From Nazi Test Pilot to Hitler's Bunker

From Nazi Test Pilot to Hitler's Bunker PDF Author: Dennis Piszkiewicz
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN: 0275954560
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This is the amazing story of Hanna Reitsch, one of the most celebrated women of the Third Reich. As a decorated test pilot for the Luftwaffe and a protege of Hitler, Reitsch was one of a handful of women who achieved personal success by breaking from the traditionally defined role of wife and mother in Nazi Germany. Reitsch's skills and accomplishments ultimately earned her an Iron Cross and celebrity status. A witness to the last days of the Third Reich, Reitsch visited Hitler's Berlin bunker where she received orders to deliver letters designed to rally the Luftwaffe. She left on this futile mission only minutes before Hitler's marriage to Eva Braun. This is the amazing story of Hanna Reitsch, a woman who excelled in an environment that for most was extremely repressive—Germany before and during World War II. She achieved personal success when she escaped the culturally defined role of wife and mother in Nazi Germany to live her passion for flying. Reitsch began her career flying gliders, setting both distance and endurance records in the 1930s. As the war approached she became a test pilot for new and dangerous aircraft for the Luftwaffe. The aircraft she flew included a large number of gliders and military aircraft, including Focke-Achgelis FW 61 Hubschrauber (the first practical helicopter), the jet-powered piloted version of the V-1 buzz bomb, and the rocket-powered Messerschmitt 163. Her achievements as a test pilot made her a celebrity in Nazi Germany and earned her an Iron Cross and the friendship of Hitler. As a friend of the Fuehrer, she became an eyewitness to the fall of the Third Reich. In the final days of World War II, she flew with her friend and lover, Luftwaffe General Robert Ritter von Greim—to join Hitler in his bunker. Minutes before Hitler was to marry Eva Braun, Reitsch and von Greim—on Hitler's orders—flew from Berlin to Rechlin in a desperate attempt to rally the Luftwaffe and save the Reich. After the war, Reitsch was interviewed as a potential witness for the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. Her interviewer stated that [Hanna's] account of the flight into Berlin to report to Hitler and of her stay in the Fuehrer's bunker is probably as accurate a one as will be obtained of those last days. It has remained so for half a century. This book also recounts a vivid and remarkable encounter in a cemetery in Kitzbuehel, Austria, in June of 1945, between Leni Riefenstahl, the filmmaker, perhaps the only other woman to be so successful in the Third Reich, and Hanna Reitsch. During this chance encounter, Hanna shows the letters of Josef and Magda Goebbels to Riefenstahl and the reader shares their shocking contents. Hanna Reitsch found in the Nazi establishment opportunities and rewards for her achievements. Consorting with the devil paid well; yet, in the end, she was called on to pay back more than she had received. Her story shows how hard it is for a woman to excel in a repressive society, and how that success can lead to defeat and misery.

