitler, geb. Braun, in Denazification Court Records, box 718 (Eva Hitler, geb. Braun),” State Archives, Munich.

224. See Gun, Eva Braun , p. 140. See also Eva Braun’s registration card dated August 24, 1935, State Archives, Munich.

225. See Walter Wönne and Falko Berg, Halte, was Du hast: Erinnerungen (n.p., 2000), p. 404.

226. Adolf Hitler, “Reichstagsrede vom 7. März 1936,” in Johannes Hohlfeld, ed., Dokumente der Deutschen Politik und Geschichte von 1848 bis zur Gegenwart , vol. 4, Die Zeit der nationalsozialistischen Diktatur 1933–1945: Aufbau und Entwicklung 1933–1938 (Berlin, n.d.) pp. 275ff. See also Kershaw, Hitler 1889–1936 , pp. 532f.