One of Hitler's Cooks

There is an interesting story about one of Hitler's cooks that I only recall from the memoirs of Traudl Junge, one of Hitler's personal secretaries for about the last 2 1/2 years of his life, although I likely saw the name many years ago. The person I'm referring to is, Helene von Exner, who was known to her family, friends and acquaintances as, Marlene. She was a dietician from Vienna, and in 1943, she became Hitler's Diätköchin; that is, his dietary cook.

The general story is, the fanatical, furious Füher had persistent stomach problems, including gas. Now, as you know, gas leaves our bodies by two ways: one, by way of the mouth, when we belch, and secondly, by way of another opening, the word for which is often applied to Hitler himself... quite correctly. I don't believe there has ever truly been a diagnosis of Hitler's gastrointestinal problem, although irritable bowel syndrome has been suggested by some, if I remember right. Well during an early 1943 meeting between Hitler and Rumanian leader, Ion Antonescu, the Rumanian told Hitler about how his own gastrointestinal problems were successfully treated by a cook who had been recommended to him, Marlene von Exner, from Vienna. The fact that she was from Vienna likely gave Hitler more interest, as he had lived there for a few years prior to going Munich, not long before World War One. So Hitler hired von Exner to cook for him and he had a separate kitchen built for her, close to his living area at his heavily guarded military headquarters in northeastern Germany, near Rastenburg.

While some of the stories I've read about Hitler's vegetarianism conflict as to when he took up the practice, and even the extent to which he truly held to not eating meat,* von Exner fixed him frequent dishes of vegetables, mashed potatoes, soups and hard and soft boiled eggs. I distinctly recall Traudl Junge mentioning that Hitler often ate mashed potatoes with a fried egg on top, but whether this was a dish recommended by, and fixed by, von Exner for him, I'm not sure. I do remember reading that the cook put some bone marrow into Hitler's soups, although he supposedly didn't know about it.

Well, by early 1944, von Exner and one of Hitler's adjutants wanted to get married. This required an investigation into her background, as the racial laws of the Nazis were strict. It turned out that part of von Exner's family history was unclear, and that the Nazi investigation determined that she was likely part Jewish. This threw Hitler, who told her he would have to let her go, because he had to follow his own laws. He liked her very much and he gave her several months severance pay and told her he would see to it that she and her family were "aryanized;" that is, essentially having them certified as "aryans;" thus removing any record of their possible Jewish side. ** He told his henchman Martin Bormann to take care of the matter, and to see to it that von Exner and her family were not bothered.

It turned out, Bormann had made a play for von Exner (she was in her mid 20s), but she had rebuffed him, a situation not taken well by the man who was likely the second most powerful man in Germany, after Hitler. He dragged his feet on Hitler's order and von Exner's family suffered the consequences, as her brother, who was a doctor, was fired for being part Jewish, per Nazi law, and she and her sister were also excluded from university work (I "believe" this was at the University of Vienna). Von Exner wrote to her friend Traudl Junge, who saw Hitler on a daily basis. She related all that had happened and about the incident with Bormann likely playing a major role in her family not being cleared. Junge used her special typewriter, with large letters for Hitler to read easily, and wrote everything down for him, then gave him the letter. Indeed he became the furious Füher, and he angrily summoned Bormann, who came out of the meeting red-faced. It wasn't long and von Exner received her certificate. She survived the war, but little is really known about her, although, if my memory is right, Junge did have some postwar contact with her.

Just a couple of things: Hitler had other cooks during his rule, with the last being von Exner's replacement, Constanze Manziarly, who was from Innsbruck. Also, while I'm not sure how much verification has been done on this, Hitler "supposedly" had a group of women, 15 is the number mentioned, all from near his military headquarters, who were used as food testers (Vorkosterinnen). Each day they sampled his food to be certain there had been no poison added. "Supposedly" only one survived the war, but the 14 others didn't die from poisoning, but "supposedly" from Russian execution near the end of the war.

* I've read variously that Hitler took up vegetarianism a year or so before he was appointed chancellor, or right after his appointment, or in the mid 1930s, or in the late 1930s. If my memory is correct, one article or book claimed he didn't become a vegetarian until during the early part of the war.

