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Hitller's Nurse Breaks Silence on His Final Days

By Jeralyn, Section Foreign Affairs
Posted on Sun May 01, 2005 at 11:27:15 PM EST
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After 60 years, Red Cross nurse Erna Flegal, who served in Hitler's bunker the last days before his suicide, and during the time that Magda Goebbels killed her six children, agreed to be interviewed by The Guardian.

The final paragraph of the Guardian interview leaves much to be desired. Ms. Flegel is evasive, hardly apologetic:

Guardian: Do you regret your role in the Third Reich? Or was this an exciting period for you?

Flegel: It's difficult when you have a society (the Nazis) and it's discussed afterwards by the left or the right. Often it's seen wrongly. Everyone has their own opinion.

Ms. Flegel is 93, has never married and resides in a nursing home in Germany. She is mobile and lucid. The only grudge she seems to harbor is against Eva Braun, whom she portrays as lacking in personality, importance and intelligence, almost as the Guardian notes, as no more than a groupie.

Her admiration for Magda Goebels, expressed in the CIA interview, is perverse:

She was far superior to the average human being. It took a resolute spirit to decide to sacrifice her own children.

Update: Dachau was liberated 60 years ago this week.

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    Hitller's Nurse Breaks Silence on His Final Days | 17 comments (17 topical)
    Re: Hitller's Nurse Breaks Silence on His Final Da (none / 0) (#12)
    by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:52:54 PM EST
    roy...the violence in Iraq these days is from an element that we don't have any answer for and that didn't even exist under Saddam. So the comparison to Germany seems quite a stretch. Recall that the first attempt at "pacificying" Fallujah ended with Saddam's old guard being given a chance at governing. That didn't work to our satisfaction so we had to level the place. Which just meant the guerilla's base of operations shifted elsewhere. To me this seems a lot less similar to post-WWII Germany than it is to our efforts in "Indo-China". I don't see a rosy outcome here no matter what we prescribe politically. And you should easily have seen this coming, but Fox News kept saying that they would all greet us with flowers. You have to try getting your news from more diverse sources than Roger Ailes and company.

    Re: Hitller's Nurse Breaks Silence on His Final Da (none / 0) (#13)
    by Mreddieb on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:52:55 PM EST
    Adept "The Left gave the world Koba, Lenin, and Mao" Wrong! Dead wrong The left gave us FDR,TRUMAN,JFK,Johnson,Carter, and Clinton and Social Security, Unemployment Ins, Welfare, medicare, medicaid. But most of all the left has been the strongest supporter of Democracy including dissent, freedom of speech and dignity for the common man! I'm proud of the left and refuse to let you attempt to put us in the same realm of Tyrants and despots!

    Re: Hitller's Nurse Breaks Silence on His Final Da (none / 0) (#14)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:53:03 PM EST
    Blaghdaddy.... BB would like to tell blaghdaddy that it's a moot point. The Russians got to Hitler first and he would have been their POW. Besides, nobody would ever stand for a deal that would grant him amnesty. It's a bunch of BS just like the news story about Saddam is now.

    Re: Hitller's Nurse Breaks Silence on His Final Da (none / 0) (#15)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:53:04 PM EST
    Don't get Blaghdaddy wrong- he's hoping and praying that the story has no legs...his sanity couldn't take it Saddam got a deal for anything a date with the hangman...and that's for what he did to his own people, forget what America's suffered through...you pick your fights, you take the punches, yeah?

    Re: Hitller's Nurse Breaks Silence on His Final Da (none / 0) (#16)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:53:04 PM EST
    Anything BUT a date, that is....

    Re: Hitller's Nurse Breaks Silence on His Final Da (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:38 PM EST
    Blaghdaddy wonders if Bush would have offered Hitler amnesty, if Hitler had agreed to denounce the Nazi's....anyone else think this current government is something far worse than incompetent?

    Re: Hitller's Nurse Breaks Silence on His Final Da (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:39 PM EST
    I doubt it Blagh. Then again, we treated de-nazification in postwar germany about like we treated de-baathification in post-Bush jr. iraq. In other words, we ignored it for most of the population (excepting only some of the most blatant offenders) once we realized it would be a lot more difficult and expensive to do it that way. Nice to know we stand on principle! Unless it might affect the costs..poll numbers...etc.

