Quite frankly, I find it a bit difficult to stomach this story …
It’s a fantastic story – if it is true. Don’t get me wrong, I have no intention of calling the old lady a liar, but I would like corroborative evidence from other sources!
I take a profound interest in the circumstances concerning the Battle for Berlin and the final days of the Reich. In that connection, I have read some fifty to sixty books about Hitler; his youth, his ascend to power, his life as Germany’s sovereign ruler, his demise and death in the Bunker. Books written by renowned historians; autobiographies on his entourage; memoirs by adjutants and secretaries, all of them people very close to Hitler and figures in his daily life.
Never once have I read anything about “food tasters”. Trusted vegetarian cooks – latest Austrian Constance Manziarly – prepared his monotonous meals, which he often ate in the company of his secretaries, but … tasters? No!
Is it conceivable that historians such as Trevor-Roper, Fest and Joachimsthaler would overlook or omit such a detail?
Also; is it not peculiar that i.e. Traudl Junge, who frequently took her meals with Hitler right up to the “final hour”, would not, in her memoir, otherwise detailed in respect to the daily life in Hitler's inner circles, mention the existence of such a person?
And another thing; according to Ms Woelk, the food (at the Wolfsschanze) was prepared in a building
outside the compound, approved by the tasters and then transported to the HQ for Hitler to consume. If anyone wanted to poison his food, it could be done en route. The virtue of a food taster – in my understanding – is that he/she tastes the food
while the dictator is watching! He then only commences his meal if the taster does not turn blue or collapses?
And finally;
fifteen of them … why?
I dunno about you, ladies and gents, but to me something seems utterly strange here. I can certainly have overlooked something, but would like to hear some opinions … or even better; some hard evidence that this really took place as described
Dan
Link:
http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-vi ... 3g8n2.html