published 01/11/2010 at 10:16 AM ET by Liz Day
It's difficult to imagine such a monstrous figure as Adolf Hitler, Nazi dictator, eating a quaint breakfast of
bread and marmalade every morning.
However, that is just one secret revealed courtesy of Britain's National Archives. Last week, it made public two previously classified archives. They add personal details to our portrait of
Hitler and a fear the Allies had about a Nazi refuge to our World War II military history.
The breakfast tidbit comes from a 19-year-old Austrian deserter and prisoner of war identified as S.S. Schuetze
Obernigg. Obernigg claimed to have spent time at Hitler's retreat in the Bavarian Alps between 1943 and 1944.
Obernigg reports that Hitler woke around 10 a.m., drank coffee and ate bread and marmalade. Visitors, including
his doctor, were welcomed into the afternoon. He then worked late, sometimes not going to sleep until 4 a.m.
Obernigg also shared insight into Hitler''s dark personality. It hints at his fiery and paranoid persona.
"He is mild on personal contact but apt to bang tables and shout during conferences," Obernigg described to British intelligence. The young Austrian also claimed that Hitler "cannot bear to feel himself watched."
In addition to the trove of information on Hitler's idiosyncrasies, the British National Archives released another
set of files on the Nazis.
Intelligence reports dating from 1944 and 1945 reveal that Allied forces feared a Nazi National Redoubt — a Nazi hideout from which they could stage a last stand.
The 83-page file, titled Furhrergebiet, describes what the Allies thought they knew about the Nazi fortress. It places the possible secret refuge in the Austrian Alps. Enough food and weapons
were thought to have been stored in underground caves to power up to 60,000 "Nazi fanatics" and"politically minded over-optimists" for up to two years if their efforts were largely defeated.
A terrifying possibility, the Nazi mountain powerhouse thankfully was just a legend.
Photo :
German dictator Adolf Hitler in 1941.