Christa Schroeder - He Was My Chief - The Memoirs of Adolf Hitlers Secretary

As secretary to the Fuhrer throughout the time of the Third Reich, Christa Schroeder was perfectly placed to observe the actions and behaviour of Hitler, along with the most important figures surrounding him.Schroeders memoir does not fail to deliver fascinating insights: she notes his bourgeois manners, his vehement abstemiousness and his mood swings. Indeed, she was ostracised by Hitler for a number of months after she made the mistake of publicly contradicting him once too often. In addition to her portrayal of Hitler, there are illuminating anecdotes about Hitlers closest colleagues. She recalls, for instance, that the relationship between Martin Bormann and his brother Albert (who was on Hitlers personal staff) was so bad that the two would only communicate with one another via their respective adjutants - even if they were in the same room. There is also light shed on the peculiar personal life and insanity of Reichsminister Walther Darre.Schroeder claims to have known nothing of the horrors of the Nazi regime. There is nothing of the sense of perspective or the mea culpa that one finds in the memoirs of Hitlers other secretary, Traudl Junge - who concluded we should have known. Rather the tone that pervades Schroeders memoir is one of bitterness. This is, without any doubt, one of the most important primary sources from the pre-war and wartime period.==========REVIEW:Christa Schroeder was Adolf Hitlers secretary from 1933 until his death in 1945. As someone with an insiders intimate knowledge of Hitler, she witnessed and recounts many fascinating personal anecdotes about him and other leaders of the Third Reich, often correcting previously published accounts of what really happened in those days. It all started when she answered a tiny ad in a newspaper for a secretarial position.The fact she writes this book unapologetically, actually gives credance to the words she wrote for the book. She never ever once says Im sorry about the holocaust. This makes me beleive her more than Dietrich, Junge, or Speer.The narrative sometimes reads like something out of a tabloid with many gossipy comments about Hitlers personal foibles: he had yellow teeth and bad breath and should have grown a beard to hide his mouth, he avoided personal contact with money, his long discourses on the evils of smoking, the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, the lies of Christianity, his racial theories, architecture, science, and anything and everything else.Hitler memorized many pages from books he had read. Schroeder recounts how he recited Schopenhauer as if they were his own words and she recognized the passage, calling it to his attention. Dont forget all knowledge comes from others and every person only contributes a minute piece to the whole, he responded. Because of his memory, Hitler was able to convince people he had actually been to places and seen things himself that he had only read about. In his youth in Vienna he had read all 500 books in the city reference library.Many have remarked on Hitlers ability to keep his arm extended for hours in the Nazi salute, and he explained to Schroeder that he had done daily training with an expander but a strong will was needed as well.Hitler had a premonition the day before the Stauffenberg assassination attempt, believing there is something afoot and no one could carry on his duties, therefore nothing must happen to him. The afternoon after the bomb detonated, Hitler told Schroeder, The heavy table leg diverted the explosion. Havent I always anticipated that happening? I told you yesterday, dont you remember?Schroeder says Hitler was erotic with women, but never sexual. My lover is Germany, he often said. She mentions the controversy whether Hitler had only one testicle, believing it was probably true (apparently a doctor has come forward just last year claiming Hitler was wounded during the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and indeed lost one). His great love in life was not Eva Braun at all, but Geli Raubal, his niece, although still, they never had sex. She was the only woman he would have married. Schroeder details the events surrounding Raubals suicide and the controversy over Hitlers culpability. This was the event that caused him to convert to vegetarianism. Eva Braun faked suicide attempts to gain a prominent position at Hitlers side, as he couldnt afford another female suicide so close to him during his rise to power.Schroeders concerns about Hitler and the war are expressed indirectly and are implicit in the narrative. The only indirect reference to the Holocaust is a heated exchange between Hitler and a friend in 1943 about a deportation of Jewish women in Amsterdam. What does it matter to you what happens to female Jews? he said to the woman. Every day, thousands of his men fall while the inferior survive--the balance in Europe was being undermined. What will become of Europe in one hundred, one thousand years? I am committed by duty to my people alone, to nobody else!Schroeder, who died in 1985, was interned for three years after 1945 as a war criminal of the first order. She complains, Whether my guilt was as great as my expiation is something I do not know to this day. First published in German in 1985, it seems incredible that such a valuable first-hand account of the rise and fall of the Third Reich should not have been translated into English until now. Recommended for all with a keen interest in one of the most important events in modern history.