Hitler's Last Witness (35 page)

Krebs, Hans (1898–1945)

WWI volunteer; 1919 Reichswehr, Infantry Regiment; 1930 Reichswehr Ministry, Berlin; 1933–4 assistant to military attaché in Moscow; 1939 Führer-reserve, OKH, chief of general staff, III Army Corps; 1943 chief of general staff, army group centre; 29 March 1945 chargé d'affaires, chief of army general staff; co-signatory of Hitler's Political Testament; 1 May 1945 negotiated for surrender of Berlin with Soviets; on same day he committed suicide by cyanide capsule.

Lammers, Hans Heinrich (1879–1962)

1933 state secretary, Hitler's head of Reich Chancellery; 24 April 1945 arrested on Hitler's order in connection with Göring's alleged treason; death sentence suspended; captured by US forces; 11 April 1949, Wilhelm-Strasse trials at Nuremberg, sentenced to twenty years in prison for war crimes, later reduced to ten years; 1952 amnestied and released.

Ley, Robert (1890–1945)

Studied chemistry; volunteer WWI; French POW 1917 after being shot down; 1920 returned to Germany still seriously wounded; 1924 entered NSDAP; 1925 Gauleiter, Rhineland South; 1930 Reichstag member; 1931 Reich inspector of the Party organisation, Munich; 1933 head of Action Committee for the Protection of German Labour – purpose was to dissolve the trade unions, later renamed Deutsche Arbeitsfront (DAF); until 1945 headed DAF; shortly before sentencing at Nuremberg Trials committed suicide by strangulation, in cell.

Linge, Heinz (1913–1980)

A bricklayer by trade; 1933 joined
SS-Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler
; 24 January 1935 selected by Hitler as a servant; after training at Hotel Technical College, Munich-Pasing, became Hitler's valet; until 1955 Soviet POW; then worked in commerce.

Lorenz, Heinz (1913–1985)

Hitler's press secretary at FHQ; from 1937 close colleague of Otto Dietrich, NSDAP Reich press chief; responsible for foreign political reports; May 1945 detained by British; released 1947; then journalist.

Manziarly, Constanze (1920–?)

Austrian mother, Greek father; trained in special diet preparations at the Innsbruck Housekeeping School; 13 September 1943 employed at Zabel spa house, Bischofswiesen; September 1944 special diet-cook to Hitler; 2 May 1945 possible suicide after leaving Reich Chancellery.

Meissner, Otto (1880–1953)

Lawyer; from 1920 head of Reich president's office under Friedrich Ebert, Hindenburg and Hitler; 1937 state minister, chief of presidential Chancellery of the Führer and Reich chancellor; witness at Nuremberg; 1949 accused in so-called Wilhelm-Strasse trials, acquitted; May 1949 Munich denazification tribunals, classified as ‘person involved'; 1952 process abandoned.

Mohnke, Wilhelm (1911–2011)

One of first SS men in Hitler's SS-Stabswache
Berlin
under Sepp Dietrich; October 1934–May 1940, commander 5th Company,
SS-Leibstandarte
; frequently wounded; 30 August 1944–6 February 1945, commander,
SS-Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler
; 20 January 1945 promoted to brigadier of the Waffen-SS; 23 April 1945, commander
Kampfgruppe Mohnke
with power of command over the defensive forces of the government quarter (Zitadelle); 2 May 1945–10 October 1955 Soviet POW; lived subsequently in Lübeck and Hamburg.

Morell, Theodor Gilbert (1886–1948)

Studied medicine at Giessen, Heidelberg, Grenoble, Paris and Munich (qualified in 1913); medical officer aboard ships at sea; volunteer in WWI; 1918 opened practice in urology and electrotherapy in Berlin; 1933 joined NSDAP; introduced to Hitler through photographer Heinrich Hoffmann; 1936 until 21 April 1945 Hitler's personal physician; 17 July 1945 interned in southern Germany; 1948 died in custody.

Müller, Heinrich (1900–?)

Skilled aircraft assembler; WWI volunteer; 1929 secretary, Munich Political Police; 1934 joined SS; transferred to Gestapo offices in Berlin; 1936 deputy head of political police in security police head office; end of 1938 joined NSDAP; 1939 director, Reich Centre for Jewish Emigration; director, Reich Detectives; October 1939 head of Amt IV (Gestapo) in the rank of SS-Oberführer; participant at the Wannsee Conference (decisive involvement in the planning and execution of the Jewish genocide); whereabouts unknown since 1 May 1945.

Naumann, Dr Werner (1909–1982)

State secretary, Propaganda Ministry; special plenipotentiary for Volkssturm; personal adviser to Joseph Goebbels; erstwhile member
SS-Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler
; appointed in Hitler's Testament as successor to Goebbels; night of 1 May 1945 broke out from Reich Chancellery with Martin Bormann and Axmann; 1949 trained as bricklayer under false name in south Germany; 1953 the Naumann-circle, named after him, proposed setting up another authoritarian state by infiltrating North Rhine Westphalia FDP; main candidate for the Right-Wing German Reich Party (DRP) in Lower Saxony (without success).

