According to a compilation of eye witness accounts by Adolf Hitler’s former domestic staff, the dictator’s personal servants were unaware of Nazi atrocities during World War II, including the murder of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust.
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In the book “Living with Hitler,” published in May, three former staffers to the Fuhrer deliver their impressions of everyday life in his service. While many of the post-war narratives focus on mundane details including Hitler’s daily menu and wardrobe, the accounts also shed light on life inside “the gilded cage of the Berghof,” Hitler’s alpine retreat.
From his awkward attempts to be photographed with German children, to the oppressive control he exerted over his mistress, Eva Braun, Hitler and his eccentricities are recalled with general fondness. After designing the rustic Berghof country house himself, Hitler went on to use the retreat — and its stunning mountainous view into Germany’s mythical past — to host meetings with heads of state.
By all three of the book’s accounts, domestic workers in close proximity to Hitler were “in the dark” about the regime’s evil-doings. According to former valet Karl Wilhelm Krause, the dictator himself “wasn’t actually informed about many things,” he wrote.
“Hitler lived in a kind of fake world,” said Krause, who “fell out of grace” with his master over a bottle of mineral water.