JU 353 crash, Hitler's papers and Else Kreuger

Thanks Robin.

Stefan.

 

Stefan, you played a big part in closing this chapter on Else's life. Her son said he will contact the cemetery. He is grateful to you while not wishing to discuss his parents' war. This was a disappointment but I respect his wishes. If a write a story for my local paper here in Wallasey I will exclude Harold but may include the memorial stone, if that's OK with you.Cheers, robin

 

Robin,

no problem at all. But please let us all have the link whenever you publish the story.

Stefan.

 

post script. I have found a rare interview given by Miss Else Krueger to a newspaper journalist in Hamburgh on June 1, 1946. In the article Else said her boss was too stupid to have remained in hiding successfully for so long. 'He was a brutal man of violent temper and ruder manners.' She said after the groups escaped the Bunker she met SS Gruppenfuehrer Rattenhuber. He was a member of the Bormann escape party and told Else their Panzer car had been hit while crossing the Friedrichstrasse Bridge. He said he last saw Bormann lying face down either dead or severely wounded. Else added that she was pretty certain that Bormann was killed and the Russians who found the body did not know who he was. He was not wearing any insignia of rank and could have easily been mistaken for an ordinary SS trooper. If he did get away, he would have been caught by now. He was not clever enough to last, concluded Else. Fascinating stuff-robin bird

 

Robin,

A wonderful find and which highlights Bormann as the Brutal Bully what I have read about.

Regards
Tom

 

Robin,

great research, thanks.

Stefan.

 

thank you gentlemen. Interestingly Else said in her newspaper interview that she and Bormann left the Bunker at the same time, about 2 am on May 2. i.e. She did not leave first on the night of May 1. Old newspapers are a good source of information. Incidentally I recently discovered old Wallasey News adverts showing that the Silver Beatles and the Beatles played at the Grosvenor Ballroom before they went to Germany. Historians say that the Beatles changed their name from Silver Beatles when they went to Hamburg and not before. Else was probably still living in Wallasey when the Beatles played at the Grosvenor in the early 60s !!!!??? But, I digress

 

Yes Bormann,the master of the Obersalzberg was the real bully as indicated.When Hitler came to power,he already had a retreat on the Obersalzberg which was later developed into the Berghof, Bormann decided that the mountain village should be developed into Hitler's private estate....those property owners who were reluctant to sell up were threatened with concentration camp detention.Hitler trusted him to the end...he was Hitler's gatekeeper and no one even the top military brass could have access to Hitler unless Bormann gave his blessing.Hitler's Obersalzberg estate became a virtual second seat of government as other leading Nazis built their own houses there.

Above all a serial womaniser who was able to take mistresses with the agreement of his wife who appears to have been helpless in a marriage to one of the most powerful personalities in the Nazi Party. He maintained a tight grip on his Gauleiters in pursuing the Nazi Party policy and along with Goebbels was the catalyst in the lynching of downed Allied aircrew.

The background,role and experience of the other Nazi Party personality's secretaries has been well aired postwar but little was known of Else Krueger...Robin's determination to delve into her story has highlighted how a person who was a witness to the role of a most powerful war criminal was able to put that behind her,marry a former enemy and settle down to domestic life in the UK.

 

The local newspapers are running with the Else Kruger story. see attached, robin

 

Robin,

Well done.

Regards
Tom

 

"OPJB" by "Christopher Creighton" (John Ainsworth-Davis) asserts the Bormann was smuggled out of Berlin by a "commando" team at the end of the war, the purpose being to gain access to the secret German bank accounts and other valuable holdings which he reputedly controlled. Davis says there had been negotiations with Bormann for months via Switzerland to arrange this. The book makes no mention of Bormann's secretaries, but if Bormann was smuggled back to the UK then that might explain how one of them ended up there. Interesting book, whether fact or fiction, or a mixture of both. There's no doubt that Davis was a remarkable man who played a remarkable part in the war.

 

please see newspaper cutting under original topic regarding Else Kruger. robin

 

Robin,

The article reads well.

Regards
Tom

 

Looking forward to the final article.

Stefan.

 

Remarkable.

 

Traudl Junge stated that she took the dictation of Hitler's final testament. Whether she claimed to have typed it I don't know without going back and viewing the interview again (World at War series) The diamonds on the Knight's Cross were so small, more like chips, that story seems highly unlikely, but no doubt there were plenty of diamonds and precious metals in the hands of the Nazi elite at that point.

Walking out of the Chancellery would be one thing, getting past the Russians and the SS to Allied lines quite another. Maybe that's in the next article. ^_^

 

Else James, nee Kruger died this month on January 24 2005, so the attached can serve as her obituary in the local newspaper where she started her new life after the war. Thank you to everyone who contributed information and to Stefan for the photograph. robin bird

 

Robin,

Thank you for the concluding part.

Regards
Tom