** There were other such cases, with the most famous being of Luftwaffe Field Marshal Erhard Milch, who was half Jewish, but he was given a special certificate by Hitler.

WORD HISTORY: 
Marrow-This word, for the inside part of bones, goes back to Indo European "mozgho," which meant, "inner matter." This gave its Old Germanic offspring, "mazga," meaning, "marrow, pith." This gave Old English "mearg," with the same meaning. This then became "marowe," before the modern version. Forms in the other Germanic languages: German "Mark" (it once was spelled "marg"), Low German Saxon "marg" (no longer used), Dutch "merg," West Frisian "moarch," Danish "marv," Norwegian "marg," Icelandic "mergur," Swedish "märg."

Traudl Junge, Working For Evil, Part Three/Final

In both her book and her interviews, Traudl Junge relates a number of anecdotes about life so close to Hitler, including his obsession with his female German Shepherd, Blondie. In her interviews she said that Hitler was detached from the ruin he was bringing to Germany, let alone to other nations, and that, when she once  mentioned to him about the destruction in Munich (she was from Munich) from air attacks, he just started spouting his usual slogans about how he would retaliate against his enemies once he regained the upper hand. She noted that, as far as she could recall, Hitler never saw a bombed out German city or area of a city, as he kept the curtains drawn in his private train and when he went to Berlin, the train would arrive in the darkness of night and the chauffeur would travel on streets with little or no damage. This is the sign of a man hiding from himself.

Traudl Junge spent much time telling of the final days of Hitler in his Berlin bunker, located well beneath the Reich Chancellery complex. His long time mistress, Eva Braun (pronounced like  "brown," not "brawn") joined him there. About a week before his death, Hitler told the women to get ready to leave Berlin, as a plane was going to take them to southern Germany. He admitted the war was lost. Two secretaries left, along with a number of other personnel, but Traudl Junge and one other secretary, Gerda Christian, as well as Eva Braun, chose to remain in Berlin. Traudl told of how during lulls in the fighting for Berlin, she, Eva and Gerda Christian would venture above ground and out into the garden part of the complex. They once came upon a fountain statue of a woman much to Eva's liking. Upon returning to the bunker, Eva told Hitler of the statue, and, with Soviet troops only a few blocks away, she asked if he would buy the statue for her if he won the war. Now, you've got to admit, that's pretty bizarre, BUT he answered her! He told her the statue was government property and that he couldn't just buy it and give it to her for her own private garden, but she asked if he would make this one exception just for her. These people were NUTS! 

Also along those same lines, as the war approached its end, some of the Nazi leaders still played cutthroat politics in an effort to grab more power. As the Soviets closed in, Hermann Göring, Hitler's designated successor, sent a telegram from southern Germany to Hitler stating that with Hitler surrounded in Berlin, and with the likelihood of his losing the ability to communicate orders to the military and to the nation, that if a reply to his telegram was not received from Hitler by that evening, he would assume Hitler no longer had the ability to communicate orders, and that he, Göring, would assume power as Hitler had specified several years before. The telegram was not anything unreasonable, and at first, according to Junge, Hitler too seemed to have accepted it as such. Then Martin Bormann convinced the fanatical, furious Führer that Göring's act was high treason. Hitler became violently upset and ordered Göring's arrest and possible execution.* Then came word from a British radio broadcast that Heinrich Himmler, the powerful head of the dreaded SS, and a murderous nutcase if there ever was one, had entered into negotiations with the Allies through a neutral party. Hitler had another serious temper tantrum, as the man he called "mein treuer Heinrich" (my true or loyal Heinrich) abandoned the fanatical, furious Führer too. He ordered Himmler's arrest and execution.** For good measure, Hitler ordered the arrest of Himmler's adjutant, Hermann Fegelein, who was Eva Braun's brother in law (he was married to her sister, Gretl, who was like 8 months pregnant at that time). Eva's brother in law notwithstanding, Fegelein was then executed. Even in the final days of his life, with the Russians just a block or two away, Hitler spread death over essentially meaningless things.