    Re: Hitller's Nurse Breaks Silence on His Final Da (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:39 PM EST
    You're right on point, Adept-One... Remember the Nazi's came from the right...small leap from "strong leader" to "dictator.." ask the Repugs...

    Re: Hitller's Nurse Breaks Silence on His Final Da (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:39 PM EST
    True enogh Blagh... The Right gave the world Il Duce and Der Furher. The Left gave the world Koba, Lenin, and Mao. No wonder I can't stand extremists.

    Re: Hitller's Nurse Breaks Silence on His Final Da (none / 0) (#5)
    by roy on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:39 PM EST
    Adept_Havelock, if you're comparing post-war Germany to post-war Iraq, I find that encouraging. Germany is a rather nice place these days. I hope Iraq's reconstruction goes that well over the next fifty years. Don't forget to compare East and West Germany during the times they were split, to see the value of imposing democracy. Which was a nicer place?

    Re: Hitller's Nurse Breaks Silence on His Final Da (none / 0) (#6)
    by Dadler on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:39 PM EST
    Adept, I'm no fan of brutal tyrants either, which I hope would stand for all of us, but trying to label Stalin and Mao as leftist, when they were radically opposed to any kind of protest, democratic change, etc., doesn't fit. Stalin and Mao were all about their own status quo, no more no less. That is wholly conservative by definition. Power makes most people conservative, for the simple reason that genuine liberalism means you are always practicing self-criticism and always striving for progressive development. now, mao and stalin came out of political movements that were leftist/liberal because they were attemtping to change a horrible status quo. but in no way, shape or form could they possibly be considered liberal people. they were sociopathic, egomaniacal, but certainly not libs. liberalis, meaning "of or pertaining to a free person".

    Re: Hitller's Nurse Breaks Silence on His Final Da (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:39 PM EST
    Amen! Tyrants can't be liberals by the very meaning of the word. Excellent point! However, where is the line drawn between strong leadership and totalitarianism? Ask Rove...he wrote the book on how to blur it...

    Re: Hitller's Nurse Breaks Silence on His Final Da (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:39 PM EST
    Actually Roy, it's you who inferred my comparison of post-war Iraq and Germany, in an effort to score on some GOP talking point, I'm sure. Looking above, It seems pretty clear to me that the comparison was between the similarity in our attitudes towards Be-baathification and de-nazification, once we realized it might be a bit more politically expedient to ignore these supposedly all-important policies. I do believe that's the only comparison I made between the two. Rereading my post, yep, that's it. You go right on ahead trying to put words in other peoples mouth though.

    Re: Hitller's Nurse Breaks Silence on His Final Da (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:39 PM EST
    Blagh and Dadler, you raise a good point. I should have stated that either political extreme is capable of producing horrible individuals... Which is why I am a centrist. Can't really recall the last totalitarian movement to come out of the political middle.

    Re: Hitller's Nurse Breaks Silence on His Final Da (none / 0) (#10)
    by roy on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:39 PM EST
    Adept_Havelock, I didn't mean to put words in your mouth. I can see how my post could be read that way. You claimed a limited similarity between reconstruction efforts in Germany and Iraq. In my opinion, I think that, from my perspective, similarity is a good sign, because overall the German reconstruction produced a good result. That good result suggests to me that de-Nazification wasn't strictly necessary. So maybe de-Baathification isn't strictly necessary either. My point about East and West Germany was also only my own.

    Re: Hitller's Nurse Breaks Silence on His Final Da (none / 0) (#11)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:39 PM EST
    just waiting for the history channel special on this...

    Re: Hitller's Nurse Breaks Silence on His Final Da (none / 0) (#17)
    by DawesFred60 on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:42 PM EST
    Just like to say, to bad that rat didn't kill himself in 1918, after the 1st world war, as far as she goes to bad the reds didn't kill her, i really hate hitler, that pig got way to many little kids killed, and old people murdered, and not only in death camps but all over the world. i am happy that my father and his brothers help to put that rat in hell. do any of you really know what hitler did do to so many people? really did to people? and i am not writing about the band of borthers show but what his people did? and what his people were going to do to you or your fathers and mothers or your grandfathers?..mad as hell now just thinking about that little rat. 3.7 million kids under the age of 12, killed because of his insane non ideals.

    Hitller's Nurse Breaks Silence on His Final Days | 17 comments (17 topical)