Like Marmalade? So Did Hitler
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Not to be the bearer of bad news, but if you enjoyed a breakfast of bread, marmalade and coffee this morning you have something in common with Adolf Hitler.
A set of previously classified documents released by the British National Archives last week reveal some rather dull details about the Nazi dictator’s life. We already knew Hitler had an artistic bent and enjoyed Hollywood movies, but the archival papers, citing intelligence information gathered from a 19-year-old Austrian P.O.W., shed light on the Fuhrer’s daily routine. The Austrian, called S.S. Schuetze Obernigg, told British intelligence he spent time at Hitler’s Bavarian Alps getaway between 1943 and 1944.
The routine is eerily mundane. Hitler rose at 10 a.m., ate his minimal breakfast, took visitors throughout the afternoon, worked late and then retired to bed at around 4 a.m.
Some of Obernigg’s other revelations, pointing to Hiter’s infamous temper and paranoia, are not so surprising: “He is mild on personal contact but apt to bang tables and shout during conferences” and he “cannot bear to feel himself watched.”
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