Hitler's bodyguard turns 90, vows to keep quiet 03/08/2007 00:00

3 August 2007

BERLIN, (AFP) - The last living witness to the final hours of Adolf Hitler, the Nazi leader's personal bodyguard Rochus Misch, turned 90 this weekend but vowed to keep his secrets to himself, a report said.

Misch was 27 when he left Hitler's bunker on May 2, 1945 as Soviet troops stormed the chancellery in Berlin, two days after the fuhrer killed himself with a gunshot to the head, Spiegel Online reported.

He has kept quiet on who killed Hermann Fegelein, who was married to the sister of Eva Braun.

According to Misch, Hitler did not give the order to shoot Fegelein, contrary to the findings of German historian Joachim Fest. He said the representative of the commander of Hitler's personal guard gave the order.

"I know it from an officer from the Reich security service whose colleague shot Fegelein," Misch told Spiegel Online. "I know his name, but I am keeping it for myself."

Fegelein was the liaison officer between Hitler and Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, and left the bunker without authorisation on April 27. He was shot April 29.

Misch, who lives in Berlin, has written a book called "I Was Hitler's Bodyguard", which is due to appear in Germany later this year. It has already been published in South America, Japan, Spain, Poland and Turkey, Spiegel Online reported.

Misch spent eight years in camps in Kazakhstan and Siberia after being taken prisoner by the Russians before returning to Berlin in 1953.

AFP

Subject: German news