Fegelein! Fegelein! The Mysterious de4th of Hitler’s SS Liaison
Those of you who have been following my work will know that I have a reputation for presenting new or forgotten aspects to historical subjects, particularly those of the Third Reich. From the de4th of Hitler to the disappearance of Martin Bormann or the mysterious de4ths of Heinrich Himmler and Rudolf Hess.
I have found that much that appears in history books and documentaries is wrong or deeply flawed and in need of fresh perspectives or theories. I don’t claim to be right about these subjects, but I do try to look afresh at such subjects to see what’s missing or even if an est4blished historical narrative makes any sense.
The subject of this video is a prime example of this, the de4th of Hermann Fegelein, which is recorded in most history books and in films and documentaries thus. Fegelein, Himmler’s SS liaison at Führer headquarters, was a vain and corrupt careerist who, fearful of falling into Soviet hands or being k1lled from the Battle of Berlin in April 1945, decided to desert his post at the Führerbunker.
Found drunk and in the company of one of his mistresses, Fegelein was arr.ested and dr4gged back to the bunker where, after some deb4te, this SS general, married to Eva Braun’s sister, was summarily sh0t on Hitler’s order in the garden of the Reich Chancellery and his body never found. However, almost none of the accepted story of Fegelein’s demise is correct.
The truth was much more complex and interesting. Fegelein has become a meme for those who obtain their history from movies. Hitler, ranting and raving, screams Fegelein’s name at his underlings over and over as he demands the errant general be found and brought before him. So, what was Fegelein up to and why was he ex3cuted? Fegelein was a difficult man to sympathize with.
He was indeed a vain and arrogant womanizer. He was also a favorite of Reichsführer SS Himmler, explaining his over promotion and his chestful of medals. These factors made him an unpopular figure in some quarters, but a protected unpopular figure nonetheless. Himmler saw in Fegelein something that others evidently didn’t see.
Wh@tever that was, Himmler never said. So, most people interested in World W4r II have heard the name Fegelein, perhaps they’ve seen the movie adaptations, but who was he? Born in October 1906 in Ansbach in Bavaria, the son of a retired cavalry officer and riding school owner, Hermann was basically able to ride before he could walk.
In the 1920s, he became friends with Christian Weber, one of the founders of the NSDAP, and this contact was due to his father creating the Fegelein Riding Institute and loaning horses to the equestrian branch of the SA, the Sturmabteilung or brownshirts, and training riders for this organization and later the fledgling SS.
After dropping out of Munich University, Fegelein enlisted in the Reichswehr’s 17th Cavalry Regiment 1925 and 2 years later joined the Bavarian State Police as an officer cadet. However, he was dismissed from the force in 1929 after being caught stealing examination answers from an instructor’s office, an early example of Fegelein’s sociopathic tendencies.
Sponsored by Christian Weber in 1930, he joined the Nazi Party, joining the SS in April 1933 and being employed at his father’s riding school, being leader of the SS branch. This was despite never having received any officer training. Fegelein later took over management of the school from his father. By November 1934, Fegelein held the rank of SS Hauptsturmführer or captain in the Allgemeine SS.
He rose to prominence in 1935, overseeing the jumping courses and equestrian facilities for the events of the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Fegelein, however, was very keen on gaining a place on the German equestrian team, but in this he failed. But he was nonetheless promoted to Sturmbannführer or major. He did win other international riding events and continued to be rapidly promoted.
In 1937, Himmler had created the SS Main Riding School out of the Fegelein School with Fegelein appointed its commander with the rank of Standartenführer or colonel. Fegelein continued to win riding events and was working hard to qualify for the 1940 Tokyo Olympics, which was interrupted by the outbreak of w4r.
In 1939, horse cavalry still existed in many armies, mainly for reconnaissance work, and Fegelein was appointed commanding officer of the SS Totenkopf Cavalry Regiment. Though Fegelein was not a trained officer, he did succeed in molding an efficient unit out of the men and horses, which found itself used to help exterminate Hitler’s enemies.
On the 7th of December 1939, Fegelein’s unit sh0t 1,700 Polish elite in the Kampinos Forest. It was just the beginning of his murd3rous career. Fegelein’s unit became notorious for corruption and in 1940, Fegelein was investigated for stealing cash and other goods including cars in Poland and sending them back to Germany.
However, Himmler stepped in and stopped the court martial against Fegelein. Reinhard Heydrich, Himmler’s powerful second in command, tried several times to investigate Fegelein, but on each occasion Himmler stepped in to protect him. Fegelein’s regiment was used to f1ght partisans in Poland and Fegelein’s unit was also notorious for shooting and robbing civilians.
Transferred west, Fegelein took part in the invasions of Belgium and France, receiving the Iron Cross Second Cla.ss on the 15th of December 1940. In March 1941, his unit was renamed the 1st SS Cavalry Regiment. During the invasion of the Soviet Union in summer 1941, Fegelein saw extensive service, his horse cavalry acting as reconnaissance troops, for which Fegelein received the Iron Cross First Cla.ss.
Himmler placed Fegelein in charge of a brigade of two SS Cavalry Regiments and it was sent to a.ssist in murd3rous behind the lines operations in the Pr.i.pyat Marshes. Fegelein reported to Himmler on the 18th of September 1941 that his units had k1lled 14,178 Jews, 1,001 partisans, 699 Soviet sold1ers and taken 830 pr1soners.
Fegelein received the Assault Badge, but was again investigated for stealing captured property, but again Himmler stopped the proceedings. Joining Army Group Center, Fegelein reported on the 18th of November 1941 that his brigade had k1lled 3,018 partisans and Soviet troops and taken 122 pr1soners. Next, Fegelein’s brigade deployed during the advance on Moscow, helping defend the rear areas of a German infantry division and suffering heavy losses in combat.
On the 1st of February 1942, Fegelein received promotion to Standartenführer of the Waffen SS. On the 5th of February, without orders, he led an @ttack on a large Red Army position northwest of Chotylino, surrounding and destr0ying the enemy force, receiving the Knight’s Cross on the 2nd of March 1942. Sent back to Germany as Inspector of Cavalry and Transportation of the SS, he also received the Eastern Front Medal and the W4r Merit Cross Second Cla.ss.
