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| - By all accounts, Hitler was very fond of Blondi, keeping her by his side and allowing her to sleep in his bedroom in the bunker, an affection not shared by Eva Braun, Hitler's girlfriend, who hated Blondi and was known to kick her under the dining table, according to Hitler's secretary Traudl Junge. In Hitler's Bunker: A Boy Soldier's Eyewitness Account of the Führer's Last Days, Armin D. Lehmann elaborated on Blondi's death. =======
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| - By all accounts, Hitler was very fond of Blondi, keeping her by his side and allowing her to sleep in his bedroom in the bunker, an affection not shared by Eva Braun, Hitler's girlfriend, who hated Blondi and was known to kick her under the dining table, according to Hitler's secretary Traudl Junge. As a soldier in World War I Hitler had great affection for a stray white terrier named "Fuchsl" and was distraught when he lost it. He had been given a German Shepherd before named "Prinz" in 1921, during his years of poverty, but he had been forced to lodge the dog elsewhere. However, it managed to escape and return to him. Hitler, who adored the loyalty and obedience of the dog, thereafter developed a great liking for the breed. Before Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, he ordered physician Werner Haase to test a cyanide capsule on Blondi. The capsule killed her. According to a report commissioned by Stalin and based on eye witness accounts, Hitler's dog-handler, a Sergeant Fritz Tornow, took Blondi's pups from the arms of the Goebbels children, who had been playing with them, and shot them in the garden of the bunker. He then killed Eva Braun's two dogs and his own dachshund by lethal injection. Tornow was later captured by the Allies. Hitler's nurse, Erna Flegel, said in 2005 that Blondi's death had affected the people in the bunker more than Eva Braun's suicide had. When the battle of Berlin fizzled out, the dog was exhumed and photographed by the Soviets. In Hitler's Bunker: A Boy Soldier's Eyewitness Account of the Führer's Last Days, Armin D. Lehmann elaborated on Blondi's death. "That afternoon Hitler summoned Professor Werner Haase from the emergency hospital to the bunker to stage a dress rehearsal of his own suicide. Hitler no longer trusted the SS and he wanted an assurance that the poison capsules he had been provided with by the SS doctor Ludwig Stumpfegger actually worked. The guinea pig chosen for this experiment was his beloved Alsatian Blondi. The dog was led into the toilets off the waiting-room at the foot of the steps to the upper bunker by Hitler's dog attendant Sergeant Fritz Tornow. Inside, Tornow forced Blondi's jaws open and crushed the capsule with pliers as Haase watched. The dog collapsed on the ground instantly and didn't move. Tornow was visibly upset. Hitler couldn't bear to watch the scene himself. However, he entered the room shortly afterwards and, seeing the results for himself, departed without saying a word. Tornow was further mortified to be given the task of shooting Blondi's four young puppies. The Goebbels children were understandably upset when their sprightly little playthings were wrenched from them. Tornow took them up to the Chancellery Garden where they were put to death along with several other pets of the bunker inmates. Later, Hitler met the medical staff to thank them in the lower bunker. As Professor Schenck records in his memoirs, one of the nurses became hysterical." ======= An interesting side note: Hitler and Fascists of the time in general were real lovers of nature. Nazi propaganda videos included long sweeping shots of hills and mountains. Quite interesting, really. I believe this panoramic filming of the 'Fatherland' was designed to promote some sort of mythical germanic nationality. The mountains and hills served as a backdrop to some Wagnerian idyll. Hardly nature watch, more Nazi watch.
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