From Nazi Test Pilot to Hitler's Bunker

From Nazi Test Pilot to Hitler's Bunker PDF Author: Dennis Piszkiewicz
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN: 0275954560
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
This is the amazing story of Hanna Reitsch, one of the most celebrated women of the Third Reich. As a decorated test pilot for the Luftwaffe and a protege of Hitler, Reitsch was one of a handful of women who achieved personal success by breaking from the traditionally defined role of wife and mother in Nazi Germany. Reitsch's skills and accomplishments ultimately earned her an Iron Cross and celebrity status. A witness to the last days of the Third Reich, Reitsch visited Hitler's Berlin bunker where she received orders to deliver letters designed to rally the Luftwaffe. She left on this futile mission only minutes before Hitler's marriage to Eva Braun. This is the amazing story of Hanna Reitsch, a woman who excelled in an environment that for most was extremely repressive—Germany before and during World War II. She achieved personal success when she escaped the culturally defined role of wife and mother in Nazi Germany to live her passion for flying. Reitsch began her career flying gliders, setting both distance and endurance records in the 1930s. As the war approached she became a test pilot for new and dangerous aircraft for the Luftwaffe. The aircraft she flew included a large number of gliders and military aircraft, including Focke-Achgelis FW 61 Hubschrauber (the first practical helicopter), the jet-powered piloted version of the V-1 buzz bomb, and the rocket-powered Messerschmitt 163. Her achievements as a test pilot made her a celebrity in Nazi Germany and earned her an Iron Cross and the friendship of Hitler. As a friend of the Fuehrer, she became an eyewitness to the fall of the Third Reich. In the final days of World War II, she flew with her friend and lover, Luftwaffe General Robert Ritter von Greim—to join Hitler in his bunker. Minutes before Hitler was to marry Eva Braun, Reitsch and von Greim—on Hitler's orders—flew from Berlin to Rechlin in a desperate attempt to rally the Luftwaffe and save the Reich. After the war, Reitsch was interviewed as a potential witness for the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. Her interviewer stated that [Hanna's] account of the flight into Berlin to report to Hitler and of her stay in the Fuehrer's bunker is probably as accurate a one as will be obtained of those last days. It has remained so for half a century. This book also recounts a vivid and remarkable encounter in a cemetery in Kitzbuehel, Austria, in June of 1945, between Leni Riefenstahl, the filmmaker, perhaps the only other woman to be so successful in the Third Reich, and Hanna Reitsch. During this chance encounter, Hanna shows the letters of Josef and Magda Goebbels to Riefenstahl and the reader shares their shocking contents. Hanna Reitsch found in the Nazi establishment opportunities and rewards for her achievements. Consorting with the devil paid well; yet, in the end, she was called on to pay back more than she had received. Her story shows how hard it is for a woman to excel in a repressive society, and how that success can lead to defeat and misery.

From Nazi Test Pilot to Hitler's Bunker

From Nazi Test Pilot to Hitler's Bunker PDF Author: Dennis Piszkiewicz
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
This is the amazing story of Hanna Reitsch, one of the most celebrated women of the Third Reich. As a decorated test pilot for the Luftwaffe and a protege of Hitler, Reitsch was one of a handful of women who achieved personal success by breaking from the traditionally defined role of wife and mother in Nazi Germany. Reitsch's skills and accomplishments ultimately earned her an Iron Cross and celebrity status. A witness to the last days of the Third Reich, Reitsch visited Hitler's Berlin bunker where she received orders to deliver letters designed to rally the Luftwaffe. She left on this futile mission only minutes before Hitler's marriage to Eva Braun. This is the amazing story of Hanna Reitsch, a woman who excelled in an environment that for most was extremely repressive—Germany before and during World War II. She achieved personal success when she escaped the culturally defined role of wife and mother in Nazi Germany to live her passion for flying. Reitsch began her career flying gliders, setting both distance and endurance records in the 1930s. As the war approached she became a test pilot for new and dangerous aircraft for the Luftwaffe. The aircraft she flew included a large number of gliders and military aircraft, including Focke-Achgelis FW 61 Hubschrauber (the first practical helicopter), the jet-powered piloted version of the V-1 buzz bomb, and the rocket-powered Messerschmitt 163. Her achievements as a test pilot made her a celebrity in Nazi Germany and earned her an Iron Cross and the friendship of Hitler. As a friend of the Fuehrer, she became an eyewitness to the fall of the Third Reich. In the final days of World War II, she flew with her friend and lover, Luftwaffe General Robert Ritter von Greim—to join Hitler in his bunker. Minutes before Hitler was to marry Eva Braun, Reitsch and von Greim—on Hitler's orders—flew from Berlin to Rechlin in a desperate attempt to rally the Luftwaffe and save the Reich. After the war, Reitsch was interviewed as a potential witness for the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. Her interviewer stated that [Hanna's] account of the flight into Berlin to report to Hitler and of her stay in the Fuehrer's bunker is probably as accurate a one as will be obtained of those last days. It has remained so for half a century. This book also recounts a vivid and remarkable encounter in a cemetery in Kitzbuehel, Austria, in June of 1945, between Leni Riefenstahl, the filmmaker, perhaps the only other woman to be so successful in the Third Reich, and Hanna Reitsch. During this chance encounter, Hanna shows the letters of Josef and Magda Goebbels to Riefenstahl and the reader shares their shocking contents. Hanna Reitsch found in the Nazi establishment opportunities and rewards for her achievements. Consorting with the devil paid well; yet, in the end, she was called on to pay back more than she had received. Her story shows how hard it is for a woman to excel in a repressive society, and how that success can lead to defeat and misery.