Fegelein returned to action on the 1st of December 1942, promoted to Oberführer, commanding Kampfgruppe Fegelein in f1ghting on the Don River and was twice wounded in action, receiving the Wound Badge in bl4ck. He also received the Oak Leaves to his Knight’s Cross. On the 20th of April, he was given command of the new 8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer, becoming notorious for anti partisan activities.
During Operation Wicher, his division k1lled 4,018 people and destr0yed 125 villages, deporting a further 18,860. In the follow up Operation Seydlitz, Fegelein’s unit destr0yed a further 96 villages, k1lling 5,016 and deporting 9,166 people. Deployed into frontline combat, the Florian Geyer Division beat back five divisional sized Soviet @ttacks and 85 @ttacks of battalion size in August to September 1943, suffering heavy casualties, earning Fegelein the Close Combat Clasp.
He was severely wounded in September and received the German Cross in Gold and appointment as Chief of the SS Office for Rider and Driver Training, simultaneously a.ssigned as Himmler’s SS Liaison to Führer Headquarters, being promoted to Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant to the Waffen SS on the 10th of June, 1944.
He was slightly wounded in the b0mb @ttack on Hitler at the Wolf’s Lair on the 20th of July, 1944, receiving the special 20th of July Wound Badge in silver. And also the Swords to his Knight’s Cross for his time as commanding officer of the Florian Geyer Cavalry Division on the Eastern Front. As I’ve covered in a separate video, link in the end screen, Fegelein had been married Eva Braun’s sister, Gretl, on the 3rd of June, 1944.
It has been suggested that Fegelein, a noted womanizer, had engineered his relationship with Gretl in order to gain favor for his career, and he simultaneously worked hard to cultivate a good relationship with Martin Bormann, Hitler’s all powerful private secretary and head of the Nazi Party Chancellery. From all of this, you can see that Fegelein was a complex fellow.
His sociopathic tendencies are quite obvious in his constant brushes with SS legal authorities, and also, of course, psychopathic tendencies with his murd3rous sprees behind the lines on the Eastern Front. He also knew how to advance his career through close relationships with certain leaders, Himmler being the most obvious.
So, let us now address the events of April 1945 that led to his downfall and disgrace and execution. At dawn on the 25th of April, 1945, with Soviet forces slowly encircling Berlin, Fegelein left the capital by car on official business. He left in a Mercedes staff vehicle with his adjutant, SS Hauptsturmführer Bordholt, part of the SS Begleitkommando bodyguard unit, and an enlisted SS driver. He was going to meet Himmler.
At that time, Himmler had just moved his headquarters from Wustrow to Hohenlychen, as Wustrow had been thre4tened by the advancing Red Army. Himmler had a special area of the Hohenlychen Sanatorium, which he used as a headquarters and also treatment center for himself, suffering as he did from various health issues, notably stomach cramps caused probably by nervous tension.
On the night of the 24th of April, Himmler arranged a meeting with Fegelein to take place the next morning, 25th. The reason for this meeting had to do with Himmler dispatching Dr. Gebhardt, an SS general and his chief doctor, to Berlin early on the 25th of April. Gebhardt was sent to try to persuade Hitler one final time to leave the capital.
Himmler also wanted to send his personal escort battalion, several hundred heavily armed troops, into Berlin to help with the defense, and also, obviously, to escort Hitler out of the capital if he chose to leave. And it seems that he wanted Fegelein to command that unit and take it back into the capital.
However, events would overtake this decision. Following the meeting at Hohenlychen with Himmler, who had been conducting illicit surrender negotiations with the Western Allies through Swedish aristocrat Count Folke Bernadotte, and also a meeting with the World Jewish Congress representative, all aimed at securing for himself a role in the post Hitler Germany, Fegelein left Himmler’s headquarters, and doubtlessly fully aw4re of what his boss had been up to behind Hitler’s back, and attended other meetings before a final meeting at the SS headquarters at Fürstenberg.
Here, Fegelein had a meeting with SS Obergruppenführer Hans Jüttner, chief of the SS Leadership Main Office, the operational headquarters of the entire SS organization. We don’t quite know what they discussed, but we do know from Jüttner’s testimony that Fegelein made some interesting comments about what was going on in the Führerbunker.
In reply to Jüttner’s inquiries about what was happening in the Führerbunker, Fegelein told him that Hitler and his staff were planning to take their own lives. {quote} The Walhalla stuff is for the Bayreuth Festival, but not for me, said Fegelein, referring to the annual Wagner Opera Festival, much beloved by the Führer.
He added, the place has become a lunatic asylum. {end quote} Fegelein clearly had no intention of dying in the bunker if he could help it. However, still under orders from Himmler, Fegelein found he could not return to Berlin by car, as the Soviets had cut the road on the morning of the 25th, leaving him stranded.
At this point, Fegelein could have escaped his fate in a number of ways. Events beyond his control meant that he could not return to Berlin to resume his duties as SS Liaison at the bunker. If he was so intent on saving his own skin, as most histories tell us, could he not just have joined Himmler at Hohenlychen and gone with his boss to his new headquarters at Schwerin, close to Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, who had set up a military headquarters in the north to control all forces in northern Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway?
Or Fegelein could have taken this opportunity to go completely off reservation, and using his authority as an SS general, removed himself to some safe place, Sweden or Switzerland, for example. But Fegelein did neither. He reported his predicament to Himmler, who promptly dispatched a Junkers Ju 52 transport plane to Rechlin Air Base to fly Fegelein back into central Berlin to Gatow.
At this point, we have to ask ourselves why Himmler did this. Officially, Himmler wanted Fegelein to take over command of his escort battalion. Also, I suspect he wanted Fegelein in close proximity to Hitler for a few more days yet, so he could get constant reports on Hitler as he continued his secret scheming in the crumbling Reich, and importantly, have a good idea of when Hitler would d1e.
