In “HITLER’S COURT”, author Heike Gortemaker asks probing questions all WWII buffs havebeen asking for decades, “Who did Der Fuhrer include in his inner circle, not on the periphery ofit, but the dead center of it? Will on-lookers ever be privy to the truth about that circle withoutHitler? And, what became of the survivors? Who post-WWII survived and did not survive theSoviet prison camps? Did the “court” serve and fulfill any real function for either the ‘chief’ orthe nation, especially during its death throe? How long after 1945 did the survivors remain incontact with each other, and from where? How did the clique influence the world’s perceptionof WWII, or German history in general, after 1945? Heike explores Hitler’s private domain, hisenvironment, and its milieu, illustrating how those at the deepest layer nearest his mindcontributed to his thinking and decision making.Historians often wrote that Hitler had no private life, that he was an uprooted man without a
home or family, and, if you subtracted politics, nothing remained since he was essentially an
‘empty’ man, that even the woman he chose to be intimate with was more fulfilled. “Wrong!”,author Gortemaker argues. Hitler’s inner circle, the so-called “Berghof Society”, was his privateretreat. And it was even more than just a sanctuary. It provided him with the emotional andpsychological support and reinforcement he needed to be able to take on the role of Fuhrer,while at the same time allowing him to use its members as political front men. Most of all, itrepresented a conspiratorial community whose lowest common denominator was anti-Semitism. There is no question this is one of the most important books to allow historians, andthe curious in general, to peek into a world absolutely unbreachable.“I WAS HITLER’s PILOT – The Memoirs of Hans Baur” is not only a treasure trove of insight,but also perhaps one of the three best reminiscences by a Fuhrer loyalist providing obscurepersonal information unavailable Of course, no one had been in a better position toassassinate Hitler, then fly to London. A decorated WWI pilot, Baur was one of the best Germancommercial pilots of the 1920s. Hitler needed him as a personal pilot and since Baur was insympathy with National Socialist beliefs he signed on during Hitler’s election campaign in 1932.Thus, the special significance of diary-memoir. Hitler was always relaxed in Baur’s company,talking opening (highly unusual) about plans, opinions, gossip about friends and allies. Inaddition, he was present during some of the salient moments of the Third Reich’s traumas, i.e.,the Rohm Putsch, the advent of Eva Braun, von Ribbentrop’s journey to Moscow, and theattempt on Hitler’s life in the Burgerbraukeller in Munich. When the invasion of Poland inSeptember of 1939, it was Baur who flew Hitler from one front to another.Baur remained a loyal personal pilot right up the Fuhrer’s suicide on April 30 th , 1945. Hitlerspoke to him just prior to his suicide in the Fuhrerbunker, and Magda Goebbels in the tortuousmoments before she killed her six children. The man truly loved Hitler, and most certainlywould have sacrificed his life for him, if necessary. Both Heike Gortemaker and Hans Baur offerreaders extraordinary reads, each book placing us within the core of Hitler’s life.READERS: this reviewer would be terribly negligent to his WWII buffs if he did not HIGHLYRECOMMEND streaming on the Netflix Official Site for a superb suspense series entitled,“Jaguar”, in Spanish with English subtitles. In his opinion, it is one of the best WWII stories hehas ever watched. After watching the 6 th episode last night, Season 1, he is ready to leave hiscat, Lexi, with friends, and join the group. A hard series to watch, but, again, lest we forget, wemust. In the 1960s, a beautiful young holocaust survivor joins a group of self-trained Spanishand Jewish death camp survivors in tracking down Nazi war criminals, wanton murderers inAuschwitz, Buchenwald, Treblinka, Sachsenhausen, Mauthausen, etc. The web series is set inthe 1960s in Spain and follows a group of seven as they track two extermination camp massmurderers. Fast-paced and action-based, it is certain to please. Don’t miss it for the world,
buffs, or I’ll be mad.
