The memoirs of Erich Kempka. Erich Kempka served as Hitler’s personal
driver from 1934 until the Führer’s suicide in 1945. His candid memoirs provide
a unique account that reaches a climax in the dark days in the bunker beneath
Berlin’s
shattered streets.
Kempka begins by describing his duties as a member of Hitler’s staff
in the early years, escorting Hitler around Europe, and other top Nazis such as Albert Speer and Field
Marshal Kesselring on tours of the front line. The core of his memoir, however,
covers the period spent in the Führerbunker, including accompanying Hitler on
his final trip to the front line in March 1945 and the chaotic weeks that
followed.
Kempka’s fascinating narrative covers the major events in
the regime’s downfall, including Göring and Himmler’s efforts to seize power and
negotiate a truce with the Allies and Hitler’s marriage to Eva Braun before they
committed suicide. Hitler’s last order to Kempka was that he has ready enough
petrol to cremate their bodies. The memoirs conclude with Kempka’s desperate
escape from Berlin more than 800 km through
enemy-occupied Germany to his family, only to be
arrested by American personnel shortly afterwards. He was interrogated before
acting as a witness at Nuremburg.
