Sex Under the Swastika
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Sex Under the Swastika
This week's excerpt reveals how Hitler lost his sex drive as the war turned against him - as told by Eva Braun's sister
Tim Heath has written several enlightening books on women's lives under the Nazis. I have previously featured Hitler’s Housewives. This volume takes this focus on the social history of Nazism even further. Although not written exclusively from women’s perspective, most of the first-hand accounts contained here are by women. Many of them are very explicit and detailed.
He begins with the very liberated experiences of some Germans before the Nazis took over and progresses to life under the Nazi regime. In a broad survey he includes the experiences of girls in the BDM, the girls’ equivalent of the Hitler Youth - where they were indoctrinated in their duty to produce babies for the Reich - through to some of the disturbing treatment suffered by Jewish women and women in occupied countries.
Sex Under the Swastika: Erotica, Scandal and the Occult in Hitler's Third Reich also includes a range of personal accounts from women who had encounters with Goebbels, Heydrich, Bormann and other leading Nazis. And, in what appears to be an exclusive, an intimate account of Hitler’s sexual life - as related by the sister of Eva Braun - Margarete. The isolated Eva would often confide in Margarete - there can be no closer witness than this. It appears that Eva Braun had an unexceptional sex life with Hitler - and the rumours of various abnormal practices and physical deformities put about by Allied propaganda were without foundation.
I am certain that toward the end the weight of the defeats in Russia, the Allied landings at Normandy, the onset of Parkinson’s Disease coupled with all that poison Morell was pumping into him, led to a form of psychosis and loss of capability to grasp reality.
This is a study that sheds some new light on aspects of the Nazi regime and on the character of leading Nazis. Reliant as it is, on many contemporary first-person accounts, it is a more serious work than its title at first suggests.
The following excerpt is the concluding part of Margarete’s portrayal of Hitler and his relationship with her sister Eva, who first met when he was 40 and she was 17:
Hitler became so consumed with this paranoia of the world about him that his intake of various medications concocted by his personal physician increased. Eva was not happy about the amount of drugs Hitler was being given by his doctor, Herr Theodor Morell, but Hitler trusted his doctor and would have nobody interfere in his personal medical matters. Eva revealed to me that all of the medication Hitler was taking had made him impotent, that he was incapable of making love to her, especially by mid- 1944.
She told me that she was unable to arouse him sexually despite what she termed as ‘trying everything’. It was then she revealed that Hitler liked the idea of her masturbating herself; she felt unsure about this at first as I think she found it a little embarrassing, yet she did oblige him on the very few occasions he asked this of her. I don’t see this is anything abnormal in a relationship though, lots of couples enjoy watching each other play. Yet despite trying all she could on her part, Hitler was still unable at this stage to have penetrative sex.
Hitler was aware of his manly failings, and this made him even more irritable and aggressive than he already was. Doctor Morell gave him these pharmaceutical cocktails which contained various amounts of the drug Coramine [nikethamide]. It was hoped this would help his failing libido, yet apparently it didn’t.
To Hitler the greatest thrill of all was of that of addressing the masses; even sexual intercourse with Eva could not compare to that. That is what Hitler enjoyed the most – he was totally consumed by the adoration the masses had for him, and after giving speeches he would often be highly emotional and exhausted. Eva could do little to shake him out of his melancholy as Germany’s fortunes declined; he couldn’t comprehend that he was losing, that he had somehow failed.
He would say to Eva in private conversation that he felt he had given the German people the tools they needed to secure victory and that, somehow, they had failed to use them properly. He would just shut Eva out totally as he would do with most people close to him; he wouldn’t allow himself to be consoled and be told that everything would be alright, because he knew it wasn’t alright.
I am certain that toward the end the weight of the defeats in Russia, the Allied landings at Normandy, the onset of Parkinson’s Disease coupled with all that poison Morell was pumping into him, led to a form of psychosis and loss of capability to grasp reality. He became ever more suspicious of those around him, and me and his staff would see less and less of him. Despite the fact that Hitler had lost interest in all aspects of sex, there was no question that Eva would ever have left him as she genuinely loved him, despite that love she yearned for never being fully reciprocated.