Due to enemy air activity over Berlin, Fegelein’s plane was delayed for many hours until eventually at 9:00 p.m., it took off. He arrived in the late evening of the 25th of April, but chose not to attend the midnight situation conference in the Führerbunker. The next day, 26th of April, Fegelein missed two situation conferences, which was very unusual.
Then, on the 27th of April, Hitler asked for Fegelein, only to be told that he was nowhere to be found. Hitler became suspicious, noting that Fegelein had missed six situation conferences without explanation. The Führer phoned the head of his RSD bodyguard unit, Gruppenführer Hans Rattenhuber, and demanded that he find Fegelein at once.
Rattenhuber, an ex policeman, had no clear idea of Fegelein’s whereabouts. Fegelein’s Berlin apartment had been destr0yed by Allied b0mbing some weeks previously, and Fegelein officially lived in quarters at the Reich Chancellery. However, Fegelein had set up one of his long term mistresses in an apartment leased under the name of a friend of his at 10 to 11 Bleibtreustraße, off the fashionable Kurfürstendamm in Charlottenburg, some 4 miles from the Führerbunker.
He had told no one of this secret bolt hole except one confidant, Hitler’s adjutant, SS Sturmbannführer Otto Günsche, and only because he had been extremely drunk when he told him. Fegelein giving Günsche a telephone number for this apartment for emergency use only, wink wink. Günsche now informed Rattenhuber of this information.
Rattenhuber ordered the bunker switchboard operator, SS Sergeant Rochus Misch, to find out the address for the phone number, which he did at once. Rattenhuber called the number, and to his great surprise, Fegelein answered. Fegelein sounded surprised as well to receive a call from the bunker, but quickly regained his composure.
He told Rattenhuber that he had been drinking and had a very bad hangover. He promised on his honor as an officer to report to the bunker in 2 hours’ time. This exchange is very interesting. As if Fegelein a.ssumed that no one knew about his secret love nest, why did he answer the telephone? Why not his mistress? It suggests that the mistress wasn’t home, or that Fegelein was expecting a telephone call, but not from the bunker.
Historian James P. O’Donnell, the first Western intelligence officer into the Führerbunker after the fall of Berlin, and the author of a famous book on the subject of Hitler’s demise, surmised that Fegelein’s behavior was related to another mystery of the fall of Berlin. A Junkers 52 plane seen by several well known witnesses at the Tiergarten emergency airstr.i.p near the Brandenburg Gate on the 28th of April, 1945.
One witness who saw this plane waiting in the shadows was Nazi test pilot Hanna Reitsch, who had famously flown Generaloberst Robert Ritter von Greim into central Berlin to meet Hitler. She noted the Junkers 52 as she and Greim were departing the airstr.i.p on the 28th of April in one of the last serviceable planes to leave Berlin.
She also noted that the Ju 52’s pilot was standing beside the plane. As I said, this erroneous plane was seen and noted by several qualified witnesses, but its presence has never been satisfactorily explained by any historians. It has been a.ssumed that it was, in fact someway connected to Hitler himself escaping from Berlin, but that is fantasy for a wide variety of reasons outside the scope of this video.
O’Donnell believed that the Ju 52 in the Tiergarten on the 28th of April was the same one that had flown Fegelein to Gatow on the 25th of April before returning to Rechlin. He surmised that it had flown in again under orders on the 28th to collect Fegelein. Was this rescue flight made on Himmler’s order to save his loyal Fegelein from the Soviets and bring him to his headquarters in the north? Perhaps.
Could it have been ordered back in by Fegelein himself so that he could affect his escape from the burning city? There are other possibilities as well. It is interesting also that once Fegelein returned to Berlin on the 25th of April, he effectively had gone to ground at his mistress’s secret apartment.
Why? Did he have something that he had to do? Some task that had to be performed? Further evidence of a possible reason will be presented shortly. Returning to the events of the 27th of April, by 5:00 p.m. Fegelein had failed to show up at the Führerbunker as promised. General Rattenhuber was now forced to dispatch the first of several detachments to Fegelein’s mistress’s apartment, not to arr.est Fegelein as reported in most history books, but to try and persuade him to come back voluntarily to the Führerbunker. And as
we shall see in episode two, the men he sends to this apartment also encounter Fegelein’s deeply mysterious mistress, who has been largely written out of accounts of this matter. But she is the key to Fegelein’s downfall and de4th, and as you will see, provides a very surprising twist in the story of Hermann Fegelein.
At the conclusion of episode one, SS General Rattenhuber, the chief of Hitler’s bodyguard unit, had been forced to send out a special squad of men to try and locate where Fegelein was and bring him back to the Führerbunker voluntarily. However, the notion that Fegelein had not visited the Reich Chancellery since his arrival back in the city on the 25th of April is challenged by the testimony of Hitler’s chief driver, SS Obersturmbannführer Erich Kempka, who commanded the Reich Chancellery garage and motor pool.
Kempka, one of the few Führerbunker personnel to successfully escape from Berlin during the bre4kout attempts from the Reich Chancellery on the night of the 1st to 2nd of May, 1945, reported to his US interrogators that at about 5:00 p.m. on the 27th of April, around the time that General Rattenhuber was becoming concerned by Fegelein’s refusal to comply with his agreement to return to his post in the Führerbunker, Fegelein had phoned Kempka at his office in the driver’s bunker beneath the Reich Chancellery gardens with a strange
request. Fegelein asked Kempka for two vehicles with drivers to be put at his disposal for what he called reconnaissance purposes. According to Kempka, in the late afternoon, Fegelein had appeared at the Reich Chancellery garage with his adjutant and boarded the vehicles. Fegelein was in full uniform when he left.
Kempka was greatly surprised when both vehicles were returned to the Reich Chancellery a short time later minus Fegelein and his adjutant. The two drivers told Kempka that Fegelein had dismounted in the Kurfürstendamm area and proceeded on foot. We know, of course, that his girlfriend’s apartment was in the Kurfürstendamm area of Charlottenburg, and he presumably didn’t want his SS drivers to know of its exact location.
