Otto Günsche

Schutzstaffel (SS) Fascism and National Socialism 1917–2003 ○ Heart failure

Hitler's personal SS adjutant, charged with burning his body

On the afternoon of 30 April 1945 he stood guard outside the room where Hitler and Eva Braun killed themselves, then announced to Goebbels and the generals waiting in the briefing room that Hitler was dead.

Born in Jena, he joined the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler at 16 and also joined the Nazi Party. As a member of the Führerbegleitkommando he first came close to Hitler in 1936; after SS officer school and front-line service with the Leibstandarte he became Hitler's personal adjutant in 1943 and was injured in the 20 July 1944 bomb attempt. On 30 April 1945 Hitler tasked him with the cremation of his body; Günsche stood guard outside the room where Hitler and Eva Braun killed themselves, announced the death and saw both bodies burned in the Reich Chancellery garden. Captured by the Red Army on 2 May, he was interrogated, under torture, about Hitler's death, and was held in the Soviet Union until 1955 and in Bautzen until May 1956. In West Germany he gave sworn testimony on the death, worked as a company manager and, a convinced National Socialist to the end, kept away from journalists.