Is there any person still alive who actually knew Adolf Hitler? The
reason I ask this is because with the recent death of Leni
Reifenstahl, I believe she was the last living person to be personally
acquainted with Hitler. I could be wrong. So, the question is who is
still living who has personal recollections of knowing Hitler. Thanks.
-- Stephen

Hello braitman,

Wolfgang Wagner, director of the Bayreuther Festspiele (Bayreuth
Festival), knew Hitler as a young man.  Wolfgang and his brother
Wieland (now deceased) are shown with Hitler on the cover of Twilight
of the Wagners, written by Wolfgang's son Gottfried.  The book notes,
among other things, that Hitler was considered their "Uncle Wolf".

"Twilight of the Wagners : The Unveiling of a Family's Legacy by Gottfried Wagner"
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0312264046/qid=1083726526/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-1490092-5194430?v=glance&s=books

"Wolfgang Wagner" [unfortunately, this page is not available in
English -- but the point is that he is alive!]
Bayreuther Festspiele
http://www.bayreuther-festspiele.de/Anfangsseite/Deutsch.htm

Presumably his sister Verena (born 1920) knew Hitler as well.  It
appears that she is still alive.

Search results for wieland friedelind wolfgang 1919 verena 1920 wagner
Google
://www.google.com/search?q=wieland+friedelind+wolfgang+1919+verena+1920+wagner&num=30&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&filter=0

- justaskscott


Search strategy:

I had read about this book already; I searched on Google for:

"twilight of the wagners"
wagner wolfgang wieland
bayreuth wagner

I also browsed the Bayreuther Festspiele web site.

---

Clarification of Answer by justaskscott-ga on 05 May 2004 08:52 PDT

Incidentally, I hope that people do not think badly of Wolfgang Wagner
and the Bayreuther Festspiele because of the mere fact that Herr
Wagner knew Hitler.  They should consider Gottfried Wagner's book and
critiques or criticisms thereof before coming to any conclusions. 
Perhaps the conclusion will be negative, and perhaps not, but it would
be better, I think, than guilt by association alone.

Lady Diana Mosley also died very recently.

She was the former Diana Guiness (nee Mitford) who married the British
Fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley in 1936. They got married in Josef
Goebbels' home and Adolf was among the guests.

She and her sister Unity were VERY chummy with Hitler.

I also heard recently of a British Foreign Office official (who is
still alive)who went to see Hitler before the war, possibly with Lord
Halifax.

According to this guy, Hilter broke off in the middle of one of his
monologues during a meeting to enquire 'Why have you got such
marvellous green lawns in England?'

Or words to that effect.

If you are interested, I'll see if I can find out more.

I believe that Reinhard Spitzy is still alive; at any rate, a Google
search for him failed to turn up any obituaries. He is (probably) the
last surviving witness of the Hendaye meeting between Hitler and
Franco. He was also secretary to Ribbentrop and, later to Prince Max
Hohenlohe. Spitzy claims to have been involved in various attempts to
broker a separate peace with Britain.

You may want to check out the recent documentary "Blind Spot: Hitler?s
Secretary."  Unfortunately, the subject of the movie, Traudl Junge,
died soon after the movie premired in 2002.

imdb.com's page for Blind Spot:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0311320/

Gunter d'Alquen - Deceased, May 1998
Lida Baarova (nee Lundwall) - October 2000
Traudl Junge - Deceased, February 2002
Otto Gunsche - Deceased, October 2003

For whatever it is worth.

"Unlikely Allies Bound by a Common Hatred"
...
By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, April 29, 2002; Page A13

"BERN, Switzerland -- A portrait of Adolf Hitler has long adorned the
study of Ahmed Huber, a 74-year-old Swiss convert to Islam who lives
outside this small capital city.
...
By his account, a group of aging SS officers and members of Hitler's
personal guard who meet every few weeks in the German state of Bavaria
for beer and conversation recently bestowed the title "honorary Prussian"
on bin Laden. They praised his "valiant fight" against the United States,
Huber said."

Like Leep-GA, my first thought was of Traudl Junge (because of the
movie).  Some other possibilities among staff that were young enough
to still be alive:
* Gerhardt Boldt, an Army captain and aide-de-camp to Guderian and
Krebs. He was pretty young at the time:
http://www.fpp.co.uk/books/Hitler/1977/html_chapter/44.html 

* Christa Schroeder, a stenographer for Hitler from 1933 to just before his death 

* Inge Haberzettel, a secretary of Goebbels 

* Erich Kempka, Hitler's chauffeur 

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

Christa Schroeder - Deceased, 1983
Gerda Christian (nee Daranowski) - Deceased, July 1997
Otto Kumm - Deceased, March 2004

Some candidates:

Gudrun Himmler (nee Burwitz) would be 75 and gave an interview in 1998.
Emil Klein
Rochus Misch

Thanks to everyone! Good work.