Rochus Mish is a soldier who belonged to the personal guard of Adolf Hitler. It was he who witnessed the death of the Fuhrer and his wife. The young 27-year-old SS officer knew the whole truth about the terrible events that occurred in the concrete crypt of the bunker in May 1945. What was the reason that this particular person spent about 5 five years next to the head of the Third Reich? And how is he witnessed his suicide on April 30, 1945? We will try to find answers in this article.
Rochus Mish: curriculum vitae
About the life of this man before his meeting with Hitler, not so much information was preserved. It is known that he became an orphan early. Rohus's parents died when he was about 3 years old: his father died after being wounded in the First World War, his mother died of pneumonia.
The boy was lucky, he was brought up by a compassionate grandmother and aunt through his mother. Rochus was a student in a public school, from childhood he showed a talent for drawing, so it is not surprising that, having matured, he began to earn his living with this craft.
It is known that the hero of our story was married and had a daughter. Over time, the daughter of Rohus became famous for being an active defender of the Jewish population. Researchers on the life of Rochus Misha claim that his wife, and therefore his daughter, were Jews. However, Mish never acknowledged this fact.
Military career
In the ranks of the "Waffen-SS" Rochus Mish voluntarily joined in 1937. It should be noted that the soldiers who entered the service in these troops were trained as Hitler's personal bodyguards.
He was an active participant in the capture of the Sudetenland when the
Munich Agreement was adopted
. During the Polish campaign, Mish suffered: he was seriously wounded in the arm and lung. This served as the fact that soon the young soldier received an award - the Iron Cross of class II. Also, this wound helped him to further advance the career ladder. Mish was in the army, whose soldiers formed a detachment of personal bodyguards at the top of the Third Reich and were exempted from service on the front line.
First meeting with the Fuhrer
This meeting became known from the words of Rohus himself. He said that this meeting took place under strange circumstances, because the young soldier worked only two weeks in his new position before getting into Hitler's field of vision.
But it all happened like this: Rochus summoned Bruckner, who was the senior adjutant of the Fuhrer, and began to ask everything about his family tree. When the conversation was over, Bruckner headed for the exit, and Rochus Mish, as befitting a soldier, saluting, opened the door. Behind the door was Hitler. The meeting impressed the young man very much and remained in his memory for a lifetime as an exciting event.
Later, Rochus said that 6 bodyguards always surrounded Hitler on business trips or meetings. The work of two of the six was in answering phone calls.
How Rochus got into the bunker
At the very beginning of Hitler’s personal bodyguard career, Rochus traveled a lot with the guarded object. He often had to fulfill the petty orders of the Führer: to be both a telephone operator and a courier.
After the Ardennes operation, on January 16, 1945, when the forces of the German troops were defeated and defeated, the entire personnel of the head of the Third Reich was transferred to the bunker. Among those who got there was a young officer Misha.
Until the end of the war, none of Hitler’s personal guards left the bunker anymore.
Work in the bunker
What happened in the bunker is known only from the words of Rohus. He said that a huge number of telegrams and dispatches passed through his hands, he witnessed various important conversations. But this man claims that he simply did his job without delving into the essence of what was happening. Therefore, the last witness, Rochus Mish, gives almost no information about how the last days of Hitler passed.
Rochus claims that he did not pay attention to what was in the telegrams at all, did not remember what important telephone calls were about. He did not ask anything, but simply worked. Moreover, this person speaks of Hitler as a polite boss. Moreover, he does not even consider him guilty, he simply treats Hitler as an ordinary boss.
The end of the war: Hitler's death
It is known that Hitler and his wife, Eva Braun, committed the suicide act on April 30, 1945. It was Mish who was the one who found the bodies of the dead.
This death was followed by the next suicide - it was Goebbels. The last bodyguard of Hitler, Rochus Mish, also witnessed this death.
This man went down in history as one of the last survivors of the bunker.
Only on May 2, the bodyguard tried to escape from the bunker. The escape occurred a few hours before the arrival of Soviet soldiers.
However, he did not hide for long and was soon captured.
The prisoner Rochus was sent directly to the Lubyanka. There the man was tortured, trying to get important information about Hitler. In the end, he was sent to one of the Soviet concentration camps for a period of 9 years.
Life after a concentration camp
Released after 9 years, Rochus returned to Berlin again. The soldier’s house was only 3 kilometers from the ill-fated bunker, where he continued his life.
After the conclusion, Rochus Mish found it difficult to adapt to life. For some time he was an ordinary auxiliary worker. Since the war, he had his own connections, and this helped Rohus to find a better job. He became the owner of the wallpaper and paint business and the owner of a paint shop. His affairs got better.
A calm, measured life gave rise to writing memoirs, thanks to which the author's biography and books became popular. Mish Rochus had a writing talent.
Rochus's book that brought popularity
Mish began to discover the truth about his role in Hitler’s life recently. Only in 2006, French journalists published an article on the pages of their newspapers based on conversations with Rochus. This work was called "I was Hitler's bodyguard." The article was published in March.
In April of the same year, a documentary project entitled “The Last Witness - Rochus Miesch” was filmed in Germany. Interest in him does not fade until now.
The book "The Last Witness" was published later in 2008. The basis of this book was a whole series of interviews that the author gave to a journalist from France - Nicolas Bursier. The journalist said that Rohus had a whole box of shoes, in which were stored photographs of Hitler, his wife and even a dog. Also, the old man saved a lot of letters.
Rochus's popularity skyrocketed. They were looking for his phone number; calls did not subside at any time. He was hunted by journalists and everyone interested in the history of World War II. Such a fame was pleasant to the old man, because before his last name was one of the last in the lists of specialized military literature. And here is such general attention!
The book immediately became popular. It has been translated into several languages ​​and published in Bulgaria, Poland, Argentina, Spain, Japan, Ukraine, Turkey.
The book “The Last Witness” (Misha Rochus) is the memory of a simple bodyguard, a living witness of the terrible events of World War II, who saw the greatness and collapse of the Third Reich.
Rohus himself, as a well-known historical figure, is recalled in some films about the Second World War. This tape "Bunker" and "Last battle". However, the witness of Hitler's death himself claimed that the presentation of his image in these films is not too true and even distorted.
The author of the book “The Last Witness” passed away on September 5, 2013. There are no more living witnesses to the death of the most cruel dictator of the Third Reich.