The Sky My Kingdom

The Sky My Kingdom PDF Author: Hanna Reitsch
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 1612000576
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description
The memoir of the female aviator who became Hitler’s favorite pilot. The Sky My Kingdom is the fascinating autobiography of the famous World War II test pilot Hanna Reitsch. As the war progressed, Reitsch was invited to fly many of Germany’s latest—and increasingly desperate—designs, including the rocket-propelled Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet and several larger bombers, on which she tested various mechanisms for cutting barrage balloon cables. After crashing on her fifth Me 163 flight, she was badly injured but insisted on writing her report before falling unconscious and spending five months in the hospital. Eventually, she became Adolf Hitler’s favorite pilot. Reitsch was one of only two women awarded the Iron Cross First Class during World War II, and the only woman awarded the Luftwaffe Combined Pilot and Observer Badge with Diamonds. She survived many accidents and was badly injured several times. In the last days of the war, Reitsch was asked to fly her companion, Col. Gen. Robert Ritter von Greim, into Berlin to meet with Hitler. The city was already surrounded by Red Army troops, who had made significant progress into the downtown area when they arrived, landing on a city street and traveling to the Führerbunker. The aircraft she used was the justly famous Fieseler Storch, already well known for the exploit that rescued Mussolini, only adding to the legend of both Reitsch and that aircraft. She is said to have overheard Hitler laying out plans for Nazi commanders to join together in mass suicide when it was obvious that the war was over. She also hoped to fly out propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels’ six children, who had been staying in the bunker since April 22 with their parents, but neither Joseph nor Magda Goebbels would allow it. She managed to escape Berlin herself, on April 29, by flying out through heavy Russian antiaircraft fire. She was a devoted and idealistic Nazi who adored Adolf Hitler and refused to believe the reports of concentration camps and torture. Not until much later would she say that she had been “disgusted” by what she witnessed in the Third Reich. She was held for eighteen months by the American military after the war, interrogated, and subsequently released—ultimately to become a champion glider pilot, as gliders were the only craft German citizens were allowed to fly. Hers is a story that arguably stands as unique in the great drama of World War II.

The Women Who Flew for Hitler

The Women Who Flew for Hitler PDF Author: Clare Mulley
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1250133165
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 514

