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"An insider view of Hitler's closest circles, providing an invaluable account of the final months of the war" (History of War). Erich Kempka served as Adolf Hitler's personal driver from 1934 through to the Führer's dramatic suicide in 1945. His candid memoirs offer a unique eyewitness account of events leading up to and during the war, culminating in those dark final days in the Führer's headquarters, deep under the shattered city of Berlin. He begins by describing his duties as a member of Hitler's personal staff in the years preceding the war, driving the Führer throughout Germany and abroad, and accompanying him to rallies. The crux of his memoir, however, covers his life with Hitler in the Berlin Führerbunker. Crucially, Kempka witnessed Hitler's marriage to Eva Braun and his last dinner and personal farewell to all those present, before he and his wife committed suicide. Hitler's final order to Kempka was that he have ready enough petrol to burn him and his wife. Under constant Soviet artillery fire, Kempka, Linge, and others poured petrol over the bodies and burnt them. The account concludes with Kempka's hazardous escape out of a burning Berlin more than 800 kilometers through Allied-occupied Germany, his arrest, and interrogation before being sent to serve as a witness at Nuremburg. … (more)
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Hitler employed Kempka in 1934 as his personal chauffeur. From then until the wars end the two very interlinked, with Kempka being at Hitler's side until the end of the war. Far from what you would expect we find a much kinder side to the Fuhrer than we
It also dispels any myths that Hitler was not a hands on leader, as Kempka describes is details how he used to visit the front line in order to see for himself the conditions.
As others have said the memoirs are actually only around half of the book, the other being made up of a number of appendix detailing further account of Hitler in the war.
A really interesting read and easily recommendable.