see? he wasnt ALL bad...

[pzrmeyer2]

this should balance our any alleged nastiness the man is held responsible for

Hitler was the perfect boss: Former maid breaks her silence on the 'charming' dictator
By Allan Hall
Last updated at 9:32 AM on 04th December 2008

Comments (0)
Add to My Stories
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.


91-year-old Rosa Mitterer is the sole survivor of those who served Adolf Hitler in the years before 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.'




A photo taken at Rosa's sister's wedding, which Hitler attended
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.


Charmer: Adolf Hitler, 'the perfect boss'
'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

[Paddy Keating]

And he was legitimately elected... And very popular around the world until Kristallnacht, which was a serious strategic error. The people I have known who knew or met him said he was very charming and solicitous, even my grandfather, who was a lifelong Fabian socialist who had serious reservations about Hitler. Hitler's undoing was the provocation of a war on a Third Front that he had no chance of winning because he had no chance of gaining a foothold in the United States.

[Nate]

'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

That seems to be the same attitude that allowed the whole mess to start to begin with..

[dbloge]

not to start anything but....................[quote="Paddy Keating"]And he was legitimately elected.....huh?........i thought he was appointed chancellor




doug

[Fahrdienstleiter]

Just another example of the degeneration of the modern (and especially the british) press. Every month, another "last witness" of Hitler's private life is dragged into the spotlight of publicity. Just replace the names, and you have a perfect copy of the articles which were printed a decade ago when Traudl Junge surfaced again. I bet we will soon read about the "last surviving little girl that was cradled by Hitler".

[phylo_roadking]

And he was legitimately elected.....huh?........i thought he was appointed chancellor

...with a minority popular vote, and as head of a coalition government...

[panzermahn]

Just another example of the degeneration of the modern (and especially the british) press. Every month, another "last witness" of Hitler's private life is dragged into the spotlight of publicity. Just replace the names, and you have a perfect copy of the articles which were printed a decade ago when Traudl Junge surfaced again. I bet we will soon read about the "last surviving little girl that was cradled by Hitler".

I think it is also partly the trend by Der Spiegel or Der Stern, not just the British press. Well, it was always interesting to see such articles with themes like

"Hitler's last telephone operator"
"Hitler's last secretary"
"Hitler's first infatuation"

Face it that everything with the word "Hitler" bound to have generate interest or controversy. And now you know why certain historians/author like to append the word "Hitler" into the title of their books when researching on Third Reich:

Hitler's War (David Irving)
Hitler's Bandit Hunters (Philip W. Blood)
Hitler's Children (Guido Knopp)
Hitler's Henchmen (Guido Knopp)
Hitler's Generals (Corelli Bartlett)
Hitler's Enforcers (James Lucas)
Hitler's Secret Enemy (Ian Collins)
Hitler: Hubris (Ian Kersaw)
Hitler: Nemesis (Ian Kershaw)
Hitler: Legend, Myth & Reality‎ (Werner Maser)
Hitler (Joachim Fest)
Hitler's Jewish Soldiers (Bryan Mark Rigg)

and I think there are more than 1000 book titles with the word Hitler....

Panzermahn