Junge noted, Hitler had told her he would never be captured alive, and in preparation for that situation, he had received cyanide capsules from Himmler. With Himmler's peace negotiations Hitler became suspicious that the poison Himmler had provided would not be sufficient to take his life; the fear being that Himmler might try to trade "a live Hitler" for his own safety, so Hitler had it tried out on his dog Blondie, and it was found to be potent, as the poor dog died immediately. Hitler married Eva Braun and he told Traudl Junge he wanted her to take some dictation from him. It was his last will and testament. Traudl said at first she thought something like, "Now we'll hear the real reasons for everything, the truth," but instead, Hitler spouted his usual nonsense, including blaming Jews for the war. Not long after she typed the dictated notes, Hitler and Eva committed suicide. Traudl Junge was part of a group that tried to get through the Soviet lines to the Western Allies. Some of the group were killed, others were captured, but Traudl got through, only to turn around and return to Berlin before getting to the Allies. I believe she said she hoped to be able to get a train to her parents in southern Germany. Instead, she ended up in Soviet captivity for about a year and a half.

Traudl eventually made it home and she worked at a number of jobs over the years, but she also learned what Hitler and the Nazis had done during their time in power. She said initially she felt no particular connection between her life and the terrible events that had transpired, that she had just been a secretary and had not known about the atrocities, but then one day in Munich, she saw the plaque commemorating Sophie Scholl for her resistance to the Nazis,*** and she realized that some Germans DID try to learn about what had been going on. For the rest of her life she had emotional troubles, as she struggled to deal with her role in the tragedies wrought by Hitler. Her guilt feelings got to the point they were not rational, as she even blamed herself for the initial Nazi persecution of German Jews in 1933, when she was only 12 or 13 years old. She said she took some consolation in the knowledge that millions of other Germans had been swayed by Hitler, but that it was just not enough to soothe her conscience. She died of cancer in 2002, age 81. As I've "preached" here at times, Traudl Junge came to realize, too late, that once you let fascists in, you don't get them back out easily, and that people from all walks of life can become susceptible to their hate and destructiveness. Stopping the advance of fascism starts with our own self evaluation and then the determination not to fall under the spell of simplistic solutions or hate filled slogans and rants by radio or television personalities trying to worm their way into our lives and minds. They lay the groundwork for fascist politicians to gain control. Traudl Junge's message was, "Pay attention to what's going on around you! Don't think it has nothing to do with you."   

* Martin Bormann was one of Hitler's closest and most powerful associates during the war, when his power grew tremendously. He controlled who got in to see Hitler and he saw all correspondence before it got to Hitler's desk. The German public knew little about Bormann, although he was almost always by Hitler's side from 1941 until the very end. With loads of captured Nazi documents available after the war, historians came to realize that the little known Bormann was one of the most powerful Nazi leaders, besides Hitler himself. For more on Bormann, see my article: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/09/german-leaders-of-nazi-erabormann.html

** Himmler did not fall victim to his fanatical, furious Führer, but rather he was captured by the British awhile later. He committed suicide while in their custody. For more on Himmler, see my article: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/10/german-leaders-of-nazi-erahimmler.html 

*** In early 1943, Sophie Scholl, her brother, Hans, and a friend, Christoph Probst, were arrested for distributing leaflets at the University of Munich urging Germans to resist the Nazis and the war. They were "tried" before a Nazi court and then beheaded. There are several memorials and honors to this young courageous German woman and to the other Germans who tried to fight evil, and who gave their lives doing so. A 2003 poll of Germans showed Sophie and Hans Scholl are viewed as some of the most important Germans in history, and another poll of Germans placed Sophie as one of the greatest women of the 20th Century. Germans have learned the lessons the hard way, others should pay heed to the German experience.

Photo is from the paperback edition of "Bis zur letzten Stunde" (Until the Last Hour) by Traudl Junge, with cooperation from Melissa Müller, published in paperback in 2003 in German (there have been English language editions also), although there have been various printings since the original paperback. This is the 8th German paperback printing from 2011 from List Taschenbuch.

