Traudl Junge - Hitler's Last Secretary - A Firsthand Account of Life with Hitler [aka Until the Final Hour]

Hermann Fegelein, b Ansbach 30 October1906, d Berlin 28 April 1945 (executed); 1925 takes school-leaving examinations, 2 years of service as temporary volunteer with the 17 th(Bavarian) Cavalry regiment; 1927–1929 in the Munich police as an officer cadet; 1931 joins the NSDAP; 1933 joins the SS; 1935 founds the SS Principal Riding School in Munich; 1936 SS Sturmbannführer, one of the most successful show-jumpers of his time, on the outbreak of war becomes SS OberSturmbannführer in the Waffen SS, as commander of the SS Cavalry Brigade and SS Standartenführer is successful in 1941–1942 on the central section of the Eastern Front; 2 March 1942 awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross; 1 May 1942 inspector of riding and driving at SS head office, then promoted to SS Oberführer, returns to the Eastern Front; 22 December 1943 is the 157 thsoldier of the German Wehrmacht to be awarded oakleaves to the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross for his achievements as commander of the Fegelein fighting group; until the end of 1943 commander of the 8 thCavalry division ‘Florian Geyer’; on 30 July 1944 receives the 83 rdaward of swords to the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with oakleaves; from 1 January 1944 liaison officer of the Waffen SS to Hitler; 3 June 1944 marries Gretl Braun, sister of Eva Braun; 21 June 1944 promoted to SS Gruppenführer and lieutenant general of the Waffen SS; deserts from the bunker of the Reich Chancellery on 27 April 1945, is found in civilian clothing in Berlin and arrested, is interrogated by criminal police chief Peter Högl, condemned to death by a drumhead court martial and immediately shot in the garden of the Foreign Office by an execution squad of the Waffen SS.

Benno von Arent, b Görlitz, Saxony, 19 June 1898, d Bonn 14 October 1956; profession: interior designer and stage designer; 1916–1918 military service, then member of a Freikorps in the East; 1931 joins the NSDAP, founder of the National Socialist League of Stage Artists, member of the National Socialist Reich Chamber of Drama; 1945 interned by the Russian Army; 1953 released from Russian captivity.

Lieutenant Colonel Heinz Waizenegger was an adjutant to Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel.

OT◦– Organisation Todt, see Note 37.

This was Major Ernst John von Freyend, one of Wilhelm Keitel’s adjutants.

Claus Count Schenk von Stauffenberg, b Jettingen 15 November 1907, d Berlin 20 July 1944 (executed); professional officer with the Reichswehr; 1927 lieutenant; 1934 captain; 1940 major on the Army General Staff; 1943 badly wounded; 1 July 1944 chief of staff to the commander of the reserve army. Stauffenberg planned the assassination attempt of 20 July 1944 on Hitler with Field Marshal Witzleben and Generals Olbricht, Beck and Wagner.

OKW = Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, Wehrmacht High Command.

This was Major Otto Ernst Remer, loyal to Hitler and◦– Traudl Junge’s memory was inaccurate here◦– head of the guard battalion. Hitler had told him by phone that his superior officer, Lieutenant General Paul von Hase, commandant of Berlin, belonged to a ‘small clique of traitors’ and was to be arrested at once. Meanwhile he, Remer, was to take over command of all the Wehrmacht troops in Berlin and follow the orders of Goebbels. Otto Ernst Remer, b Neubrandenburg 18 August 1912, d Marbella, Spain, 4 October 1997. Traudl Junge is incorrect in saying that as commander of the Führer’s escort brigade Remer received the Knight’s Cross from Hitler in Berlin next day. Indeed, this would have contravened the regulations governing the order, since it would not have been won in action against the enemy, but only in the course of restoring internal security in Berlin. Remer had already received the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross as a major on 18 May 1943, and the 325 thaward of oakleaves to the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross on 12 November of the same year. He was promoted to colonel retrospectively with effect from 1 July 1944, skipping the rank of lieutenant colonel, and was promoted to major general on 31 January 1945.

As Traudl Junge says today, there was no separate tea-house at the Wolf’s Lair such as there was at the Berghof. Here she means an annexe to the mess.

Erwin Giesing, b Oberhausen, Rhineland 7 December 1907, d Krefeld 22 May 1977; studies medicine in Marburg, Düsseldorf and Cologne; 1936 qualifies as specialist in ear, nose and throat medicine; 1932 joins the NSDAP; until 1929 a specialist at the Virchow Hospital in Berlin. Summoned to the Führer headquarters on 20 July 1944 to treat Hitler’s ear injury, dismissed in September over disputes with Theodor Morell; 1945 interned by the American Army; 1947 released.

Erich von Manstein, b Berlin 24 November 1887, d Irschenhausen, Upper Bavaria after 10 June 1973, real name Fritz-Erich von Lewinski; 1896 adopted by Georg von Manstein, entered the Plön cadet corps; 1907 promoted to second lieutenant; 1914–1918 first lieutenant and captain in the First World War; 1921–1927 company commander in Angermünde; 1923–1927 trains as general staff officer; 1927 major; 1933 colonel; 1934 chief of staff of Wehrkreis Command III in Berlin; 1936 adjutant to chief of general staff Ludwig Beck; 1939 chief of general staff to supreme command in the East; 1940 infantry general and chief of the XXXVIII Army Corps; 1941 commander of the 11 thArmy; 1942 promoted to colonel general; 31 March 1944 Manstein falls out of favour with Hitler and is sacked from his command; 1945 interned by the British Army; 1946 found not guilty at the Nuremberg trials; 1949 condemned to eighteen years’ imprisonment for war crimes by the British military tribunal in Hamburg, released early in 1953; 1953 to 1960 official adviser to the Federal government on the reconstruction of the army. Holder of the 59 thaward of swords to the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with oakleaves.

Hans Junge died on 13 August 1944 as an SS-Obersturmführer in a low-flying aircraft attack in Dreux, Normandy. (For Junge, see also note 10.)

Carl von Eicken, b Mühlheim, in the Ruhr 31 December 1873, d Heilbronn 1960; 1922 professor of ear, nose and throat medicine at the Charité hospital in Berlin; 1926 medical director of the ear, nose and throat hospital at the Charité, retired 1950.

Constanze Manziarly, b Innsbruck 14 April 1920, d Berlin 2May 1945; trains as a dietician; 13 September 1943 takes up post as dietician cook at the Zabel sanatorium in Bischofswiesen; September 1944 became dietician cook to Adolf Hitler, probably commits suicide by taking prussic acid.

Wilhelm Burgdorf, b Fürstenwalde 15 February 1895, d Berlin 2 May 1945 (missing); 1914 ensign; 1915 lieutenant; 1930 captain; 1938 lieutenant colonel; 1940 major; 1942 major general and head of the 2 nddepartment of the army personnel office; 1942 deputy chief of the same department; 1944 infantry general and head of the army personnel office and chief adjutant of the Wehrmacht; April 1945 present in the Führer bunker. Holder of the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross.

Arthur and Freda Kannenberg worked from 1933 to 1945 as household managers of the Reich Chancellery. Arthur Kannenberg, b Berlin, Charlottenburg 23 February 1896, d Düsseldorf 26 January 1963; trained as a chef, waiter and bookkeeper; 1924 took over his father’s business; 1930 went bankrupt, then business manager of Pfuhls Weinund Bierstuben, hostelries patronized by Göring and Goebbels among others; 1931 catering manager in the ‘Brown House’ in Munich. May 1945 to July 1946 interned; 1957 landlord of the Schneider-Wibble-Stuben in Düsseldorf.