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Rochus Misch


mr bridger

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That's a shame, hopefully he will see the film which should be pretty good.

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Truly the end of an era when he goes.With every passing veteran this period in history becomes evermore distant and lost to us.

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  • 4 years later...

I was pleasantly surprised to see some mention of Rochus Misch. Unfortunately, he died about two years ago at the age of 96. He was a very nice charakter, has been on TV-interviews many times, he was always very modest, very gentlemanly, and never said a bad word about his "Chef", the Führer. For all those involved in his environment, everyone refered to the Führer as "der Chef". He came from an old catholic family in the Spreewald district, and joined the "Leibstandarte" as a young nco candidate, and being very tall, he was enlisted in this unit in Berlin-Charlottenburg, where his father's Guards Regiment had been before WW1. He was seriously wounded at the beginning of the Polish campaign, when he was sent with a white flag to negociate the surrender of a Polish fortress, after which, and still carrying the white flag, was shot in the back, which was a lung penetration. After recovering, he was no longer considered fit for frontline duties and was transferred to "Führerhauptquartier”, and accompanied Hitler all the way till the end. He was mainly involved as a telephonist and teletype operator, driver and some guard duties, and even small errands, such as delivering flower bouquets! He was captured by the Russians after leaving the bunker as the “second last man”. He suffered great ordeals in Soviet captivity, and was immediately delivered into Moscow Lubjanka Prison, an infamous address. He was released in 1955 and returned to his wife in West Berlin, where he later started up a small retail business for paints and decorating. He was recruited by the American CIA during the Kennedy visit to West Berlin in 1963 to keep an eye on the route taken by the US President. The CIA had their “lists” of all usefull and usable ex “Nazis”. Of course, Misch was never a Nazi, never in the party, He was a soldier. He reached the rank of Oberscharfüher, mostly he is depicted in the uniform of an Unterscharführer, He had following decorations: Iron Cross 2nd.class, Black wound badge, Sudetenland Medal, and the Sports Badge in Bronze.

In the year 2009 his Autobiography appeared (he had wirtten it with help of several journalists) and was a bestseller, with several new editions; “Der Letzte Zeuge” published by Piper Verlag in Munich, ISBN 978-3-492-257755-0, more under www.piper.de - very recommendable

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Further to my comments on Rochus Misch, I forgot to mention, that whilst living in Berlin-Friedrichshain in the years 2000 – 2003, I got to know the nephew of Rochus Misch, who lives in West Berlin. I later asked him if he was related to Rochus Misch, which he admitted with a wry grin. I didn't like to ask him much more at the time, as those are very touchy topics in postwar Germany, even till today. His nephew is a freelance tax adviisor and also helps out in schools, using his knowledge of taxation law in federal Germany, a very complicated and dry topic, I must say. He is however, a very cheerfull charakter with a lively sense of humor, as with many Berliners.

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  • 1 year later...

Here is the autobiography of Rochus Misch, 1917-2013, first impression appeared 2008/9, PIPER Taschenbücher, Munich, ca. 11 Euros.

Well worth reading. Here you can find out all about Hitler's end. Not sure if this has been published in English.

post-173-0-83578100-1487405617_thumb.jpg

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  • 4 years later...

 

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