In the Bunker with Hitler: The Last Witness Speaks
By (Author) Bernd Freytag von Loringhoven
Orion Publishing Co
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
10th May 2007
21st March 2007
United Kingdom
General
Non Fiction
European history
Warfare and defence
943.086092
Paperback
224
Width 130mm, Height 196mm, Spine 22mm
199g
The last survivor of the end days of Hitler's bunker tells his story publicly for the first time.
Von Loringhoven was aide-de-camp to Hitler's last two chiefs of staff, and the link between the armies at the front and Hitler in his Berlin bunker. For the last nine months of the Third Reich he was present at the daily military briefings between Hitler and Marshals Keital and Goring. Von Lorninghoven was witness to the ever-growing gap between the reality of reports outside the bunker and Hitler's misunderstanding of the calamity that was encircling the regime.As the Third Reich spiralled downwards, he watched and recorded Hitler's catastrophic strategic mistakes and the paralysis in which he held his generals. The final weeks of the regime saw Loringhoven living in the bunker until his escape on 29 April when he crossed the Russian lines and was picked up and taken prisoner by the Americans.A career soldier, Bernd Freytag von Loringhoven was one of the lucky few officers ordered out of the Sixth Army in January 1943. Appointed ADC to General Guderian, then General Krebs, he served at Hitler's HQ in East Prussia and then in the Berlin bunker. After the war he joined the West German army and served as a staff officer in various NATO postings.