If Kempka is to be believed, then that means that Fegelein arrived back at his girlfriend’s apartment before the first of the search parties was sent out by Rattenhuber from the Führerbunker. I think I’ve worked out the reason for this vehicle movement. You certainly don’t need two cars to carry two men on a lift from the Reich Chancellery to Charlottenburg.
It doesn’t make any sense unless, of course, we take Fegelein at his word. He used the term reconnaissance, a military term for a look around. I think Fegelein wanted to test whether a small convoy of unarmored vehicles could safely drive from the Reich Chancellery to his mistress’s apartment. Why? Well, it suggests Fegelein was planning to bring objects or perhaps people from the Reich Chancellery to the apartment.
Seems to me that Fegelein, an experienced military officer, was making sure his plan, wh@tever that may have been, was still feasible in the rapidly changing situation in central Berlin at the time. Of course, I’m open to suggestions. It certainly is a bit of a head scratcher. There was also another interesting angle to this conversation between Kempka and Fegelein.
Fegelein had also said that at 10:00 p.m. that night, he wished to rendezvous with Kempka at the Reich Chancellery, where he’d hand him a briefcase. This briefcase, according to Fegelein, contained extremely important documents belonging to Himmler and himself, which must under no circumstances fall into enemy hands.
Fegelein was calling in a personal favor with Kempka, who he knew well. Kempka had agreed to meet Fegelein at 10:00 p.m. that night, but as we will see, events turned out quite differently. So, on the 27th of April, 1945, Rattenhuber dispatched a four man squad to drive in a Kübelwagen jeep to the apartment of Fegelein’s girlfriend and speak to Fegelein.
If you recall from episode one, Rattenhuber had obtained the street address for the apartment after Hitler’s adjutant, Günther, had informed him of the telephone number. This detail was commanded by SS Hauptsturmführer Helmut Frick of the FBK, the Führerbegleitkommando, one of Hitler’s three bodyguard units. So, here is a problem with the oft told story of Fegelein’s demise.
Frick had neither the rank nor the authority to arr.est Fegelein. Frick was a captain and Fegelein was a lieutenant general. His orders were, however, to persuade Fegelein to accompany him voluntarily to the Führerbunker. Frick’s squad faced a d4ngerous journey through w4r torn Berlin. It took them over an hour to travel the four miles to Fegelein’s girlfriend’s apartment.
One of Frick’s party was even wounded when the riot over. On arrival, Frick knocked politely on the door. Fegelein answered it, and he was not in uniform, was unshaven, and evidently very drunk, and in the company of an unidentified young woman. During the conversation that followed, Frick recalled that Fegelein even tried to get Frick to desert.
After 30 minutes of attempting to reason with Fegelein, Frick gave up and drove back to the Reich Chancellery. He reported to General Rattenhuber, but Hitler’s extraordinarily powerful and much feared private secretary and party minister, Martin Bormann, interjected. Bormann gave Rattenhuber a dressing down for having sent such a junior officer on the mission.
Rattenhuber now ordered his RSD deputy, Obersturmbannführer or Lieutenant Colonel Hergel, to take five men and travel this time in an armored half track. Again, Hergel didn’t have the rank or the authority to arr.est Fegelein, as is so often reported in the history books and programs. Rather, it was another attempt, though more forceful this time, to compel Fegelein’s agreement to return with them to the Führerbunker.
An hour later, and Hergel’s party of RSD men arrived at Fegelein’s apartment. But for some reason, Hergel, also a former police officer, failed to have his men surround the building, and instead, Hergel’s men simply broke down the apartment door and marched peremptorily inside. They discovered Fegelein at that moment helping the unidentified woman to pack a small leather suitcase on a round table, and Fegelein rounded angrily on Hergel, complaining of the manner in which he and his men had entered the apartment.
Still drunk, Fegelein had nonetheless offered Hergel and his men drinks, and the last anyone saw of the woman was her carrying a tray of dirty gla.sses into the kitchen. Fegelein agreed to accompany Hergel to the Führerbunker, but when Hergel went into the kitchen to talk to the woman, the window was open, and the woman was gone.
She had evidently departed down the fire escape. Fegelein was by this time dressed in his SS uniform and had also shaved, and Hergel took charge of the woman’s suitcase. Once again, this story doesn’t make any sense from the angle of Fegelein being reportedly drunk by the witnesses. When Fegelein visited the Reich Chancellery garage earlier in the day, he was noted by Kempka to be in full uniform, and there was no mention of any inebriation.
When Frick visited the apartment shortly afterw4rds, he described Fegelein as very drunk, unshaven, and not in uniform. When Hergel visited some two hours later, he noticed that Fegelein was in uniform, clean shaven, but very drunk. Why would someone who is very drunk take it upon themselves to shave and dress in their uniform? Surely they would just get more drunk and fall asleep.
Seems to me like Fegelein was playing up, being very drunk in order to get rid of Frick, and he tried the same thing with Hergl, who realized that it wasn’t going to wash a second time. On realizing that he must accompany Hergl to the Reich Chancellery, I’m sure Fegelein imbibed freely. After all, cognac was offered to the officers who visited him at the apartment.
Fegelein drinking probably out of fear for his future health or despair that his scheme had now foundered. Hergl briefly telephoned Rattenhuber from the apartment and updated him on what was happening. Events, however, were beginning to overtake Fegelein. His adjutant had turned back up at the Reich Chancellery and had been arr.ested and interrogated by the Gestapo.
The adjutant recounted that Fegelein had decided to send back the two vehicles and continue on foot tow4rds the apartment in the afternoon, as I recounted. He had accompanied Fegelein to the apartment, where he had witnessed Fegelein change out of uniform into civilian clothes, and Fegelein had apparently urged his adjutant to do likewise.
However, the adjutant had refused, believing that it was his duty to return to the Reich Chancellery in uniform. According to the adjutant, Fegelein’s plan was to stay put until, quote, the Russians had rolled past and then slip through their lines to join Himmler, in quote. The adjutant’s testimony had set alarm bells ringing in the Führerbunker.
