Nazi Princesses - The Fates of Top Nazis' Wives & Mistresses

[Music] they were the women who had had it all the wives and mistresses of nazi germany's leaders they had lived gilded luxurious lives at the expense of the state being used as symbols for perfect german womanhood and often wielded considerable influence and power behind the scenes so what happened to them and their children when their husbands and boyfriends fell from power so dramatically in may 1945 how did the allies treat the spouses of the top nazis many of the children of hitler's inner circle are alive today in a story that spans over 75 years from the defeat of nazi germany until the present day so let's begin with an interesting one hitler's sister-in-law that's right sister-in-law of course i'm referring to gretel brown eva brown's sister hitler married ava the day before they died a reward for her many years of loyalty gretel brown had been an important member of the inner circle or the court around hitler in 1944 gretel had married hitler's ss liaison gruppenfuhrer hermann feigerline there had been a marriage ceremony in bactus garden at which himmler and martin borman were the witnesses the happy couple had then visited hitler at the berkoff his private house on the obersalzberg before hosting a wedding breakfast at the eagles nest hitler's famous reception house higher top kellstein mountain this wedding took place only three days before the d-day landings in normandy gretel had accompanied her sister to the reich chancellery and bomb battered berlin on the 19th of january 1945 to see her husband but returned to the oberzatzberg on the 9th of february ava went alone back to berlin to join hitler in the bunker which she would never leave alive but gretel stayed on at the auburn salzburg because she was pregnant things had unraveled for gretel and hermann when feigline had deserted the bunker during the final stages of the battle of berlin and been apprehended by hitler's bodyguards coming on the back of heinrich himmler's betrayal the reichsfuhrer ss had been secretly negotiating a surrender with the western allies behind hitler's back hitler egged on by bormann condemned feigline to death and he was shot in the reich chancellery garden despite ava brown's pleas early on the 29th of april 1945 hitler married ava brown making the widowed gretel his sister-in-law gretel gave birth to a girl at the resort town of zelemsei on the 5th of may 1945 a week after hitler and ava's suicides she named the baby ava after her sister all of her photo albums jewelry amateur film footage letters including many letters written between hitler and ava brown and many mentos have been hidden at fishhorn castle the headquarters of her husband hermann's old ss cavalry division florian gaia and where his brother was chief of staff but shortly after the war gretel was befriended by a german refugee who persuaded her to show him the hiding place of this valuable and historically significant material the refugee was in reality an agent for the u.s counterintelligence corps all the material was seized and sent to washington dc though some of it has disappeared and some of it has never been shown to the public in 1954 gretel fegaline married businessman kurt berlinghoff in munich the marriage produced no children as for her daughter ava fegaline committed suicide in june 1971 at the age of 26 following the death of her fiance in a car crash in later life gretel suffered from alzheimer's disease and died in october 1987 of the town of steingarten bavaria at the age of 72. the two witnesses at gretel's wedding in june 1944 himmler and borman both had interesting family arrangements himmler had been a late bloomer shy and fastidious man he met his future wife margreta in 1927. she was a nurse and they shared an interest in homeopathy and herbal medicine married in july 1928 margreta was seven years older than himmler the marriage produced only one child a daughter named gudrun born in 1929. later himmler adopted a boy named gerhard from aha the son of an ss officer who died before the war himmler was a very busy man who saw little of his wife the couple maintained two residences a large villa in berlin's darlem district and a house at gamund on the teganze in bavaria himmler was able to spend more time with goodrem and she accompanied her father on many state occasions and official visits including at least once during a visit to buchenwald concentration camp but himmler was to find love with a younger woman in 1938 himmler took her fancy to one of his secretaries a woman 12 years his junior hedwig pottast pottas and himmler became romantically involved in 1939 after himmler had declared his love for her he wanted to divorce his wife and marry potast but such a move would have been hypocritical since himmler demanded the highest moral behavior and standards from his ss subordinates and officially frowned on the very behavior he was secretly practicing so pothouse became himmler's long-term mistress they lived together off and on in mecklenburg and pottas bore him the sons helga born in 1942 and a daughter nanette doritea born on the 20th of july 1944. the same day a conspiracy of army officers blew up hitler with a bomb at the wolf's lair at the end of the war himmler's mistress was living in rosenheim with her children and the wife of ss obergruppenfuhrer oswald pole one of himmler's top commanders and a major war criminal himmler's wife had been working as a wartime nurse for the german red cross in a very senior position his adopted son gerhardvan aha saw combat against the soviets as part of a hitler youth unit and was captured but later released he survived the war himmler's wife and mistress remained loyal to him right up to the end margretta and gudrun fled gamund just ahead of advancing u.s troops and made it to bolzano in italy where they were arrested the americans held them in a series of internment camps in italy france and germany before taking them to nuremberg to testify at the famous trials this experience deeply affected goodren turning her