WORD HISTORY: 

Turf-This word for "grass covered area" goes back to Indo European "darbh/dorbh," which meant "clump or tuft of grass." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "turb," which meant "grass covered surface/area." This then gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "turf," with the same meaning. Some dialects had "torf" and "tyrf," but eventually English kept "turf" as the standard spelling. In post World War Two American English the word was used for "a neighborhood dominated by a gang;" that is, "their turf." Common in the other Germanic languages: Low German Saxon has "Torf/Törf," which means "peat" (soil with dead and decomposing plants, as the area of northern Germany and northern Europe had bogs/marshes, where such was common), standard German has "Torf," also meaning "peat," as the word came into standard German from Low German; Dutch and West Frisian have "turf" (peat), Danish "tørv"  (peat), Icelandic has "torf" (sod), Norwegian has the compound "gresstorv" (sod, turf) and Swedish has "torv" (turf, peat).

German Leaders Of The Nazi Era/Bormann

Part One/C "Martin Bormann"

One of the interesting things about Martin Bormann is, most Germans of that era didn't know who he was, yet he had a close personal and working relationship with Hitler, which brought him a great amount of power, and made him one of the most powerful Nazi leaders. It wasn't until after World War Two that Bormann's power and influence came to be understood, as he had worked behind the scenes. To my knowledge, he never made a major speech to the German public, addressing only groups of Nazi officials from time to time. Without a free press, his comments and position remained out of public notice, although he is seen in many photographs and films, and always not far from Hitler, but almost always in the background. During much of the war, Bormann controlled access to Hitler, and virtually everyone had to go through him to be able to get in to see Hitler,* and this alone gave him power. He had accommodations at Hitler's various headquarters throughout the war. Also during the war, Bormann issued orders and instructions to Nazi Gauleiters, who then implemented these policies.**

In the final days of the war Bormann remained with Hitler in his Berlin bunker. As I noted in the article about Hermann Göring,*** Bormann helped convince Hitler that Göring was betraying Hitler and that he was guilty of treason ("Landesverrat"), because Göring had properly sent a message asking about his status as Hitler's successor. After Hitler's suicide, Bormann and most of the people in the bunker tried to make their way through Russian lines to the Americans or British, or to the "government" designated by Hitler to succeed him, which was located in northern Germany, near Denmark. This episode is what has given Bormann much press coverage ever since. One of the survivors of the breakout attempt, who said he was with Bormann's group, said he saw Bormann's body in the streets of Berlin; the assumption being that he was killed by Soviet fire (remember, the war was not over, and there was still much fighting in Berlin),**** but "supposedly" no body resembling Bormann was found in that area; however, once the fighting stopped, in a matter of about a day or so after Bormann allegedly died, bodies had to be buried quickly and haphazardly to avoid disease and there was no time to properly identify remains, of which there were many. With Bormann's "status" unknown, the judicial system set up by the victors to try Nazi leaders for various possible crimes decided to try Bormann in absentia; that is, in his absence (he was found guilty and condemned to death). Bormann became the world's most wanted Nazi. Without a body to prove Bormann's death, all sorts of conspiracy theories abounded, most of them having Bormann living in South America and planning a "Fourth Reich" in place of Hitler's defeated Third Reich.***** Over time, there were unsuccessful diggings in the area where Bormann allegedly died, to see if his body could be found. Then in the early 1970s, remains were found near the same location. Dental and medical records showed one to be Bormann; the other being an SS doctor who was with Bormann as they tried to escape Berlin, and they both showed broken glass in the mouth from poison capsules, indicating that the two had indeed committed suicide. The then West German government declared Bormann legally dead, but not everyone agreed. About 25 years later, the remains were DNA tested and confirmed to be Bormann's; although controversy continued over the findings, but this is beyond the scope of this article.

