See other History Articles
Title: Hitler was the perfect boss: Former maid breaks her silence on the 'charming' dictator
Source:
Daily Mail
URL Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art ... silence-charming-dictator.html
Published: Dec 4, 2008
Author: Allan Hall
Post Date: 2008-12-05 20:01:15 by X-15
Keywords: None
Views: 175
Comments: 5
History has condemned him as the megalomaniac who brought death and misery to millions. But for one woman, the name Adolf Hitler evokes a smile not a shudder. She is Rosa Mitterer, who worked as a maid for the Fuhrer at his mountain retreat in Bavaria in the 1930s. Rosa is 91 and until now has kept a vow of silence about her experiences. She has chosen to break it after realising she is the last survivor of the circle who served the tyrant in the years before he launched the Second World War. And her verdict on her former master: 'He was a charming man, someone who was only ever nice to me, a great boss to work for. You can say what you like, but he was a good man to us.' Rosa's remembrances of life at the court of the tyrant make gripping reading. She saw leading Nazis come and go. Himmler, the evil party secretary; Bormann, whom she described as a 'dirty pig'; and the club-footed, sexually-obsessed propaganda minister Goebbels. Rosa went into Hitler's service at the age of 15 in 1932 when she was Rosa Krautenbacher. Her sister Anni had worked as a cook at Hitler's Berchtesgaden retreat since the late 1920s. 'She said he needed a housemaid and I would fit the bill,' Rosa recalled. 'I remember so clearly the first day I spoke to him in the kitchen. I said I was Anni's sister and that made him smile, because Anni was his favourite. I only ever knew Hitler as a kindly man who was good to me.' His former housekeeper was Geli Raubal, with whom it was rumoured he had a love affair. 'She shot herself in September 1931 and I was told as soon as I went to work for him that he was not to be approached on the anniversary of that day,' said Rosa. 'My sister and I shared a room that was directly over Hitler's. We could hear him crying.' For a long time she and Anni were the only servants in the home, known as Berghof. Recalling her first direct request from her master, she said she was drying some porcelain cups when he came down the stairs. 'Hello,' he said softly. 'Sorry to trouble you, but could you make me some coffee and bring some gingerbread biscuits to my study?' Coming into such close proximity to Hitler made her feel faint, she said, but she soon became accustomed to life at Berghof. 'I rose at 6am every day and put on a red-green dirndl with a white apron. My first task was to feed his dogs - he had three German shepherds at the beginning called Wolf, Muck and Blondi. 'In those days, Hitler slept in his study. In it was an iron bed, one wardrobe, one table, two chairs and a shoebox. It was very modestly furnished. Beside the bed hung a picture of his mother.' She added: 'I didn't have to be a Nazi party member or anything. After a while I relaxed a bit. Apparently it was Hitler's orders that Anni and I be taken to church every Sunday because he thought this would be "good for us". 'Another time he came into the kitchen, saw me and said, "Ahh, I see our little one has grown a little plumper!".' Part of her duties involved sorting out the fan letters and presents that were delivered in their thousands to the house. 'There were cigars, jars of jam, flowers, pictures,' she recalled. 'We gave most of them away to poorer peasant families nearby on Hitler's orders.' Her time in service also allowed her to see at close quarters the woman Hitler kept secret from his people throughout his rule - Eva Braun. 'She was not so pretty close up,' Rosa recalled. 'Himmler was always there too, thinner than what he looked like in the photos, and Goebbels. 'And Bormann, I didn't like him at all. He was a dirty pig.' By the end of 1934, the house was surrounded by minefields and SS checkpoints. Rosa said. 'I felt like a prisoner instead of an employee.' In 1935 she fell in love with local businessman Josef Amorts and handed in her notice. She was told she could leave immediately.. 'I only met Hitler once more, on December 10, 1936, when Anni married Herbert Doehring, manager of the Berghof. He came to the wedding and was nice to me, saying he missed me.' Rosa married in 1939 and had three daughters. She later remarried. A great-grandmother, she now lives in Munich. After the war she had to confront the reality of the man for whom she had worked so willingly. And in particular the reality of the Holocaust. 'That he had ordered such terrible things, I just couldn't believe it,' she said. 'Even now, I prefer to remember the charming facets of his personality.' Poster's comment: Post WW-II leftist intellectuals used Hitler's conservative private manners as an example of "banality of evil", and as a proof of how traditional Western White males are hypocritical, schizophrenic closet fascists - gassing Jews by day and listening to classical music by night. And since she does not tell of what a dark and sinister presence he was, beating and belittling her, raving about mass murder,etc. she will face all kinds of condemnation.(though painting a picture of him as a decent and respectable well mannered man while also being "the most evil man who ever lived" serves its own sinister pupose.)
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: X-15 (#0)
By golly, the author forgot to mention that Hitlers buddy Stalin also invaded Poland to start WW2. Just an oversight I am sure.
No rumour there. Geli was Hitler's only true love. He was devastated when she died. She may have been murdered.
"Satan / Cheney in "08" 'That he had ordered such terrible things, I just couldn't believe it,' she said. 'Even now, I prefer to remember the charming facets of his personality.' I don't believe it either. I highly doubt he was a saint, but he wasn't committing genocide against the Jews either, especially since he was one.
God is always good!
Here's the problem with trying to learn about Hitler and the Nazis. Non-stop propaganda has so distorted the historical record that as of now it's pretty much useless to research them. Here's an example of how the process has worked over the last sixty years: "Hitler was SO evil!" Sixty years of that process have now rendered Hitler and the Nazis as being utterly useless to try to learn about. You may as well study Paul Bunyan or Snidely Whiplash for all the good it will do you. It's not that non-stop propaganda distorts history, it's that eventually it effectively destroys history.
before he launched the Second World War.
#2. To: X-15 (#0)
His former housekeeper was Geli Raubal, with whom it was rumoured he had a love affair. 'She shot herself in September 1931 and I was told as soon as I went to work for him that he was not to be approached on the anniversary of that day,' said Rosa.
#3. To: X-15 (#0)
After the war she had to confront the reality of the man for whom she had worked so willingly. And in particular the reality of the Holocaust.
#4. To: RickyJ (#3)
(Edited)
"How evil was he?"
"He was SO evil he'd eat Jewish baby brains for breakfast!"
Skeptic pipes up.... "Wait a minute, I thought he was a vegetarian?"
"What, are you DEFENDING Hitler? What are you, a NAZI?"
"Um.. no."
"Then SHUT UP! Hitler was EVIL INCARNATE! And don't you DARE disagree!"
 | Gold and silver are REAL money, paper is but a promise. |
#5. To: Elliott Jackalope (#4)
Which is why the History Channel runs Hitler stories almost 24/7 with the scary music to go with them.
It's not that non-stop propaganda distorts history, it's that eventually it effectively destroys history.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest