70 years ago on this date, April 20, 1945, on Hitler’s 56th (and last) birthday, Hitler made his last trip from the Führerbunker("Führer's shelter") to the surface. In the ruined garden of the Reich Chancellery, he awarded Iron Crossesto boy soldiers of the Hitler Youth, who were now fighting the Red Army at the front near Berlin.
I will post two articles of former Hitler Youth members:
I Shook Hitler’s Hand
Written by Anton Schreiner
I was born in 1930 and raised in the region of Mühlviertel in northeastern Austria.
In 1938 Hitler annexed Austria. Our region was terribly poor. When Hitler came we did better, so we were very excited. Hitler also brought organization and purpose. At eight years old, I and the other children had to join the Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth), where we were raised in strict military style. Hitler even gave us a beautiful National Socialist uniform. Before that I only had miserable poor clothes.
I was proud to be in the Hitler Youth. I was Catholic, but the Nazis taught us that religion was nonsense. And we were taught that the Jews were to blame for wars and all the problems in the world. I was in Linz, the capital of the province of Hitler’s birth, when the Nazis burned down the synagogue in November 1938.
When I was eight, Hitler traveled through my home village of Bad Leonfelden. I was wearing my new uniform and holding the golden book of the city that Hitler signed. He tousled my hair and caressed my cheek, then got into his car and went on.
Five years later, the director of my school recommended me for an honor for my work in the Hitlerjugend. I was invited to Hitler’s home in Berchtesgarten, Germany, on the Austrian border. I shook Hitler’s hand. Goring, Bormann and Himmler were there. When I started to pet Hitler’s Wolfhund (German Shepherd), Hitler said, “Do not touch the dog! It is trained to guard.” But I had already begun to caress the dog, and the dog was docile toward me. Hitler was amazed and told me the dog’s name, which at the time was kept secret. I have since forgotten the name of the dog! Hitler spent an hour or two chatting with me. He was very friendly toward me because I was from his home region, and he asked me all kinds of questions.
I was in Linz during the Allied bombing from August 1943 until the end of the war. After one bombing raid, I was buried in a pile of rubble, but emerged unharmed. Soon after the last big attack on Linz, the war ended. I heard on the radio, “Today our beloved leader Adolf Hitler fell in the honorable fight over Berlin.” I was devastated. Weeks later we learned that Hitler was not killed in action but had committed suicide. As Hitlerjugend, our slogan was “Hart wie Grubstahl, zäh wie Leder, flink wie Windhunde” (hard as steel, tough as leather, swift as a greyhound). Now I saw that Hitler was a coward and had lied to us. It was over for me with National Socialism.
I was caught by the Russians. Since I had held a high position in the Hitler Youth, the Russians wanted to convert me to communism as a trophy from fascism. I was imprisoned for six months and then served three years of forced labor. They tried to brainwash me to believe in communism, but I was not very interested. However, I learned a lot about the Jews from them. The Russians were mostly against the Jews, but I also heard about other things which the Jews did well. So I was no longer that much of a Jew hater. I eventually became a Russian soldier and worked for the KGB. I even met Stalin and had vodka with him and his senior staff when he came through town. Everyone got drunk.
After my military service, when I was in my early 30s, I traveled to Greece, Beirut, Damascus, Amman (Jordan) and Jerusalem. For some reason, I suddenly became very interested in learning if Jesus was really born in Bethlehem, so I went there as well. I became ill in Israel, with a severe intestinal problem that forced me to go to a hospital when I returned to Austria.
Once my health returned, I began to travel again. I had a passion for mountaineering. I climbed the Matterhorn three times as well as Mont Blanc. I also explored many religions, including Hinduism, Zen and Islam. Islam attracted me the most, but as I followed events in Israel, it seemed to me that the Jewish people wanted peace, but the Arab governments that surrounded them wanted war. As Arafat and other militant Palestinian leaders organized terror attacks, I became more and more sympathetic to the Jewish people.
After spending a night camping on a cold mountain, my hearing was permanently damaged. In the hospital, I was filling out forms with a doctor to get hearing aids. The doctor had to fill in my religion. I told him I have no religion and did not believe in anything.