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Book Description
Biographers' Club Prize-winner Clare Mulley’s The Women Who Flew for Hitler—a dual biography of Nazi Germany's most highly decorated women pilots. Hanna Reitsch and Melitta von Stauffenberg were talented, courageous, and strikingly attractive women who fought convention to make their names in the male-dominated field of flight in 1930s Germany. With the war, both became pioneering test pilots and were awarded the Iron Cross for service to the Third Reich. But they could not have been more different and neither woman had a good word to say for the other. Hanna was middle-class, vivacious, and distinctly Aryan, while the darker, more self-effacing Melitta came from an aristocratic Prussian family. Both were driven by deeply held convictions about honor and patriotism; but ultimately, while Hanna tried to save Hitler’s life, begging him to let her fly him to safety in April 1945, Melitta covertly supported the most famous attempt to assassinate the Führer. Their interwoven lives provide vivid insight into Nazi Germany and its attitudes toward women, class, and race. Acclaimed biographer Clare Mulley gets under the skin of these two distinctive and unconventional women, giving a full—and as yet largely unknown—account of their contrasting yet strangely parallel lives, against a changing backdrop of the 1936 Olympics, the Eastern Front, the Berlin Air Club, and Hitler’s bunker. Told with brio and great narrative flair, The Women Who Flew for Hitler is an extraordinary true story, with all the excitement and color of the best fiction.Biographers' Club Prize-winner Clare Mulley’s The Women Who Flew for Hitler—a dual biography of Nazi Germany's most highly decorated women pilots. Hanna Reitsch and Melitta von Stauffenberg were talented, courageous, and strikingly attractive women who fought convention to make their names in the male-dominated field of flight in 1930s Germany. With the war, both became pioneering test pilots and were awarded the Iron Cross for service to the Third Reich. But they could not have been more different and neither woman had a good word to say for the other. Hanna was middle-class, vivacious, and distinctly Aryan, while the darker, more self-effacing Melitta came from an aristocratic Prussian family. Both were driven by deeply held convictions about honor and patriotism; but ultimately, while Hanna tried to save Hitler’s life, begging him to let her fly him to safety in April 1945, Melitta covertly supported the most famous attempt to assassinate the Führer. Their interwoven lives provide vivid insight into Nazi Germany and its attitudes toward women, class, and race. Acclaimed biographer Clare Mulley gets under the skin of these two distinctive and unconventional women, giving a full—and as yet largely unknown—account of their contrasting yet strangely parallel lives, against a changing backdrop of the 1936 Olympics, the Eastern Front, the Berlin Air Club, and Hitler’s bunker. Told with brio and great narrative flair, The Women Who Flew for Hitler is an extraordinary true story, with all the excitement and color of the best fiction.

The Bunker

The Bunker PDF Author: James P. O'Donnell
Publisher: Da Capo
ISBN: 9780306809583
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 399

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Book Description
A compulsively readable account of Hitler's last days, written by one of the first Americans to enter Hitler's bunker after the fall of Berlin

The Nazi Rocketeers

The Nazi Rocketeers PDF Author: Dennis Piszkiewicz
Publisher: Stackpole Books
ISBN: 9780811733878
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
Explores the development of the V-2 rocket. A sobering testimony to the consequences of corrupted genius.

Wernher Von Braun

Wernher Von Braun PDF Author: Dennis Piszkiewicz
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
This is the biography of the German man who created the V-2 rocket and came to the United States to develop missiles.

I Was Hitler's Chauffeur

I Was Hitler's Chauffeur PDF Author: Erich Kempka
Publisher: Frontline Books
ISBN: 1781599726
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
“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.

German Women's Life Writing and the Holocaust

German Women's Life Writing and the Holocaust PDF Author: Elisabeth Krimmer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108472826
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
Examines women's life writing in order to shed light on female complicity in the Second World War and the Holocaust.

The German War Machine in World War II

The German War Machine in World War II PDF Author: David T. Zabecki
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1440869189
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 447

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Book Description
This invaluable resource offers students a comprehensive overview of the German war machine that overran much of Europe during World War II, with close to 300 entries on a variety of topics and a number of key primary source documents. This book provides everything the reader needs to know about the German war machine that developed into the potent armed force under Adolf Hitler. This expansive encyclopedia covers the period of the German Third Reich, from January 1933 to the end of World War II in Europe, in May 1945. Dozens of entries on key battles and military campaigns, military and political leaders, military and intelligence organizations, and social and political topics that shaped German military conduct during World War II are followed by an illuminating epilogue that outlines why Germany lost World War II. A documents section includes more than a dozen fascinating primary sources on such significant events as the Tripartite Pact among Germany, Italy, and Japan; the Battle of Stalingrad; the Normandy Invasion; the Ardennes Offensive; and Germany's surrender. In addition, six appendices provide detailed information on a variety of topics such as German aces, military commanders, and military medals and decorations. The book ends with a chronology and a bibliography of print resources.