Paulus, Friedrich (1890–1957)

Final rank WWI Hauptmann (= army rank of captain); 1919 accepted into 100,000-man army; February 1931 tactical instructor, War Academy Berlin; 1935 chief of general staff, motorised troops; beginning 1939 chief of general staff XVI Army Corps and later of Tenth Army at Leipzig (after 10 October 1939 renamed Sixth Army); 3 September 1940 senior quartermaster at general staff and deputy to chief of the general staff Franz Halder; 5 January 1942 commander-in-chief Sixth Army, promoted to general of panzer troops; 31 January 1943 capitulated with the surrounded Sixth Army at Stalingrad; Soviet POW; 11 February 1946 witness at the Nuremberg Trials of principal war criminals; 26 October 1953 returned from Soviet captivity; lived in Dresden.

Rattenhuber, Johann (1897–1957)

1920 joined municipal police, Bayreuth; 1922 Bavarian State Police; 1933 adjutant to Bavarian police president Heinrich Himmler and set up the Führer Protection Squad; 1935 head of independent authority RSD (Reich Security Service); 2 May 1945 Soviet POW; released 1951.

Remer, Otto Ernst (1912–1997)

1933 Reichswehr ensign; 1939 Polish campaign, 1st lieutenant; 1940 took over company (commander in 9th Panzer Division, involved in Western offensive, Balkans and invasion of USSR); 1942 promoted captain, transferred to Division
Grossdeutschland
; beginning 1944 in rank of major transferred to Berlin, took command of Watch Battalion
Grossdeutschland
; 20 July 1944 put down attempted revolt after the Stauffenberg assassination attempt; promoted to Oberst (= army rank of colonel); November 1944 commandant Führerbegleit-Brigade; January 1945 promoted to brigadier; taken prisoner by US forces and handed over to the British; until 1947 POW; co-founder of Right-extremist parties; several trials and convictions for incitement, disrespect to the memory of the dead, incitement to racial hatred and denying the Holocaust; 1952 received a three-month jail sentence for calling the military resistance ‘traitors'; fled to Spain.

Riefenstahl, Helene Bertha Amalie, ‘Leni' (1902–2003)

1921–3 classical ballet training; 1925–31 actress
(Der heilige Berg
,
Der grosse Sprung
); 1932 debut as film director (
Das blaue Licht
); 28 March 1935 première of
Triumph of the Will
, a National Socialist propaganda film about the 1934 Nuremberg rally, in Hitler's presence (film won the German Film Prize 1934/5, the prize for the best foreign documentary film at the Venice Biennial 1935 and the Gold Medal at the Paris World Exhibition 1937); 20 April 1938 première of the films
Fest der Völker
and
Fest der Schönheit
(Olympia Films); in her film
Tiefland
, concentration camp inmates were used as extras; despite worldwide appreciation of her later work, remained for all her life a controversial personality and artist on account of her role in the Third Reich and her proximity to Hitler.

Rommel, Johannes Erwin Eugen (1891–1944)

WWI awarded Iron Cross First Class; during Polish campaign, commandant Führer-HQ; promoted to brigadier; February 1940 commander, 7th Panzer Division; 1941 major general; 14 February 1941 took command of Deutsche Afrika Korps;
*
following assassination attempt of 20 July 1944 suspected of involvement; 14 October 1944 offered suicide as a way to avoid trial and spare his family (see Burgdorf, Wilhelm); same afternoon took cyanide in the presence of two generals.

Schädle, Franz (1906–1945)

Lieutenant colonel; 1930 entered NSDAP and SS; 1933
SS-Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler
(LSSAH); January 1945 until 2 May 1945 head of SS bodyguard; suicide Reich Chancellery.

Schäffer, Fritz (1888–1967)

1920 senior civil servant, Ministry for Education and Culture; 26 June 1933 arrested; 1934 released and admitted to the Bar; after 20 July 1944 rearrested and taken to Dachau; post-war, CSU politician; 1949–57 federal minister for finance; 1957–61 federal minister of justice.

Schaub, Julius (1898–1967)

1920 entered NSDAP (Member No. 81); 9 November 1923 participated in Munich Putsch; SS member No. 7; end of 1940 personal adjutant to Hitler; May 1945 captured by US forces at Berchtesgaden; detained until 1949; acquitted on a charge of aiding and abetting murders; later, became a pharmacist in Munich.

Schmeling, Max (1905–2005)

Heavyweight boxer; world champion 1930–2; Schmeling's victory in his most famous fight on 19 June 1936 against the as then undefeated ‘Brown Bomber' Joe Louis (knocked out in the twelfth round) was used by the Propaganda Ministry as ‘proof of the superiority of the Aryan race'.