The doctor invited me to a Bible study at his church, and I accepted. The Old Testament captured my interest, especially with all the history it contains.
Then someone invited me to a talk by a Messianic Jew (one who believes in Jesus). After his talk, I had a two- hour discussion with him. He explained that the Jews are human beings, not sub-humans as I had been taught. They make mistakes like all of us, but they are the chosen people of God. By the end of our talk, I had become a friend of the Jews. This man also showed me how many of the promises in the Hebrew Scriptures had been fulfilled, including some which he said were about Jesus.
In 2003 while hiking in Zurich, I fell into a crevasse, a crack in a glacier. I was saved just before I froze to death. When I saw the doctor, I said, “I guess I was lucky!” The doctor said, “No, it was not luck. It was the One above.” This was when I began to think that perhaps God does exist after all.
As I continued to study the Bible (Old andNew Testaments), I came to believe that Jesus really is the Son of God and the Messiah of the Jewish people. In 2007 I traveled to Israel for the Feast of Tabernacles and was baptized in the Jordan River.
As impossible as it may seem given my background, I now truly love Israel and the Jewish people. I wear a small pendant that is a replica of the high priest’s breastplate with the names of the tribes of Israel. One thing I especially admire about the Israelis is that they pick up those who are ill and injured and bring them into their hospitals and care for them—even those who are their sworn enemies. They do the most difficult surgeries on children, including heart surgeries, even on the children of those who again and again say they will push the Jews into the sea.
What does Jesus say in the Sermon on the Mount about loving our enemies? If we would all do these things, we would have paradise on earth.
Sadly, anti-Semitism is still very much alive in Austria. When I am able, I take part in public debates and conferences and defend Israel. Many times the anti-Semites are not willing to listen to my points and tell me to be quiet. In some cases they have accused me of being Jewish!
Many Jewish people are afraid to open the New Testament because of what so-called “Christians” have done in the name of Jesus. But the Jewish people need to read the New Testament to learn about Jesus, that he is Jewish, born in Israel, and that he truly does love each one of us—even me, who shook Hitler’s hand.
Ex-Nazi Youth Member Recalls the Final Days of Adolf Hitler
WWII: As a teenager, he was assigned to the dictator's bunker for the last 10 days of the war. Now 73, he's written a book about his experiences.
August 19, 2001|BRUCE OLSON | REUTERS
WALDPORT, Ore. — In the morning, Armin Lehmann gets out of bed and uses two crutches to make his way to the bathtub, where he soaks in scalding water so he can walk.
In this way he's not unique, for he's an aging veteran who still suffers from wounds received in World War II. But in another way, this 73-year-old retired travel executive is far different from other veterans.
For Armin Lehmann spent the last 10 days of the war in a bunker with Adolf Hitler, Eva Braun, Joseph Goebbels, Martin Bormann and the dozens of other Nazis during the Battle of Berlin.
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He was Hitler's last courier, a 16-year-old member of the Hitler Youth who ran back and forth across bloody Wilhelmstrasse from the Fuehrerbunker to Nazi Party headquarters, carrying water, medicine, and messages. "I wasn't fearless," Lehmann writes in his book, "Hitler's Last Courier.""But I was able to conquer my fears. I was miserable, but like a soldier I didn't buckle under the cries, the screams and the shouts around me. I parted with those horrors inside me and maintained as valiant a state of mind as possible."
Thousands of miles away and 56 years later, Lehmann sits in his airy living room a few hundred yards from the Pacific in this small Oregon town, 150 miles southwest of Portland.
He speaks of nightmares, of piles of bodies. He speaks softly, with traces of a German accent. He runs a hand through his gray hair, shifting on his couch, looking for a comfortable position. "I had to be a good boy, obedient. My father was straight Prussian, and he never repented. Even in '46 he said the Jews had themselves to blame," Lehmann said.
Lehmann's father was a car salesman who joined the Nazi Party and became a propagandist in Hitler's intelligence unit. The Nazis made him feel important. He had money, he wore a uniform.
Lehmann's father beat him, mocked him as a "washrag" and forced him to carry a medicine ball to become strong. On April 20, 1938, at age 9, Armin Lehmann was initiated into the Hitler Youth.
