I came across this on a forum and I thought it would be a useful addition to the thread. I translated it from the original which can be found here:
w ww.gedenktafel-infoportal.de
Do you remember these ladies at all Tony?
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For the last three years of his life the former Reich Youth leader was cared for by the sisters Ida and Käthe Müllen who owned a hotel and a vineyard in Kröv on the Mosel. Käthe tells the following story (transcribed from a taped conversation with Jochen Klicker):
'I know what happened. Baldur was a very nice and pleasant person. If we made cheap jokes in the bar Baldur would say 'Käthe!' Oh come on I would say, we're just having a laugh. You should join in. We cheered him up and he liked that.
The last time Dr Speer came to visit he said 'he's depressed'. He was depressed. He was still deeply attached to the youth. Whenever he was asked he would say 'yes, the youth'... the youth of today is no better or worse than back then. They're just not being raised properly'. And then he told me how he flew from Vienna to Berlin and pleaded with Hitler: 'my Führer, do all you can to achieve peace. Please, do all you can. Yes, you can see the Greater German Reich on the map but America and Russia are world powers! My Führer, we'll never win the war'. Apparently the Führer said 'You and your american mother....'. Baldur was greatly affected by this. He also said 'if I had still been the Reich Youth leader when the youth was being mustered for armed service I would not have allowed one single boy to go. It would only have happened over my dead body'.
Axmann said he would visit but he never came. Apparently he was at the funeral but there were many there and we didn't know them all. Mr Kaufmann, his old adjutant, visited every four to six weeks. He's now with the state press office. He was the one who contacted the press with the news of Baldur's death. They called here and I confirmed the report. At 10 it was on the radio and spread from there around the world. We received letters from America and many from influential figures who thanked us for making his last three years comfortable.
'Let the people work'
He always came over when the news came on at half past seven. He used to sit over there and talk to the wine-growers. He wouldn't talk about the war and I told them 'don't ask about the war!' I also told them not to ask after his wife or the family. It broke his heart every time he was asked. He couldn't take it. The war didn't interest him. 'I took part in it too' he used to say. He did enjoy talking to the wine-growers though. They would ask 'so what do you think of Willy Brandt?' and he would say 'let the people work'. That was all he used to say. There was a Swedish reporter here once. Baldur didn't want to talk to him but he did. The reporter promised to send a copy of the newspaper but it never arrived. One day a letter arrived from a German in Sweden who told Baldur that the newspaper had printed a story saying that he had spoken negatively of Brandt. I was there and he said nothing of the sort. All he said was 'let the people work' - nothing else. He was always very informed and was always up to date with the latest happenings in the german parliament. He was very interested in politics but rarely expressed his opinions.
He spoke a lot about Spandau and used to say 'Hess will never be pardoned!'. 'He should have been sentenced to death'. 'It took a lot effort on the part of the allies to get the Russians to agree to a life sentence. That was his pardon!'
Baldur said that The place for Hess' ashes had been picked - the hall in Spandau. He said that the Russians didn't want to lose their base in Berlin. 'Hess is said to have proposed an alliance against the Russians to Churchill which Churchill later regretted and that's why the Russians can't forgive him'. Baldur also said that Churchill tried everything to stop the trial but there was the american chief prosecutor who wanted to make a name for himself to help him realise his aim of becoming the Attorney General. Then, during the trial, a new chief judge was chosen and the old one was replaced by an englishman. That's what Baldur said.
He said that the first ten years were the hardest. After that things were easier. The guards were nice he said. Even the Russians were nice when they weren't being watched. He said that the prisoners were treated as officers. The first ten years were hard he said but after that the food became more bearable. The prison commanders were very nice and the gentlemen often talked and ate with him. The prison personnel had a need to talk to the prisoners. He said that Hess was apparently now living in the church - in the church! Baldur knew everything.
Baldur is very popular
They say that Mrs Hess and the son were at the funeral but I'm not sure whether that's true. There were fine people there. Speer and wife were there as were a couple of american Generals one of whom cried openly. There were many from the security services too - 48 if I remember correctly. There was a very large police presence too.
It wasn't easy. We received a telephone call in the evening asking if the mortuary was being guarded. I told them that if they were to try anything that the population of Kröv would be after them including the mourners and the police and that they would be thrown over the church wall. I told them that Baldur was very popular and respected by the population of the town. They hung up.
There were some communists there but it would have been impossible for them to do anything due to the police presence. There were thousands at the funeral. There had never been that many people in the cemetery and believe me, many more would have come if things hadn't happened so quickly.