Estonian-born Hitler bunker eyewitness dies

Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/world/europe/01loringhoven.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
<quote>
Baron von Loringhoven, Aide to Hitler, Dies at 93

By DOUGLAS MARTIN

Baron Bernd Freytag von Loringhoven, who as a young German Army officer
was one of the last to flee Hitler¹s Berlin bunker as Soviet troops closed
in, died on Feb. 27 in Munich. He was 93.

Wolf Jobst Siedler Jr., the German publisher of Baron von Loringhoven¹s
memoirs, confirmed the death, which had apparently been reported only in
British newspapers.

In spring 1945, Baron von Loringhoven was a major and an aide to the chief
of the German general staff, who was also in the bunker beneath the
chancellery, the seat of government. His job was to gather military data,
then compose maps and reports, which he presented to Hitler in daily
briefings.

After World War II he spent two and a half years as a British prisoner of
war and later worked in the publishing industry, then became an officer in
the new West German Army, rising to lieutenant general. He held several
high positions in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The only living veteran of the last days in the bunker is believed to be
Rochus Misch, Hitler¹s bodyguard. Hitler¹s secretary, Traudl Junge, died
in 2002, and Erna Flegel, a nurse in the bunker, died last year.

On April 29, 1945, Baron von Loringhoven left the bunker with permission
from Hitler, who the next day aimed a Walther pistol at the roof of his
mouth and squeezed the trigger.

³As Hitler wished me luck, I saw a glint of envy in his eye,² he said in
an interview with The Observer in 2005.

In his later years, Baron von Loringhoven advised authors and filmmakers
and gave many interviews. He and the French journalist François d¹Alançon
wrote ³In the Bunker With Hitler: The Last Witness Speaks,² which was
published last year.
The baron painted a picture of an eerie subterranean limbo where lights
flickered with each bomb blast. He told of Magda Goebbels, the wife of the
Nazi propaganda chief, Joseph, leading their six children into the bunker.
The couple killed the children, then killed themselves.

He told of Hitler¹s startling marriage to Eva Braun on April 29, 1945, and
of his order to shoot his new brother-in-law. He told of Martin Bormann, a
top Nazi, skulking in the shadows ³like a spider in its web.² He told of
Hitler engrossed in moving flags on a map when the troops they represented
no longer existed.

He described Hitler as playing with his dog, on which he would test
poison. He said Hitler was restrained in his rages, but ³ice cold in his
expressions.²
Baron von Loringhoven was an aristocrat descended from Teutonic knights.
His ancestors migrated from the Rhineland to territory on the northeastern
Baltic in the 15th century. He was born at their ancestral home on what is
now the Estonian island of Saaremaa on Feb. 6, 1914. The family moved to
Germany.
As a young man he wanted to be a lawyer, but Hitler¹s government required
Nazi party membership to enter professions. He joined the army, where that
was not required. His cousin, Capt. Wessel Freiherr Freytag von
Loringhoven, who later provided explosives for army officers¹ unsuccessful
attempt on Hitler¹s life in July 1944, helped him get an officer¹s
commission.

The baron was an assistant to a general during the invasion of Poland in
1939 and was on the staff of another general during the invasion of Russia
in 1941. He then won medals for commanding tanks, but reassignment as a
courier allowed him to escape the carnage of Stalingrad.

After the failed assassination plot, Baron von Loringhoven became adjutant
to the new army chief of staff. Hitler and his top advisers moved into the
bunker on Jan. 16, 1945.

As everyone in the bunker discussed suicide, Baron von Loringhoven and two
other junior officers escaped by persuading Hitler to let them find a
general with whom communication had been lost. Hitler suggested a route to
follow. One companion was killed, and the baron saved the other from
suicide by forcing him to vomit poison.

The baron was arrested by the Americans and ended up in a British prison,
where guards refused to believe he was not a Nazi. He said they kicked
him, made him scrape paint with his fingernails, poured water on him and
made him sleep naked.
He was never charged with war crimes, and vehemently insisted that there
was a clear line between the Nazi party and military professionals. He
claimed not to know about the massacres of Jews and others until after the
war.

Several reviewers of his book nonetheless noted that he strongly
criticized the army for military incompetence. Alison Rowat in The Glasgow
Herald wondered if that meant he had hoped that the Germans would win.

³No wonder Loringhoven¹s interrogators were confused,² she wrote.
Baron Loringhoven is survived by his son, now Baron Arndt Freytag von
Loringhoven, a senior German diplomat.

In an interview with The Los Angeles Times in 1995, the older baron said,
³I am really one of the very last people to talk about these things.²
</quote>
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: The Grave of Hanna Reitsch
    ... The German people saw the wreck Germany was in 1932 and then Hitler ... Germans in Berlin in 1945 as the Russians approached ... The bunker was advised and prepared for that eventuality. ...
    (rec.aviation.military)
  • Re: What battle would be the decisive battle of WW2?
    ... History teaches that Hitler could have been stopped then ... The German invasion of France through Belgium and Holland completely ... catches the French Army off guard. ... Belgium army are totally defeated by the German Armored Divisions. ...
    (soc.history.war.world-war-ii)
  • Re: German intelligence, Barbarossa Moscow and the strike South
    ... but Hitler sent a portion of Army Group Center (against ... Then trying to think what the German staff were thinking at the time, ...
    (soc.history.war.world-war-ii)
  • Re: Hitlers downfall - when did it start?
    ... Hitler's war strategy began to falter around 1942/3 when he tried to ... A substantial element in the German armed ... The Army leadership in 1939 had very grave doubts ... Hitler was nearly killed by a time ...
    (soc.history.war.world-war-ii)
  • German intelligence, Barbarossa Moscow and the strike South
    ... Yesterday I was going over the decision was made by Hitler to strike ... South rather then continue to Moscow. ... Then trying to think what the German staff were thinking at the time, ... underestimated the size of the Soviet Army. ...
    (soc.history.war.world-war-ii)
Loading