She did her best to support a man that had become paranoid and delusional to the extreme, but that was Eva’s way. She could have had affairs as she noted several opportunities with names I shall not mention here. She admitted almost having sex with the one admirer but in her own words, ‘I came so close and yearned for it so much, yet I came to my senses before the act took place.’ Eva had many admirers among the Hitler staff, yet many were just too afraid to risk doing anything other than dance with her. I admit I was a terrible flirt, along with my sister.
But as Eva was the Führer’s woman, had she ever betrayed him, I think he would have killed her and the culprit responsible too, I have no doubt about that. Hitler was violently possessive with all of his women, this we understand, he wanted them all to himself, all of the time and if he wasn’t with them, they had to be caged in some way. Eva’s greatest failing was allowing this to happen to her, she could have said no right from the start, but she was so young and naïve at that time.
I heard of my sister’s wedding on the 29 April and that, despite the terrible gloom that hung over the Reich Chancellery, Eva threw a party before Russian shells began to land all around, bringing the proceedings to a swift end. I know she was trying so hard to be happy yet some of those with her were crying for her.
Our father did try to warn her that all that glitters is not gold, but then he understood the privileges of having a close association with the most powerful man in Germany and possibly Europe, at that time, we as a family were all to blame, but Eva was in love, and nothing was ever going to alter that.
The ghost of my sister haunts me daily, you know, those last days at the Berghof, in July of 1944, before Hitler bade farewell to leave for his military headquarters. There were no more parties held at the Berghof after that and it was soon abandoned. On 19 January 1945 I accompanied Eva to the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. The state of the city was shocking; it was a very depressing atmosphere there, so much so we left there on 9 February and we went to Berchtesgaden. While we were there, I tried to persuade Eva to stay with me, but she was adamant she would return to Berlin to be at Hitler’s side.
Hitler had tried to persuade Eva to leave Germany before it was too late, but she refused. Eva asked me to take charge of all of her business and personal correspondence which I did, and I can assure you none of it exists anymore as I destroyed it all in order to prevent some media circus taking place if the material was ever discovered. I held Eva in my arms and cried like a baby begging her not to go. I had that sense that I would never see her again. Can you imagine what that’s like, saying farewell to one of your family when they still had so many years ahead of them?
I remained behind at the Berghof, and it was there I received the news that my husband had been arrested for desertion of duty. I know poor old Fegelein was far from perfect. I knew of the rumours that he had been unfaithful to me on several occasions. His fate lay in the balance as Hitler considered sending him to help defend the city of Berlin. Heinrich Himmler’s treachery had put Hitler into a rage and he ordered that Himmler be arrested and my husband shot. I was pregnant with our first child at the time but neither this nor the fact that I was Eva’s sister could influence Hitler’s decision. Had I been there I would have petitioned vigorously for my husband’s life, but I could do nothing.
I heard of my sister’s wedding on the 29 April and that, despite the terrible gloom that hung over the Reich Chancellery, Eva threw a party before Russian shells began to land all around, bringing the proceedings to a swift end. I know she was trying so hard to be happy yet some of those with her were crying for her. The next news I am told of is the death of my sister, and that Hitler is also dead, both having committed suicide in the confines of the Führerbunker below the Reich Chancellery.
Yes, I have cried and cried for my beautiful sister; every night I go to bed, when I close my eyes, I see her face, I hear her voice and I feel her sadness. Why did it have to be her, that is the question not only me, but the whole family asked ourselves. I wish we had done more; we could have left the country before things had gone too far between my sister and Hitler. It was fine at the beginning but then it became a nightmare.
After my husband’s execution I knew if I said or did the wrong thing, even though Hitler was my brother-in-law, there could be no guarantee of my safety: he would have had me killed too, without so much as a second thought. My only consolation at that time was on 5 May 1945, while still at the Obersalzberg residence, I gave birth to my daughter whom I named Eva Barbara in memory of my beloved sister.
This excerpt from Sex Under the Swastika: Erotica, Scandal and the Occult in Hitler's Third Reich appears by kind permission of Pen & Sword Books Ltd. Copyright remains with the author.