It seemed likely that Fegelein was deserting. Hergl received a rather hot reception in the Führerbunker from Bormann, Rattenhuber, Günsche, Dr. Goebbels, the propaganda minister, and the greatly feared SS Gruppenführer Heinrich Müller, head of the Gestapo. Many people over the decades have pondered why Heinrich Müller was reportedly seen in the Führerbunker during the last days of German resistance.
He wasn’t a member of Hitler’s inner staff. It appears, however, that he had been called in on Hitler’s order to investigate information leaks. There seems to have been a mole in Führer headquarters. Bormann snatched the suitcase from Hergl and tipped the contents onto the map room table in the bunker. A wash bag was found to be stuffed full of precious jewels, including diamonds, rubies, opals, and some gold jewelry, and three gold watches, including one owned by Eva Braun that she had sent for repair.
There was also over 100,000 Reichsmarks and 3,000 Swiss francs in currency. Was this the reason why Fegelein had returned to Berlin on the 25th of April and been absent from his post for over 2 days? Had he been a.ssembling this mobile wealth? But much more serious were two pa.ssports. Both carried the same photograph of the woman seen by Hergl and Frick at the apartment.
However, the names on each of the pa.ssports were different, and most d@mning of all, one of the pa.ssports was British. It was obvious to the Nazis gathered around the table that they were looking at an escape kit. Bormann became very angry, shouting at Hergl that the woman was obviously an enemy agent, that she should have been arr.ested.
Bormann declared that Fegelein was a traitor. He had been sleeping with a British agent. He was the cause of the information leak at Führer headquarters. Bormann now ordered two squads of men to immediately return to Fegelein’s mistress’s apartment, led by General Müller, and secure the woman if she had returned.
The identity of this intriguing mystery woman and how Fegelein was dealt with by his SS colleagues will be the subject of episode 3. So, tune in next time for more fascinating reveals and historical revelations in the curious case of Hermann Fegelein. At the conclusion of episode 2, Martin Bormann had discovered an escape kit put together by Fegelein’s mysterious mistress, who had managed to escape arr.est when Fegelein had been brought back to the Chancellery.
A British pa.ssport had been found amongst the jewels and cash. Gestapo chief Heinrich Müller had been sent back to Fegelein’s mistress’s apartment to arr.est the woman if she had returned. In the meantime, Fegelein was arraigned before a court martial chaired by SS Brigadeführer Wilhelm Mohnke, who was commanding the inner city defense sector.
However, Hitler had, according to Wilhelm Mohnke, got around that technicality by already reducing Fegelein to the rank of private. “That action, in my book, was illegal,” said Mohnke. Mohnke decided Fegelein deserved, nonetheless, to appear before high ranking officers. Mohnke presided over the court with Generals Burgdorf and Krebs and Rattenhuber.
The observers were Artur Axmann, the Hitler Youth leader, and Lieutenant Colonel Hergl of the RSD. The trial, however, never took place. The tribunal was set up in a room adjacent to Mohnke’s command post. A green baize cloth was draped over a table, behind which the president and the other members of the board sat.
Copies of the standard German army manual of courts martial were placed before them. Quote, “No sooner were we seated than defendant Fegelein began acting up in such an outrageous manner that the trial could not continue,” said Mohnke. He continued, “Very drunk, with rolling eyes, Fegelein first challenged the composition of the court, blubbed that he was only responsible to Himmler, not Hitler. He rejected defense counsel.
He refused to defend himself. He cried, whined, vomited in the corner of the room, and sh00k uncontrollably. He also, at one point, took out his penis and urinated on the floor. Fegelein actually tore off his own epaulets. So, it’s been reported that these parts of his uniform were torn off by angry members of the court martial to humiliate the former SS general, but in fact, he did it himself and threw them on the floor.
Quote, “He called us all a collection of German a.ssholes,” end quote. Knowing what we do of Fegelein’s activities between the 25th and 27th of April, and what witnesses said regarding his state of inebriation or lack of it at different times, I think this scene was just that, a scene. I think the histrionics were played up to ensure that Fegelein would not be judged at this time and possibly sentenced to de4th.
Fegelein knew how bad the military situation was by the evening of the 27th of April, with the Soviets f1ghting hard into the center of Berlin. He was probably buying time in the hope that the issue against him would be dropped as the Soviets approached the Reich Chancellery and people had more pressing matters to deal with.
And he was probably counting on the fact that as Eva Braun’s brother in law, the Führer may very well have been w4ry of allowing him to be k1lled. Whether my theory is the right one or not, the histrionics certainly worked as regards the court martial. Mohnke faced a dilemma. All the evidence showed that Fegelein was a deserter.
In all armies, including the United States and British armies, the punishment for such actions is clear and severe. Hitler was very angry about Fegelein’s inability to tolerate what ordinary sold1ers were tolerating in the Battle of Berlin. But the manual clearly showed that a man had to be of sound mind and body to stand trial, to hear evidence against him, and understand his own defense.
Mohnke consulted with the other judges and adjourned and then dismissed the court. Fegelein was handed over to Rattenhuber. “I never saw the man again,” said Mohnke. When Gestapo Müller arrived at the apartment, the woman was nowhere to be seen. On the way back to the Reich Chancellery, Müller went to Holy Trinity Church, which had been destr0yed in an air raid in 1943, where the crypt had been turned over to the Gestapo, and Fegelein was brought into it and interrogated until the afternoon of Saturday, the 28th of April.
The Gestapo probably would have been primarily interested in Fegelein’s mistress, now a suspected enemy agent. So, who was this mysterious woman? Several members of Hitler’s staff had met her. Günsche recalled that Fegelein’s mistress was, quote, “cla.ssier than most of his other women. I can remember only that she was good looking, tall, well groomed.
Her hair was blonde with a reddish tint. She was 30 ish. She spoke German with an accent and at least two or three other languages. I had heard she had a husband, some foreign diplomat conveniently out of town. Rochus Misch, the bunker switchboard operator, met her under more official circumstances. Misch thought she was Scottish and that she was married to an Hungarian.
