Johann Rattenhuber

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Johann Rattenhuber in Soviet captivity

Johann Rattenhuber (30 April 1897 - 30 June 1957), also known as Hans Rattenhuber, German police and SS officer, was the head of Adolf Hitler's bodyguard at the time of Hitler's death in April 1945.

Rattenhuber was born in Munich, where he made a career as a police officer. In March 1933 he was appointed head of the Reich Security Service (Reichssicherheitsdienst, RSD) (not to be confused with the Sicherheitsdienst (SD)), a unit created to provide personal security to members of the Nazi leadership, initially drawn exclusively from Bavarian police officers.^[1] He also became an SS Gruppenführer (General). He was head of Hitler's bodyguard at the time of the July 20 plot, the unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Hitler.

In early 1945 Rattenhuber accompanied Hitler and his entourage into the Führerbunker under the Reich Chancellery building in central Berlin.

On 28 April, when it was discovered that Heinrich Himmler was trying to negotiate a backdoor surrender to the Allies via Count Folke Bernadotte, Rattenhuber became part of a tribunal set up by Hitler to court-martial associates of Himmler who could be rounded up in Berlin. One person to face this tribunal was Hermann Fegelein, Eva Braun's brother-in-law. General Wilhelm Mohnke presided over the tribunal which, in addition to Rattenhuber and Mohnke, included General Hans Krebs and General Wilhelm Burgdorf.

On 30 April, Rattenhuber was one of the group to whom Hitler announced that he intended to kill himself rather than by captured by the Soviet forces who were occupying Berlin. He later testified:

"About 10 o'clock at night [on 29 April] Hitler summoned me to his room... Hitler said: 'You have served me faithfully for many years. Tomorrow is your birthday and I want to congratulate you and thank you for youir faithful service, because I shall not be able to do so tomorrow. I have taken the decision... I must leave this world.' I went over to Hitler and told him how necessary his survival was for Germany, that there was still a chance to try and escape from Berlin and save his life. 'What for?' Hitler argued. 'Everything is ruined, and to flee means falling into the hands of the Russians'."

Rattenhuber, however, was not present when Hitler killed himself on the afternoon of 30 April. He did not see Hitler's body and was not one of those who took the body outside and burned it, but he was told of this immediately afterwards by Heinz Linge, Hitler's valet.

On 1 May, Rattenhuber led one of the three groups escaping from the bunker, the other two being led by SS-Brigadeführer Wilhelm Mohnke and Werner Naumann. Most, including Rattenhuber, were captured by the Soviets on the same day. Rattenhuber was taken to Moscow, where on 20 May he gave a long and detailed description of the last days of Hitler and the Nazi leadership in the bunker. The text of this was kept in the Soviet archives until it was published by V.K. Vinogradov in the Russian edition of Hitler's Death: Russia's Last Great Secret from the Files of the KGB in 2000.

Rattenhuber was made a Soviet prisoner of war. In 1951 he was charged by the Soviet Ministry of State Security that "from the early days of the Nazi dictatorship in Germany in 1933 and until the defeat of the latter in 1945, being an SS Gruppenführer, Police Lieutenant-General and the chief of the Reich Security Service, he ensured the personal security of Hitler and other Reich leaders." Rattenhuber was sentenced by the Court Martial of the Moscow Military District to 25 years' imprisonment in February 1952. By a decree of the Praesidium of the Supreme Soviet of September 1955 he was released and handed over to the German Democratic Republic authorities, who allowed him to go to West Germany. He died in Munich in 1957.

[edit] Sources

V.K. Vinogradov and others, Hitler's Death: Russia's Last Great Secret from the Files of the KGB, Chaucer Press 2005; ISBN 1-904449-13-1.
O'Donnell, James. The Bunker. Capo Press: New York City, 1978.