Nurnburg, Germany - August 26, 1947
"Dearest Folks...On the following morning we took in the sight which I've
been dying to get to - Obersalsberg,
or Hitler's House. It's lots
more than Hitler's house, and is really a complete settlement, or what's
left
of it. The whole was destroyed by the SS just before they withdrew,
which was only a day or so before
the formal surrender of Germany. Not much bombing was done in this
region because there are no
factories or rail centers there; it's strictly resort country.
We started from the Special Services office in Berchtesgaden, in jeeps, because
the road is so steep
that most chauffeurs don't know how to drive private cars properly, and burn
things out. We went
tearing up this very steep mountain, over a wonderful road, and came to lots
of gates. These were formerly
tightly closed to all Germans except those authorized to enter - the SS,
Hitler's guard, guests, and high
Nazi big-wigs. We went tearing up some more hairpin curves and passed
a farm, Hitler's private farm
devoted to growing things just for his table, also stocked with cattle.
The farm buildings are not damaged.
Somewhat higher up, we came to lots of ruins on the side of the mountain,
in a sort of flat spot. The ruins
aren't so complete that a person can't walk into some of the buildings, and
the damage was done not by bombs,
but by destruction of demolition squads.
The largest ruin is of the SS quarters - an immense building built around
a quadrangle, one side of which was
barracks, one side very elaborate gymnasiums, one side gasoline pumps and
garage repair shops, and the
fourth or front side, offices. Up on a little knoll above this are
remains of two very large hotels, which housed
less important guests; newsmen, etc.
Down the mountain just a short distance, on a knoll commanding a view of
the Alps from all sides, is the house
of Hitler. We went in - and what a place it must
have been! Souvenir hunters have taken away
everything,
even broken pieces of marble which was formerly the floor. The fact
that the floors are gone allows a person to
see the heating system - steam was released from pipes under the marble.
We went into the immense living room, with the most enormous picture window
imaginable - of course now it's
just an open space. Two people standing in it, viewed from the doorway,
look like midgets - such is the size of the
room. This was really the conference room, and it is here that the
Munich pact was signed, that the treaty with the
Russians was signed, as well as other important doings. The walls were
hung with beautiful Gobelin tapestries,
there was a moving picture screen on one side, the floor has two levels -
everything on a grand scale.
The dining room, also on the lower floor, still has some of the knotty pine
paneling with which it was lined and
which formed the ceiling. The kitchens still have ruins of enormous
electric ranges, sinks, etc. There
are lavatories also on the lower floor, but what has become of the plumbing
fixtures is a mystery to me, unless
the souvenir hunters carted these away also! Walking is dangerous,
and in one spot in the hallway, the floor is
pooched up and between the cracks the cellar may be seen, very far below.
We didn't go upstairs, but there were
the bedrooms of Hitler and Eva Braun. No one else slept there, except
members of the SS guard and the servants.
Over the garage, built as an ell to the side, was a
sun porch which was reached by a glassed-in conservatory. Of
course there's not a piece of glass in Germany, so one can only imagine and
rebuild the scene from the very
precious set of post cards which they gave us at the Special Services office.
(No postcards are available here, either;
no paper.) Slightly below Hitler's house was the guest house for VIP,
and there Chamberlain, Mussolini, et al.,
stayed when they came to see him at Berchtesgaden. Hitler kept four
high-powered Mercedes-Benz cars in his
garage at all time, especially equipped for driving in the mountains.
Across the road from the SS quarters can be seen the remains of the hothouse
and conservatory, a ledge in the
mountain which was fitted with iron framework and glass so as to make a long,
narrow room. A short distance
away is the shell of the home of Goering, with its blue tile swimming
pool bearing his initials on the bottom; and on
another hill, the shell of the home of Martin Bohrman (Borman) - the
only Nazi still at large (I mean of the top men).
Bohrman it was who owned this mountain, and in 1937 he started
the construction of "The
Eagle's Nest",
as a gift to Hitler. This Eagle's
Nest is the most fabulous of all! It cost ten million dollars to build
the roads, the
tunnels, install the elevator, and build the house, the Eagle's Nest. The
reason Bohrman had so much money is
because he was treasurer of the Nazi party. Germans claim they knew
nothing about the place until after the
war, and that they didn't even know there was an Eva Braun! Absolutely
nothing was ever printed about these
matters. Hitler went up to the Eagle's Nest only five times in all,
so that made the cost of each trip two million
dollars. It is said that the elevator stuck once when he first went
there, and he was frightened of sabotage.
But the way of approaching this place is worth some comment. We got
back into the jeeps and continued upwards,
at even a steeper incline. It seems to me that only a jeep could make
it. There are three tunnels on this road, quite
long, cutting through jutting sections of solid rock. After a breath-taking
trip, lasting about twenty minutes at
about 30 miles an hour, we arrived at a clearing, where we got out of the
jeeps and entered a tunnel - this one a very
beautiful structure. There are double bronze doors of immense proportions
guarding the entrance. The ceiling is
arched, and the whole is lined with white brick. There are openings
at the bottom, along the floor, where the
heat comes into the tunnel through a special heating system - which was a
good idea, because the stystem probably
isn't working and when we got to the end of the tunnel we were pretty cold.
The tunnel is 400 feet straight into the
heart of the mountain. Then the end opens into a circular room, made
of the same material as the tunnel; and here
is the entrance to the elevator.
This piece of equipment is very large - will hold about twenty people, the
sliding doors are double, of bronze, there
are mirrors all around the walls, seats on three sides, and a trap door in
the floor at one corner. The operator lifted
this and let us see below - and there was another elevator, just as large
as the one we were in, which was reached by
a ladder of rungs going straight down to the lower floor. This is the
place where the guard rode. We shot
straight up at high speed, 400 feet again, and when the door opened we stepped
into the vestibule of The
Eagle's Nest. To the right was what had been the dining
room, a very large, long room with cabinets all
around the walls and windows on one side looking onto an arched patio; then
into the living room, which
takes up the whole front of the building.
The outside wall is composed of five rectangles, and in each of these is
an immense picture window - however, not
to be compared with the picture window in the house of Hitler, but more of
the size we see at home. The view
from any direction is, of course, superb. The wall which forms part
of the building contains an enormous
fireplace of marble, at which souvenir hunters have been hacking.
The floor is solid. There are no sleeping quarters, but there is a
game room, lavatories, a large kitchen, and
another room which was locked. Probably the quarters of the GIs who
stay there to take care of the place.
Outside there are a couple of paths, leading to cleared spots, in case a
person wanted to wander outside.
Here, too there was elaborate provision for under floor heating, and every
comfort imaginable. Electricity
is used for heating, cooking, etc., throughout all of these places. They
treated themselves royally, all right.
Italian labor built the road to the Eagle's Nest. It took two years
to complete construction of the road, house,
tunnels, elevator, etc., and at the entrance to the tunnel is chiseled in
the rock: 1938. It wasn't completed
until 1939. Anything after that was anti-climax. I suppose I
haven't been able to convey the picture clearly,
but it's imply something that must be seen." |
