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INTERNATIONAL DESK
TheLesson
FromHitler's Mountain
by
John Hallord
Berchtesgaden, West Germany:
I
PARKED
my car in what was once Hitler's
driveway, and tried to fi nd the house.
lt
wasn't easy. Not much remains of the
mansion that Hitler bui lt for himself on
Obersalzberg Mounta in , overlooking the
town of Berchtesgaden.
Thc driveway is completely blocked and over–
grown with trees. By climbing a steep bank, 1 was
ablc to get to the only part of the house that
remains- a corner of the garage. The concrete
was moldering and the bricks had crumbled.
Anything portable had long ago been carried off
by souven ir hunters. Of the once magnificent
house nothing is left except a few concrete blocks,
and one or two iron ventilation shafts .
No "echoes of the past" were there. There was none
of thc feeling of past grandeur that one gets when
visiting an old castle or palace.
lt
was a dead, dead
place!
This mountain was once a nerve center for the Third
Reich .
lt
was here that Hitler finishcd writing
Mein
Kampf.
and carne to love the area. Quite understand–
able- not many places in the world can rival Berchtes–
gaden for sheer grandeur of scenery.
When they carne to power, the top Nazis took over
the entire mountain, evicting the former residents and
building for themselves a mountain fortress resort.
Martin Borman built himself a house here, as did
Hermano Goering.
A barracks was built to house the elite S.S. regi–
ments that were assigned to permanent guard duty. A
small hotel was enlarged to providc accommodation for
visitors, and a guest house was requisitioned for the
Gestapo. And later, when the tide of war turned
against the Nazis, they excavated a remarkable com–
plex of tunnels-a virtual city underground-to pro–
tect themselves in case of air raids. The raids carne in
1945, a month before the end of the war. The build–
ings on the Obersalzberg were badly damaged.
The victorious Allied armies and the German people
themselves demolished the rest after the ending of
hostilities. Of Borman's and Goering's houses, not a
trace remains- not so much as a pebble. The S.S.
barracks are now a soccer field . The hotel built for top
Nazis was slated for destruction, but at the last
20
moment the American army decided to remodel itas a
recreation center for the U.S. forces stationed in
Europe- a function it still serves. The Gestapo head–
quarters became once again a comfortable guest house.
The underground tunnel system is still there, of
course, and can be visited, if you know where to go and
whom to ask. But that information is not always easy
to get. Very Iittle effort has been made by the German
government to turn the Nazi past of Obersalzberg into
a tourist att raction.
1t
is the same at Dachau , the little town outside of
Munich where the first concentration camp was estab–
lished in 1933. The canip is still there, on the outskirts
of the town- preserved as a museum. But the local
people are very reluctant to give directions. "Why," a
mayor of Dachau has asked, "when our town has been
a center for music, art and painting for several centu–
ries, are we only remembered for what went on here
bctween 1933 and 1945?" Many residents in Dachau
would like to see the camp torn down.
One can understand their point. The war ended
nearly 40 years ago. Most Germans alive today played
no active part in the Nazi years. Indeed, the majority
of West Germans were not even born when Hitler died
as his "thousand year Reich" crashed around him.
Older Germans know the terrible price their country
paid for following him. l n the last months of war,
Allied bombers pounded German cities to rubble. And
when surrender carne, the Allies decided that Germa–
ny would never again be a threat to anyone.
Any German industry that survived the bombing
was systematically dismantled. Whole factories were
shipped to the Soviet Union, France and other nations
that had suffered from Nazi aggression. What couldn' t
be moved was blown up. It was decided the Germany
henceforth would be a third-rate, agricultura! nation,
closely guarded by her conquerors. Never again would
German- military and industrial power threaten any–
one. The once proud Reich was split into four zones–
ruled respectively by the American, Russians, French
and British. The economy collapsed, and starvation
and deprivation were the way of life for the shattered
land. For three years after the war, life was misery for
the demoralized and defeated Germans.
Then carne the Cold War, the falling out of the
wartime all ies, the Berlín blockade and the Korean
War. Suddenly America, France and Britain realized
that they needed their now prostrate former enemy-
The
PLAIN TRUTH