Hitler's food taster

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wm
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Hitler's food taster

#1

Post by wm » 13 Feb 2013, 11:46

Margot Woelk, 95, a German woman who served as Hitler's food taster during the war claims the Führer was vegetarian. According to Woelk, in the two-and-a-half years she tasted his food for poison, Hitler ate only fresh fruits and vegetables.
Woelk was one of 15 women the SS kept to taste the Führer's meals at his "Ostfront" HQ in modern-day Poland.
Although the Führer professed vegetarianism and referred to meat broth contemptuously as “corpse tea," he did not always refuse meat in his diet. His strict adherence to a vegetarian diet appears to have developed while he lived at the Werwolf in East Prussia. His cook before the war Dione Lucas said Hitler loved stuffed pigeon, Bavarian sausages and an occasional slice of ham.
Hitler eats rapidly, mechanically. He abstractedly bites his fingernails, he runs his index finger back and forth under his nose, and his table manners are little short of shocking.
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/343180

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Marcus
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Re: Hitler's food taster

#2

Post by Marcus » 06 Apr 2013, 13:41

Each meal could have been her last, but Adolf Hitler's food taster Margot Wölk lived to tell her story. Forced to test the Nazi leader's meals for more than two years, the 95-year-old tells SPIEGEL ONLINE that she lived in constant fear.It might have been something as simple as a portion of white asparagus. Peeled, steamed and served with a delicious sauce, as Germans traditionally eat it. And with real butter, a scarcity in wartime. While the rest of the country struggled to get even coffee, or had to spread margarine diluted with flour on their bread, Margot Wölk could have savored the expensive vegetable dish -- if not for the fear of dying, that is. Wölk was one of 15 young women who were forced to taste Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's food for some two and a half years during World War II.
The 24-year-old secretary had fled from her parents' bombed-out Berlin apartment in the winter of 1941, traveling to her mother-in-law's home in the East Prussian village of Gross-Partsch, now Parcz, Poland. It was an idyllic, green setting, and she lived in a house with a large garden. But less than three kilometers (1.9 miles) away was the location that Hitler had chosen for his Eastern Front headquarters -- the Wolf's Lair.
"The mayor of the little nest was an old Nazi," says Wölk. "I'd hardly arrived when the SS showed up at the door and demanded, 'Come with us!'"
Sitting in the same apartment in Berlin's Schmargendorf area where she was born 95 years ago, she carefully eats tiny pieces of crumb cake from a silver fork. "Delicious," she says. Wölk has learned to enjoy food again, but it wasn't easy.
Hitler's thugs brought her and the other young women to barracks in nearby Krausendorf, where cooks prepared the food for the Wolf's Lair in a two-story building. The service personnel filled platters with vegetables, sauces, noodle dishes and exotic fruits, placing them in a room with a large wooden table, where the food had to be tasted. "There was never meat because Hitler was a vegetarian," Wölk recalls. "The food was good -- very good. But we couldn't enjoy it."
http://www.spiegel.de/international/ger ... 92097.html

/Marcus


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Annelie
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One of Hitler's taste testers

#3

Post by Annelie » 27 Apr 2013, 19:16

I think perhaps this is the place for this but if it isn't I am sure our Vikki will
sort it out. :)