One other very interesting thing about Bormann is, after the war, some thought he had been a Soviet agent in Hitler's midst. This notion gained credence due to the accusation of such by a former Wehrmacht intelligence officer, Reinhard Gehlen, who later became head of the (then)West German intelligence organization. During the war and thereafter, many German military officials wondered how the Allies anticipated so many German military moves during the war. Gehlen and others came to the conclusion that there had to be an agent (spy) close to Hitler, who then passed along information, presumably to the Soviets, who then shared it with the Allies. Bormann was like "Hitler's shadow;" thus making him a prime suspect. The thing was, in those times, the British had not yet disclosed that they had broken the German code, which then gave them access to any information sent by coded message by the Germans. During the war, the British were anxious that the Germans might find out the British were reading their messages and then go to a new system, thus depriving the British of such valuable information; so they had to deliver such information to their allies on a limited, priority basis, to keep the Germans from getting too suspicious. They also devised ways to deceive the Germans into believing they had obtained information in other ways, thus diverting attention from the broken German code, but the Germans were suspicious, and prior to the German offensive which came to be known as "the Battle of the Bulge," the Germans maintained radio silence about the coming attack. Anyhow, to my knowledge, no evidence has ever been turned up in German or Russian archives confirming Bormann as a Soviet agent. There's no question the Cold War made people nervous and made imaginations go into overdrive, and when Bormann's body was found in the early 1970s, some theorized the Russians had captured Bormann, who then later died, or that they had had the remains all along, and then reburied them in Berlin.

Next, Rudolf Hess.....

* Bormann became Hitler's deputy in May of 1941, when Rudolf Hess, Hitler's then deputy, flew solo to Scotland in an attempt to make peace between Germany and Britain. I'll cover Hess in the next article. Stay tuned....

** The Nazis reorganized the German government according to how the Nazi Party itself was structured, in a system of "Gaue" (this is the plural, one is "Gau," rhymes with "how") an old Germanic term for "district" (the Nazis loved the past, and not the recent past, but way, way back), and the head of a "Gau" was a "Gauleiter" (district leader; "leiter" and English "leader" are close relatives), and each Gau was divided into smaller districts, each headed by a Kreisleiter. Bormann had tremendous control over these party officials, who were charged with carrying out domestic policies.

*** For the article see: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/09/german-leaders-of-nazi-era.html

**** There were other reports that Bormann had been killed when a German tank, providing cover for Bormann and others, was hit by Soviet fire and exploded. Other reports indicated Bormann committed suicide to avoid Soviet capture. You have to remember, in the "confusion" of war (see note), people were trying to save their own lives, not taking notes about events going on around them. Note: The word "war" comes from an Old English word that meant "confusion." It also seems that first part of the Dutch and Low German words for "war" (oorlog/orlog) trace back to the same Old Germanic base.

***** I can remember in the 1960s, Bormann was regularly mentioned on television as if he were still alive, even on "Laugh In," a very popular comedy in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

WORD HISTORY:
Gray (grey)-This is still another word the origins of which are difficult to pin down, so I'll stick to the more agreed upon Germanic history of the word, as there do not appear to be any languages outside of Germanic with a form of the word, unless borrowed from one of the Germanic languages, and the word could well be an Old Germanic invention. Old Germanic had "grewjaz" or "graewas," presumably which meant "gray;" that is, "the color between black and white." This gave Old English "graeg/grei" (depending upon dialect), which then later became "grei," before the modern versions. The spelling "gray" is more American English, and "grey" is used in Britain, but with some usage in the U.S. The other Germanic languages have: German has "grau," ^ Low German Saxon has "grau" and "gries," some Low German dialects have "greiw," Dutch has "grauw," Icelandic has "grár," Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish all have "grå," Frisian has both "grau" and "griis."

^ German also has the adjective "greis" (pronounced as if "grise," and rhymes with "guys"), which means "old," and also the nouns "Greis" ("old man") and "Greisin," ("old woman"), all come from forms from Low Germanic dialects.

German Leaders Of The Nazi Era/Goebbels

NOTE: I really liked the suggestion by one of the readers to do this, and, to keep some balance, I've decided to also do some important Allied leaders in the near future.

