'His authority was extraordinary. He was charming' - Hitler's nurse

[emad]

'His authority was extraordinary. He was charming' - Hitler's nurse on his final hours

Survivor of bunker tells of admiration for Goebbels' wife and hatred for Eva Braun
Read a transcript of the interview with Erna Flegel

Luke Harding in Berlin
Monday May 2, 2005
The Guardian

She is the last witness. For 60 years, Erna Flegal said nothing about her starring role in the Third Reich. Her family knew that in the last, desperate weeks of the second world war she had lived in Berlin. But she never spoke of her job as Hitler's nurse and of her time in the Führer's Berlin bunker.

Now, as the 60th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe nears, Ms Flegel has spoken out for the first time about her experiences - of Hitler's final hours, of her friendship with the "brilliant" Magda Goebbels, and her jealous loathing for Eva Braun. Her testimony casts fresh light on the last days of the Nazi era and has never appeared in the countless books written about Hitler.

In an interview with the Guardian, Ms Flegel, now 93 and living in a nursing home in north Germany, yesterday described how she began working as a Red Cross nurse at the Reichschancellery in Berlin in January 1943. She had been transferred there from the eastern front.
As the German army collapsed, Hitler stayed in Berlin continuously from November 1944, eventually retreating into the bunker with his entourage. From then on, Ms Flegal saw him frequently.

"I was in the building and someone said, 'The Führer is here,'" she said. "The first time it didn't particularly affect me. He was away from Berlin for a long time before someone announced again, 'The Führer is back.' Hitler shook hands with all the people he hadn't greeted before. After that he talked to us regularly.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,170-1594493,00.html

[iamjoy]

1. Let This Be A Lesson To Us

That even cruel, evil, warmongering dictators can have personal charisma.

[carnie_sf]

5. Especially evil, warmongering dictators

[Cleita]

7. As a rule they usually are.

Stalin had a warm and fuzzy about him in acceptable company. Saddam has charisma. Goes to show you how dumb the Kool-Aid drinkers are. Dumbya has no charisma at all, no matter how much they want to paint him has likable and popular.

[iamjoy]

8. Dubya Has Charisma

We may hate to admit it, but he does have some kind of charm. Some people like that folksy "aw shucks" manner he has about him.

I don't get it. Watching him makes my stomach turn, but I know some people see and feel his charisma.

[Cleita]

9. That "aw shucks" manner is so phony.

He's not even a good actor. I'm surprised no one sees through this.

[saracat]

12. I don't hate to admit it . It isn't true. It is just something we are told

We used to be told his "charisma" was only obvious "one on ome" and it didn't come across in speeches. When he started pissing people off "one one one" we didn't hear that canard anymore. They just decided to sell him as charming. He isn't.He is a buffoon. Rove made lemons out of lemonade and sold a buffoon. Instead of being fumbling , illiterate and mean spirited, all of which is obvious, he sold him as a man of the people, the common man! Hah. Men of the people are seldom educated at Andover , Yale and Harvard. They don't "summer" in Maine, and they most certainly never are "cheerleaders" ! Gag.

[Johonny]

17. I agree

The man has no Charisma.

[Inland]

14. I won't admit it.

Bush's "charm" is simply his signalling that he isn't going to be anything but a conservative christian rube.

Before Bush was shoved into power, nobody felt him to be all that charming. Now, his little insults, like the stupid ass nicknames, are SO AMUSING.

[dogday]

2. Ah! I almost feel sorry for him NOT!

he was a Murdering Coward who decieved his country... Reminds me of someone else......

[scaryhockeydad]

10. Gee

Who could that be?

:evilgrin:

[newyawker99]

20. Hi scaryhockeydad!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[tanyev]

3. He was the kind of guy you'd want to sit down and have a beer with.

[Cleita]

11. You probably could.

Most of his rise to power was from meetings conducted in beer halls including a famed and failed putsch, known as the "beer hall putsch".

[Inland]

4. And Eva Braun could really tell a joke. nt

[tanyev]

13. She was a big hit at the last Vaterland Journalist Banquet.

[Inland]

15. "Adolph solves every chore at Bertesgarten with ein Blitzkrieg!"

"Und Dick Cheney! Er ist so alt! Er war ein Beamter im ERSTEN Reich!"

[carnie_sf]

6. You should really see Downfall

one of the great movies of the year IMHO

[slackmaster]

16. He was a vegetarian, a teetotaler, and kind to dogs as well

:eyes:

[Hardrada]

18. And a great dancer.

He was a better dancer than Winston Churchill.

[slackmaster]

19. He was also a snappy dresser

On the serious side, at my high school we had a German teacher who grew up in Nazi Germany. She used to tell her story of the first time she saw Hitler in person.

She said she and all of her fellow schoolgirl classmates were scared to death of the man, but they couldn't help but salute and cheer him. She said she cried as she shouted "Heil Hitler!"

[MrSlayer]

21. You don't get to do what he did without being charismatic.

We all know what an evil bastard Hitler was but that doesn't mean that he was a raving maniac without any kind of social grace. To be that loved and control a cult of that size you have to have off the chart charisma, presence and personal charm.