BERLIN (AP) — They were feasts of sublime asparagus — laced with fear. And for more than half a century, Margot Woelk kept her secret hidden from the world, even from her husband. Then, a few months after her 95th birthday, she revealed the truth about her wartime role: Adolf Hitler's food taster.
Woelk, then in her mid-twenties, spent two and a half years as one of 15 young women who sampled Hitler's food to make sure it wasn't poisoned before it was served to the Nazi leader in his "Wolf's Lair," the heavily guarded command center in what is now Poland, where he spent much of his time in the final years of World War II.
"He was a vegetarian. He never ate any meat during the entire time I was there," Woelk said of the Nazi leader. "And Hitler was so paranoid that the British would poison him — that's why he had 15 girls taste the food before he ate it himself."
With many Germans contending with food shortages and a bland diet as the war dragged on, sampling Hitler's food had its advantages.
"The food was delicious, only the best vegetables, asparagus, bell peppers, everything you can imagine. And always with a side of rice or pasta," she recalled. "But this constant fear — we knew of all those poisoning rumors and could never enjoy the food. Every day we feared it was going to be our last meal."
The petite widow's story is a tale of the horror, pain and dislocation endured by people of all sides who survived World War II.
Only now in the sunset of her life has she been willing to relate her experiences, which she had buried because of shame and the fear of prosecution for having worked with the Nazis, although she insists she was never a party member. She told her story as she flipped through a photo album with pictures of her as a young woman, in the same Berlin apartment where she was born in 1917.
Woelk first revealed her secret to a local Berlin reporter a few months ago. Since then interest in her life story has been overwhelming. School teachers wrote and asked her for photos and autographs to bring history alive for their students. Several researchers from a museum visited to ask for details about her life as Hitler's taster.
Woelk says her association with Hitler began after she fled Berlin to escape Allied air attacks. With her husband gone and serving in the German army, she moved in with relatives about 435 miles (700 kilometers) to the east in Rastenburg, then part of Germany; now it is Ketrzyn, in what became Poland after the war.
There she was drafted into civilian service and assigned for the next two and a half years as a food taster and kitchen bookkeeper at the Wolf's Lair complex, located a few miles (kilometers) outside the town. Hitler was secretive, even in the relative safety of his headquarters, that she never saw him in person — only his German shepherd Blondie and his SS guards, who chatted with the women.
Hitler's security fears were not unfounded. On July 20, 1944, a trusted colonel detonated a bomb in the Wolf's Lair in an attempt to kill Hitler. He survived, but nearly 5,000 people were executed following the assassination attempt, including the bomber.
"We were sitting on wooden benches when we heard and felt an incredible big bang," she said of the 1944 bombing. "We fell off the benches, and I heard someone shouting 'Hitler is dead!' But he wasn't. "
Following the blast, tension rose around the headquarters. Woelk said the Nazis ordered her to leave her relatives' home and move into an abandoned school closer to the compound.
With the Soviet army on the offensive and the war going badly for Germany, one of her SS friends advised her to leave the Wolf's Lair.
She said she returned by train to Berlin and went into hiding.
Woelk said the other women on the food tasting team decided to remain in Rastenburg since their families were all there and it was their home.
"Later, I found out that the Russians shot all of the 14 other girls," she said. It was after Soviet troops overran the headquarters in January 1945.
When she returned to Berlin, she found a city facing complete destruction. Round-the-clock bombing by U.S. and British planes was grinding the city center to rubble.
On April 20, 1945, Soviet artillery began shelling the outskirts of Berlin and ground forces pushed through toward the heart of the capital against strong resistance by die-hard SS and Hitler Youth fighters.
After about two weeks of heavy fighting, the city surrendered on May 2 — after Hitler, who had abandoned the Wolf's Lair about five months before, had committed suicide. His successor surrendered a week later, ending the war in Europe.
For many Berlin civilians — their homes destroyed, family members missing or dead and food almost gone — the horror did not end with capitulation.
"The Russians then came to Berlin and got me, too," Woelk said. "They took me to a doctor's apartment and raped me for 14 consecutive days. That's why I could never have children. They destroyed everything."
Like millions of Germans and other Europeans, Woelk began rebuilding her life and trying to forget as best she could her bitter memories and the shame of her association with a criminal regime that had destroyed much of Europe.
She worked in a variety of jobs, mostly as a secretary or administrative assistant. Her husband returned from the war but died 23 years ago, she said.
With the frailty of advanced age and the lack of an elevator in her building, she has not left her apartment for the past eight years. Nurses visit several times a day, and a niece stops by frequently, she said.
Now at the end of her life, she feels the need to purge the memories by talking about her story.
"For decades, I tried to shake off those memories," she said. "But they always came back to haunt me at night."


http://news.yahoo.com/hitlers-food-tast ... 32362.html

thanks Craig 8-)

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Re: One of Hitler's taste testers

#4

Post by Marcus » 27 Apr 2013, 19:18

Please continue this in the existing thread on the topic: http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 7&t=196859

/Marcus

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Re: Hitler's food taster

#5

Post by Annelie » 27 Apr 2013, 19:37

Oops, sorry I didn't see it.

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Re: Hitler's food taster

#6

Post by Vikki » 27 Apr 2013, 20:55

I've merged the two threads.

