Last witness of Hitler's final days recalls past

By Natalia Reiter

BERLIN (Reuters) - Rochus Misch, the last living witness of Adolf Hitler's last days in the Berlin bunker, recalls a strange silence that filled the underground chamber as the final battles to capture the German capital raged overhead.

In an interview with Reuters, the 90-year-old said there was less turmoil in the bunker as the Soviet army approached than is depicted in most books and films.

"Life in the bunker was pretty normal," Misch told Reuters in his modest house in south Berlin, where he has lived since 1938. "Hitler was mostly very calm."

For five years, Misch worked as the dictator's bodyguard, phone operator and courier.

"It was much less dramatic than shown by many historians, filmmakers and journalists," said the former soldier.

"The worst thing was the silence ... Everybody was whispering and nobody knew why. That's why it felt like the bunker of death," Misch said.

Recalling the years spent with one of the world's most notorious dictators, Misch remained strangely neutral.

"History is history, it was the way it was and nobody should lie about it," he says. But he refused to make judgments about the past.