Part One/B "Joseph Goebbels"

Joseph Goebbels (also "Göbbels, but less frequently) was from the Rhineland in western Germany. He became an important part of Hitler's march to power and to the consolidation and expansion of that power once Hitler was in office. Highly intelligent, he understood personality and psychology, and this made him a very dangerous man. He was a little guy, only like five feet in height, and he had a deformity in his one foot/lower leg, which caused him to wear a special brace, although he still walked with a slight limp. Some have attributed Goebbels militaristic behavior to his handicap.* Hitler sent him to Berlin in the earlier days of his rise to power to win converts to the growing Nazi Party and to combat the "red" influence in Berlin; that is, to defeat the Communists in Berlin, and street battles between the two groups were not uncommon. Goebbels loved movies and film making. Not long after Hitler became chancellor, he appointed Goebbels to be the head of the new "Propaganda Ministry." In this new position, Goebbels came to control every aspect of news read or heard by the German people. He used films to influence the public, putting a "Nazi touch" on movies about famous Germans, like Bismarck and Frederick the Great. He and his wife, Magda, had six children, and he had the family portrayed in newsreels as the exemplary family for Germans.** Interestingly however, Goebbels liked the ladies, especially some of the actresses he came into contact with because of the German film industry. He got into hot water due to an affair with a Czech actress, Lida Baarova, in the mid 1930s, which brought a reprimand from none other than Hitler himself, who ordered the affair ended; after all, Hitler was spouting off about how bad the Czechs were, and here his own Propaganda Minister was involved with one. While he didn't like it and threatened to resign, Goebbels followed Hitler's order.

Goebbels was also responsible for much of the open Nazi persecution of Germany's Jews, including the infamous "Night of the Broken Glass" ("Kristallnacht"), when many Jewish businesses and religious institutions were ransacked or burned, and many Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps. During the war, Goebbels helped keep Germans fighting to the bitter end with his appeals to German patriotism and with a major dose of fear, both of Nazi informants and of Germany's enemies. His famous speech at the Berlin Sportpalast, just a couple of weeks after the German surrender at Stalingrad, created a frenzy among his listeners present at the arena and those listening on the radio, especially after the intense build up to the question he asked the audience, "Do you want total war?" Those in attendance answered with a resounding "Ja!" (The Allies and Soviets responded with bombs and victories.) Late in 1944, Hitler put Goebbels in charge of the "Volkssturm," the equivalent of the German home defense, consisting of older men and young boys. As the Soviets stormed into Berlin in April 1945, Goebbels and his family (they lived in Berlin) moved into Hitler's bunker. Some reports say that Hitler wanted Goebbels to take his family and leave Berlin for safety, and that, upset to the point of tears by Hitler's order, Goebbels refused to go. Goebbels may have been intelligent, but he didn't use his intellect when it came to Nazi nonsense, and he and his wife poisoned all six of their children, before then taking their own lives not long after their "master," Hitler, had committed suicide ("Selbstmord").*** The Soviets found the bodies and displayed them for cameras.****

I had intended to combine Goebbels and Martin Bormann into one article, but Bormann will be in the next article, perhaps with Albert Speer.

* This makes him similar to Kaiser Wilhelm II, the ruler of Germany during World War One, who had been born with a deformity of his one arm/hand. The Kaiser loved military matters, and his militarism may well have been the result of his handicap, but please don't think that every person with a physical handicap is apt to want to start a war or turn into a Nazi.

** His wife had been married previously, and she had one son by that marriage, who survived the war.

*** Literally "self murder," and you can see the similarity of the words to their English counterparts.

**** Goebbels and his wife were partially burned, per his order. The children were found separately, and unburned.

WORD HISTORY:
Swelter-This is another word of uncertain origin, but with a presence in Old Germanic, as "sweltanan," which passed the word onto its offspring, English; actually more specifically, to the Germanic dialects which evolved into English. Its meaning in Old Germanic was "to die." In Old English it was "sweltan," also meaning "to die," but later a variation, "swelten," meant "to be faint with heat, to be overcome by heat." Later this became "swelteren," before the modern version, which has retained the notion of "oppressive heat," but not really the "fainting" part. Icelandic has "svelta," which means "to starve, or to starve someone;" Swedish has "svälta," also with that meaning, so in North Germanic, the word took the "to die" meaning in the direction of "starving to death,"^ while English, a West Germanic language, took the direction of "fainting from the heat," perhaps from the idea that a person who "faints" appears to be dead. Other Germanic languages once had forms of the word too (Old High German had "swelzan," for instance, and it also meant "to die"), but apparently they have died out (no pun intended), just as the old form and the "die" meaning died out in English. German has been prone to tacking prefixes on to many old base words, and they may still have a form of the word, but a bit disguised, and I'm "almost" certain I've encountered it in German before.

