Solitary Paratrooper Enjoys A Cognac And The View At Hitler’s Old House
Pictured is a solitary paratrooper unwinding with a quality Cognac and an inspiring view after a hard day’s work spent helping crush Hitler’s evil empire.
The remarkable thing about this particular picture is it was taken at Hitler’s famous Berghof residence, the Fuhrer’s Bavarian mountain retreat at Berchtesgaden, where Adolf spent many happy times, fine tuning the details of just how he could plunge the world into an abyss without equal.
As we all know, a picture can speak a thousand words, and the image of a solitary paratrooper of the 101st Airborne Division chilling with a cognac on the terrace of Hitler’s famous house at the end of the war definitely captures a certain elusive lesson about the nature of good and evil, the invincibility of the human spirit in the face of those who’d seek to crush it, the inherent failure of a Reich that would supposedly last a 1,000 years, and evil’s habit of consuming itself in a violent and apocalyptic struggle.
Business Insider reports that the picture of the paratrooper is one of a handful that survived the ravages of time and shows Allied troops taking it easy at the end of a long and hard war at Hitler’s favorite house.
Before paranoid, Hitler hid away in a fortified two-level 3,000-square-foot underground bunker in Berlin, he and other top Nazis enjoyed the good life in the plush environs of the Berghof.
And so did many other famous guests, who Hitler took great delight in wining and dining at the “Berg” as it was known by leading Nazis. Amongst the great and not so good who were entertained by Adolf were the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, David Lloyd George, Neville Chamberlain, and Benito Mussolini.
Out of the 10 headquarters Hitler used during the Second World War, the “Berg” was the little-mustached madman’s favorite.
What happened at the “Berg” stayed at the “Berg,” according to the staff members who worked there, and anyone who broke rank would face the stiffest of punishments.
Elisabeth Kalhammer was one of the 22 housemaids who was thoroughly screened by the SS and later allowed to work at Hitler’s house during his hellish heyday.
Only at 89-years-of-age did Elisabeth Kalhammer finally reveal a few tidbits to Austrian newspaper Salzburger Nachrichten about what really went down at Adolf’s crib.
“Late at night, Hitler liked to steal away to the kitchen for a bite of ‘Fuhrer cake,’ a specially prepared sheet cake with apples, nuts and raisins that the kitchen was expected to always have on hand, and as a Christmas ‘gift’ maids received wool so they could knit socks for troops on the front.”
Kalhammer also stresses that Hitler was a lazy sort who rarely got out of bed before 2 p.m. A habit, which all history buffs know, cost him dearly on D-Day when his generals were scared to wake him even though Allied troops were already approaching the Normandy shore.
Kalhammer also revealed that the maids greeted Hitler’s girlfriend Eva Braun with “Heil, merciful lady,” which, by any self-respecting egomaniac’s standards, is a bit too much.
Life at the “Berg” is remembered as pretty good by Kalhammer, who enjoyed plenty of food and fresh-pressed apple juice.
In fact, the former maid doesn’t have a bad word to say about Hitler. Nowhere in the interview does she criticize the dictator or condemn the atrocities committed in his name, but then the “Berg” was a million lifetimes away from the hell and horror of the Nazi death camps.
[Image via Public Domain]