General Mohnke also knew that the woman was foreign, but he thought Danish. Hitler’s pilot, SS General Hans Baur, conversely thought the woman was Irish. Fegelein introduced her around Hitler’s inner circle during 1944. Baur said that he was under the impression that she was Irish, but married to a Hungarian diplomat stationed in Berlin.
Fegelein had apparently met her via Dr. Goebbels. As the woman had been doing some translation work for Goebbels at Deutschlandsender, the propaganda radio station, working on the Germany Calling program, which was broadcast in English. Fegelein had apparently been introduced to the woman at the Goebbels villa at Schwanenwerder.
It has been speculated that this woman was a British agent who was supposed to seduce Goebbels, but later had switched her attentions to Fegelein, who was a better source of information about Hitler’s inner circle. Unlike Goebbels, Fegelein was a blabbermouth and a heavy drinker, basically the ideal target for a honey trap agent.
Confirmation of this woman’s existence and secret role came from Richard Crossman, the British Labour Party politician, but in World W4r II, part of the shadowy Political W4rfare Executive, where he headed the German section. PWE was in fact a psychological w4rfare department of the British Intelligence Services during the w4r.
In 1955, Crossman had told the author O’Donnell that the Political W4rfare Executive never had much to do with the woman, but her code name was Mata O’Hara, a joke playing on the name of real life World W4r I German spy Mata Hari and the Irish surname O’Hara. After some searching, I think there is a possible candidate for Mata O’Hara, a British woman who pretended to be Irish and posed as a radical Irish nationalist.
She had worked as a translator for Deutschlandsender in Dr. Goebbels’ department and was in Berlin when the Soviets @ttacked. Her name was Rosaleen James, but she often called herself Nora O’Mara or Rosaleen O’Mara, both eerily close to the joke code name Mata O’Hara. Coincidence? Perhaps. Rosaleen O’Mara also fits the physical descr.i.ption of that given by members of Hitler’s inner circle who met Fegelein’s mistress.
She also spoke German fluently, though with an accent. Crossman said that when British troops got to Berlin in July 1945, no trace of this female agent was found. He also added, quote, “The cream of the jest is that she was not English, she was Anglo Irish and very pro British.” End quote. Perhaps his comments were directed at Rosaleen James, who knows.
As for James, aka O’Mara, she turned up in Paris in the first week of June 1945 and was interrogated by MI5. Wanted for her traitorous work for the Germans, no charges were ever brought against James and the entire affair was quietly dropped, unlike with all the other British traitors who were investigated, some were prosecuted and even impr1soned or ex3cuted.
All this is, to say the least, strange. The theory that circulated in the 1960s was that Mata O’Hara needed a way out of Berlin in the last days and Fegelein also wanted to avoid capture by the Soviets or dying in the bunker. The two planned to leave together. The money, jewels and pa.ssports, all part of her escape kit.
And Fegelein still had considerable authority as Himmler’s man to move around. The Junkers Ju 52 sitting on the emergency airstr.i.p in the Tiergarten that was seen on the 28th of April may have been sent by Himmler to get his loyal subordinate out or perhaps Fegelein had ordered the pilot to return at a particular time and date to pick him up along with his girlfriend.
The distance from her apartment to the Tiergarten was about 1 mile. Any files relating to this woman’s mission at the heart of Hitler’s circle have never been released. And though Rosaleen James is a person of interest regarding the identity, nothing has been proved. We will probably never know her identity.
Tune in next time as Fegelein’s fate is deb4ted by Hitler himself. Who k1lls Fegelein and what became of his body? Or did he survive the w4r? And can we work out his possible escape plans and how Eva Braun may have fit into them? At the conclusion of episode 3, Hermann Fegelein, following hysterics at his court martial that had resulted in the proceedings being shut down, he had found himself handed over to SS Gruppenführer Heinrich Müller, the dreaded head of the Gestapo, and taken to Müller’s headquarters in the crypt of
the Holy Trinity Church in central Berlin, not far from the Reich Chancellery. Müller had specifically been asked by Hitler to find who had been leaking information from Führer headquarters. And with Fegelein’s apprehension and the discovery of his mistress’s escape kit, it seemed clear that Fegelein’s girlfriend was in fact an enemy agent, possibly British.
Fegelein must have known this information, for when he was surprised at his girlfriend’s Charlottenburg flat, he had been helping her to pack a case. And when that case’s contents were examined at the Führerbunker by Martin Bormann, they contained not only movable wealth in the form of jewelry, gold watches, cash and precious stones, but also a collection of road maps of Berlin and its environs and two pa.ssports, both carrying the photograph of Fegelein’s mistress, but each in different names, and one pa.ssport was British.
If you think that someone like Fegelein consorting with an Allied spy is rather far fetched, it wasn’t in fact the first time that he had done so. Shortly after the German invasion of Poland in 1939, a friend of Fegelein’s, a man named Albert Fa.ssbender, the heir to a chocolate maker’s fortune, had become romantically involved with a Polish woman called Jaroslava Miroska.
Miroska had previously been the mistress of a Jewish fur company owner in W4rsaw called Apfelbaum. He had fled W4rsaw ahead of the Germans, leaving his business in the hands of his non Jewish mistress, Miroska. It has emerged that Fegelein, at that time commanding the SS Cavalry Brigade, had worked in 1940 with Fa.ssbender and Miroska to bleed the company a.ssets until virtually nothing was left and then sold off the skeleton of the business, pocketing the proceeds.
He had also developed a sexual relationship with Miroska. Unfortunately for the conspirators, an SS judge charged with investigating corruption among SS officers in occupied Poland investigated their business dealings. However, Fegelein, who was close to Himmler, had previously introduced Miroska to the Reichsführer SS and he had personally intervened in the SS corruption investigation.
Himmler had in fact arranged for Miroska to be declared an ethnic German based on her looks. And when evidence emerged that Miroska was also an agent for the Polish underground, Himmler actually intervened on her behalf and had her released from the Gestapo in 1941. Himmler consistently protected and promoted Fegelein despite his questionable nature and doubtful company.