^ Danish and Norwegian both have "sulte," for "starve" (both are North Germanic languages), but whether these are related to "swelter," I cannot say for certain.

German Leaders Of The Nazi Era: "Göring"

"Political Leaders" Part One/A "Göring"

I'm doing this in response to a suggestion by a regular reader. The information on each of these leaders is from memory (unless otherwise noted), and comes from the many books and articles I've read over many, many years, plus from documentaries I've seen during that period, which is now closing in on five decades. As I so often note here, if something interests you, please check online sources for more information, or, better yet, go to your local library and see what books and articles they have on the subject of interest to you. I've simply picked out a few of the top German leaders from the Nazi era, and there were many more, but it is always important to remember about that time, that Hitler was THE final authority on EVERYTHING. The whole Nazi system was built around him, and he continued to assume more and more power over the years. While Hitler is seen as the all powerful dictator, he was not much of an administrator, being somewhat lazy, by many accounts, especially in the prewar years. He preferred to set out "themes" then taken by his underlings, who translated their interpretations of these themes into actions. That is likely the reason why no direct order has ever been found with Hitler's signature on it, directing the extermination of Europe's Jews. He did however talk about such, even publicly, as he did in a speech to the Reichstag just months before the war began in 1939. In that speech, he said that if war came to Europe, it would not result in the victory of "Jewry" ("Judentum"), but instead it would result in the destruction of the Jewish race in Europe ("die Vernichtung der jüdische Rasse in Europa).* It can't be much clearer than that, so don't buy the nonsense from Hitler apologists who say he knew nothing of the death camps and mass executions of Jews.

Hermann Göring (also: Goering, but less common)-Göring was a genuine hero as an ace pilot in World War One. He was highly decorated, and in fact, he became the commander of the same unit of the famous Baron von Richthofen, popularly known as "The Red Baron" ("der Rote Baron," in German), not long after the Baron's death. Since his name was quite familiar to the German public, there's no question that Göring's joining the Nazi Party gave it a certain credibility. Göring became the president of the Reichstag (parliament), and he became the head of the revived German Luftwaffe (airforce) under Hitler. If you compare pictures of Göring from World War One with those taken through the years thereafter, you can see he lived a pretty good life, as his waist line expanded tremendously. He loved the benefits of power, and when German forces occupied various countries, but especially France, he grabbed many great works of art for himself.

Severely wounded in the thigh during the attempted Nazi takeover of Germany in 1923, Göring became addicted to the morphine used to ease his pain, and his addiction was a chronic problem throughout the rest of his life, with periods where he kicked the habit, and periods where he returned to drug use. Göring's jovial personality was popular with the German people, seemingly even when the severe air raids began during World War Two, and, as head of the Luftwaffe, he bore responsibility to protect Germany from Allied bombers. Early in the war, Göring "supposedly" said something to the effect, "You can call me 'Meier' if any bombs are dropped on _______."** It wasn't long before Germans began referring to him as "Herr Meier," so there must be some truth about Göring's statement. Göring must also bear a good deal of the blame for the eventual surrender of German forces at Stalingrad, as he assured Hitler shortly after the Red Army surrounded the Germans there, that the Luftwaffe could supply the army inside Stalingrad, something that did not happen. While Hitler may have kept the army there anyway, Göring's assertion certainly solidified Hitler's position of not permitting his forces to breakout of the encirclement. Hitler publicly named Göring as his successor on September 1, 1939 (the day of the German invasion of Poland). Göring is really a mixture of political leader AND military leader, and he was first a general, then Hitler promoted him to field marshal, then to a special rank created only for Göring, "Reichsmarshall" ("Marshal of the Reich").

