Hitler Aide's Death Could Shed Light On Dictator's Holocaust Role

The last surviving member of Adolf Hitler's inner circle died last weekend and some historians believe his death at age 96 may bring some clarity about the extent of the Nazi dictator's involvement in the Holocaust.

That's because Fritz Darges was a steady sycophant and aide to Hitler and thus attended many meetings with Germany's maximum leader who visited so much death and destruction on Europe from 1939 to 1945.

Darges may have therefore been privy to discussions involving Hitler where the extermination of Jews and the use of concentration camps was discussed. Scholars are hoping that if Darges attended such meetings, he wrote about what he heard in his memoirs which he said could be published after his death.

An excerpt from a story in the United Kingdom's Daily Telegraph news website:

Fritz Darges died at the weekend aged 96 with instructions for his manuscript about his time spent at the side of the Fuhrer to be published once he was gone.

Darges was the last surviving member of Hitler's inner circle and was present for all major conferences, social engagements and policy announcements for four years of the war.

Experts say his account of his time as Hitler's direct link to the SS could discount the claims of revisionists who have tried to claim the German leader knew nothing of the extermination programme. Right-wing historians have claimed the planning for the murder of six million Jews was carried out by SS chief Heinrich Himmler.

Mainstream historians believe it inconceivable that Hitler did not issue verbal directives about the mass killings in Darges' presence. Other courtiers, such as armaments minister Albert Speer and propaganda chief Josef Goebbels, had their diaries published post war with no reference to hearing Hitler ordering the "Final Solution".

Darges died on Saturday still believing in the man who engineered the Jewish Holocaust as "the greatest who ever lived." His memoirs will be published now in accordance with his will.

 

Darges comes across as a true believer in Hitler. But it appears Hitler didn't repay such loyalty in kind.

In another excerpt from the Telegraph article, Darges is quoted as saying:

"I must say I found him a genius."

But Darges misjudged the "warm-hearted" F??hrer deeply during one conference at Rastenburg on July 18 1944 — two days before a bomb plot nearly succeeded in killing him.

During a strategy conference a fly began buzzing around the room, landing on Hitler's shoulder and on the surface of a map several times.

Irritated, Hitler ordered Darges to "dispatch the nuisance". Darges suggested whimsically that, as it was an "airborne pest" the job should go to the Luftwaffe adjutant, Nicolaus von Below.

Enraged, Hitler dismissed Darges on the spot. "You're for the eastern front!" he yelled. And so he was sent into combat.