"Baroness Von Varo"

Discussion in 'The Women of WW2' started by WotNoChad?, Jun 26, 2008.

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  1. WotNoChad?

    WotNoChad? Senior Member

    Thought I'd share this one, there's been some discussion over at the Axis History Forum about who exactly Baroness Von Varo was, as she's mentioned as being present in the Führerbunker during the last days of the Reich, but no one seemed to have a clue who she might be. So here's a cut and paste of my final post having discovered who she was, the link has a pile of very interesting transcripts for anyone interested in the realities of Berlin in it's final days before the end of the war.


    Having exhausted all avenues searching for "Varo" and looking for that as an aristocratic name over hundreds of years of noble history both of which proved totally fruitless I've finally cracked exactly who this women was.

    Her full name is actually Irmengard Baroness von Varo zu Bagion, and she was sheltering from the bombings in an adjacent bunker due to her friendship with Ruger an officer of Hitler's Escort Commando. She attempted to leave Berlin with Kempe. She was questioned in 1948 by Mussmano at Stein Castle. Transcripts of that interrogation, along with others are available here: Mussmano Collection -- Interrogations of Hitler Associates : About , her's especially her efforts to get out of Berlin are really quite gripping.

    cheers,
     
  2. Gerard

    Gerard Seelow/Prora

    Chad, that is one excellent resource!!! Bookmarked it and am currently printing off Guderian's conversations!
     
  3. WotNoChad?

    WotNoChad? Senior Member

    Glad you like it, I was impressed how they're scans of the typed originals, even if that makes cut and paste an impossibility.
     
  4. Gage

    Gage The Battle of Barking Creek

    She's a new one on me. Never heard of her.
     
  5. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    If the personality had been of any prominence in the Third Reich she would have be "mentioned in dispatches".She is not mentioned in "The Hitler Book"which was an account put together by Hitler's personal assistant and valet,Heinz Linge and one of his military adjutants,Otto Gunsche for Stalin while in capitivity in Russia.The diary covers the period from the summer of 1933 to to the fall of the Third Reich in May 1945.She is without reference in Hugh Trevor Roper's account of the final days of the fall of the Third Reich and its throes in the Fuhrer Bunker.

    Dare I say, she appears to be a high class camp follower who never made the grade.I shall certainly look out for her.If she survived she must look back at the era as a blessing,post war, for she would be able to disappear without trace and perhaps say "I was there".
     
  6. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    I was impressed how they're scans of the typed originals, even if that makes cut and paste an impossibility.
    You say that Chad but I seem to be seeing more and more of these 'intelligently scanned' documents where the text ends up fully searchable and 'cut-able' in the usual computer manner.
    (example... I think)
    Could mean a brave new world's coming of finding the specific details you're after straight away among reams of old papers.
     
  7. Trincomalee

    Trincomalee Senior Member

    I don't understand these things , but recently I've been searching the Gales Newspaper Archives , 1600 - 1900 . Out of interest , I searched the names of some lowly ancestors - and they turned up , highlighted in green . Is this what you are talking about ?
     
  8. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Quite possibly Linden, though they may have been transcribed in the traditional manner of just typing them up.
    These new scans seem to be 'reading' and converting the text electronically, so you end up with a fully editable/searchable computer document rather than just a picture.

    looked it up, It's called 'OCR' apparently:
    Optical character recognition - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    The accurate recognition of Latin-script, typewritten text is now considered largely a solved problem. Typical accuracy rates exceed 99%, although certain applications demanding even higher accuracy require human review for errors. Handwriting recognition, including recognition of hand printing, cursive handwriting, is still the subject of active research, as is recognition of printed text in other scripts (especially those with a very large number of characters).


    Has to be good news for the future of easily accessible online archives as this stuff gets more available.
     
  9. WotNoChad?

    WotNoChad? Senior Member

    She's a new one on me. Never heard of her.

    If the personality had been of any prominence in the Third Reich she would have be "mentioned in dispatches".She is not mentioned in "The Hitler Book"which was an account put together by Hitler's personal assistant and valet,Heinz Linge and one of his military adjutants,Otto Gunsche for Stalin while in capitivity in Russia.The diary covers the period from the summer of 1933 to to the fall of the Third Reich in May 1945.She is without reference in Hugh Trevor Roper's account of the final days of the fall of the Third Reich and its throes in the Fuhrer Bunker.

    Quite right, she's not a player in any way at all. It was this lack of prominence along with being listed as being in the Fuhrerbunker which prompted the original "Who she?". The problem in finding out any detail lay in her constantly being referred to as just Baroness von Varo which isn't her full name. This abbreviation is used in HRT's The Last Days of Hitler (p249), and in the introduction to the third edition of his book Trevor-Roper claims to have interviewed von Varo in her mother's home in Bückeburg.

    You say that Chad but I seem to be seeing more and more of these 'intelligently scanned' documents where the text ends up fully searchable and 'cut-able' in the usual computer manner.
    (example... I think)
    Could mean a brave new world's coming of finding the specific details you're after straight away among reams of old papers.

    Well one can but hope, I find myself having to edit a lot of posts on forums such as these from having mistransposed from a "photographic" scan, especially names, which is a sin as far as amateur historians are concerned. ;)

    cheers,
     
  10. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

     
  11. WotNoChad?

    WotNoChad? Senior Member

    Off the cuff comments are fine mate, what I like about this forum is how you can either have those re-enforced or demolished but always in the most informative way. :)

    In the grand scheme of things she's a nobody really, despite the title. She was only there on Ruger's invitation to avoid the shelling, and ended up serving soldiers their meals and at one point giving Frau Goebbels a hug. I imagine as the years go on folk will try to track down info on everyone who may have passed through there, no matter how coincidental.
     
  12. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    Off the cuff comments are fine mate, what I like about this forum is how you can either have those re-enforced or demolished but always in the most informative way. :)

    In the grand scheme of things she's a nobody really, despite the title. She was only there on Ruger's invitation to avoid the shelling, and ended up serving soldiers their meals and at one point giving Frau Goebbels a hug. I imagine as the years go on folk will try to track down info on everyone who may have passed through there, no matter how coincidental.

    Certainly, Hugh Trevor Roper's work immediately after the war on the fate of Hitler was a masterpiece but that did stop him falling for the Hitler Diary forgeries 30 years later.
     
  13. Gage

    Gage The Battle of Barking Creek

    Strange that there is no reference to her in "The Hitler Book"

    What did you think to 'The Hitler Book', Harry?
     
  14. WotNoChad?

    WotNoChad? Senior Member

    Certainly, Hugh Trevor Roper's work immediately after the war on the fate of Hitler was a masterpiece but that did stop him falling for the Hitler Diary forgeries 30 years later.

    Quite, although it's the WW2 Holy Grail and so you can forgive him, or anyone else, for so wanting it to be true I think.
     

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