How Adolf Hitler’s bodyguard described the evil dictator as ‘a good boss’ and revealed all about the Fuhrer’s gory suicide
Rochus Misch's private photo collection shows Nazi top brass joking, smiling as they relax at Hitler's Alpine lair
THE moment Hitler's personal bodyguard saw the Nazi leader's body after his suicide has been described in a graphic new book.
The Fuhrer's protector Rochus Misch was the first to see Hitler and lover Eva Braun after they shot themselves in a Berlin bunker with Soviet troops just yards away.
He was also the last surviving witness to the evil dictator's demise until his own death aged 96 in 2013.
Now, Hitler's Last Witness shines a light on the relationship between Misch and his tyrannical boss.
In the book, published in English for the first time, Nazi Misch said: "My glance fell first on Eva.
"She was seated with her legs drawn up, her head inclined towards Hitler.
"Her shoes were under the sofa. Near her … the dead Hitler. His eyes were open and staring, his head had fallen forward slightly."
The account also provides an intimate look inside the top ranks of the Nazi party.
Top brass are pictured laughing and joking at Hitler's Alpine Berghof retreat where he spent much of his time as the war progressed.
The same men inflicted the most destructive war in history, killing millions around the globe.
And the behind-closed-doors moments of its chief architect are shown in the intimate shots.
Yet to his dying day Misch insisted the Fuhrer was a "friendly, nice man".
most read in news
In one picture Hitler sits stony faced as he watches the cameraman sat opposite on a train towards his Berchtesgaden retreat.
On that same train his bodyguard Misch sits laughing with a fellow SS officer a few rows back.
His relationship with the Nazi leader would last until he shot himself inside his Berlin bunker with Soviet troops only hundreds of yards away.
Indeed it would be Misch who would first see the dead body of Hitler and his lover Eva Braun following their joint suicide.
Misch was a messenger and telephone operator in the Fuhrer’s bunker from 1940 until the end of the war in May 1945.
He was in the next room when Hitler shot himself along with his wife Braun, and saw the couple’s bodies.
The unapologetic Nazi earlier described how he feared his fledgling career was over after he spied Braun in "a flimsy nightie".
Misch fled the bunker but was captured by Soviet troops, tortured and sent to a Labour camp for nine years.
He returned to Germany and led a quiet life running a decorating supplies shop until he retired in 1985.
But until the end of his life the former SS staff sergeant remained proud of his days spent at Hitler’s side and spoke warmly of the tyrant as a “normal man”.
He died aged 96 in 2013.
Misch was picked to be one of Hitler’s personal bodyguards and general assistants after being wounded in battle in Poland in 1940.
In his last interview in 2011 he told how he went “ice cold” with terror before meeting the Fuhrer for the first time.
But he said: “He was not a monster or a superhuman. He stood across from me like a completely normal man.”
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368