Last witness of Hitler’s final days recalls past

“Life in the bunker was pretty normal,” Misch told Reuters in his modest house in south Berlin, where he has lived since 1938. “Hitler was mostly very calm.”

For five years, Misch worked as the dictator’s bodyguard, phone operator and courier.

“It was much less dramatic than shown by many historians, filmmakers and journalists,” he said. “The worst thing was the silence. Everybody was whispering and nobody knew why. That’s why it felt like the bunker of death.”

Recalling the years spent with Hitler, Misch remained strangely neutral. “History is history, it was the way it was and nobody should lie about it.” But he refused to make judgments about the past.

Misch is not ashamed to talk about pleasant moments with Hitler just as was depicted in the internationally acclaimed 2004 German film Downfall, which drew controversy for showing Hitler’s rarely explored human side.

Asked about the happiest time in his life, he takes out pictures of Hitler and his close associates at the summer residence Berghof in the Bavarian Alps.

Misch is the last living survivor of the final days of the bunker. Another survivor, Bernd von Freytag Loringhoven, died in February.

The only soldier allowed to carry a weapon in the bunker, Misch joined the SS in 1937 and was wounded in 1939 in Poland. He recovered and was reassigned to Hitler’s chancellery.

Misch stayed in the bunker even after Hitler let others leave. He said it was his duty as a soldier. With the war clearly lost, Hitler killed himself on April 30, 1945.

“I was prepared for it and was just waiting for the moment. “When the door opened I saw Eva Braun lying with her legs bent so that her knees almost reached her chin. Later, I saw Hitler’s corpse covered by blankets and with only his shoes protruding.

“There was a complete silence,” he said. “I went to the commander and said: The Fuehrer is dead. My colleague then said: Now the boss is to be burnt.”