~Vikki

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Re: Hitler's food taster

#7

Post by wartourist » 08 Oct 2014, 10:09

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 :milwink:

Dan

Link: http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-vi ... 3g8n2.html

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Re: Hitler's food taster

#8

Post by Annelie » 08 Oct 2014, 15:06

Dan,

You could possibly be correct but considering there were over 40 attempts at Hitler's life
perhaps at some point he really did have food taster's but I doubt continuously throughout.


http://natgeotv.com.au/tv/42-ways-to-kill-hitler/

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Re: Hitler's food taster

#9

Post by Heimatschuss » 08 Oct 2014, 23:37

Absolutely true, Dan!
wartourist wrote:Quite frankly, I find it a bit difficult to stomach this story …
Woelk says she worked in the village of Krausendorf which is about 3 km west of the Wolf''s Lair. The food was cooked there in a large two-storey building, tested and then carted to Hitler.

In her autobiography Traudl Junge gave a completely different description of the way Hitler's meals were prepared in the late war years. According to Junge a small kitchen had been attached to the building Casino I where Hitler used to dine. That's next to his accomodation in the Wolf's Lair. It was Marlene von Exner who cooked for Hitler there, often assisited by Junge. There was no need for food testers since both Exner and Junge were part of Hitler's small tableround.

If at all Woelk may have been part of a large kitchen team that catered for the Führer-Begleit-Bataillon which was housed in the outer part of the Wolfsschanze (so-called Sperrkreis 2). Going by an article about Woelk in the daily Frankfurter Rundschau http://www.fr-online.de/politik/nazi-de ... 56674.html she was originally conscripted to work as a cook in Krausendorf. Since she was a trained secretary Woelk was soon assigned to do all the paperwork of the kitchen. Woelk said many women from the surrounding villages worked in that kitchen but only 15 of them, including herself stayed after completing work to have a meal. So primarily these women weren't food tasters for God knows who but kitchen staff. It's not unheard of that after preparing dinner cooks sit down together to enjoy themselves what they've created.

Obviously in her old days Frau Woelk has decided to give a completely new spin to this rather mundane practice by adding some buzz words like 'Hitler', 'poison', 'Wolfsschanze' and 'Ze Nazis forced me ...' . It's quite telling for the sorry state of the media in Germany (not only tabloids but today also the quality press and the PBS) that Woelk's grotesque tales have been taken up and sensationalized even more. By now the kitchen staff didn't just sample their output a bit after work, no, they were Hitler's food taster slaves. A good deal of journalists over here appear never to have heard about things like doing a plausibility check. But then how should they know better when you see history professors on PBS TV like Peter Longerich claiming Goebbels could order parachute units from France to Sicily in 1943 and even micromanage their operations there with the aim of having one particular Fallschirmjäger battalion (or was it even a company?) annihilated. 8O

When you go through the various newspaper articles about Woelk you'll notice an astonishing vagueness in her story/stories. Her home in Berlin was destroyed in an air raid in late 1941 or was it early 1943? She had to work in that kitchen in Krausendorf until late summer 1944 or until November 1944 or till late January 1945 (accounts vary). The news that all the other food tasters had been murdered by Soviet soldiers reached her via her mother-in-law or via the officer who'd put her on the escape train. And so on and so forth. We're living in the times of internet now for more than a decade. Has none of the journalists doing interviews with Woelk been able to find the articles of his predecessors (though they're online), notice the apparent contradictions in Woelk's descriptions and confront Frau Woelk with them? The answer in general appears to be: NO! :roll:

So, that's enough ranting about german media for today I think. Wish you all a Good Night!

Best regards
Torsten

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Re: Hitler's food taster

#10

Post by J. Duncan » 09 Oct 2014, 11:22

I too was dismissive of the woman's account. Daily Mail is a gossipy rag to start with. Being a vegan, Hitler was a food faddist about what he ate, although the meals were very bland (dumpling soups, various gruels). In the early days, Kannenberg cooked for him as did his sister Angela. He didn't have the paranoia about his food being poisoned as did Joseph Stalin, whose OGPU and NKVD servicemen seemed to make a practice of when dispensing with their political enemies. Stalin also ate a lot of buffet meals, so all of the food in the kitchens were tested beforehand for chemicals and poisons. Not one of the major biographies on Hitler mentions food tasters and paranoia about food but several on Stalin do.

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Re: Hitler's food taster

#11

Post by Heinrich George » 16 Aug 2019, 23:23

Her story now has become the subject of a comedy currently playing in Edinburgh.

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/201908 ... tlers-food

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