Returning to Berlin in April 1945, further evidence of Fegelein’s disloyalty was a suitcase recovered later by the Gestapo from Fegelein’s Reich Chancellery room that contained sensitive documents belonging to both Fegelein and his boss Himmler, apparently describing overtures to the Western Allies. This case Fegelein had said he would hand over to Hitler’s chief driver, Erich Kemp
ka, at 10:00 p.m. on the 27th of April 1945 at the Führerbunker, asking him to hide it for him. However, Kempka never had a chance to meet Fegelein, for when he was on his way to the Führerbunker just before 10:00 p.m., Fegelein was being escorted back to the Führerbunker from his girlfriend’s flat. There are various versions of what ultimately became of Fegelein.
According to Hitler’s adjutant, Major Otto Günsche, and Hitler’s valet, SS Obersturmbannführer or Lieutenant Colonel Heinz Linge, based on their interrogations by the NKVD Soviet secret police, Hitler had initially demoted Fegelein from general to the rank of private in the SS and ordered that he prove his loyalty by being transferred to a frontline combat unit in the city center.
Not unreasonably, considering what Fegelein had been up to at the apartment, both Major Günsche and Martin Bormann told Hitler that such a move would only result in Fegelein absconding again. If you remember Wilhelm Mohnke, commanding the inner city defense sector, had been very unhappy that Hitler had demoted Fegelein, believing it it was against the rules, and asked that Fegelein be placed before a court martial of his peers, which Hitler had reluctantly agreed to.
The court martial had, as we saw in a previous episode, become a farce, and by the 28th of April, Fegelein was in Gestapo custody. Hitler appears to have vacillated concerning Fegelein’s fate, which was understandable due to Fegelein being Eva Braun’s brother in law. The event, most historians agree, sealed Fegelein’s fate was the news of Himmler’s secret negotiations with the Western Allies behind Hitler’s back, which was revealed on purpose by the British, who leaked the information via the news agency Reuters, and then
repeated it on BBC radio on the afternoon of the 28th of April 1945, undoubtedly hoping to sow further dissension in the highest ranking circle that surrounded Hitler. When Hitler was informed of Himmler’s treachery, initially he did nothing. However, he was worked on by Martin Bormann and the propaganda minister Dr.
Goebbels, and eventually, after some hours, he was worked up into a rage, denouncing the Reichsführer SS and ordering his arr.est, orders which Bormann gleefully attempted to carry out by radio to Grand Admiral Dönitz’s headquarters in northern Germany, where Himmler had est4blished a final headquarters close by.
Though Dönitz chose not to follow such orders, fearful of a reaction by Himmler and his large bodyguard unit. A vengeful Hitler was able to strike at Himmler’s SS liaison man at Führer headquarters, the disgraced cow4rd Fegelein. According to one of Hitler’s secretaries, Traudl Junge, Hitler calmed down after a while and gave the order that Fegelein be sh0t.
Junge reported that Eva Braun’s eyes were red from weeping, as she had pleaded with Hitler to spare her brother in law, if only for the sake of her sister Gretl, who had just given birth to Fegelein’s daughter in Bavaria. Braun allegedly tried to excuse Fegelein’s behavior as a perfectly natural impulse of a man wishing to be reunited with his beloved wife and child.
Such a touching scene would have been somewhat more believable had Fegelein not been discovered attempting to flee Berlin in the company of his mistress. Many, including myself, believe that Fegelein’s relationship with Gretl was not a genuine love match. Rather, it was a way for the career minded Fegelein to increase his prestige at Führer headquarters and place himself closer to Hitler.
And Fegelein’s movements and activities since returning to Berlin on the 25th of April seem to have had little or no connection to his wife and child in southern Germany. So, Hitler retired to his rooms in the bunker for a lengthy discussion with Dr. Goebbels and Bormann on the subject of Fegelein. According to some witnesses, on emerging from the meeting, he ordered Fegelein to be brought before him, and according to historian Sir Ian Kershaw, {quote} subjected him to a fearsome verbal a.ssault {end quote}.
Another version has it that Fegelein, who was by now sober, demanded an aud1ence with Hitler, which was granted. In an attempt to defend himself, he believed actually he was being framed. However, Hitler would hear nothing of it. In fact, Hitler, it seems, had beg.un to believe that Reichsführer SS Himmler was plotting to have him a.ssa.ssinated.
This was not a groundless fear, as I’ve shown in previous videos about Himmler’s secret negotiations with the Western Allies, stretching all the way back to 1943. The British negotiators consistently demanded that Himmler must move against Hitler before Churchill would discuss ending the w4r, interpreted by most historians as the British deliberately trying to encourage Himmler to mount a coup d’état against the Führer, k1ll him, and take power for himself.
Hitler now ordered Fegelein to be summarily dealt with. Though most historians agree that Hitler ordered Fegelein’s execution on the afternoon of the 28th of April 1945, just 2 days before his own de4th, the actual circumstances of Fegelein’s execution are very murky, and the disposal of his body almost completely unknown.
According to Hitler’s secretary, Traudl Junge, Fegelein was marched into the gardens above the bunker, escorted by an RSD officer that I believe was Lieutenant Colonel Peter Högl, the second in command of Hitler’s bodyguard, and also an NCO of the rank of Scharführer, or sergeant, from the RSD. According to several witnesses, Fegelein was sh0t in the neck by the SS sergeant on the orders of Högl.
And according to Hitler’s secretary Junge, the execution took place close to the statue of a little girl under some blossoming trees in the garden of the Foreign Ministry, which is adjacent to the Reich Chancellery garden. Obviously, Junge did not witness the scene herself, but she heard about it soon afterw4rds on the bunker grapevine.
Another version of Fegelein’s execution has him sh0t in one of the basements of the Reich Chancellery. And a third, that he was sh0t in the crypt of Holy Trinity Church, where the Gestapo were interrogating him throughout the 28th of April. I think that these latter two ideas can be discounted because execution indoors was inadvisable.