Schmundt, Rudolf (1896–1944)

Battalion, then regimental, adjutant, WWI; awarded Iron Cross I and II; 1921 adjutant, Prussian 9th Infantry Regiment, Potsdam; 1921–31 staff officer, 1st Division
Königsberg
; 1931–5 personnel office, Reichswehr Ministry; 1936 major; 1935–6 company commander and general staff, 18th Infantry Division
Liegnitz
; 29 January 1938 Hitler's chief adjutant; 1938 promoted lieutenant colonel; 1939 colonel; 1942 brigadier; 194 major general; 1 October 1944 died of wounds sustained during the attempt on Hitler's life at Rastenburg 20 July.

Schörner, Ferdinand (1892–1973)

Studied philosophy and new languages; 1918 1st lieutenant; 1923 as adjutant of General Otto von Lossow involved in putting down the Munich Putsch; 1934 major; 1937 lieutenant colonel; 1939 commander, 98th Alpine Regiment (Gebirgsjäger), Polish Campaign; commander 6th Alpine Division; 1940 brigadier; 1942 general, Gebirgstruppen; 31 March 1944, commander-in-chief Army Group South Ukraine; 20 January 1945 commander-in-chief Army Group Centre; 5 April 1945 field marshal; 30 April 1945 appointed army commander-in-chief in Hitler's Political Testament; 8 May 1945 informed of the German capitulation at his HQ at Bad Welchow; 9 May 1945 fled in civilian clothing; detained later in Austria by US forces; end of May 1945 handed over to the Soviets.

Schroeder, Emilie Christine ‘Christa' (1908–1984)

1922–5 commercial training, Münden (Hanover); 1929 employed as stenographer and office assistant; 1930 employed by NSDAP Reichsleitung, Munich; 1933 accepted as secretary in Hitler's personal offices in Berlin; until 22 April 1945 Hitler's personal secretary; 28 May 1945 detained at Hintersee near Berchtesgaden as ‘principal war criminal'; released 12 May 1948 after reclassification to ‘collaborator'; various positions as secretary; 1967 accepted retirement.

Speer, Albert (1905–1981)

Studied architecture at Karlsruhe, Munich and Berlin; 1931 entered NSDAP; 1933 first personal meeting with Hitler; 1934 successor to Hitler's ‘court architect' Paul Ludwig Troost; February 1942 Reich minister for armaments; May 1945 Reich trade minister in the Dönitz government; 1 October 1946 sentenced at Nuremberg to twenty years' imprisonment as a major war criminal; 30 September 1966 released from Spandau.

Speidel, Hans (1897–1984)

Volunteer, WWI; 1921 Reichswehr officer; studied political economy and history; 1930–3 general staff training; 1933–5 assistant to German military attaché in Paris; 1936 head of department, Foreign Armies West in Berlin; 1937 No. 1 general staff officer at Mannheim; 1940 French campaign; 1 August 1940 chief of staff to military commander, France; 1941 colonel; 1942 appointed chief of general staff, V Army Corps, Eastern Front; 1943 chief of staff, Army Group South; 1944 chief of the general staff, Army Group B and thus a close colleague of General Rommel; contacts to military resistance of 20 July 1944; September 1944 detained (army prison, Küstrin); 1945 freed by French troops; 1949 tutor at the University of Tübingen; 1950 military adviser to federal chancellor Adenauer; 1951 specialist, ‘Amt Blank', cover-name for the later Defence Ministry; 1957–63 General der Bundeswehr; commander-in-chief, NATO land forces in central Europe; 1964 retired.

Starke, Gotthold (1896–1968)

1915–18 studied law and political science; 1922 refused to repudiate his Polish nationality; 1922 forced to leave Prussian state service; worked at Bromberg as chief editor,
Deutsche Rundschau in Polen
; 1941–5 head of eastern Europe section, press and reports department; at this time adviser to German ambassador in Moscow; 1945 Russian POW; 1955 returned with the last German POWs.

Stauffenberg, Claus Schenk Graf von (1907–1944)

1926 entered Reichswehr; ensign at Reiter (mounted) 17th Regiment, Bamberg; 1927 Infantry School, Dresden; 1928 Cavalry School, Hanover; 1 January 1930 2nd lieutenant; October 1936 general staff training, War Academy, Berlin Moabit; 1 January 1937 Rittmeister (captain); 1 August 1938 general staff officer, 1st Light Division; participated in occupation of Sudetenland and served with 6th Panzer Division (1st Light Division renamed) in Polish campaign; 1940 general staff officer, Western offensive; transferred to OKH (Army High Command); March 1943 staff officer, 10th Panzer Division; 7 April 1943 seriously wounded, North Africa; chief of staff, general army office, Bendler-Strasse; 1 July 1944 chief of staff to commander of reserve army, General Fromm; 11 and 15 July 1944 set out to assassinate Hitler but abandoned attempt; 20 July 1944 attempt to assassinate Hitler failed; arrested, tried and sentenced to death by field court martial, executed same night, at Bendler-Strasse.