into a devout defender of her father for the rest of her life released in november 1946 margareta was also bitter and legally challenged her denatification classification largely based on a high rank in the german red cross in 1951 her category was changed to the lowest meaning she was not held responsible for her husband's crimes but in 1953 she was reclassified again as category 2 a beneficiary of the nazi regime she received 30 days punitive work lost her pension rights and the right to vote she lived with her sister and adopted son in a small apartment in haepen and her last years were spent with her daughter goodren in munich where she died in 1967 age 73. goodrun became a vocal and visible neo-nazi supporter in west germany the nazi princess of the right she married author and journalist wolf dieter berwitz having two children with him berwitz was heavily involved with germany's right wing party the npd and goodrun was also involved with stila hilfer or silent help an organization that provided aid to former nazi and ss officers helping out such war criminals as klaus barbie aka the butcher of lyon and martin zomer the hangman of buchenwald because she was himmler's daughter she was held in very high regard in the neo-nazi community gudrun berwitz died in may 2018 at home in munich aged 88. as for himmler's mistress she was arrested by the u.s army in july 1945 and interrogated hedwig potthust lived in taisendorf and remained in contact with the family of himmler's older brother gephard and ss obergruppenfuhrer karl wolff former chief of himmler's personal staff pottas later married and changed her surname her son helga struggled all his life with poor health and lived with his mother while her daughter became a medical doctor and is believed to be alive today living in northern germany hedwig potters died in baden baden in september 1994 aged 82. martin bormann was like his archrival himmler a hypocrite concerning the family values officially espoused by the nazi leadership in 1929 bormann had married 19 year old gerda buch her father was a senior nazi figure and she knew hitler well hitler and rudolph hess were the witnesses at their wedding the nazi state officially encouraged big families and borman's family was huge ten children born between 1930 and 1943. this large brood was often filmed with hitler at his home as the boarman villa was located next door to hitler's house the berkoff on the obersalzberg one child died as a baby many of the children were named for their godparents the eldest martin adolph bormann was named for his godfather adolf hitler rudolph bormann for rudolf hess though his name was later changed to helmut following hesse's flight to scotland in 1941. heinrich bourman for heinrich himmler and eva bourman for hitler's girlfriend gerda bormann was a fanatical anti-semite but her marriage to borman was not easy the brown eminence as bourman was nicknamed was constantly unfaithful gerder a tall woman who towered over her husband was often humiliated by him in front of guests while in private bourmont behaved in a loving and sentimental manner she supported the idea of something called parallel marriages so a man could produce more offspring for hitler and tolerated his affairs accordingly one of borman's mistresses was the film star manya barons though they had no children together at war's end martin bauman stayed in the berlin bunker with hitler to the bitter end and disappeared in early may 1945 during a breakout attempt by the surviving bunker personnel his fate will be the subject of a future video garda and her children sought refuge in wolkenstein a mountain village near bolzano in italy she was arrested and interrogated by u.s forces moved to murano it was discovered that she had uterine cancer she died in hospital in april 1946 age 37. her children were adopted by a catholic priest interestingly borman's elder son martin adolph later became a roman catholic priest himself though he left the priesthood married a former nun and had children he died in 2013. six of martin bourman's children are still alive today a top nazi who fell into disfavor before the end of the war was foreign minister joachim von ribentrop a highly influential figure during the 1930s as hitler used diplomacy to expand his influence in europe with the coming of war diplomacy fell by the wayside and with it ribentrop's position he contended himself by continuing to play a more limited role at hitler's court and in enriching himself not well liked by the other leaders he managed to make himself scarce at war's end abandoning his family to seek refuge in hamburg where he was eventually tracked down and arrested in a squalid flat in the company of a young woman on the 14th of june 1945 by the belgian section of the british sas he was subsequently hanged following trial at nurenberg this vain and ambitious man had married anna henkel in 1920 when he was a dashing cavalry officer anna was the daughter of a wealthy wine producer from wiesbaden together they would have five children anneliese as she was known evidently married beneath her aristocratic social status at least according to her mother who hated ribbontrop annelise was noted by contemporaries as a stubborn headstrong woman who controlled a husband it was she who pushed him into joining the nazi party even hitler noting that annalise appeared to wear the trousers in their marriage at war's end annalise was arrested and held at the dachau internment camp where the former concentration camp was she and her husband had grown fabulously wealthy and though the allies tried to strip her of her wealth she fought back vigorously through the courts much of her fortune actually derived from inheritances from her father she also wrote several books defending her husband's actions and died in 1973 fairly unrepentant at the age of 77. her eldest son rudolf von ribentrop was a highly decorated waffen-ss captain during the war earning the knights cross for gallantry in combat educated at westminster school in london when his father was german ambassador he