Sh00ting someone to de4th in an enclosed subterranean room would have deafened the g.unmen, made a tremendous amount of mess all over the floor and walls, and been d4ngerous to the g.unmen from potential bull3t ricochet. The k1llers would then have to have laboriously hauled a bleeding corpse out of the cellar, up a flight of steps, and taken it outside to dump it.
It would have been far more economical to simply march Fegelein out into a garden space, and as I mentioned, the garden of the Foreign Ministry was immediately adjacent to the Führerbunker area, and could be accessed by another bunker exit at the rear of the Foreign Ministry building. Regardless of where exactly Fegelein was k1lled or the precise manner of his de4th, he was de@d by around 11:00 p.m.
on the 28th of April 1945, about 1 hour before Hitler married Eva Braun in the bunker. The identification of Obersturmbannführer Peter Högl, second in command of the RSD, as the man who sh0t Fegelein is interesting. Högl himself did not survive the end of the w4r. The identity of the sergeant who was with him, we don’t know.
But it’s interesting because Högl was one of those officers sent to collect Fegelein from the apartment in Charlottenburg, and was of course deeply suspicious of his motives and behavior. However, SS Sergeant Rochus Misch, the bunker switchboard operator, told historians that he knew who exactly sh0t Fegelein, but refused to divulge his name.
This suggests that whomever did it lived beyond the end of World W4r II, and was probably alive around the time Rochus Misch was making these allegations. If it was Högl who was k1lled in May 1945, why would Misch try to cover this fact up? Also, it would suggest that if two or three men took him out there, the senior man, the officer, would have ordered the execution, and an SS NCO would have actually carried out the dirty work.
As to what happened to Fegelein’s body, there are various unsubstantiated claims about that. One has his body falling into or being pushed into a sh3ll crater in the garden and quickly covered with earth. I find this highly unbelievable. The RSD who just k1lled Fegelein despised him for his cow4rdice and betr4yal of Hitler.
You think that such men were in any kind of mood to bother burying a man like Fegelein, particularly as the gardens of the Foreign Ministry and the Reich Chancellery were under sporadic Soviet sh3llfire. No one was going to risk their neck for that. Most likely, Fegelein’s body, if he was sh0t in any of these gardens, was left where it fell and later found and interred by German cleanup crews working under the supervision of the Red Army, interring rotting corpses from the Reich Chancellery area in ma.ss graves nearby.
Fegelein apparently went to his de4th wearing a uniform str.i.pped of insignia and decorations. Undoubtedly, his identity papers and dog tags were taken from him as well. His body was probably damaged later by artillery fire, as it would have laid outside for several days following the shooting. This is my supposition, not backed by any evidence other than the reported condition of other corpses found in the Reich Chancellery gardens after the b4ttle.
So, to conclude this story, did Fegelein have an escape plan, and what was it? Well, I believe he did, but of course, it’s very difficult to say with any certainty. He returned to Berlin from his final meeting with Himmler on the 25th of April 1945, flown back into the now encircled Berlin in a plane ordered for his use by the Reichsführer himself.
He went to his girlfriend’s secret apartment, and the two of them busied themselves over the next day and a half with gathering materials needed for their joint escape. These preparations also included Fegelein testing the route for a small convoy of soft skinned vehicles between the Reich Chancellery garage and close to the secret apartment.
We know Fegelein called Eva Braun at least twice during this period, begging her to leave the city with him. Was this the purpose of the vehicle test? To have convinced Braun to leave Hitler and the bunker and go with Fegelein and his mistress to safety, presumably to Himmler’s headquarters. Perhaps, but it may also have had something to do with the documents and the gold bars and other materials the Gestapo later found in Fegelein’s Reich Chancellery quarters.
If you recall, Fegelein specifically asked for two cars from the Reich Chancellery garage instead of one or three. Was car number one for himself and a driver and perhaps his less than convinced aide de camp and the second vehicle with driver for some baggage and a trunk from his quarters containing mobile wealth and some very sensitive documents that neither he nor Himmler wanted anyone to see.
The small convoy would drive from the Reich Chancellery garage to the apartment, a distance of about 4 mi, collect Fegelein’s mistress and her baggage, and then drive to the emergency airstr.i.p on the East West Axis in the Tiergarten, where Fegelein, his mistress, and his aide and the baggage would board the Junkers 52 we know was waiting there for some purpose, to fly perhaps northwest to safety at Himmler’s headquarters.
The documents would then be safe, shielding Himmler from discovery, or at least he thought, while he was continuing to try and ingratiate himself with the Western Allies. Fegelein’s mistress may be the key to this entire story. It seems that she was an enemy agent and that Fegelein was the person leaking information from Führer headquarters, wittingly or unwittingly.
I can’t help thinking that she was linked in some way with Himmler’s secret negotiations with the British. Perhaps she was Fegelein’s handler and in return for saving her from Berlin, some deal had been arranged for Fegelein by her masters. At this time, Himmler was being led up the garden path by British intelligence for its own nefarious reasons.
He had had intermittent contact with the British since at least 1943, and we know, of course, that British intelligence had been urging him to stage a coup against Hitler. We could draw up scenarios to explain Fegelein’s mysterious mistress in all this, but I firmly believe he returned to Berlin on Himmler’s instructions for two reasons: to collect documents and mobile wealth from his Reich Chancellery quarters and his mistress from her apartment.
These plans came to naught because he drew too much attention to himself from Hitler and the ever suspicious Martin Bormann at the bunker. I am open to any suggestions from viewers. The woman and the documents feel like the key to this story. But, of course, I can’t prove my suppositions. It’s based only on analysis of the available circumstantial evidence and a hunch on my part.
I think this series has shown that the de4th of Hermann Fegelein was far more complex and interesting than it’s often been portrayed in books and films. There is still a deep mystery surrounding it over 80 years after Fegelein was ex3cuted. Many thanks for watching. Please subscribe and share, and also visit my audiobook channel W4r Stories with Mark Felton.
You can also help to support both of my channels at PayPal and Patreon. Details in the descr.i.ption box below.