In the waning days of the war, with the Russians advancing inside Berlin and Hitler hidden deeply away in his bunker beneath the German capitol, Göring, who was in southern Germany, sent a message to Hitler asking about succeeding him. In the message, Göring noted that he realized that Hitler may not have had the ability to respond under the circumstances, and that if he, Göring, didn't receive an answer within so many hours (I just forget the time Göring used), that he would assume Hitler was incapacitated in some way, and that he, Göring, would assume the role as Hitler's successor, as Hitler had ordered in 1939. Göring's message was entirely proper, and according to accounts from survivors who were in the bunker, Hitler seems to have seen it as such, AT FIRST. Hitler's deputy, Martin Bormann, however, supported by Joseph Goebbels,*** Hitler's propaganda chief and personal foe of Göring, told Hitler that Göring's message was an ultimatum, and that Göring was trying to seize power. Ah, excuse me. Helllllllooooooo!!! Seize power of what? A destroyed nation on its knees? It just shows how nuts these guys really were. Hitler exploded and ordered Göring to be stripped of all ranks and offices. He also ordered Göring's execution. With the Russians only blocks away, Hitler was still consumed by such nonsense. The execution order was never carried out, and Göring was captured by American troops. He was put on trial at Nuremberg and mounted a defiant defense. Interestingly, Göring was in the midst of a drug bout when captured, and Allied doctors not only cleaned up his "habit," but reduced his huge hulk to a more manageable size. With a clear mind, this all served Göring well during the trial, as he was shown to be highly intelligent, but his crafty defense didn't save him, and he was condemned to "death by hanging" ("Tod durch den Strang, " literally "death through the rope," and "Strang" is indeed closely related to English "string"). Just a couple of hours before the sentence was to be carried out, Göring took poison and died in his cell. There have been many theories as to how Göring got the poison, and if interested, that might be something you will want to check on, as an American officer at the prison is one of the possible people involved.

Finally, during episodes of drug use, Göring's behavior was reported at times to be bizarre, and many people who knew him commented or wrote about such after the war. Some devout supporters denied many of the scandalous stories about Göring, but I believe there is more than a little basis of truth to most of them; not everyone could have been lying. While I mentioned Göring's jovial personality, it MUST be noted, he could be absolutely RUTHLESS, at times. To his credit, he did try to stop the war from breaking out in 1939, just prior to the invasion of Poland. In my opinion, he was enjoying power too much. He didn't want to jeopardize all the fun by a war that could, and eventually did, end badly (obviously, from his point of view).

* For the entire passage, see "Hitler-Reden und Proklamationen" ("Hitler-Speeches and Proclamations") Band (Volume) II, page 1058, from Hitler's speech to the Reichstag on January 30, 1939.

** It is tough to pin down the exact quote of Göring, and I left the space blank, because some say he mentioned Berlin, others the Ruhr (the major industrial region of Germany), and still others, Germany.

*** Goebbels and Bormann will be covered in Part One/B of this series.

WORD HISTORY:
Singe-This word for "to lightly burn around the edges or tips of something, often hair," has an uncertain origin. It "may" be a Germanic invention, or perhaps more specifically a West Germanic invention (English, German, Low German, Dutch and Frisian are West Germanic), and some believe it is actually related to "sing;" the connection being the sort of "hissing" sound made when something is singed, but I'm not completely sold on that, but don't laugh, words take on meanings in strange, even comic, ways at times. Anyway, West Germanic had "sangjanan," which meant "to burn, scorch." This led to Old English "sengan" (also spelled "sencgan"), which had the "lightly burn" meaning first noted above. Later it was spelled "sengen," before the modern version. German has "sengen," Dutch has "zengen," both also meaning "to singe, to scorch." Frisian had a form, "sendza," but apparently it died out. Icelandic once had "sangr," which also meant "burned," but was this a borrowing from West Germanic? (Icelandic is North Germanic) Or is this a tie to Old Germanic? By the way, "singeing," with the "e" intact, while it looks odd, is the proper spelling, in order to distinguish it from "singing."