Hitler's Personal Body Guard Dead at 96

Adolf Hitler’s personal body guard Rochus Misch died in Berlin on September 5 while recovering from a heart attack.

Misch was a painter before joining the SS, and “from 1940, was part of Hitler’s escort.” He was in the infamous bunker when Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945.

Speaking to AFP in 2005, Misch talked of having seen Hitler “sitting at the table, slumped forward, and [his wife] Eva Braun lying next to him.”

Misch fled the bunker two days later, was captured by Soviet forces and held captive until 1953. 

In 2007 Misch told Spiegel online he remembered his first meeting with Hitler: “He wasn’t a monster, he wasn’t an Ubermensch, he stood opposite me like a perfectly normal gentleman, and spoke kind words.”

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