Jews and communists were identified as enemies of the state. Theories of the master race were drilled into the young members. No one contradicted the teachers. By April 20, 1945, Lehmann, then 16, had been wounded at the eastern front, earning a medal for bravery. He was selected by Hitler Youth leader Artur Axmann to serve Hitler in the bunker.
Lehmann puts his feet on a cushion in his living room, his voice rising. "I had seen Hitler in '38. He looked tall to me then, powerful. But when I saw him there in the bunker he had aged 20 years." Lehmann stands stiffly, curling his shoulders forward. "Hitler hunched like this," he said. "There were black circles under his eyes, his hand trembled, he tried to hold his uniform coat with his other hand so we didn't see him tremble."
Hitler spoke to a group including nine new couriers that day--his 56th birthday. He shook Lehmann's hand and Lehmann could see Hitler's eyes were "filled with moisture, perhaps because he was taking some kind of drug."
Hitler spoke of a new weapon and said it was imperative that everyone keep fighting with an "iron will." For 10 days Lehmann lived in a world without day or night, a world of constant danger that filled his mind with ghastly images.
On April 30, Axmann told Lehmann that Hitler was dead.
Lehmann was the last German runner at his post when the war ended. He broke out of the bunker and was wounded, buried in rubble. The Russians questioned him but did not ask about the bunker.
On the last night before Germany was divided, Lehmann crossed the Mulde River into the hands of the Americans.
"My eyes were opened by documentary films of the concentration camps. Some people said these films were fake. They weren't a fake; they couldn't have been staged. I was stunned."
Lehmann's new life began. He became a reporter on a German paper, married an American teacher and came to New York in 1953. He landed a job with the Associated Press in 1955 and stayed away from Germany. He went to Japan. He collected art for a gallery in Greenwich Village. He worked for SITA World Travel, advancing from a tour operator to executive vice president. He became an anti-nuclear activist. He wrote poetry. The bunker receded, but it didn't disappear.
In 1965, Lehmann, then 37, had the first of five heart attacks. A psychiatrist told him "one reason for the attack might be your unresolved past." As he was recovering, several German journalists who had talked to Axmann arrived on his doorstep. He told them his story and was offered a handsome fee to write his biography.
"I either had to take a lot of money for the book or stick with my career. I was told if I wrote the book I would lose my job. We had a lot of Jewish clients. I decided not to write the book and kept my career."
By 1995 Armin Lehmann was living on the Oregon coast and his story popped up again, he isn't sure how. He did an interview on the 50th anniversary of the end of the war. He was in the local post office when a child pointed and said, "Is that the Nazi war criminal?"
"I was flabbergasted and just left the post office. I decided I had to write the book," he said.
Getting it published was no easy task. Publishers wanted "war stories without the background. They wanted something for the Hitler buffs. I didn't want to write the book for Hitler buffs and I don't see how you can understand my story without my background," he said.
But technology intervened and his book was published by the on-demand Internet press XLibris. It can be ordered through http://www.xlibris.com, or http://www.amazon.com.
Lehmann's unrepentant father did not live long enough to read it; he died in 1983. "We held a reunion of the family in the late '60s, after my heart attack. I attended on condition that no politics would be discussed, but my father got up and began to talk about the old days.
"I gave him a swift kick in the shin. It was the last time I saw him," Lehmann says, running a hand through his hair once more, a wrinkled smile crossing his face.
Hitler Inspecting the Young Fighters - Der Untergang(Downfall).
Uploaded on Feb 2, 2012
A short excerpt from the German movie, Der Untergang.
OTHER LINKS:
He was Hitler's last courier, a 16-year-old member of the Hitler Youth who ran back and forth across bloody Wilhelmstrasse from the Fuehrerbunker to Nazi Party headquarters, carrying water, medicine, and messages. "I wasn't fearless," Lehmann writes in his book, "Hitler's Last Courier.""But I was able to conquer my fears. I was miserable, but like a soldier I didn't buckle under the cries, the screams and the shouts around me. I parted with those horrors inside me and maintained as valiant a state of mind as possible."