was wounded five times in action he died in 2019 aged 98. longevity seems to be a fun ribbon-trop trait as three of von ribentrop's children are still alive today son adolf von ribentrop named after you know who is 85 daughter ursula von ribentrop is currently 88 and daughter bettina von ribentrop is 98. perhaps the most important nazi wife was not himmlers baumans or even latterly hitler's it was emmy gerring the second wife of luftwaffe chief and since hess's flight to scotland hitler's name deputy and successor hermann guring born in 1893 emmy zonoman was an actress in weimar in world war one she had married a fellow actor though divorced on amicable terms in 1926. she met herman guring in the early 1930s hermann's first wife karen who was swedish had died in october 1931 of heart failure shortly before her 43rd birthday gouring was devastated by her death and he would perpetuate the name of his first wife in the name of his grand country estate outside berlin which he named karen hull and two of his yachts her body remained on the site of karen hull after the building was blown up on guring's order as the red army approached in april 1945 and her remains were discovered in 1991. she was subsequently re-buried in sweden guring married emmy in 1935 at a lavish wedding in berlin in 1938 a daughter was born named edda after mussolini's daughter countess edda chiano emmy and the countess being good friends emmy was soon described as the first lady of the reich an elegant hostess who enjoyed to the full her husband's decadent and lavish lifestyle interestingly emmy had no time for hitler's girlfriend eva brown treating her in a patronizing and contemptuous way the friction becoming so bad that hitler had to intervene and order goring to have his wife treat ava with respect later apparently emmy was even banned from hitler's house the berkoff though the gorings maintained a lavish house just behind bourmond's property just one of many houses castles and hunting lodges going owned all decorated with the finest things including art looted from jewish collectors and paris museums goring's daughter edda was treated like a princess and though noted to be courteous and well-mannered was spoiled with clothes toys and lavish playhouses including a 50 meter long replica of frederick the great's palace of son susie paid for by the luftwaffe edda was guring's only child and he doted on her unlike the other nazi leaders guring did not take mistresses remaining completely faithful to his wife in the latter part of the war goering gradually fell from grace as his air force failed to stop the allied air raids that were destroying city after city in germany [Music] a few days before hitler died gerring unwisely attempted to succeed him as leader believing that hitler trapped in his bunker was no longer able to exercise control of what remained of the reich bormann convinced hitler that goering was committing treason and hitler ordered him arrested held under house arrest with his family at his home of the obersalzberg they survived the heavy raf bombing raid that destroyed or damaged most of the nazi buildings the ss then evacuated them to goring's castle at maltendorf freed on the 5th of may as the war was almost over guring attempted to reach u.s lines as he believed he could negotiate the german surrender personally with general dwight d eisenhower he and his family and staff were apprehended by a special us intelligence mission an operation i've made a video about link in the end screen and taken to fishhorn castle on the 7th of may 1945 from there goering was taken to u.s headquarters and formerly arrested as a war crime suspect emmy and edda remained at fishhorn before being interned at camp ashkan in luxembourg released they moved into one of their castles berg veldenstein a neu house close to nurenberg herrmann goering was the star defendant at the nurnberg trials and emmy and edda were allowed to visit him in the court prison the 15th of october 1946 the night before his execution guring committed suicide with a concealed cyanide capsule guring had amassed truly staggering amounts of wealth during the war much of it illicit but sorting out what was guring's property and that of his wife and daughter was very difficult emmy guring was punished as part of the denarcification process she was convicted of being a nazi and sentenced to one year in prison she also suffered the confiscation of 30 percent of her remaining property she and her daughter lived in several places after the war while edda completed her schooling and emmy eventually purchased a small flat in a modern block in munich publishing her autobiography in 1967. the daughter grew into an attractive young woman studying law at the university of munich she worked as a law clerk and in a hospital laboratory but never married caring for her mother until emmy's death in 1973. edda became romantically involved with german journalist gerd heidemann who apparently discovered the infamous hitler diaries in the 1970s and bought and refurbished herman gering's yacht karen ii edda was his girlfriend for five years introducing him to her nazi friends including former ss generals karl wolff and wilhelm monker the officer responsible for defending the reich chancery and the furore bunker during the final battle in berlin edda petitioned the bavarian government for compensation concerning the expropriation of her father's huge estate but without success edo guring unrepentant defender of her father's memory died the same year as himmler's daughter in 2018 and is buried in munich she was 80 years old thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also visit my audiobook channel war stories with mark felton you can also help to support 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Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 2,547,658

Rating: 4.9020944 out of 5

Keywords: Hermann Goering, Obersalzberg, Eagle's Nest, Mark Felton, Martin Bormann

Id: 2YONpJzybto

Length: 22min 10sec (1330 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 22 2021